VISE Fall Seminar – Sheila Russo, PhD
VISE Fall Seminar
to be led by
Sheila Russo, PhD
Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Boston University
Date: Thursday, November 19, 2020
Time: 12:15 p.m. Room Admittance, 12:25 p.m. start
Zoom: Details will be sent morning of…
Title: Toward Soft Robotic Systems for Advanced Endoscopic Procedures
Abstract: Traditional medical robots are mainly based on the idea of transitioning rigid surgical instruments into the domain of robotic systems and teleoperated devices. However, the current trend in medicine is pushing towards building smaller and safer platforms to navigate in hard-to-reach surgical areas. Soft robots represent a promising technology in this field because they are constructed from compliant materials, thus can safely interact with delicate anatomical structures, preserving their physiological function. The fabrication of miniaturized, flexible structures, able to effectively perform tasks in complex and highly unstructured environments, such as the human body, presents several engineering challenges mainly due to the lack of viable manufacturing techniques, and sensing and actuation strategies at these scales. This talk will focus on design, mechanics, and manufacturing of novel multi-scale and multi-material biomedical robotic systems. I will discuss different approaches to millimeter-scale manufacturing technologies, combining soft and flexible materials with precision mechanisms to achieve distal actuation, integrated sensing, and effective force transmission with compliant, back-drivable, and safe robotic devices for minimally invasive surgery.
Biography: Sheila Russo is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Division of Materials Science and Engineering at Boston University. Dr. Russo completed her Ph.D. degree at the BioRobotics Institute, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Italy. She completed her postdoctoral training at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. She is the founder and director of the Material Robotics Laboratory at BU that aims at bridging the gap between material science and robotics and focuses on design, mechanics, and manufacturing of novel multi-scale and multi-material biomedical robotic systems. Her research interests include medical and surgical robotics, soft robotics, origami-inspired mechanisms, sensing and actuation, and meso- and micro-scale manufacturing techniques.