Safeguarding Public Health During Infectious Disease Pandemics Using Medical Robotics, Wearable Technology, and AI

May 17, 2021

The focus of this workshop is on ways medical robotic systems, wearables, and AI technologies could augment, assist and support the healthcare system to safeguard public health and protect frontline healthcare workers during health crises such as the novel coronavirus pandemic. Of interests are 

• Methods and devices to facilitate the prevention, containment, and mitigation of infectious diseases, 

• Novel means of telehealth/telemedicine for creating physical distancing between clinicians and patients,

• Technologies for independent living of high-risk populations, 

• Social robotics for supporting mental health, 

• Wearables for monitoring COVID symptoms. 

Dr. Hongliang Ren, Associate Professor, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Hongliang Ren received his Ph.D. in Electronic Engineering (Specialized in Biomedical Engineering) from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) in 2008. He serves as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Automation Science & Engineering (T-ASE) and Medical & Biological Engineering & Computing (MBEC).  He has navigated his academic journey through the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Johns Hopkins University, Children’s Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, Children’s National Medical Center, United States, and the National University of Singapore. He is currently Associate Professor, Department of Electronic Engineering at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering at the National University of Singapore. His areas of interest include biorobotics, intelligent control, medical mechatronics, soft continuum robots, soft sensors, and multisensory learning in medical robotics. He is the recipient of NUS Young Investigator Award and Engineering Young Researcher Award, IAMBE Early Career Award 2018, Interstellar Early Career Investigator Award 2018, and ICBHI Young Investigator Award 2019.

Dr. Mohsen Khadem, Lecturer, University of Edinburgh, UK

Mohsen Khadem is a UKRI Fellow and Lecturer at the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh. Previously He was a Post- Doctoral Researcher at the Wellcome/EPSRC Centre for Interventional and Surgical Sciences, University College London. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Alberta, Canada in 2017, M.Sc. in Biomechanics from the Sharif University of Technology, Iran, in 2013, and B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from Shiraz University, Iran, in 2010. His research focus is on Surgical Robotics and Image-guided Therapies, Continuum and Flexible Robots, and Applications of Control Theory in Robotics.

Dr. Ravi Vaidyanathan, Reader, Imperial College London, UK

Ravi Vaidyanathan is a Reader in Biomechatronics at Imperial College London.  His laboratory (http://www.biomechatronicslab.co.uk/) focuses on learning and sensor fusion for smart systems, with applications ranging from human performance, smart envorinments, and robotics.  Dr Vaidyanathan has led more than 20 separate research programs supported in USA, Singapore, and UK, authored over 200 refereed publications and is a named inventor on 6 pending or issuesd patents. His research has been recognized internationally awards from SAGE Journals, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), and the Robotics Society of Japan (RSJ) and nationally with innovation awards from the UK NHS and Institute of Engineering Technology (IET).   Revolutionary aspects have also been featured by: the BBC, New Scientist, The Engineer, Inc. Magazine, IEEE Institute, Flight Global Magazine, The Times of India, The Discovery Channel, and the Tokyo Broadcasting Company. The Biomechatronics Laboratory has supported the formation of 4 new companies that have introduced 3 new commercial products in smart systems in the last 5 years alone.  He has been invited to present his research at the US Pentagon, UK Parliament and the UK Prime Minister’s Residence at 10 Downing Street.  and is currently co-chair of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Technical Advisory Committee on Biorobotics.  

Dr. Javad Dargahi, Professor, Concordia University, Canada

Dr. Javad Dargahi is a professor of mechanical engineering at the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, QC Canada. He is a fellow of Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineering. His research interests are design and development of haptic and tactile systems for minimally invasive surgery, robotics, and micro-manufacturing of sensors and actuators. Professor Dargahi has co-authored three books published with McGraw-Hill and Wiley in the scope of mechatronics and tactile sensing. He has published more than 250 peer-reviewed articles, and is the inventor of multiple patented technologies in this field.

