Computer Science Faculty Seminar - University of Houston
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Computer Science Faculty Seminar

Linking Cyber and Physical Worlds: The Paradigm of Image-Guided Surgical Robots

When: Friday, November 22, 2013
Where: PGH 232
Time: 11:00 AM

Speaker: Prof. Nikolaos Tsekos, University of Houston

Host: Prof. Christoph Eick

The field of Cyber-Physical Systems is emerging and rapidly evolving as a separate discipline underscoring the ever-increasing importance of devices that link the real physical world with computers and computation. While in our daily life we employ numerous such devices, this young discipline focuses efforts on understating fundamental issues on both the physical and computational sides in accord in order to optimize the different aspects of their co-operation for the benefits of humans. A simple CPS entails three aspects: awareness of the physical world (by sensing), processing this data to create decision-quality information, and then act (or re-act) to the condition of the physical world. An intriguing area with high potential impact to healthcare are the image-guided and robot-assisted interventions and surgeries; a highly complex CPS. Its physical world includes: the patient, the imaging scanner, non-imaging sensors on the patient, the robot as a mechanical device, the operator and the human-machine (robot and scanner) interface. The Cyber world includes all software modules of: sensor data processing, robot control, interface control, scanner control. And all those entities must be linked together and operate flawlessly in real-time; otherwise … “Houston we have a problem!” We will also discuss this paradigm in regard to conclusions pertinent to surgical CPS: (i) it is often preferable to eliminate computational layers; (ii) smart sensing is a very efficient way to deal with latencies, ubiquities and avoid modeling and assumptions; and (iii) the most important aspect in a CPS is the human! We will also present novel developments in our department in robotics and their compatibility for operation inside an MRI scanner, as well as discuss open challenges in the field.

Bio:
Nikolaos V. Tsekos received his BS degree in Physics from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in Greece, his M.Sc. degree in Physiology and Biophysics from the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign and his PhD from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. His research interests are in the areas of cardiovascular and interventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In particular, his work is focused on the development of dynamic MRI methods, MR-compatible robotic manipulators, and robot-control methods based on real-time MRI.  His work has been funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Health Institutes (NIH), the Whitaker Foundation, the American Heart Association (AHA) and the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). Currently he is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Houston (UH) and adjunct faculty at the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. He leads the Medical Robotics Laboratory at UH.