On Wednesday 11 March, our Podium Institute researchers volunteered at the annual IBME Open Day at the University of Oxford, where they met Year 12 students from across the UK. This year’s successful event was organised by Podium Institute Faculty member Prof Liang He, who coordinated an engaging programme of demos and talks for the visiting students.

Yixing Lei, Ryman Hashem, and Lukas Cha, prepared and presented an interactive demo on Soft Robotics and Augmented Reality for Rehabilitation. They showcased wearable silicone stress sensors that track forces on joints during activities such as rugby and gymnastics. These multimaterial, 3Dprinted sensors, inspired by the Japanese art of kirigami, stretch with the body to measure muscle fatigue and movement patterns. In the future, they could even support rehabilitation by stimulating specific muscle groups.

Our second demo, Head Injuries in Rugby and Contact Sports, led by Tobias Harritz and Dr Andreas Christou from Podium, drew a lot of attention as students got to try out tools used to monitor athletes for concussion, including balance tests, pupil-reflex assessments, and saw first-hand how instrumented mouthguards work by recording impacts during play.

Dr Ryman Hashem, one of the Podium Institute’s post doctoral researchers, gave an engaging talk in the lecture theatre titled Soft Robots That Move, Feel, and Protect Us. Ryman explored how soft robotics, stretchable sensors, and printable electronics can mimic human biomechanics and serve as the foundation for wearable assistive and protective technologies. He also shared his academic journey, describing the path that led him to his current work with Professor Liang He at Podium.

The young visitors had the chance to learn both about the role emerging technologies will play in shaping the future of human performance and about the importance of sports injury prevention, diagnosis and rehabilitation.

We look forward to continuing to share the work of Podium with the next generation of engineers and scientists!

You can find out more about the Open Day 2026 at the IBME website: Institute of Biomedical Engineering hosts 2026 Open Day – IBME