2012
May:
Caleb and Diana graduate! Congratulations to the both of them!
Scott wins the Leadership Award and Trevor wins the Controls and Dynamics Award at the Mechanical Engineering Senior Awards Ceremony! Congratulations Scott and Trevor!
April:
The MED Lab celebrates the end of the semester with a pizza party at Phil's house!
Diana's paper is nominated for Best Medical Robotics Paper at ICRA 2012! Congratulations Diana!
Phil and Hunter are awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowships! Congratulations to Phil and Hunter!
Diana, Phil, Ran, Dave, and Marlena travel to Minneapolis, MN for the Design of Medical Devices (DMD) Conference. Marlena and Phil present work on the manual insertion unit for the active cannula, and Dave wins best poster in the 3 in 5 competition!
The MED Lab is awarded an $80,000 Research Grant from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology!
March:
Dr. Ron Alterovitz and two of his students, Sachin Patil and Luis Torres, visit the MED Lab for collaborative research meetings and experiments.
Jenna gives a lab tour to a group of high school students from Chattanooga, TN and they got to see (and try!) some of the cool projects in the MED Lab!
Jenna's work on using vibratory touchscreens to teach math to the visually impaired is featured on the Vanderbilt News, BBC Radio, and several other medial outlets! Check out the video and article here!
The MED Lab proposal "Fluid-Powered Surgery & Rehabilitation via Compact Integrated Systems" was approved! The proposal is a collaboration between Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech, and Milwaukee School of Engineering with a total budget of $458,693 over two years.
Diana defends her Master's Thesis! Congratulations Diana!
Lou and Jenna present their work on the Vanderbilt Haptic Paddle (VHP) at the MathWorks Virtual Conference. The presentation, which provides a great introduction to the VHP, is now a MathWorks webinar, which you can find here!
February:
Phil presents at SPIE 2012 in San Diego, CA on tracked 3D ultrasound targeting with the active cannula.
January:
The MED Lab welcomes a new
member: Richard Hendrick.
Richard completed his BS in biomedical engineering (with a biomechanics emphasis) at Texas A&M University in December 2011. For 3 semesters during his undergraduate study, he did an engineering co-op at DJO Surgical, an orthopedics implant/instrument manufacturer, and worked in the area of new product development and advanced technology. He will be joining the MED Lab late this summer and will be working on the active cannula project. Welcome Richard!
Richard completed his BS in biomedical engineering (with a biomechanics emphasis) at Texas A&M University in December 2011. For 3 semesters during his undergraduate study, he did an engineering co-op at DJO Surgical, an orthopedics implant/instrument manufacturer, and worked in the area of new product development and advanced technology. He will be joining the MED Lab late this summer and will be working on the active cannula project. Welcome Richard!
Phil and Hunter teach an introduction to engineering course titled BIEBER - Basics in Engineering: Buildings, Energy, and Robotics, to high school students at Harpeth Hall. Here is a picture of Hunter attempting to break two of the students' popsicle stick bridge. This bridge held 283lbs!!!
Bob and Jessica visit Intuitive Surgical Inc. in Sunnyvale, CA, and Bob presented the MED Lab's research on concentric tube robot teleoperation at the Intuitive Research Grant Symposium. While in CA, Jessica and Bob visit the CHARM Lab of Dr. Allison Okamura at Stanford University, and Bob gives a seminar talk.
Jessica gives a ViSE seminar on "Precise Acoustic Tumor Ablation with Active Cannulas." Her presentation summarized the current state of the project, which combines 3D ultrasound and a concentric tube continuum robot to steer an ablator to a desired location. The developed ablation device allows directed and precisely shaped ablation, while elastography imaging is monitoring the progress.
2011
December:
Jessica and Hunter travel to Acoustic Med Systems, Inc. in Illinois to work on the system integration of the active cannula robot for the NIH SBIR funded project, "Precisely Shaped Acoustic Ablation of Tumors under 3D Ultrasound Image Guidance."
Jenna gives a talk to the Vanderbilt University Engineering Explorers (a group of high school students interested in engineering) about medical robots.
