Smart Systems and Human Senses

The automotive industry faces increasing pressure to reduce waste, cut carbon emissions, and make better use of materials. Yet modern supply chains are complex: car components pass through many organisations, data is often fragmented, and it can be difficult to know where materials come from, how they are used, or whether they are reused or recycled.
In this talk, I explore how digital transparency, including blockchain technology, could help support a more circular economy in the automotive industry. A circular economy aims to keep materials in use for longer — through reuse, repair, and recycling — rather than following the traditional “make–use–dispose” model.
Drawing on my PhD research, I will explain in plain terms how blockchain can act as a shared digital record, improving traceability, accountability, and trust across supply chains. I will also show why technology alone is not a silver bullet: managerial decisions, organisational incentives, and practical constraints strongly influence whether these digital tools are actually adopted.
Using real examples from the automotive sector, the talk asks a simple question: how can digital tools realistically help us build a more sustainable future for cars?

"Imagine standing in Birmingham New Street station at rush hour. It’s chaotic, loud, and looking at your phone to find your platform is a sure-fire way to bump into someone. Could you navigate in a different way? This talk explores a futuristic alternative: using the ears to ""feel"" your way through the world.

We typically think of reading as a visual task, but the skin is a massive, underused communication channel. This talk will introduce the EarPi, a wearable prototype that turns the ear into a silent reading device using complex vibration patterns.

We will dive into the neuroscience of touch to explain how the brain maps the body, test the biological speed limits of human touch, and demonstrate how haptic technology is evolving into a real-life Spidey Sense for navigation and secret communication. The future of communication is tactile, come along and find out how."

Caller-ID spoofing and voice-cloning technologies are increasingly exploited in fraud. Attackers forge caller IDs and use voice cloning to impersonate trusted individuals, making scams significantly more convincing. Existing defenses typically focus on mitigating caller-ID spoofing or detecting audio deepfakes in isolation; however, these approaches are ineffective against combined attacks and often incur substantial overhead. This talk will investigate how Deepfake enhancing the traditional spoofing attack.