Dr. Ehsan Tarkesh Esfahani, Associate Professor, University at Buffalo, USA

Dr. Ehsan Tarkesh Esfahani is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at University at Buffalo, The State University of New York (UB). He is also a core faculty members in the Computational Data Science and Engineering program as well as center for Cognitive Science at UB. He received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering and MSc in Electrical engineering from University of California Riverside in 2012. Prior to joining academia, he was a research scientist at General Motors Research and Development Center. Dr. Esfahani’s main research is focused on Human-in-the Loop System, Human-in-the loop learning, physiological signal processing, human-robot interactions and medical robotics/training. His research work has received numerous awards from National Science Foundation, State of New York, Power Public Association, Roswell Park Cancer Institute to name a few. He is a senior member of IEEE and Associate editor of ASME Journal of Computing and Information Science Engineering and Guest Associate Editor for Frontiers in Neurorobotics. 

Dr. Yaser Maddahi, President, CEO & Founder, Tactile Robotics, Canada

Dr. Maddahi received his BSc and MSc in Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, respectively. He obtained his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Manitoba in 2014. He was an Eyes High Fellow at the University of Calgary and a visiting academic scholar in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Manitoba. He is also a recipient of the prestigious Killam award in Canada. He is a registered Professional Engineer (PEng) in the Province of Manitoba. As CEO of Tactile Robotics, he inspires and guides the team with his signature brilliance and futuristic yet humble and practical outlook. Dr. Maddahi oversees engineering systems conceptualization and design at Tactile Robotics. He has extensive experience in engineering analysis and project management. Recently, he has been the bridge between the University of Calgary and the University of Manitoba on the Robot-Assisted Space Telemetry (RAST) project. RAST investigates the possibility of conducting remote teleoperated surgical and medical treatments from the earth, with the operating room being located inside the International Space Station (ISS), using a master-slave robotic paradigm. Dr. Maddahi’s primary research interest, which is very much related to his work in tactile Robotics, is entrepreneurship, Internet of Things (IoT) and Internet of Medical Things (IMoD), haptics for training, and human-machine interaction.

Dr. Hossein Rouhani, Assistant Professor, University of Alberta, Canada

Hossein Rouhani is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Alberta, and a Research Affiliate at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital (Edmonton) since 2015. He is also the founder and director of Neuromuscular Control & Biomechanical Laboratory (www.ncbl.ualberta.ca). He received an MSc degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tehran, Iran, and a PhD degree in Biotechnology and Bioengineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). Dr. Rouhani was then a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto. Dr. Rouhani’s fields of research are (1) in-field health monitoring using innovative wearable technologies, (2) rehabilitative and assistive technology development, and (3) biomedical instrumentation design and implementation. Within his translational research program, Dr. Rouhani has had several collaborative research projects with university hospitals to implement his developed wearable technologies in clinical research at these hospitals. Dr. Rouhani is a recipient of two postdoctoral fellowship awards from the Swiss National Science Foundation. He is also an associate editor of IEEE Canadian Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Transactions of Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineering and Frontiers in Sports and Active Living and an Academic Editor of PLOS ONE. Dr. Rouhani was a co-chair of Alberta Biomedical Engineering Conference (2017-2919) and is the congress chair of 2022 International Congress of the Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineering in Edmonton.

Dr. Mahdi Tavakoli, Professor, University of Alberta, Canada

Mahdi Tavakoli is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Alberta, Canada. He received his BSc and MSc degrees in Electrical Engineering from Ferdowsi University and K.N. Toosi University, Iran, in 1996 and 1999, respectively. He received his PhD degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Western Ontario, Canada, in 2005. In 2006, he was a post-doctoral researcher at Canadian Surgical Technologies and Advanced Robotics (CSTAR), Canada. In 2007-2008, he was an NSERC Post-Doctoral Fellow at Harvard University, USA. Dr. Tavakoli’s research interests broadly involve the areas of robotics and systems control. Specifically, his research focuses on haptics and teleoperation control, medical robotics, and image-guided surgery. Dr. Tavakoli is the lead author of Haptics for Teleoperated Surgical Robotic Systems (World Scientific, 2008). He is a Senior Member of IEEE and an Associate Editor for IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, Journal of Medical Robotics Research, IET Control Theory & Applications, and Mechatronics.