Professor Yu Shi FIMMM, CEng

Profile

I received my PhD from University of Sheffield between 2010 and 2013 for failure assessment of composite materials used for aerospace. I then started my research career as postdoctoral researcher at University of Sheffield, University of Exeter and AFRC, University of Strathclyde. I became lecturer at University of Chester since 2015, promoted to Professor since 2019. I have joined University of Leeds since May 2023 as Chair of Smart Textile and Composite Materials, appointed by Leeds Institute of Textiles and Colouring (LITAC), School of Design, by carrying on my research on smart composite materials and smart textiles with embedded electronics (printed and weaved/embroidered) for engineering applications (e.g. Aerospace, Space, Automotive, Wind & Hydrogen energy etc.) and wearables (textile, E-Skin etc.) for healthcare (mental (e.g. loneliness and separation, addiction, depression), nuerodivergency (e.g. Dementia, Autism etc.) and physiological health (e.g. musculoskeletal, heart, respiratory etc.)) and ecology (e.g. wildlife, farming (livestocks, aquaculture animals)).

I am currently leading Smart Textiles and Composites (STAC) research group at University of Leeds, with received research funds (totally over £10M) from Innovate UK, DASA, EPSRC, Levehulme trust and EU Horizon commissions, with international collaborations by co-funds and visiting postgraduate researchers from EU, China and Japan etc.

I am the Fellow of Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (FIMMM), Chartered Engineer (CEng) and Fellow of HEA (FHEA). I am also the academic member of Bragg centre and Space Yorkshire Hub, and I am the Executive member of the Centre of Health Tech at University of Leeds.

Our research funded work and collaboration on smart textiles for healthcare and composite materials and manufacturing and assembly (completed) are:

• Smart Motion (Smart textile for monitoring of musculoskeletal disorder and rehabilitation), PI, Innovate UK, 12/2022-09/2024, £500k;
• Deloneliness (Smart textile for monitoring and help to reduce loneliness), PI of UoL, EPSRC, 05/2022 – 11/2025, £1.5M;
• 2021–2022, PI, REMASTER, Innovate UK, Clean maritime competition: £260k
• 2020–2021, PI, DASA - Windfarm mitigation for UK Air Defence: £63k
• 2019–2021, PI, Innovate UK - Tackling non-exhaust and non-road vehicle air pollution: phase 2 SBRI: £1.55M;
• 2017–2019, PI, SmartBlade, Innovate UK grant, Jiangsu-UK Industrial Challenge: £500k

Research interests

My research focuses on the development of smart/multifunctional composite materials and textiles through printed or weaved electronics, including engineering materaisl such as carbon/glass fibre reinforced composite and textile materials as wearable technology. More specifically, we mainly develop the multifucntional filamients (e.g. co-sheath) by electrospinning, melt- or wet-spinning, which can be used to fabricate the smart textiles (e.g. by 3D weaving) and printed electronics (screen printing, inkjet printing) for smart composite structure with carbon/glass fibre reinforced polymers and textiles products as garment and home furniture, with multi-sensing, antenna, energy harvesters and the whole circuits as flexible and conformal designs for aerostructure, Spacecraft, wind blade, hydornge tank/pipeline, automotive chassis, buildings, infrastructures etc. for dedicated designed solutions of energy harvesting, structural health monitoring, Ice detection and Deicing, conformal antenna and communication, as well as the wearable garment and prostehtics/exoskeletons for health monitoring and early prediction, and ultra lightweight wearables for animal tracking and monitoring. We also look at advanced design of composite, optimised manufacturing and processing of composite, repair and recycling of composite, failure analysis and assessment of composite, finite element modelling and nanocomposite etc.

We have several ongoing projects funded externally:

• LoRaFlexSat, Co-I, The UK Space Agency, 09/2025-03/2026, £187.5k
• Romain (Robotic inspection and repair of wind turbine composite blade), PI, EU Horizon, 09/2022 – 02/2026, €3M;
• Batman (Smart and ultralightweight wearable for wild bat monitoring), Co-I, Leverhulme Trust, 09/2023 – 12/2026, £500k;
• Intake (Multifunctional nanocomposite material for hybrid energy harvesting), Co-I, EU H2020 RISE, 09/2022 – 09/2026, €800k.

• BAT Monitoring via novel Assays and smart Nano-electronics (BATMAN)
• Deloneliness (Smart textile for monitoring and help to reduce loneliness)
• Intake (Multifunctional nanocomposite material for hybrid energy harvesting)
• Romain (Robotic inspection and repair of wind turbine composite blade)
• Smart Multifunctional textile with printed electronics to promote healthy ageing in musculoskeletal conditions

Qualifications

• PhD
• Leadership and Management in Higher Education - Postgraduate Diploma (L7)
• MEng
• BEng

Professional memberships

• FIMMM
• CEng
• FHEA

Current postgraduate researchers

• Siyuan (Cyan) Zhao
• Peter Michael Wing
• Meng Li

Funding

<li><a href="//phd.leeds.ac.uk/funding/432-smart-textile-composite-for-spacecraft-structure">Smart textile composite for spacecraft structure</a></li>