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ARMA paper titled "Robotic-Assisted Micro Surgery of the Throat: The Trans-Nasal Approach" by Andrea Bajo, Latif Dharamsi, Gaelyn Garrett, James Netterville and Nabil Simaan won finalist for best mediacl robotics paper in IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA'2013). This award will recognize outstanding work in the area of medical robotics and computer-assisted interventional devices and systems.

The A.R.M.A. Lab has five papers at the 2013 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Karlsruhe, Germany. The papers focus on cochlear implants, micro-surgery of the eye, urology, otolaryngology, and exploration of flexible environments. One of the papers, "Robotic-Assisted Microsurgery of the Throat: the Trans-Nasal Approach" by Bajo, Daharamsi, Netterville, Garrett, and Simaan, is also finalist for best medical robotics paper. This is the second year in a row that one of the A.R.M.A. Laboratory's papers is selected for this prestigious award. Fingers crossed!

Dr. Simaan won the 2010 Benjamins Award with his student Jian Zhang and his collaborators Dr. Spiros Manolidis and Dr. Tom Roland. The Benjamins Award is given by the Collegium Oto-Rhino-Laryngologicum Amicitiae Sacrum (CORLAS) and is regarded by many as the most impressive international award by the Otolaryngology society.  Simaan and his research partners won the award for their work on robotic insertions of steerable cochlear implant electrodes.Their work was presented last month at the annual Collegium in Budapest, Hungary.

Andrea Bajo successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation on 3/15/2013. His dissertation titled "Control, Sensing, and Telemanipulation of Surgical Continuum Robots" presents contributions in the areas of contact detection and estimation of contact location for continuum robots, hybrid force/motion control for continuum robots, and constrained telemanipulation of continuum robots. Algorithms developed during his Ph.D. research were implemented on several robotic platfroms including the single port access surgical system (the IREP), a novel robot for trans-urethral bladder tumor resection, and a robot for micro-surgery of the upper airways.

Andrea started his journey with ARMA as a visiting undergraduatre student in summer of 2007. He returned to ARMA as a masters student in 9/2008 and has been with ARMA since then. He has contributed to the development of several robotic systems in the lab and assisted in developing research plans for natural orifice surgery in several application areas including Urology, otolaryngology, and trans-abdominal single port access surgery.

Dr. Simaan organized a whole day workshop on robotics for health-care in collaboration with ME faculty Dr. Webster, Goldfarb, Sarkar, Barth and Dr. Stacy Gardener with the Vanderbilt Program for Talented Youth (PTY). The whole day even was hosted by five mechanical engineering labs (see the participating labs, workshop agenda and pictures HERE). The workshop included 64 high school and middle school participants and their parents. Students and their parents got a hands-on experience with technologies developed for surgical assistance, MRI-compatible robots, rehabilitation devices and robotic orthoses, and human-robot interaction.

 

ARMA announces two open positions for high school science teachers:

As part of our NSF mandate to disseminate the results of our research we are seeking to interface with two local high school teachers during the summer of 2013. The purpose of the RET supplement is to provide two local science teachers with research experinece and to work with them to define new teaching module within the STEM areas. Note that the application deadline is March 15 2013. The following files provide more details about these positions:

  1. Advertisement (PDF)
  2. Fillable Application form (Word)

The preferred way of returning these forms is by email (fill, sign and scan/attach to the email). Please make sure to use “RET supplement” in your email subject header and also copy .  If you prefer to fax the application form please make sure to indicate that the fax is for Dr. Nabil Simaan since this fax is our departmental fax 615-343-6687.

Sam Bhattacharyya joined A.R.M.A. in the fall semester of 2010. Sam previously worked at A.R.M.A. in 2008 as an undergraduate researcher at Columbia University. He received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University in 2010. He is now a research assistant at A.R.M.A. pursuing his MS/Ph. D. degree in Mechanical Engineering at Vanderbilt University.

Haoran Yu joined A.R.M.A. in the Fall semester of 2010. Haoran received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from Tsinghua University, China. He is a Teaching Assistant at the Department of Mechanical Engineering and pursuing his MS/Ph. D. degree at Vanderbilt University.


ARMA members recieved best medical robotics paper finalist certificates for the paper Integration and Preliminary Evaluation of an Insertable Robotic Effectors Platform for Single Port Access Surgery BY Andrea Bajo, A., Roger E. Goldman, Long Wang, Dennis Fowler,  Nabil Simaan.

ICRA awards ceremony

ARMA also presented a first collaboration paper with CMU's Biorobotics LabConstrained Filtering with Contact Detection Data for the Localization and Registration of Continuum Robots in Flexible Environments by Stephen Tully, Andrea Bajo,George Kantor, Howie Choset, Nabil Simaan.

Jian has finished his Ph.D. and reserach work at ARMA and immediately joined Intuitive Surgical. Congratulations Jian !

ARMA lab has recently licensed its technology for single port access surgery to Titan Medical Inc.

Titan also signed a short term research agreement with ARMA to assist with the evaluation of potential and performance of the IREP robot.

More details about this are available in the press release and the second press release.

In June 2010 the NIH published an article about our ongoing project on designing future generation technology for single port access surgery. The article can be access HERE.

