This summer we in ARMLAB hosted a series of workshops including the most recent one which took place in the second week of August in collaboration with Buffalo Museum of Science as well UB Program Development crew. The major theme of this workshop was informed as surgical robotics and haptics. The workshop was attended by 25-30 high school students from different schools mostly within Buffalo.
The primary presenters of the workshop included Dr. Venkat Krovi, who was joined by our collaborators (Dr. Frank C Mendel, Professor in Gross Anatomical Science and Dr. Sudha Garimella, Pediatrics Nephrologist) and our very own senior doctoral students -- Seung Kook (SK) and Madu.
The workshop highlighted different aspects of robotics with interesting "eye-catchy" simulations. Later, Dr. Mendel and Dr. Garimella discussed critical issues in conducting real surgeries and needle based percutaneous procedures successfully on real-life patients.The most highlighting aspect of this workshop was the interactive session between students and clinical physicians wherein the high school kids posed really challenging and interesting questions.
After the questioning session, there were demos setup that offered the students the opportunity to get hands-on with some of the tools we developed as a part of our research including bio-mechanical simulations, needle biopsy and haptic surgical simulations. The hands-on needle insertion demos along with the biopsy visualizer (CT and ultrasound scan) application proved to be the most attractive and informative. The workshop was well received both by the organizers as well as the participants. So, the last but not the least, we would like to extend our gratitude to the Buffalo Museum of Science organizers in providing us an opportunity to conduct this outreach workshop.
