MEDLab

Education:

Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University -2007
M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University -2004
B.S., Electrical Engineering, Clemson University -2002

Research Interests:

My research interests are in surgical robotics in particular, and more generally in applying scientific and engineering tools to enhance all aspects of medicine. My students and I typically focus on the clinical problem first, and work with surgeon collaborators to determine the best devices and theoretical approaches to solve it (which may be robots or even purely mechanical devices). Projects in my lab typically involve the design and modeling of novel systems that make surgery less invasive and/or more accurate. This involves designing and constructing robots that are smaller and more dexterous than existing surgical robots, and fusing image guidance into the system to help the surgeon perform surgery more accurately.  Specific current projects include robots for natural orifice surgery (we have developed specific systems for surgery through the nostrils, throat, and urethra), inner ear surgery, lung interventions, image-guided kidney surgery, and novel treatments for brain tumors, bleeding in the brain, and epilepsy. Theoretical aspects of this research involve screw theory, mechanics-based modeling, and optimal mechanism design, among other techniques.