Dr Matthew Dickinson

Matthew is the course leader from the DA mechatronics program. He has been a member of the ASTM internal standards organisation in which he is a subcommittee chair for exoskeleton committee group.

Matthew has been extremely active in the world of public engagement, working at several big bang events, New Scientist live events and Lancashire science festival, also he authored one chapter of UCLan's Unmasked :Science of superheroes book.

Dr. Dickinson is a senior lecturer in mechatronics engineering at the University of Central Lancashire and an active member of the MedTech Solutions group led by Professor Richards. After achieving his PhD in the field of tribology he was able to publish research and conference proceedings in the same field. Using the extensive expertise and experience in computer aided design provided by his PhD, Dr. Dickinson's work has now shifted towards smart assistive technologies such as exo-skeleton design. By using his skills in advanced topology Dr Dickinson aims to use accessible materials for production of low-cost maintenance of components.

As such, Dr. Dickinson has been working on using additive layer manufacturing and topological optimisation to generate high performance components. These offer the same advantages as their traditional metallic counterparts. However, this research is still in its early stages. With his team they have also been looking at the use of machine learned for signal catharizing, more specifically collection of electromyography muscular responses. Dr Dickinson and his team are presently partnered with the test machine company Tinius Olson who have granted access to their machine. In addition he works with ASTM and is the subcommittee chair F48.04 – exoskeleton maintenance and disposal.