BRL attends the 4th Biennial North American Summer School on Surgical Robotics

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Professor Blake Hannaford and two of BRL Students, Nava Aghdasi and Mohammad Haghighipanah, attended the 4th Biennial North American Summer School on Surgical Robotics. The Summer school was at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh for a week. Click here for more info about the program

Participants, PhD students, MD students and postdocs, had a chance to attend several lectures which gave them an in-depth coverage of topics such as surgical robotics, haptics, medical imaging, computer- assisted surgical planning, surgical simulation, training, and performance assessment. Attendees had the opportunity to view live cardiac robotic surgery and ask questions from surgeon during the surgery. On the fourth day, they went to Allegheny General Hospital to gain hands-on labs experience with laparoscopic tools and the Da Vinci surgical robot.

On the third day of the summer school Professor Blake Hannaford gave a lecture on “Analysis and Control Architecture for Semiautonomous Robotic Surgery.”
On the third day of the summer school Professor Blake Hannaford gave a lecture on “Analysis and Control Architecture for Semiautonomous Robotic Surgery.”

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The trainees had an opportunity to interact with representatives from medical devices and biomedical technology companies (Applied Dexterity, ROBODOC, Medrobotics, and Intuitive Surgical) during an Industry Forum. In this session, the representative of each company shared their story on how to commercialize a surgical device and the time and effort it takes to succeed in a very informative and interactive atmosphere.
Attendees were performing FLS peg transfer, precise cutting, and simple suture tasks at Karl Storz Minimally Invasive training room.
Attendees performing FLS peg transfer, precise cutting, and simple suturing tasks at Karl Storz minimally invasive training room.
Students using Da Vinci Si surgical system in the training room.
Students using Da Vinci Si surgical system in the training room.
On the evening of the third day we went to PNC Park to watch Pirates vs Dodgers. Sitting in the VIP lounge we were all cheering for the Pirates. Pirates won the game 6-1.
On the evening of the third day we went to PNC Park to watch Pirates vs Dodgers. Sitting in the VIP lounge, we were all cheering for the Pirates. The Pirates won the game 6-1.

The BioRobotics Lab hosted the North American Summer School on Surgical Robotics in 2010. Click here for an overview of the 2010 schedule