Harish Bhaskaran FREng

Advanced Nanoscale Engineering Group (Research group website)

Novel materials and new ways to use known materials have been key drivers of new technologies in both prehistoric and modern times. I am interested in research at the intersection of nanomaterials and nanoengineering to create new nanotechnologies. Nanotechnology is a large field but engineering devices and systems that can both advance our knowledge in this field as well as use this knowledge to be creative and innovative is what truly interests me.

I (pretend to) lead the Advanced Nanoscale Engineering Group (click link to be taken there, the information there is less verbose and more useful), which has recently focused on some key technologies:

1) Use of optoelectronic materials to create photonic brain-inspired computing and displays

2) Additive manufacturing techniques to take such photonic devices into the manufacturing realm – particularly for emerging “smart-manufacturing” initiatives where embedded intelligence is required.

3) Range of nano mechanical systems that employ novel functional materials - are there good reasons to do this and can we learn something new from doing this?

4) More recently, we are exploring the use of our photonic technologies for applications in biochemistry and diagnostics.

Current programmes that the research group is part of include the and FET Proactive grant, "Photonic enabled Petascale in-memory computing with Femtojoule energy consumption (PHOENICS)", European Commission-funded Pathfinder project "Hybrid electronic-photonic architectures for brain-inspired computing (HYBRAIN)" and "Reconfigurable Superconducting and Photonic Technologies of the Future (RESPITE)", as well as EPSRC Projects APT-NuComm, NS2NF and "Mechanical nanolithography without solvents - a step towards sustainable nanomanufacturing".

Our work was supported by two EPSRC Fellowships in Manufacturing and several other research grants including the  £3.1 million Wearable and Flexible Technologies Collaboration (WAFT), which included 15 industrial partners and the EU’s Horizon 2020 grant "Functionally scaled computing technology (FunComp)".

Within Oxford, I served on the University’s former Socially Responsible Investment Review Committee (SRIRC), and currently serve on the Ethical Investments Representations Review Subcommittee and the Cleanroom Working Group. I also run the Device Cleanroom Users Committee. I served on REF Panel for MPLS division , the MPLS EPSRC IAA Steering Group and the Impact and Innovation Committee.

“STEM” subjects form just one (important) part of human endeavor; therefore I maintain a keen interest in collaborating with social sciences and humanities, and I have also have an interest in leadership studies and the contextual meaning of leadership - more on that at a future date.

See Advanced Nanoscale Engineering Group for details.