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OVPR Seed Grant Winners

An OVPR Seed grant has been awarded for the project, "Data-Enabled Manipulation Planning and Control for Autonomous Robotic Surgical Assistant." This is a collaborative research effort involving Robotics and AI (Nilanjan Chakraborty,  Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering), Solid Mechanics (Kedar Kirane, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering), Human Computer Interaction (IV Ramakrishnan, Professor, Computer Science) and Surgery (Dr. Georgios Georgiakis, Department of Surgery, Renaissance School of Medicine). 

The overarching vision of this research is to build a robotic surgical assistant that can assist a surgeon by autonomously performing routine surgical tasks. A key step in realizing this vision is to endow robots with the ability to interact with and manipulate soft/deformable objects to perform tasks like piercing, suturing etc. Although robotic manipulation has been studied for a few decades now, much of the literature studies manipulation of rigid objects. The study of manipulation of rigid objects is a nascent field. Thus, the scope of this seed project is to develop novel data-guided planning and control algorithms that exploit the physics of fracture of deformable objects to allow robotic arms to use tools for piercing and cutting and enabling their use for suturing and incision. Learn more here.

 

Professor Ge receives ASME Dedicated Service Award

Jeff_ASME Dedication AwardProfessor Ge received the Dedicated Service Award at the 2024 ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conference in Washington, DC. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers created the Dedicated Service Award to honor dedicated voluntary service to the Society marked by outstanding performance, demonstrated effective leadership, prolonged and committed service, devotion, enthusiasm and faithfulness. Congratulations, Professor Ge!

 

 

 

Leaders from CEAS meet with Federal Agency Leadership in DC

Dean Andrew Singer and Associate Dean Jon Longtin of the College of Engineering and CEAS_DCApplied Sciences (CEAS) at Stony Brook University met with White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) staff and federal science agency leadership during the week of August 19 to discuss the college’s groundbreaking research. The science agency meetings included the Department of Defense (DOD) Basic Research Office, DOD’s Office of Naval Research (ONR), Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science, DOE’s Office of Electricity, and the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). Learn more here.

 

NRT_Fellows_2024

Meet our NRT Fellows

The National Science Foundation Research Traineeship seeks proposals that explore ways for graduate students in research-based master’s and doctoral degree programs to develop the skills, knowledge, and competencies needed to pursue a range of STEM careers. We have highlighted their research areas below.

 

  • John Park is working on characterization and modeling of fracture and size effects in materials with nonlinear behavior, such as soft matter, rubber compounds, as well as fiber reinforced composites under shear.
  • Thomas Piccolo is working on characterization and modeling of the mechanical behavior of biomechanical composites that form the human abdominal wall, with ultimate goal of improving hernia treatments.
  • Racquel Lovelace is working on characterization and modeling of the mechanical and failure behavior of epoxy at cryogenic temperatures (4K), with application to superconducting magnets.
  • Nicholas Paolini is working on experimental research in fluid mechanics and nanoscale science, for applications in renewable energy conversion and storage. 

 

Celebrating the Class of 2024

The Mechanical Engineering department celebrated the graduating class of 2024 during a May 17th ceremony, commemorating academic, research, and leadership achievements. Graduates and their families took pride in marking the transition from student life to the next phase of their careers, whether it's entering the workforce or furthering their education. Learn more here.

 

Professor Ge appointed Editor-in-Chief of new ASME journal

Translational Robotics

Professor Jeff Ge has been appointed as the inaugural Editor-in-Chief of a new ASME journal titled, "Letters in Translational Robotics." The topic areas will include translational research results demonstrated with prototypes leading to a minimally viable product. "This will be the first ASME journal that publishes translational research results of archival value," says Ge.

Learn more here.

 

 

 

Stony Brook Foundation Trustees Award Recipient

To encourage and support promising early career faculty, the University, through the Provost’s Office, provides research, scholarship and art-making funding opportunities. Five Stony Brook Foundation Trustees Faculty Awards of $20,000 each are competitively available to early career faculty. The awards recognize early-career faculty whose research, creative activities and scholarly achievements predict an exceptional trajectory.

ShanshanAssistant Professor Shanshan Yao is a recipient of this award for her project, “Restoring Tactile Sensation and Feedback in Robot-Assisted Surgery." The goal of this project is to restore the underutilized haptic sensation during robotic-assisted minimally invasive surgery by instrumenting multi-DOF tactile sensors on the robot/patient side and multimodal haptic feedback interfaces on the surgeon side. The tactile sensors mounted to surgical tools will gather multi-DOF force and torque during the tool-tissue or tool-tool contact. The multimodal haptic actuators attached to the surgeon’s skin will enable the transmission of the sensed tactile information to the surgeon in real-time. The system is expected to improve operation accuracy, decrease operation duration, and enable more complicated surgical tasks without damaging tissues. Learn more here.

 

A practical Cooler with a unique design

Interim Chair and professor, Jon Longtin was quoted in the Wall Street Journal article "The Cooler That Keeps Food Cold and Prevents Soggy Sandwiches" about the new Ninja FrostVault cooler. The piece is an honest review of the product which is being described as "the year's most practical cooler that solves a long-standing problem," written by Sal Vaglica, Stony Brook alumni. The cooler's unique design includes a drawer, that without adding ice, keeps cooked and raw food dry and below 40 degrees fahrenheit. "Heat is removed by the ice chilled 'ceiling' of the lower container, which is also the bottom of the upper container, to keep the lower chamber chilled," says Longtin. "Heat leaks from the outside into the lower chamber which is then removed by the ceiling, establishing a steady temperature condition." Learn more here.

