MnRI Colloquium Speaker - Timothy Kowalewski

Topic: Advances in Surgical Robotics 

Abstract: Surgical Robots have seen widespread adoption, registering one of the fastest adoption rates of a novel technology in the history of medicine.  Some long-standing challenges in surgery are now open to more quantitative methods that promise novel solutions: the prevalence of fatal errors, accessing currently inoperable anatomy,  or prohibitive delays in treating emergency cases far from treatment centers.  This talk will survey some past and ongoing projects that may have opportunities to get involved.  

Bio: Dr. Kowalewski completed a PhD in electrical engineering at the University of Washington Biorobotics lab on the topic of quantifying surgical skill and served as a research scientist at DARPA’s “Traumapod: Operating Room of the Future” project.  Recognized with a ‘best doctoral candidate award’ at the American College of Surgeons AEI Consortium on SurgicalRobotics and Simulation, he commercialized his PhD work for quantitative skill evaluation and co-pioneered the use of crowdsourcing for high-volume assessment of surgical skills.  Based on this research, he co-founded CSATS Inc. which has enabled surgical skill assessment and improvement throughout the United States (acquired by Johnson & Johnson in April 2018).  He is a recipient of an NSF CAREER award and a McKnight Presidential Fellow and is funded by the NSF, NIH, DOD Army Futures Command, and industry.  He is currently an associate professor in mechanical engineering at the University of Minnesota with adjunct appointments in biomedical engineering and electrical and computer engineering and is an affiliate associate professor in surgical simulation science at the University of Washington, Seattle. He recently co-founded Lightside Surgical in Seattle, WA with Dr. Jeff Berkeley, formerly of Mimic Technologies, to help deliver “critical care anywhere” using simulation science and telerobotics.