Patrick Wellborn received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Vanderbilt University in January of 2021 under the supervision of Dr. Robert Webster III. In the summer of 2014, VINSE served as Patrick’s first introduction to both Vanderbilt and research in general.
Through the VINSE REU, he spent the summer researching biohybrid solar cells with Dr. Kane Jennings. This experience not only gave him foundational research skills, but it directly led to his decision to pursue graduate school. While at Vanderbilt for his Ph.D., Patrick was awarded the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and worked on two surgical robotic systems (an autonomous system and a surgeon-robot collaborative system) to improve mastoidectomy, which is the milling of the mastoid region of the temporal bone for ear surgery. Currently, Patrick works as a Mechanical Engineer for Titan Medical in Chapel Hill, NC both developing and testing the surgical instruments for a single access surgical robot.