PhD & Postdoc

Aleksandra Nowak

Biomedical Sensor Engineering · Warsaw University of Technology

Aleksandra Nowak conducts her PhD research at Warsaw University of Technology's Institute of Micromechanics and Photonics, focusing on implantable pressure sensors that can survive the hostile intracranial environment for six months or longer. Her advisor Prof. Marek Wiśniewski leads the BioMEMS group, and Aleksandra's specific contribution is a PVDF-based piezoelectric membrane that converts pulsatile cerebrospinal fluid pressure into a wireless electrical signal, eliminating the percutaneous wires that today's gold-standard Camino bolts require. She has characterised drift behaviour across 10,000 pressure cycles in phantom fluid and is now validating biocompatibility under ISO 10993 protocols in collaboration with the Warsaw Medical University animal facility. Her work addresses a genuine unmet clinical need — traumatic brain injury monitoring currently requires ICU admission — and she is actively engaging with Polish medtech SMEs about licensing the sensor geometry. Her provisional patent filing, first-authored conference paper at EMBC 2025, and consultancy agreement with a Warsaw neurosurgery clinic all signal strong industry trajectory.

Thesis Topic

Flexible Piezoelectric Sensors for Continuous Intracranial Pressure Monitoring Post-TBI

Transition Signals