November:
Jessica visits the MUSiiC Lab of Dr. Emad Boctor at Johns Hopkins University to integrate the active cannula robot with their 3D ultrasound system to enable robot assisted palpation. The system was tested in-vivo in a pig for liver ablation (see photo below). Jessica also gave a talk on her research in "Robot Assisted Laser Processing of Bone" at Johns Hopkins departmental seminar.
Bob and Jenna speak at a CIRTL coffee hour on "Teaching as Research," and specifically, the implementation and assessment of the haptic paddle laboratories.
October:
Bob accepts a position on the steering committee of ViSE (Vanderbilt Initiative in Surgery and Engineering).
Bob and Ray, along with several collaborators from Vanderbily University Medical Center and the School of Engineering, travel to San Diego, CA to present at TEDMed 2011. Check out the projects and some cool videos here!
Jenna travels to Madison, WI to present her work on the haptic paddle assessments at the CIRTL National Forum!
Diana attends the NSF ERC Annual Meeting in Washington DC to present her work on the MRI Compatible Active Cannula Robot!
September:
Bob, Jessica, and Phil all travel to San Francisco to present at IROS. Jessica gave a presentation on safe endonasal surgery using teleoperated continuum robots at the Safer Robotic Surgical Procedures workshop.
Amir presents his work on an MRI compatible robot for actuating the cannula at the Research Experience for Undergraduates Poster Session. Congratulations Amir!
August:
Bob gives a ViSE (Vanderbilt Initiative in Surgery and Engineering) seminar titled "The Medical & Electromechanical Design Laboratory," introducing the MED's lab work to a wide range of engineers and surgeons.
Phil and Hunter pass the Ph.D. Preliminary Exams. Congratulations to the both of them!
July:
Jessica is invited to present at IROS workshop on Safer Robotic Surgical Procedures
Part of the MED Lab moves to a new lab space in Olin Hall. The rest of the lab will move in July 2012 to a newly, renovated, larger space in Olin Hall!
June:
Caleb successfully defends his PhD thesis!!!
Bob wins the IEEE Volz award for PhD thesis impact during the several years following its publication. This award is judged based on total impact of the thesis in all regards on the field of Robotics and Automation. Click on the images below for larger versions.
Bob presents Jenna's haptic touch screen work at the World Haptics conference in Istanbul, while Jenna and Lou attend the ASEE conference in Vancouver to present their haptic paddle work.
The MED Lab welcomes Mohd Amirullah (Amir) Abdul Razak, an undergraduate who was selected to participate in Vanderbilt's Research Experience for Undergraduates. Amir will be working with Diana on the development of an MRI-compatible robot. Welcome Amir!
The MED Lab welcomes Mike Kiser, a local high school physics teacher, who was selected to participate in Vanderbilt's Research Experience for Teachers program. Mike will be working with Jenna on developing an educational module for teaching students about fluid power using a haptic touchscreen. He did great work in the lab 2 summers ago, and the MED Lab is glad to welcome him back!
May:
Ray obtains a very selective summer internship position in the Applied Research group at Intuitive Surgical. Congratulations Ray!!
Phil presented some of the MED Lab work at Bailey Middle School during their career day. He presented a haptic demo using the Novint Falcon device, let students look "into the brain" using a flexible endoscope and head model, and showed a slideshow of numerous medical robots.
Caleb wins the Vanderbilt University School of Engineering Best Paper Award! Congratulations Caleb!
The MED Lab travels to Illinois to celebrate with Jenna and Matt on their wedding day! Congratulations Matt and Jenna!
Bob travels to Shanghai, China to present Caleb's work on externally loaded continuum robots at ICRA 2011.
The MED Lab enjoyed good food, great company, and a little friendly competition in outdoor games at the end of semester cookout at Bob's house. Congratulations to MED Lab undergraduates: Sam, Mish, and Jordan, on their upcoming graduation!
March:
Bob and Diana travel to Las Vegas for the International Fluid Power Engineering Meeting, where Diana presented her work on an MRI compatible robot for actuation of the active cannula.
Caleb travels to the Ulpan Valley in Guatamala with a Senior Design Team to implement the hydro-electric generator they built to power a local school.
February:
Bob is awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER award!!! This award will provide $400k over 5 years to support many projects in the MED Lab, including various continuum robot designs and medical applications. Click on the images below for larger versions.
