Lab News
Webster to serve on new VURC Subcommittee
Professor Webster has been appointed to the International Research and Engagement committee. This committee will enhace international research and engagement, bring talented international scholars and graduate students to campus, and connect scholars with policymakers and public intellectuals from around the world. (Link)
MED Lab Welcomes Two New Postdoctoral Scholars
The MED Lab welcomed two new Postdoctoral Scholars this Fall. We are excited for the awesome contributions Josephine Granna and Ernar Amanov will make!
MED Lab tech demo for visitors from IBM
We love showing people our robots over in the new VISE Space! This week we gave a tour for visitors from IBM.
Flulapalooza 2019
The MED Lab all received their flu shots as a part of Flulapalooza! Vanderbilt University and Medical Center annually provide the flu vaccination to faculty, staff, and students at no charge.
Virtuoso Surgical Receives Second Phase II SBIR Grant
Virtuoso Surgical, a startup company spun out of the MED lab a couple of years ago, for which Professor Webster serves as President, received a $1.5M NIH SBIR grant to robotically remove central airway obstructions in the lung. This is the second Phase II SBIR grant received by Virtuoso, and brings its total funding raised to approximately $4.5 Million.
Med Lab welcomes new post-doc Alan Kuntz
This month we welcomed our long-time collaborator Alan Kuntz as a post-doc. Alan recently finished his Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of North Carolina and will be working on a variety of projects in the lab before moving to the University of Utah's Computer Science Department as a faculty member.
EndoTheia Recieves SBIR
EndoTheia Inc., a startup company that Dr. Webster founded in 2018 to commercialize technology originally invented in the MED Lab, received a $225K NIH STTR grant to develop disposable, steerable tools to enable endoscopic resection of colorectal cancer.
NIH R01 Awarded for Prostate Application
The MED Lab was awarded another R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health! The project seeks to enable surgeons to remove the prostate through the urethra and perform delicate reconstructive suturing.
Two Patents Awarded for MED Lab Inventions
Two patents System and method for endoscopic deployment of robotic concentric tube manipulators for performing surgery and Modular sterilizable robotic system for endonasal surgery have been awarded for MED Lab inventions.
Crawfish Boil 2019
The 2019 MED Lab crawfish boil was a ragin' cajun success!
EUS 2019 Best Paper Award
Our paper, "Intraoperative Guidance for Robotic Partial Nephrectomy using Surface-Based Registration: Initial Model Assessment," was chosen for the Best Paper award at the 2019 Engineering and Urology Society conference. Congratulations, Bryn and James!
MED Lab Affiliated Senior Design Team Awarded Most Creative
The MED Lab-sponsored Mechanical Engineering senior design team completed their project and presented it at Senior Design Day! The team designed a new, compact actuation unit for the incisionless continuum parallel reconfigurable robot and received the Senior Design Team Award for “showing the most creativity and originality in the design.” Congrats, team!
Naren's Conference Award
Summer undergraduate researcher Narendran Narasimhan wins 2nd place at the Design of Medical Devices (DMD) Conference "3-in-5" competition for his presentation on a new manual insertion tool for minimally invasive cochlear implant surgery! Congrats Naren!!
Stephanie defends her thesis
Stephanie Amack defends her masters of science thesis "Design of a Compact, Workflow-Oriented Robot for Transbronchial Lung Biopsy." Way to go, Steph!
Katy and Stephanie Present at SPIE Medical Imaging 2019
Congratulations to lab members Katherine Riojas and Stephanie Amack for presenting at the 2019 SPIE Medical Imaging conference in San Diego. Steph presented her design work on "A new approach to homing and tool changes in needle-like surgical robots," and Katy presented "A new manual insertion tool for minimally invasive, image-guided cochlear implant surgery."
Dr. Webster Receives an Endowed Professorship
Vanderbilt University has named MED Lab director Dr. Webster the Richard A. Schroeder Chair in Mechanical Engineering. An endowed professorship is regarded as the highest award that a university can bestow on a faculty member. Congratulations, Dr. Webster!