ARMA presented the IREP (Insertable Robotic Effectros Platform) at TEDMED 2011 in San Diego. Andrea Bajo and Nabil Simaan traveled to present a demonstration of this new system as part of a university campaign presenting collaborative works between engineers and surgeons.  Here are some photos form our experience at TEDMED:

We unpacked the robot and started a workshop in a 5
star hotel :-)
Andrea Bajo assembling the demo

At the end of the day the IREP got some good night rest

Wei Wei and Jian Zhang: Two more Ph.D. graduates join the ARMA Alumni

Dr. Wei Wei and Dr. Jian Zhang graduated with destinction. They join Dr. Kai Xu to make the group of the first Ph.D. students to graduate from ARMA. Due to the tremendous talents and effort Wei, Jian, and Kai distinguished themselves through quality publications. Below are some pictures from 2010 May 14 convocation. Congratulations Drs Wei Wei & Jian Zhang.

 

 

In September 2011 Dr. Jian Zhang and his wife Weiwei Chu donated a $1000 gift to ARMA lab to support eductaion and reserach activities and to encourage outstanding graduate students who exhibit outstanding academic acheivement during their academic career.

jian zhang graduation

In 2010 Dr. Jian graduated from ARMA earning a Ph.D. degree with destinction. His Ph.D. reserach area focused on the design of steerable electrode arrays and methods of electrode insertion for Cochlear Imnplant Surgery. He has published several journal papers and conference papers in the area and helped strengthen ARMA's lead in medical robotics. He joined Intuitive Surgical in 2010 after his graduation. He is responsible for developing new medical robotics technologies for future ISI products.

 

Dr. Jian's success and generosity in giving back to ARMA set a wonderful presedence towards supporting the lab activity.

Dr. Kai Xu passed his thesis defense exam on 8/5/2009. His thesis exam committee included his advisor Professor Nabil Simaan as well as Professor Richard Longman. Professor Peter Allen from the department of Computer Science and Dr. Dennis Fowler from the Department of Surgery.

Kai's picture with his Ph.D. dissertation committee.
From Left to right: Dr. Allen, Dr. Simaan, Kai (now Dr. Xu :-)), Dr. Longman, Dr. Fowler, Dr. Kysar

His thesis titled "“Design, Modeling and Analysis of Continuum Robots as Surgical Assistants with Intrinsic Sensory Capabilities” included a thorough study of the experimental and the theoretical aspects of flexible continuum robots for surgical applications.

Dr. Xu was unianimously nominated for an Award of Distinction by his thesis exam committee for a thesis that is uniquely outstanding in its breadth, depth, originality, and rigor.

On August 21, 2009, Dr. Xu will leave ARMA to join as an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan-Shanghai Jiaotong Joint Institute.

ARMA members wished Kai the best of luck pursuing his future career in a farewell party. Here are some pictures:

On 5/25/2011 Roger Goldman successfully defended his thesis dissertation titled "Analysis, Algorithms, and Control for Intelligent Surgical Exploration and Intervention". His thorrough reserach won him a unianimous vote for graduation with destinction - an honor that is typically saved for the top 10% of graduate students. Roger is the 4th Ph.D. student to graduate from ARMA with destinction. Congtratulations Roger :-).

In February 26 2009 the NSF has funded Dr. Simaan's Career grant. This 5-year grant aims at designing new algorithms and continuum robots for safe interaction with the anatomy. A description of the project is available HERE.

Dr. Wei Wei graduated from ARMA in 2010 is the new president and founder of Huawei Zhongxing Electric - a new company focused on developing robotic solutions for manufacturing. Huawei Welding Machine Won 2nd Award of National Science & Technology Development with aproject titled "Technique and Equipment Development of Hot Wall Hydrogenation Anti-Corrosion Automatic Deposit Welding of Small Pipe Inner Surfaces" and 1st Award of National Science & Technology Development for the project titled "Technique and Equipment Development of Hot Wall Hydrogenation Deposit Welding of Small Pipe Inner Surfaces".

Huawei Zhongxing Electric has also been succesful in entering the automotive industry sector by securing manufacturing contracts with BYD - the Chinese Automobile Manufacturer.

 

Congratulations Wei on your continued success :-).

 

 


February 25 2009: Kai Xu wins the China Scholarship Award: Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self Financed Graduate Students Abroad. Congratulations Kai.

Roger Goldman, Andrea Bajo, and Jason pile all had their 3 papers accepted the 2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation to be held in Shanghai China. ICRA is among the premiere robotics conferences and typically has acceptance rates around 40%. The three accepted papers are:

  1. Pile, J., Simaan, N., "Algorithms and Design Considerations for Robot Assisted Insertion of Perimodiolar Electrode Arrays", 2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Shanghai , China, 2011, Accepted
  2. Goldman, R., Bajo, A., Simaan, N., Compliant Motion Control for Continuum Robots with Intrinsic Actuation Sensing", 2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Shanghai , China, 2011, Accepted
  3. Bajo, A., Goldman, R., Simaan, N., "Configuration and Joint Feedback for Enhanced Performance of Multi-Segment Continuum Robots", 2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Shanghai , China, 2011, Accepted

February 25 2009: Jian Zhan recieves IEEE ICRA Travel award. Congratulations Jian.