The MED Lab gives lab tours to several groups of high-schoolers competing in the JETS competition held at Vanderbilt.
The MED Lab has a chili cook-off at Phil's house! Everyone enjoyed lots of awesome (and different!) chili recipes as well as some great desserts to top it off!
Lou presents his work on robotic needle insertion for lung biopsy at the SPIE Medical Imaging Conference in Orlando, Florida.
January:
The MED Lab welcomes Michael Jekot, an undergraduate who will be working with Byron on capsule robots this spring.
2010
December:
Caleb traveled to New Dehli, India to present at the International Symposium on Experimental Robotics (ISER) and was able to visit the Taj Mahal on his birthday!
Bob, Jenna, and Diana visit Harpeth Hall school to talk with 7th graders about medical robotics.
November:
Caleb travels with a Mechanical Engineering Senior Design Team to the Ulpan Valley in Guatamala where they will be designing and building a hydro-electric generator that will be used to power a school. This is the first of two trips, with the second being this spring when they will install the generator!
The MED Lab demos some of their exciting research to parents and students attending a day-long workshop on "Robotics and Mechanical Engineering in Healthcare."
The MED Lab enjoys a BBQ and salsa "cook-off" followed by an outdoor movie at Bob's house.
The MED Lab officially welcomes Jessica Burgner. Jessica is a new post-doc in the lab and will be working on a variety of projects. She received her diploma in Computer Science at the University of Karlsruhe, Germany in 2006. Her thesis was about soft-tissue registration using freehand 3D ultrasound. After graduation, Jessica was a research associate in the Medical Robotics Group at the Institute for Process and Control Robotics (http://rob.ipr.kit.edu) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany. She received her doctoral degree (Dr.-Ing) in January 2010 for her thesis work on robot-assisted laser bone ablation. We are excited to have Jessica join our team!
August:
Ray and Diana attend the 2010 North American Summer School in Surgical Robotics and Simulation, in Seattle, Washington.
Jenna attends the 2010 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Biomechanics
Congratulations to Caleb - his paper was accepted to the 2010 International Symposium on Experimental Robotics, which will be held in India.
July:
Phil, John, and Trevor travel to Champaign, IL for joint experiments with Acoustic MedSystems, Inc.
Mish presents his work on controlling the PneumRX needle at the Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power (CCEFP) meeting.
Bob travels to the CRIM Lab at Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pontedera, Italy to continue collaborative work on capsule robots and gives a lecture to the on MED Lab research - pictured is Lou and Greg's AIM Frame.
June:
Bob organizes, and presents MED Lab research at, the Robotics Science and Systems (RSS) workshop entitled Enabling Technologies for Image-Guided Robotic Interventional Procedures in Zaragoza, Spain. http://aimlab.wpi.edu/rssworkshop/
Jenna attends the American Society of Engineering Education Conference in Louisville, KY.
The MED Lab welcomes Gabe Sterling and Sean Donnelly, two high school teachers who will be spending 1 month working in the lab through the Research Experience for Teachers (RET) program. Gabe and Sean will be working with Jenna and Lou on developing an MRI-Compatible actuation unit for the active cannula that will be actuated using the haptic paddle. They will also develop a module that uses the haptic paddle as a teaching tool to use in their classrooms.
Byron travels to the CRIM Lab at Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pontedera, Italy for 2 months in order to continue collaborative work on capsule robots.
The MED Lab welcomes a new member: Phil Swaney.
Phil is a new M.E. Ph.D. student who did his undergraduate work at The Pennsylvania State University. He researched autonomous path planning in a swarm environment and also designed and constructed a low-cost medical device to aid a paraplegic user with putting on his or her socks and shoes. He will be working on the active cannula project in the MED Lab.
The MED Lab welcomes a new member: Diana Cardona.
Diana received her B.S in Mechanical Engineering in September 2009 from Universidad de Los Andes in Bogota (Colombia). During her undergraduate project she developed a race car simulator based on a Stewart platform. Her current research interest involves the development of an MRI compatible robot for actuating the active cannula. In her free time, she enjoys drawing and painting with different techniques.
The MED Lab enjoys some good food at Bob's second annual start of summer BBQ.
