Contact

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Education

• 2026-Present: Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, Vanderbilt University; Nashville, TN.
• 2024-2026: M.Eng., Engineering in Surgery and Intervention, Vanderbilt University; Nashville, TN.
• 2020-2024: B.Eng., Computer Engineering, Chinese University of Hong Kong(Shenzhen); Guangdong, China.

Recent Projects

• Prostate Cancer Biopsy Training Platform

Journal Publications

• Gao, G. Ji, M. Sun, Y. Xiao, H. Rao and Z. Sun, "Dynamic Hysteresis Compensation for Tendon-Sheath Mechanism in Flexible Surgical Robots Without Distal Perception," in IEEE Transactions on Robotics, vol. 41, pp. 3703-3721, 2025, doi: 10.1109/TRO.2025.3577011.

Conference Publications

• Still working on it...

Academic Experience

• Previously worked in the Network Coding Lab(NCLab) during my sophomore and junior years, and was intensively exposed to Linux-based coding and network experiments.
• Very passionate about surgical/medical applications, and later fascinated by medical robots to pursue my interest in both engineering and medicine.
• I am super excited to become a minion in this lab : ) 

Fellowships & Grants

• McCord Graduate Library Fellowship - Vanderbilt University. Oct 2024 - May 2025

Awards

• 19th Undergraduate Research Awards - Chinese University of Hong Kong(Shenzhen). 2024
• 2023-2024 SSE Dean's List Award - Chinese University of Hong Kong(Shenzhen). 2024

Personal Interest

• I love my life, and I have too many hobbies(but too little time).
• Sports-wise: I do running and boxing for relaxation. Hiking is definitely a great option if I can drive around one day. And more sports to be explored.
• Art-wise: I like to do Chinese calligraphy and drawing. Also, I am trying to learn a new instrument (probably Bass guitar, as I want to have a cool band with my friends when we are old and live in the same elderly community).
• Life-wise: I love making coffee and Chinese tea. And I am a fair cook at making survival meals.
• * and I just realized I simply just love learning.

Contact

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Education

• 2023-Present: Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, Vanderbilt University; Nashville, TN.
• 2018-2023: B.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Utah; Salt Lake City, UT.

Research Interests

• Medical Robotics
• Machine Learning

Journal Publications

• Veliky, M., Richards, O., Simaan, N., (2026). Sensory Robotic Draping for Safe Human-Robot Interaction during Autonomous Emergency Ultrasound Triage. Journal of Medical Robotics Research.
• Sperry, A. J., Schwehr, T. J., Pinegar, E. K., Richards, O. B., Rolston, J. D., Alexander, M. D., ... & Kuntz, A. (2023). Screw-tip Soft Magnetically Steerable Needles. IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics.

Conference Publications

• Richards, O., Ahronovich, E., Joos, K., & Simaan, N. (2025). Robot-Informed Rapid Segmentation of Optical Coherence Tomography Images for Collaborative Ophthalmic Surgery. ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, Anaheim, California, USA.
  
• Richards, O., Ahronovich, E., Shihora, N., Yildiz, A., Atoum, J., Wu, J. W., Obstein, K. L., & Simaan, N. (2024). A Robotic Mediation Device for Skill Assessment and Training During Colonoscopy. IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robotics and Systems, Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Short Papers and Abstracts

• Joos, K, Richards, O., Prasad, R., Vadakkan, T., Simaan, N., (2026) Manual Compared to Robotic Stabilization for Image-Guided Ophthalmic Subretinal Injections in ex vivo Human Eyes. The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology | ARVO, May 3-7th, 2026, Denver, Colorado, USA.
• Richards, O., Obstein, K. L., Simaan, N. (2025). Exploring Accelerated Skill Acquisition via Tandem Training for Colonoscopy. Hamlyn Symposium, London, UK, 2025.
• Richards, O.,  Ahronovich, E., Joos, K., & Simaan, N. (2025). Robust OCT Image Segmentation using Robot Kinematics. The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology | ARVO, May 4-8th, 2025, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
• Richards, O., Ahronovich, E., Joos, K., & Simaan, N. (2024). Robot-Assisted Image Segmentation for OCT. Southeastern Vision Research Conference, Nov. 11-12th, 2024, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
• Richards, O., Ahronovich, E., Shihora, N., Yildiz, A., Atoum, J., Wu, J. W., Obstein, K. L., & Simaan, N. (2024). A Novel Robotic Platform for Objective Technical Skill Assessment in Colonoscopy. American College of Gastroenterology Annual Meeting, Oct. 26-28th, 2024, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
  
• Irwin, P., Bollwinkel, E., Richards, O., Monteiro, A., Smith, B., Ashby, M., Brignone, J., Battaglia, E. (2023) Wearable Haptics for Proprioception of Shoulder Movement. IEEE World Haptics Conference, Jul. 10-13th, 2023, Delft, Netherlands.

Experience

• May 2023 - July 2023: Associate Electromechanical Engineer - Northrop Grumman, Salt Lake City, UT
• Jan. 2022 - May 2023: Automation Engineering Intern - Northrop Grumman, Salt Lake City, UT
• May 2021 - Jan. 2022: Technical Intern - Northrop Grumman, Roy, UT

Fellowships & Grants

• NSF Graduate Research Fellow - National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program. Jun. 2025
• Lacy Fischer Interdisciplinary Research Grant - Vanderbilt University Graduate School. May 2025
• David Jorgensen Scholarship - College of Engineering, University of Utah. Aug. 2018 - May 2023

Awards

• MedTech Design Sprint, 1st place - NISSHA Medical Technology & VISE. Aug. 2026
• Outstanding Poster Presenter - American College of Gastroenterology National Meeting Poster Committee. Oct. 2024
• Good Engineering Award - Mission Systems Intellectual Property Committee, Northrop Grumman. May 2023
• Good Engineering Award - Mission Systems Intellectual Property Committee, Northrop Grumman. Sep. 2022
• Global Summit Design Competition, 2nd place - Space Sector, Northrop Grumman. Aug. 2021