During minimally invasive (robotic) surgery (MIS), the surgeon cannot feel the forces he/she is exerting on the tissue, and is thus risking unwanted damage to the tissue. This PhD is part of an interdisciplinary project of which the ultimate goal is to impose safety margins on the surgical instruments to avoid tissue damage during robotic surgery. The focus lies on cardiovascular tissue.

This focus of this PhD will be to search for and/or design accurate models of cardiovascular tissue on the one hand, but fast models of this same tissue on the other hand. Accurate constitutive and finite element models are required to define the maximum allowable load a tissue can bear. On the other hand, fast models are required to estimate and apply these thresholds intraoperatively and thus in realtime during surgery. This research has computational as well as experimental aspects to it. There will be a close collaboration with cardiac surgeons, biotechnologists and the engineers of the division of production, machine design and automation.

Scholarship Application Deadline:2011-08-01

Further Scholarship Information and Application