‘Nabil Simaan’
Team of Vanderbilt experts selected to develop low-cost training tools aimed at expanding global access to minimally invasive surgeries
Feb. 7, 2023—Project will be led by Mechanical Engineering Professor Nabil Simaan, a globally renowned expert in robotic surgery A multidisciplinary team from the Vanderbilt Institute for Surgery and Engineering has received a multi-year, multi-million dollar contract to develop a low-cost simulation tool to train medical personnel in Kenya to perform minimally invasive laparoscopic procedures. The project will...
Simaan tapped as co-editor of IEEE special issue on surgical robots
Jul. 27, 2022—Mechanical Engineering Professor Nabil Simaan was named a co-editor of a special issue on surgical robotics for Proceedings of the IEEE. The July 2022 special issue, “Surgical Robotics and Computer-Integrated Interventional Medicine,” provides a research overview of the major applications and enabling technologies in the growing field of surgical robotics. In the 15 years since...
Simaan honored as IEEE Fellow for robotics advancements
Dec. 2, 2019—Nabil Simaan, professor of mechanical engineering, has been elevated to IEEE Fellow by the Board of Directors of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. The award – effective January 1, 2020 – recognizes Simaan for contributions to dexterous continuum robotics for surgery. Technologies developed by his group have advanced surgical robotics by enabling steerable...
Researchers advance image-guided robotic surgical tools for delicate eye procedures
Nov. 21, 2019—Molecular, gene and cell-based therapies targeting eye diseases could prevent and potentially reverse cell degeneration that leads to loss of sight. However, delivering injections safely and accurately into targeted ocular layers remain concerns that affect the advancement of life-changing new treatments. To address the safety and reliability challenges, researchers in the Vanderbilt Institute for Surgery...
Robot prototype shows promise for microsurgery on eyes and aneurysms
Nov. 14, 2019—A new continuum robot designed by Vanderbilt engineers achieves multi-scale motion and may open up a huge world of previously impossible complex microsurgeries. The robot is capable of providing both a large macro motion workspace as necessary for surgical intervention and a small micro motions workspace with motion resolutions of 1 micron or less. For...
Getting robotic surgical tools from the lab to the operating room
May. 8, 2018—The path from university lab to commercialization is especially complex in the biotech industry. Challenges range from long lead times, sometimes measured in decades, to the costs of transforming ideas into innovations, as well as issues of intellectual property, patenting and licensing. Yet Nabil Simaan, a mechanical engineering professor who specializes in designing robots to...
Vanderbilt joins 40 academic partners to create, deploy robotic technology in critical manufacturing sectors
Apr. 25, 2017—Vanderbilt University is one of 40 academic partners in a new robotics manufacturing institute in Pittsburgh that will be funded with $80 million from the Department of Defense and $173 million in matching funds from more than 200 participating partners, including companies, local governments, academic and nonprofit organizations. The Defense Department awarded the contract to...
VU Inside: Giving surgical robots a human touch
Oct. 31, 2016—A critical goal in modern surgery is to make procedures as safe and minimally invasive as possible, which often means using robotic tools. Vanderbilt University bioengineer Nabil Simaan says a negative side effect of doing surgery with tiny entry points into the body is that the surgeon loses his or her sense of touch and...