Wearable devices have revolutionized real-time health monitoring, yet challenges persist in enhancing their flexibility, weight, and accuracy. This paper presents the development of a wearable device employing a conductive polyacrylamide–lithium chloride–MXene (PLM) hydrogel sensor, an electronic circuit, and artificial intelligence (AI) for gait monitoring. The PLM sensor includes tribo-negative polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and tribo-positive polyurethane (PU) layers, exhibiting extraordinary stretchability (317% strain) and durability (1000 cycles) while consistently delivering stable electrical signals. The wearable device weighs just 23 g and is strategically affixed to a knee brace, harnessing mechanical energy generated during knee motion which is converted into electrical signals. These signals are digitized and then analyzed using a one-dimensional (1D) convolutional neural network (CNN), achieving an impressive accuracy of 100% for the classification of four distinct gait patterns: standing, walking, jogging, and running. The wearable device demonstrates the potential for lightweight and energy-efficient sensing combined with AI analysis for advanced biomechanical monitoring in sports and healthcare applications.

The laboratory instruction sheet (sometimes called a laboratory manual), together with the equipment used by students, is an essential resource for laboratory work. It has a direct influence over all the interactions that can occur in the laboratory activity, of which student-equipment is the only common synchronous interaction in both face-to-face and remote-access laboratories. This article offers a student perspective on the function, utility, and importance of laboratory instruction sheets in Engineering along with their preferred design for both face-to-face and remote modes. Both qualitative and quantitative investigations were made for studying students’ perceptions. The laboratory sheet was found to be a contributing factor to student satisfaction for student-equipment interactions in face-to-face laboratories and important to students’ experience in remote-access laboratories in giving them a feel of operating real equipment. Further important findings include the need for the instruction sheet to meet different content requirements and emphases that depend upon the laboratory mode and different levels of student academic achievement.