Jessica Burgner, a post doctoral scholar who will be joining the MED lab in September, makes her first visit to Vanderbilt University and gives an excellent presentation on her doctoral work in developing the world's first robotic laser craniotomy system.
The MED Lab welcomes Gastone Ciuti, a visiting student from Scoula Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa, Italy, who will be spending 1 month in the lab working on endoscopic capsule robots.
The MED Lab is awarded a MathWorks Educational Grant to create new software for the haptic paddle in the Matlab/Simulink environment. This new software will be implemented in Fall 2010 in the System Dynamics laboratory.
The lab is awarded an NIH R21 grant collaboration with Ron Alterovitz, to study design and path planning of multi-lumen steerable needles.
Eight members of the lab attended the conference, as shown above (not pictured: Daniel Schurzig).
The MED Lab survives the 2010 Nashville Flood ... almost unscathed. Only a little water damage in one person's house.
April
Jenna and Matt announce their engagement!
The MED Lab (nearly everyone) attends the Design of Medical Devices Conference in Minneapolis, MN.
January:
The MED Lab welcomes a new member: Byron Smith.
Byron is a new ME Ph.D. student. He received his Bachelor's and his Master's Degree in Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). His graduate research focused on piezoelectric composites at the Smart Materials Laboratory at VCU. He will be working on the endoscopic capsule robot project here in the MED Lab.
2009
November:
Caleb and Sarah Beth buy a house in Nashville! Congratulations!
June:
Jenna travels to Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pontedera, Italy for 3 weeks to work in collaboration with members of the CRIM Lab on capsule robots.
May:
Undergraduate Jordan Croom begins work on vision based shape sensing for continuum robots.
The MED Lab is awarded a Vanderbilt Discovery Grant in the amount of $100,000 over two years to support our endoscopic capsule research.
May 12-17:
Caleb presents his paper Mechanics of Bending, Torsion, and Variable Precurvature in Multi-Tube Active Cannulas at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Kobe, Japan.
May:
The MED Lab welcomes David Gostin, a summer undergraduate researcher who will work with Ray on Laparoscopic tissue scanning.
April 21:
Ray serves as a Design Juror for the Vanderbilt Senior Design class.
April:
Jenna is named an NSF Graduate Fellow - Congratulations Jenna!!
April:
The lab becomes an official member of the NSF Engineering Research Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power.
April 13-15:
Jenna, Caleb, and Ray present posters at ASME Design of Medical Devices Conference. Jenna wins the 3 in 5 competition, a five minute presentation of three power point slides on her poster. Authors of the top 10 posters at the conference were invited to participate.
March 30:
Caleb and Jenna present their research at the Vanderbilt Graduate Research Symposium poster session.
March 4:
Ray and Jenna pass their Department Preliminary exams for entry into the Ph.D. program. Congratulations to them both!
February:
Our Laser Cutter arrives. This laser cutter is capable of cutting approximately 3mm thick stainless steel and 1inch thick acrylic, and we look forward to using it on many projects!!
Feb 13-18:
Ray presents his paper Conoscopic Holography for Image Registration: A Feasibility Study. at the SPIE Medical Imaging conference in Orlando.
January:
Caleb and Jenna complete their Teaching as Research project to evaluate the effectiveness of Haptic Paddles in the classroom and present their results at a Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning symposium. Their work is also one of two projects selected for special presentation at a Center meeting.
January:
The MED lab welcomes undergraduates Sam Nackman, Tiffany Cheng, and Xavier Waller. Sam will do his honors thesis on laparoscopic tool design, Tiffany will work with Ray on laparoscopic surface scanning, and Xavier will work with Jenna on capsule robot design.
Jan 12-16:
Jenna attends the Johns Hopkins Winter School on Medical Robotics and Computer-Integrated Interventional Systems.
2008
October:
The MED lab welcomes Jordan Croom, a Vanderbilt undergraduate who will work with Caleb on the Active Cannula project.
Oct 19-22:
Caleb presents his paper Mechanics-Based Modeling of Bending and Torsion in Active Cannulas at the IEEE RAS/EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics. in Scottsdale, Arizona.
September:
The lab is awarded an NIH SBIR in collaboration with Acoustic MedSystems and Johns Hopkins University. This 4 year grant will support research in applying active cannulas under ultrasound guidance to accomplish liver ablation.
