Our laboratory was awarded a $60k TRIAD seed grant from WPI for the proposal entitled
“Photoacoustic Imaging of Neurovascular Bundles for Robot-Assisted Laparoscopic Pelvic Surgery.”
The goal of this 1-year project, which will be carried out in collaboration with
Profs. Kai Zhang, Greg Fischer, and Ben Nephew, is to explore the creation of a
spectroscopic photoacoustic imaging system to aid in the detection of neurovascular bundles
(NVBs) during robot-assisted pelvic surgical procedures, including radical prostatectomies.
Summer has been busy in the Comet Lab!
Shravan successfully defended his Robotics MS thesis entitled
A mixed reality framework for surgical navigation: approach and preliminary results on
April 23, and will now continue his studies as a Ph.D. student at the University of
California Santa Barbara.
Karim successfully passed his Biomedical Engineering MS defense on July 23 with a thesis entitled
Towards the automatic control of laser ablation for surgical applications.
He will continue his studies in our lab as a Ph.D. student in robotics.
Nick completed the requirements for the non-thesis MS degree in Robotics on August 16,
and will move to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, where he will pursue a
Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering.
Congratulations to Shravan, Karim, and Nick!