CLOSED - Intelligent soft-robotic devices for surgical interventions (23031)

Supervision Team: Professor Dan Stoyanov & Dr Agostino Stilli

A 4 year funded MPhil / PhD studentship is available in the CDT i4health and the successful applicant will be based at the Wellcome/EPSRC Centre for Interventional and Surgical Sciences (WEISS). The studentship provides a stipend for four years (at UKRI level) and tuition fees (home status). Stipend details can be found here.

The successful candidate will join the UCL CDT in Intelligent, Integrated Imaging in Healthcare (i4health) cohort and benefit from the activities and events organised by the centre.

Research aims: 

This project will design new types of surgical robotic systems using soft-materials and also incorporating intelligence. New surgical instruments are key to advancing surgical treatment and soft-robots have the potential to reach anatomical sites with minimal trauma. Developing AI models to process information gathered from the robotic sensors (camera or other) is crucial to intelligent instrumentation and will be a secondary aim for the research to explore.

Relevant Links:

Wellcome/EPSRC Centre for Interventional and Surgical Sciences (WEISS): https://www.ucl.ac.uk/interventional-surgical-sciences/wellcome-epsrc-centre-interventional-and-surgical-sciences-weiss

Surgical Robot Vision Group: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/surgical-robot-vision/surgical-robot-vision

Application Details and Eligibility:

• This studentship is only open to Home Fee paying applicants. Overseas fee payers will not be considered. You can find out more information about Fee Status criteria here
• Applicants are generally expected to have, or expected to obtain at least a First Class Honours or Upper Second Class Honours UK (or international equivalent) Bachelor’s degree, preferably in Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical System Design, Computer Science, engineering, physics or related degree.

How to apply:

Application Deadline: Ongoing until suitable candidate found

Please complete the following steps to apply.

•  Send an expression of interest and current CV to: danail.stoyanov@ucl.ac.uk and cdtadmin@ucl.ac.uk . Please quote Project Code: 23031 and your UCL Application ID in the email subject line.
• Use this webpage to ensure you're eligible for Home Fees
• Make a formal application to via the UCL application portal. Please select the programme code Medical Imaging RRDMEISING01 and enter Project Code 23031 under ‘Name of Award 1’.

If shortlisted, you will be invited for an interview.

Application Process:

• After the deadline, all applicants that specified Project 23031 and with a Portico application will be considered for interview.
• Candidates will normally be invited for interview within two-weeks of the deadline. If you have not been contacted within this time-period, you have unfortunately not been successful in being shortlisted.
• The interview panel will normally consist of the supervision team on the project and the CDT Director.
• The interview will normally consist of a short presentation (5-10mins) by the candidate followed by questions from a panel.
• The successful candidate will be informed by email and given a week to confirm whether they wish to accept the PhD place and funding.
• Note that applications without specifying the project they are applying for and/or making a formal Portico application will be automatically rejected.
• Once accepted, a formal UCL offer of admission will be sent to the applicant as well as an offer of studentship funding.