Event
Lockheed Martin Robotics Seminar: Pierre Dupont, "Stretching the Boundaries of Medical Robotics"
Friday, December 4, 2015
1:30 p.m.
2222 JM Patterson
Ania Picard
appicard@umd.edu
Lockheed Martin Robotics Seminar
Stretching the Boundaries of Medical Robotics
Speaker
Pierre E. Dupont, PhD
Chief of Pediatric Cardiac Bioengineering
Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Abstract
My lab creates medical robots not only for minimally invasive surgery, but also for targeted drug delivery and for inducing tissue growth. This talk will describe three of our technologies. The first is a type of continuum robot that is based on concentrically combining pre-curved elastic tubes. We are creating these robots with the goal of increasing the safety and effectiveness of intracardiac and neurosurgical procedures. The second technology consists of tetherless robots that are powered, controlled and imaged using an MRI scanner. These devices vary from patient-mounted needle-driving robots to capsules that can move inside fluid-filled body lumens. The third technology is comprised of robotic implants that apply traction forces to induce soft tissue growth. Applications include lengthening the esophagus and bowel for the treatment of congenital defects and disease.
Biography
Pierre E. Dupont is Chief of Pediatric Cardiac Bioengineering and holder of the Edward P. Marram Chair at Boston Children’s Hospital. His research group develops robotic instrumentation and imaging technology for medical applications. He received the BS, MS and PhD degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA. After graduation, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. He subsequently moved to Boston University, Boston, MA, USA where he was a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering. He is an IEEE Fellow and his group has received a number of paper awards including the King-Sun Fu Best Paper Award of the IEEE Transactions on Robotics in 2010, the IEEE ICRA Best Medical Robotics Paper Award in 2012 and the IEEE/RSJ IROS Best Paper Award in 2014.