September:
Ray's abstract Conoscopic Holography for Image Registration: A Feasibility Study. is accepted for publication and oral presentation at the upcoming SPIE Medical Imaging meeting.
September 22:
The MED lab welcomes Jim Boyle, a Vanderbilt undergraduate who will work with Caleb on the Active Cannula project.
September 6:
Bob gives an oral presentation on MED Lab research at the MICCAI Needle Steering workshop in New York City, and Caleb, Ray, and Xianshi make poster presentations that are well-received. Many workshop participants attend a concert at the Blue Note after the workshop (photo below).
September 4:
Randy presents his summer research Needle-Membrane Puncture Mechanics at the VUSE summer undergraduate research symposium.
September 5:
Caleb and Jenna are awarded a Teaching as Research Grant from Vanderbilt University in the amount of $3000 for their proposal "Getting a Feel for Dynamic Systems through Haptic Robots".
August 15:
The MED lab welcomes a new member: Jenna Toennies.
Jenna is a new ME Ph.D. student. Jenna did her undergraduate work at Southern Illinois University. Her undergraduate research included constructing an experimental testbed for studying the biomechanics of the Northern Leopard frog, among other projects. She has also served as team leader for a DARPA Mini Grand Challenge project team that designed and constructed an autonomous robotic golf cart.
July 17:
Bob presents "Closed-Form Differential Kinematics for Concentric-Tube Continuum Robots with Application to Visual Servoing." at the international Symposium on Experimental Robotics in Athens, Greece.
July 10:
Bob presents an invited talk titled "Design, Mechanics, and Control of Surgical Continuum Robots" at the Center for Research in Microengineering, at the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Italy.
June 30:
Caleb's paper Mechanics-Based Modeling of Bending and Torsion in Active Cannulas. Is accepted for publication at the IEEE RAS/EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics
June 2:
The MED lab welcomes a new member: Randy Smith.
Randy is a Vanderbilt student who will work in the lab during summer, 2008 as a REU.
May 19:
The MED lab welcomes a new member: Brandon Bolds.
Brandon is a student from Tennessee State University who will work in the lab during summer, 2008 as a REU.
May 6:
The MED Lab holds its first annual "Congratulations, we made it through the school year" BBQ to mark the start of summer!
April 15:
Congratulations to Caleb on successfully passing his departmental preliminary exams!
Jan 15:
The MED lab welcomes new members: Rob Pieper and Todd Dutton
Both Rob and Todd will pursue undergraduate research in the lab during the spring semester, 2008.
Jan 9:
The MED lab welcomes a new member: Xianshi Xie
Xianshi is a ME Ph.D. student. He received his undergraduate degree from Tsinghua University in Mechanical Engineering and Automation in 2005, and his Masters in ME also from Tsinghua in 2007, under the support of the Chen Zhifu Scholarship. Xianshi's previous research experience involves developing advanced coding systems that apply information theory to streamline various aspects of component inventory in industrial manufacturing. He has also developed systems for tree irrigation that involve sensing and control for optimal water delivery, and designed improved gearing for electrically powered bicycles.
2007
November 1:
Best Paper Award Finalist: "Toward Active Cannulas: Miniature Snake-Like Surgical Robots" at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.
October 25:
The MED lab welcomes a new member: Ray Lathrop.
Ray is a new ME Ph.D. student, beginning in January 2008. Ray is returning to academics after several years in the medical device industry, most recently designing improved devices for diabetes monitoring. He holds a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University, and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Vanderbilt.
October 13:
Congratulations to Caleb on his marriage to Sarah Beth!!
September 1:
NSF BME/RAPD Grant awarded: The MED lab has received $180,589 over 3 years to support design and modeling of active cannulas for bio-sensing and surgery.
August 29:
The MED lab welcomes a new member: Caleb Rucker.
Caleb is a new ME Ph.D. student. He graduated from the Lipscomb University in 2007 with B.S. degrees in both Engineering Mechanics and Mathematics. Caleb's undergraduate research projects include modeling of biological fluid transport processes in infants to combat Jaundice, and designing an inverted bellows system for NASA to support spacecraft in ground-based dynamic testing. In his free time, Caleb enjoys playing and composing music for Violin, Guitar, Mandolin, and Voice.