Hard HMI problems, from schematic to working demo
Biosignal acquisition, haptics, and embedded systems for neurotech teams. I design high-tech proof-of-concepts, rescue fragile prototypes, resolve the hardware-software integration problems that sit between two teams, and act as fractional CTO for companies that need technical leadership before they can hire one full time.
The whole stack is one person: PCB, firmware, signal processing, applications, and mechanics. No integration overhead, no handoff between four specialists who each own a quarter of the problem, and nobody to point at when the layers disagree.
How teams bring me in
Scoped up front, with a written deliverable and a date attached.
POC design
You need a demonstrator investors or reviewers will believe - in weeks, not quarters.
Full stack from blank page to working device: front-end electronics, firmware, acquisition pipeline, and whatever interface makes the result legible to someone who is not an engineer.
System rescue
A prototype that works on your bench and fails everywhere else.
Audit first - noise floor, grounding, timing, power, mechanical tolerance - then a written account of what is actually wrong and a fix for the parts that matter. Often the problem is not where the team assumed it was.
Hardware-software integration
Your firmware people and your data people disagree about whose problem it is.
I work on both sides of that boundary, so the question gets answered instead of escalated. Timing, synchronisation, data models, and the interfaces that keep the two halves honest.
Fractional CTO
You need technical leadership before you can justify a full-time CTO.
Architecture and technology decisions, hiring and reviewing engineers, supplier and manufacturing choices, and technical due diligence for investors - while staying close enough to the hardware to catch problems while they are still cheap.
Why the timelines are short
Because this is familiar territory. The problems that usually consume the first months of a biosignal or haptic project are ones I have met before, so they get diagnosed rather than discovered.
That groundwork is paid for elsewhere. I maintain CleverHand, an open research platform for biosignal acquisition and feedback - which is where the fundamentals get worked out, on my own time rather than on a client's.
Your design, your data, and your IP stay entirely yours. What carries between projects is method and judgement, never your work.
Known failure modes
Biosignal front ends go wrong in a well-defined set of ways - grounding, common-mode rejection, motion artefact, power coupling. Recognising which one you are looking at is usually the difference between a week and a month.
Architecture settled early
The expensive mistakes in embedded systems are architectural, and they surface late. Timing, data model and power budget get decided deliberately at the start, while changing them is still cheap.
Measured, not assumed
Noise floor, bandwidth and stability get characterised and written down. You get numbers and their limits, not adjectives.
Selected engagements
Neurotech startups, university research groups, and technical leadership roles in London and Cambridge.
NeuraVance Labs
2026-PresentCTO
Ear-worn EEG, taken out of the hospital and into everyday life. The first product is a brain-health wearable, while research continues in the background on continuous epilepsy monitoring. Leading the technology as CTO.
Firmware & Hardware Engineer · Imperial College spin-off
A wearable for stroke rehabilitation that reads muscle activity and gives haptic feedback. Helped make the device smaller and simpler, across electronics, firmware and mechanics.
Mechatronics Engineer
A multisensory device for managing stress and anxiety. Supported it from early prototype to a product ready for studies and for sale.
Lead Electronics Engineer
High-fidelity muscle-signal recording for next-generation human-machine interfaces. Led the electronics from first hardware to a working demonstrator for investors.
Consultant · with Dr Lorenzo Fabrizi
A research device for studying how preterm babies develop their senses and movement. Built the hardware and brought it to the reliability a clinical setting demands.
Imperial College London
London2024-PresentConsultant · Human Robotics Lab
General engineering support for the lab's research devices: custom electronics, instrumentation and the occasional unusual design problem, so experiments are not held up by hardware.
Mechanical Design & DfM
An on-ear wearable that monitors balance and falls risk continuously rather than at a yearly check-up. Did the mechanical design and prepared the device for manufacture.
Arti Labs
2025CTO
A body-scanning platform that captures how a body moves and deforms, as a basis for designing things worn on the body. Led the technology as CTO until the company wound down.
Some engagements are covered by NDA and are not listed. Happy to discuss scope and references directly.
Got a hard HMI problem?
A few details up front means my first reply can be useful rather than a list of questions. Only name, email, and a description are required - skip anything you are not sure about yet.
Based in London, working with teams across the UK and Europe. Typical reply within 24-48 hours. I take one main engagement at a time, so if the timing does not work I will say so rather than stretch.