Contact

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Education

• 2023-Present: Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, Vanderbilt University; Nashville, TN.
• 2019-2023: B.E., Biomedical Engineering and Computer Engineering, Vanderbilt University; Nashville, TN.

Research Interests

• Surgical Robotics
• Robotic Perception
• Low Resource Medical Devices

Awards

• NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (2023)

Published: 08 August 2023

Contact

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Education

• 2022 - Present: PhD, Mechanical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
• 2016 - 2020: B.S., Mechatronics Engineering, Sabanci University, Istanbul, Turkey

Research Interests

• Surgical Robotics
• Robot Design, Modeling, and Control

Experience

• Aug 2020 - Jun 2021: Robotics Engineer, Interact Technologies, Istanbul, Turkey
• July 2021 - July 2022: Intern, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MS

Published: 10 March 2023

Contact Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Education 2023-Present: Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, Vanderbilt University; Nashville, TN. 2018-2023: B.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Utah; Salt Lake City, UT. Research Interests Medical Robotics Haptics Computer Vision and AI Journal Publications Sperry, A. J., Schwehr, T. J., Pinegar, E. K., Richards, O. B., Rolston, J. D., Alexander, M. D., ... & Kuntz, A. (2023). Screw-tip Soft Magnetically Steerable Needles. IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics. Conference Publications Richards, O., Ahronovich, E., Joos, K., & Simaan, N. (2024). Robot-Informed Rapid Segmentation of Optical Coherence Tomography Images for Collaborative Ophthalmic Surgery [Paper: Under Review]. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Richards, O., Ahronovich, E., Shihora, N., Yildiz, A., Atoum, J., Wu, J. W., Obstein, K. L., & Simaan, N. (2024). A Robotic Mediation Device for Skill Assessment and Training During Colonoscopy. IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robotics and Systems, Abu Dhabi, UAE. Abstracts Richards, O., Ahronovich, E., Joos, K., & Simaan, N. (2024). Robot-Assisted Image Segmentation for OCT. Southeastern Vision Research Conference, Nov. 11-12th, 2024, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. Richards, O., Ahronovich, E., Shihora, N., Yildiz, A., Atoum, J., Wu, J. W., Obstein, K. L., & Simaan, N. (2024). A Novel Robotic Platform for Objective Technical Skill Assessment in Colonoscopy. American College of Gastroenterology Annual Meeting, Oct. 26-28th, 2024, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Irwin, P., Bollwinkel, E., Richards, O., Monteiro, A., Smith, B., Ashby, M., Brignone, J., Battaglia, E. (2023) Wearable Haptics for Proprioception of Shoulder Movement. IEEE World Haptics Conference, Jul. 10-13th, 2023, Delft, Netherlands. Experience May 2023 - July 2023: Associate Electromechanical Engineer - Northrop Grumman, Salt Lake City, UT Jan. 2022 - May 2023: Automation Engineering Intern - Northrop Grumman, Salt Lake City, UT May 2021 - Jan. 2022: Technical Intern - Northrop Grumman, Roy, UT Awards Outstanding Poster Presenter - American College of Gastroenterology National Meeting Poster Committee. Oct. 2024 David Jorgensen Scholarship - College of Engineering, University of Utah. Aug. 2018 - May 2023 Good Engineering Award - Mission Systems Intellectual Property Committee, Northrop Grumman. May 2023 Good Engineering Award - Mission Systems Intellectual Property Committee, Northrop Grumman. Sep. 2022 Global Summit Design Competition, 2nd place - Space Sector, Northrop Grumman. Aug. 2021

Published: 07 July 2023

Contact

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Education

• 2020 - Present: PhD, Mechanical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
• 2014 - 2018: B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA

Research Interests

• Steerable Catheter Design, Modeling, and Control
• Sensing Modalities for Endovascular Procedures
• Mechanics Modeling of Flexible Rods
• Medical Image Segmentation and Image-Guided Control

Experience

• June 2018 - July 2020: Mechanical Engineer, Neocis Inc, Miami, FL
• May 2017 - May 2018: Intern, Medtronic, North Haven, CT
• May 2016 - May 2017: Intern, Medtronic, Boston, MA

Publications

• N. Shihora, J. Lawson, P. Moubarak, M. Reese, L. Wang and N. Simaan, "On the Use of Tension Transition Zones for Kinematic and Compliance Performance Analysis of Wire-actuated Continuum Robots," 2024 Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics (JMR) (Accepted)
• C. Abah, J. Lawson, R. Chitale and N. Simaan, "Self-steering Catheters for Neuroendovascular Interventions," 2024 Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics (TMRB) (Accepted)
• J. Lawson, M. Veliky, C. Abah, M. Dietrich, R. Chitale and N. Simaan, "Endovascular Detection of Catheter-Thrombus Contact by Vacuum Excitation," 2024 Transactions on Biomedical Engineering (TBME)
• J. Lawson, R. Chitale and N. Simaan, "Model-based Pose Estimation of Steerable Catheters under Bi-Plane Image Feedback," 2023 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), London, UK, 2023

Published: 29 August 2020