Auckland Bioengineering Institute UoA

14/05/2026

Mathias Roesler’s studies have taken him from artificial intelligence in champagne production, to the electrical activity of the uterus, to life-or-death risk modelling for surgery. And he’s not even 30.

It was perhaps inevitable that Mathias Roesler – the newly-minted Dr Roesler – would do a PhD. His parents met at Princeton in the US while doing their own doctorates (his father in mechanical and aerospace engineering, his mum on French poet and philosopher Yves Bonnefoy), and they later moved their nascent family to France, where Mathias would (even later) do his undergrad and masters degrees at Paris’ prestigious Sorbonne University.

But it was his paternal step-grandfather, a French physics professor turned education reformer, who Mathias credits as having the biggest influence on his academic path. Robert Chabbal not only believed in his young grandson (“He always told me I would do a PhD”), but he set up the engineering degree and masters programmes that was to set Mathias on the path of practical bioengineering – and eventually his PhD.

One day after work Mathias sat on the couch with a map of the world and looked for English-speaking countries he could imagine living in, and which had interesting – and funded – PhD options.

“New Zealand was right in front of me.”

Mathias joined a group at the University of Auckland’s Auckland Bioengineering Institute working towards the understanding, diagnosis and eventual treatment for the one-in-ten women of childbearing age who suffer from painful and debilitating uterus-related conditions like endometriosis.

In particular, he was looking at how the electrical signalling in the uterus worked (and changed) during a rat’s menstrual cycle.

“I was lucky to have three very different angles to my PhD: imaging the uterus using high-resolution imaging methods; experiments where I recorded electrical signals; and modelling where I developed computer simulation and models of the rat uterus.

“I learned a lot and felt like I was doing something with purpose.”

Read more at abi.ac.nz

13/05/2026

Computers that can detect and even respond to human emotions may seem like the stuff of science fiction. But the potential, especially in mental health care, is enormous.

Imagine a wearable device that monitors your emotional state, using brain sensor technology to detect early signs of stress, anxiety or low mood before you’ve even noticed them yourself. That kind of technology could help people manage conditions like depression or burnout, or alert healthcare providers when someone needs support.

New Auckland Bioengineering Institute graduate Alireza Farrokhi Nia’s PhD has taken a step closer to that goal. He has developed a system that avoids facial expression or tone of voice (signals that people can easily hide), instead going straight to the source: the brain.

Unlike other research in this space, Reza’s work combined two types of brain-monitoring technology: EEG, which captures electrical activity, and fNIRS, which measures changes in blood oxygen levels.

He recorded volunteers’ brain signals while they listened to music, everyday sounds (parents fighting, glass shattering, a running river), and watched videos (including funny cat compilations, the joyful moment a deaf baby hears her sister’s voice for the first time, news footage of famine, and neutral clips like a barbershop haircut) designed to trigger a full range of emotional responses.

Reza says he wasn't trying to measure whether someone felt ‘happy’ or ‘sad’ in any simple sense – human emotion is too complex for that.

Instead, he measured emotion along broad dimensions based on how pleasant the feeling was and how intense.

Collecting the data was a huge undertaking. More than 100 people took part, each spending around two hours in the lab. Every detail had to be controlled from lighting to the words spoken to participants, even down to Reza wearing the same cologne for months so nothing unintentionally influenced the subjects’ mood.

Once the recordings were complete, the real challenge began: building AI models that could interpret the brain signals. Harder still, he needed models that worked across different people, not just one individual.

Read more at abi.ac.nz

05/05/2026

A novel, an album - oh, and a PhD in bioengineering

Few people balance lab-based research with writing fantasy fiction and producing a rock album. Sam Simmonds has a life where science and creativity coexist.

“I wanted to be a doctor, but I thought about the long hours and the years of study and I realised I had too many other interests; I needed a job that would give me enough time for my hobbies.

“So I decided to do an engineering degree, with the explicit goal of getting into bioengineering in year two. I loved biology and I liked the idea of the practical problem-solving that comes with engineering.”

Sam finished undergraduate study with first class honours and research experience from summer internships, including at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute, where he also found “a love of academic investigation, engineering design and physiology”.

Which was just as well, because finding a bioengineering job in Covid-stricken 2021 New Zealand was nigh-on impossible.

Instead, Sam searched out a PhD topic and chose Auckland Bioengineering Institute’s Dr Tim Angeli-Gordon and his gut disorders research laboratory, the TARGET Lab.

Since finishing his PhD, Sam has been working with Auckland Bioengineering Institute gastrointestinal diagnostic technology spinout company Alimetry; he appreciates working at a place where research can have an almost immediate impact on clinicians and their patients.

And he has time outside work for his creative projects – the current one involves creating a ‘psych/prog rock’ album alongside a fantasy novel, the two working together to tell the same story.

Read the full story: https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2026/05/04/fantasy-novel-rock-album-PhD-bioengineering.html

05/05/2026

Watch Professor Leo Cheng's talk 'Lessons from the Language of the Human Gut', part of Hīkina Kia Tutuki, Rise to the Challenge - an event where the University honours leading global researchers.

Lessons from the language of the human gut

04/05/2026

As a kid, Sam Simmonds drew cartoons - monsters, heroes, weapons. He and his friends had competitions; he wanted to be a cartoonist.

