Jian Zhang, (Ph.D. student at ARMA – Advanced Robotics and Mechanisms Applications laboratory) won the Best Student Paper award for Clinical Applications category in MICCAI2006. MICCAI (Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention) is the premier international medical robotics conference held annually.

578 papers were submitted to MICCAI out of which only 39 were accepted for a full length presentation and 139 were accepted for poster presentation. Jian’s paper was one of the 39 papers accepted for full length presentation. About 80 international papers participated in the best student paper competitions based on reviewer’s nominations and 5 papers were given awards in 5 categories including the clinical applications category that Jian won.

The paper is titled "A Pilot Study of Robot-Assisted Cochlear Implant Surgery Using Steerable Electrode Arrays" by Jian Zhang, Kai Xu, Dr. Nabil Simaan and Dr. Spiros Manolidis is an ongoing collaboration between ARMA and the medical school (Dr. Spiros Manolidis is at the department of Otolaryngology- Head & Neck Surgery at Columbia University).