 

Mobility Assist featured on the "Wall of Innovation"

Assistant Professor Anurag Purwar, PhD and his students developed the Mobility Assist which is featured on the "Wall of Innovation" in the Intellectual Property Partners (IPP) office. This legacy wall highlights some of Stony Brook University's most groundbreaking inventions that have improved the quality of life for generations to come. Anurag_WOI

The Mobility Assist is a portable, independently operated, mobility assistance medical device that helps individuals stand up, sit down and walk.

Learn more here.

 

 

A Robot to Assist ALS Patients

A team of Stony Brook University researchers is aiming to alleviate the many difficulties that accompany ALS by using artificial intelligence, mechanical engineering, and consultation by medical experts to create a Caregiving Robot Assistant (CART) for ALS patients and their caregivers.  This project is being led by I.V. Ramakrishnan, PhD, a professor of Computer Science and Associate Dean for Research.

Nilanjan Chakraborty, PhD, roboticist and associate professor in the department of Mechanical Engineering is leadingNilanjan - ALS Robot Assist the technical innovation and development of CART.

“The technical innovation of CART is in the development of an algorithmic approach to manipulation planning based on the screw geometry of motion along with an approach to what we call ‘self-evaluation,’ where the robot evaluates its competence in performing a task and actually prompts a caregiver to provide additional demonstrations,” Ramakrishnan said. Learn more here.

 

DOE Fellowship awarded to Austin Dick

Austin Dick, a current PhD student, was one of 86 students selected by the Department of Energy (DOE) for their Office of Science Graduate Student Research Program. He was chosen from a diverse pool of graduate applicants from institutions around the country. Austin will be working with Dr. Greg Doerk at Brookhaven National Laboratory on the development of novelAustin Dick hybrid nanomaterials that are obtained by combining metal oxides and polymers.

According to Associate Professor, Carlos Colosqui, " Austin was in a strong position to be selected by the DOE due to his PhD research experience performing both advanced nanofabrication in a clean room and experimental characterization of electrokinetic flows." Learn more here.

 

ASME hosts Networking Event for Students and Professors

ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) Student Chapter hosted their first Networking Event for Students and Professors on March 28, 2024. We had the opportunity to speak with the President, Hailee Shehu regarding the success of the event, as well as the other events and projects they are working on. Learn more here.

 

New Tiger Team Initiative Announcement

Associate Professor Jie Gao is a member of one of the new Tiger Teams focused on Green Technologies. Building off the success of the previous two Tiger Team initiatives, the Office of the Vice President for Research and the Office of the Provost have launched a new Tiger Team initiative focused primarily on climate-related topics. Learn more here.

 

CEAS Joins Colleagues on Capitol Hill to Advocate for Crucial Funding

On February 7th, Associate Dean for Research and Entrepreneurship and Interim Chair of the Mechanical Engineering Department, Jon Longtin represented Stony Brook University on behalf of Dean Andrew Singer.

_JonLongtin_CapitolHe urged members of the New York congressional delegation and their staff to provide robust funding for all federal science agencies as Congress seeks to pass FY24 appropriations bills and commence the FY25 federal budget process.

“Federal funded research advancements touch every corner of our lives and economy,” said Longtin. “From quantum computing and artificial intelligence to driving innovation in cancer treatment, Stony Brook University researchers are working on developing the next cutting-edge technologies and medical advancements. However, this transformative research can only propel forward with predictable and strong federal funding investments.”

 

Professor Jeffrey Ge celebrates 30 years with Stony Brook University

Professor Ge has been with the MEC department since 1993. During this time, he has served as Undergraduate Program Director, Deputy Chair, Interim Chair, and Chair. He guided the MECBE program through three successful ABET accreditations and helped guide the SUNY Korea MEC program through its initial accreditation. He also managed the challenges of explosive enrollment growth in MEC, after enrollments doubled in the eight years from 2008 to 2015. During his leadership, the US News and World Report Mechanical Engineering Ranking is up from #70 in 2019 to #50 in 2023.  Jeff is a Fellow of ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) and served as the chairs of the ASME Mechanisms and RoboticsJeff Ge 30 Years Committee and ASME Design Engineering Division.

He was chair (2012-2016) of USCToMM (U.S. Committee for the Theory of Machines and Mechanisms, one of 45 member organizations of IFToMM--the International Federation for the Promotion of Mechanisms and Machine Science) and elected as Chair of the Constitution Committee of IFToMM (1999-2023).  He has been co-editor of ASME Journal of Mechanical Design since 2021 and a founding member of ASME Robotics Technology Group since 2020. Recently, he received the ASME AT Yang Memorial Award in Theoretical Kinematics (2022) and the ASME Lifetime Achievement Award in Mechanisms and Robotics (2021). Very recently he proposed and received approval from ASME for the creation of a new Journal, ASME Letters in Translational Robotics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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