Later, drawing was replaced by a passion for playing and composing psychedelic rock music – something Sam (now Dr Sam Simmonds) still does, alongside writing dark fantasy fiction.

But when he thought about his future job, he drew on other loves: science and maths.

“I wanted to be a doctor, but I thought about the long hours and the years of study and I realised I had too many other interests; I needed a job that would give me enough time for my hobbies.

“So I decided to do an engineering degree, with the explicit goal of getting into bioengineering in year two. I loved biology and I liked the idea of the practical problem-solving that comes with engineering.”

Sam finished undergraduate study with first class honours and research experience from summer internships, including at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute, where he also found “a love of academic investigation, engineering design and physiology”.

Which was just as well, because finding a bioengineering job in Covid-stricken 2021 New Zealand was nigh-on impossible.

Instead, Sam searched out a PhD topic and chose Auckland Bioengineering Institute’s Dr Tim Angeli-Gordon and his gut disorders research laboratory, the TARGET Lab.

“Tim was super friendly, the project he laid out was clear and well defined; a genuine problem needing to be solved.”

Sam’s particular PhD research looked to use new high-resolution electrodes developed by another ABI star academic, Professor Peng Du, to understand how electrical signals moved between the stomach and the small intestine, and whether there were biomarkers that could identify gut dysfunction.

It was science at its most exciting – and challenging. He loved the international conferences “where I was able to feed off the excitement of my academic community and proudly share my own findings. These spaces truly were the ‘fuel of the fire’ when it came to motivating and inspiring me.”

But he also loved the meticulous work in the lab with the research team.

“It sounds dry, but spending hours setting up and micro-managing fiddly equipment was all worth it when the squiggly lines appeared on the monitor.”

The lines represented the complex and largely uncharted electrical slow wave movements across the stomach.

“I felt genuine excitement at the idea of diving deeper into data no one else had captured before.”

Since finishing his PhD, Sam has been working with Auckland Bioengineering Institute gastrointestinal diagnostic technology spinout company Alimetry; he appreciates working at a place where research can have an almost immediate impact on clinicians and their patients.

Read more at abi.ac.nz

23/04/2026

Sara Chami is using virtual reality, 3D printing, and real-time data to design and create leg braces for children with cerebral palsy, that are more comfortable. Whakarongo mai!

An Auckland University researcher is using virtual reality, 3D printing, and real-time data to design and create leg braces for children with cerebral palsy, that are more comfortable. Cerebral palsy affects 1 in 500 New Zealand children, and 7000 New Zealanders currently live with cerebral palsy. I...

16/04/2026

NEW Masters or PhD project avaliable

Do you know: 1 in 2 patients who suffer aortic dissection die before reaching hospital? Join us to use biomechanics & imaging to pioneer new ways to predict and prevent this deadly medical emergency.

Apply now: https://bit.ly/3QnQXf5

16/04/2026

NEW PhD project available:

We are looking for high-achieving, enthusiastic students to develop new tools to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from livestock.

Apply here: https://bit.ly/41Gc1js

13/04/2026

NEW Masters or PhD project available: Want to turn biomedical signals into a meaningful diagnostic tool? This project develops new computational techniques for personalised, non-invasive assessment of stomach function.

Apply now: https://bit.ly/3QDaCYs

12/04/2026

Many children with cerebral palsy need ankle braces to help them move. But when that brace is too stiff and painful for active play, some refuse to wear it. Sara Chami is working to fix that.

Working as a clinical orthotist in Tehran, Sara Chami designed and fitted ankle-foot support braces for children with cerebral palsy. It was rewarding work, but she kept hearing the same frustrating story from parents.

“Families would come in holding their brace and say, ‘This is a rigid plastic boot. When my kid wants to run or play with friends he won’t wear it. It gives him blisters and we can’t find shoes that fit’.

"It was overwhelming, because as a clinician you want to help, and I felt we could do better."

Cerebral palsy is the most common physical disability in children, affecting one in 500 kids. Approximately 10,000 New Zealanders live with CP.

Caused by brain damage before or during birth, it affects children in different ways, but the main symptoms are related to movement and posture.

About half of children with cerebral palsy need ankle-foot braces to help them walk and prevent muscle tightening, but they can be bulky and uncomfortable.

They are also tricky and slow to make; they are crafted by clinicians from a plaster mould and heavily reliant on that clinician's level of skill and experience, rather than on patient-specific data.

“When an uncomfortable brace restricts someone’s walking to the extent they prefer not to wear the brace, their condition can get worse,” Chami says. “This can result in them doing less, and potentially lead to an increased reliance on a wheelchair, more intensive interventions such as surgery, and other consequences such as social isolation.

“This is especially so in kids, because they are super-active.”

Chami’s practical experience in the Iranian capital made her wonder if there wasn’t a way to make braces that was quicker and easier, and also took the child’s movement into account, not just the shape of their foot.

During her masters degree in Tehran, Chami was introduced to biomechanics and the scientific analysis of how people move. This eventually led to a PhD at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland.

Now Chami is using her skills to create a different kind of brace. She starts with a weight-bearing 3D scan of the child’s foot and ankle, creating a digital model. From there, the orthotic brace can be 3D printed in just a few days – a big improvement on the eight weeks New Zealand families currently wait for fabrication and shipment from overseas.

Read more at abi.ac.nz