Medical robotics – Robotic Surgery, Edinburgh, UK

Project description details: 

At Heriot-Watt University (School of Engineering and Physical Sciences (EPS), Institute of Sensors Signals and Systems (ISSS), Edinburgh, UK), we are looking for a highly skilled PhD student who will work on Medical Robotics and Robotic Surgery Technologies, including

i) development of haptic-feedback and assistive control schemes for intuitive and fast tele-operation of surgical robots,

ii) development of robotic surgery instruments for novel and laser based surgical imaging and tissue ablation technologies.

At Heriot-Watt University, we have developed a unique Experimental Robotic Surgery Setup (video), which imitates actual surgical robots (tele-operation, 3D vision, haptic feedback, pedal control, etc.) and enables research and development for robotic surgery. This setup will be in the core of the PhD studies. The studies will be in close collaboration with the Physics department at Heriot-Watt University, specifically with co-supervisors specialized in laser technologies and application of lasers for medical imaging and surgery. We will instrumentalize novel laser technologies and intagrate those with the robotic surgery setup. Overall, this study will research towards the next generation surgical robots that will enable advanced assitance and integrate advanced laser technologies for robotic surgery.

Interested candidates should apply officially through the university portal before March 31st, 2025:

https://www.hw.ac.uk/study/how-to-apply/postgraduate-programmes

In the application, please indicate the topic of the PhD (Medical Robotics and Robotic Surgery), the name of the supervisor, Dr. Mustafa Suphi Erden, and the program (PhD Electrical).

Please provide the following documents in your application (along with the other documents asked in the portal):

1)     Supporting or personal statement/statement of purpose, briefly explaining why you are a good match for this PhD study,

2)     CV,

3)     Two academic references,

4)     Two relevant publications if available.

After you make the online application, please also send your application documents directly to the supervisor of the project: Dr. Mustafa Suphi Erden, [email protected], with an email topic of “PhD Application for Medical Robotics and Robotic Surgery”.

Supervisor:

Mustafa Suphi Erden

Email:

[email protected]

References:

Below are some publications of our medical robotics group and our collaborators of laser specialists from physics:

[1] Trute, R., Alijani, A., and Erden, M. S., 2024, “”Visual Cues of Soft-Tissue Behaviour in Minimal-Invasive and Robotic Surgery”, Journal of Robotic Surgery,18, 1, 401.

[2] Trute, R., Suárez Zapico, C., Christou, A., Layeghi, D., Craig, S., and Erden, M. S., 2022. “Development of a Robotic Surgery Training System”, Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 8: 773830.

[3] R. J. Beck, I. Bitharas, D. P. Hand, T. Maisey, A. J. Moore, M. Shires, R. R. Thomson, N. P. West, D. G. Jayne, and J. D. Shephard, 2020, “Dynamics of picosecond laser ablation for surgical treatment of colorectal cancer,” Scientific Reports, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 1–10, 2020.

[4] Wood, H. A. C., Ehrlich, K., Yerolatsitis, S., Kufcsák, A., Quinn, T. M., Fernandes, S., Norberg, D., Jenkins, N. C., Young, V., Young, I., Hamilton, K., Seth, S., Akram, A., Thomson, R. R., Finlayson, K., Dhaliwal, K. & Stone, J. M., 2023, “Tri-mode optical biopsy probe with fluorescence endomicroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy”, Journal of Biophotonics. 16, 2, e202200141.

Mustafa Suphi Erden

Associate Professor

Heriot-Watt University