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UNNC PhD students win awards for sensor research


Two PhD students, Xueyin Chen and Yanshu Xiang from the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) have won Gold Award and Excellence Award respectively for research into flood rescue and wound monitoring at a doctoral forum held on 23 September as part of the 19th Ningbo Graduate Academic Festival. Hosted by Northwestern Polytechnical University’s Ningbo Research Institute, the forum brought together early-career researchers working on intelligent technologies.

Xueyin Chen: detecting distress signals in floodwater

Xueyin Chen is a second-year PhD student in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, supervised by Dr Liang Huang. She previously studied Materials Science and Engineering at Hunan University and Intelligent Sports Engineering at Zhejiang University.

Her research explores how a flexible hydrogel patch could help identify hand gestures in cold, murky and fast-moving floodwater. The patch attaches to wet skin within seconds and can continuously record gestures. By combining materials, sensors and algorithms, the project aims to make distress signals easier to detect in difficult rescue conditions. Chen presented the work under the title “Intelligent hydrogel-based electronic life-saving patches (iHELP) for extreme-environment aquatic rescue”. The research is currently being submitted for publication.

In 2025, Xueyin published a cover-featured paper in Advanced Science as first author and was named an Outstanding Graduate of Zhejiang Province. She has published four SCI-indexed papers, one ESCI-indexed paper and one EI-indexed paper, and holds two granted invention patents. She also won silver at a national sports technology innovation competition in 2024 and has contributed to nationally and provincially funded projects, as well as a dexterous robotic hand project with Ningbo Junpu Intelligent.

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Yanshu Xiang: more reliable wound monitoring

Yanshu Xiang is a PhD student supervised by Professor Haonan Li and Dr Sze Shin Low. His work spans smart healthcare, flexible sensors and robotics, with a focus on practical applications.

At the forum, he presented a wireless sensor network designed to monitor wound conditions more accurately. Conventional hydrogel sensors can give misleading readings when temperatures change, and often measure only one indicator at a time. Xiang’s system compensates for temperature changes and uses three channels to monitor protease activity, changes in sugar levels and oxidative stress in a single wireless reading.

Tests at 30–40°C showed a reduction of approximately 80–94% in temperature-related measurement errors. The researchers also combined the sensors with a microfluidic Janus patch to manage wound fluid and carried out an in vivo proof-of-concept study. The findings were published in Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical.

Yanshu Xiang has published four papers, holds five granted patents and has led teams to more than ten national and provincial robotics awards. His work on a wearable negative-pressure therapy device has received support from the Li Dak Sum Innovation Fund.

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Both projects tackle practical problems, from flood rescue to wound care. UNNC’s Faculty of Science and Engineering works with industries and research institutes in Ningbo to connect doctoral research with applications in areas such as healthcare, flexible electronics and advanced manufacturing.

Published on 13 October 2026