Within the last two decades, multiple efforts have been focused on introducing robotic surgeries in routine procedures including ophthalmology, urology, gynaecology, cardiology, etc. Current commercial robotic systems allow the surgeon to manipulate laparoscopic toolswith millimetric precision. 

However, specialized procedures such as reconstructive microsurgeries, surgical anastomosis, vitreoretinal eye surgery, neurosurgery etc have not yet benefited from robotic surgery given the requirement for sub-millimetre precision considering both the robotic system and surgical tools.   

This project will bring the fields of ultra short-pulsed laser surgical tools development with high precision robotics to develop the future optical surgical devicesdelivering submillimetre accuracy for those structures present in specialized procedures (i.e. blood vessels, nerves, cells).  

The researcher will design, develop, and test novel laser based surgical devices which will be fully integrated in our existing high precision robotic devices to address the above-mentioned challenges. This will be carried out by:  

1. Designing optical devices for optimum laser beam delivery considering the surgical task requirements. 
2. Building optical probes capable of providing visualization and manipulation suited for a given micro-surgical task.    
3. Assessing the performance of the developed tool to propose enhancements.  
4. Integrating the optical tool with our high precision robot.  
5. Analysing complex sets of big-data images to extract relevant information using automated strategies. 

Please clearly state on your application that you are applying for the Laser Technologies in Medical Applications Scholarship under the supervision of Dr Rodrigo Aviles-Espinosa.

Please ensure you application includes each of the following: 

• A research proposal. For guidance on preparing your proposal, please see here. 
• Degree certificates and transcripts. 
• 2 references, including a minimum of 1 from any institution studied at within the last 5 years.
• If your first language is not English you will need to demonstrate that you meet the University’s English language requirements, see here for details of our accepted documentation.