Ph.D. summer school

COSUR: SUMMER SCHOOL ON CONTROL OF SURGICAL ROBOTS
dVRK from zero to HERO

15-18 July 2024 – Verona, Strada Le Grazie 15, ITALY

Presentation

The COSUR summer school targets PhD students interested to the multidisciplinary field of research in robotic surgery. Following the success of previous editions (2016-2018-2022, held in Verona), the 2024 edition aims to bridge the gap between robotic surgery and Artificial Intelligence (AI), providing a roadmap to the next generation of autonomous surgical robotic systems. The school will focus on four main topics:

  • CONTROL teleoperation and control algorithms for surgical robots
  • SIMULATION surgical simulation and advanced control with reinforcement learning
  • SENSORS surgical sensors for advanced perception
  • AUTONOMY cognitive architectures for high-level autonomy in robotic surgery

We will delve into these topics with the aid of invited national and international experts from multidisciplinary areas, including surgeons, industrial partners involved in the development of surgical robots, AI and robotic researchers and professors. Moreover, theoretical lectures will be interleaved with hands-on laboratory sessions for a deeper understanding of the main tools and algorithms for the control of surgical robots. The school will then offer a unique opportunity to attendees to increase their knowledge about robotic surgery and establish fruitful research cooperation with leading experts.

We will use the da Vinci Reseach Kit (dVRK) platform as a reference setup since it has become a solid support for surgical robotics research.

 

Unique topic

In this fourth edition we will offer a deep dive across the most recent advancements in Surgical robotics. We open also the opportunity to present and discuss your late breaking result!

Open to

PhD students and Researchers in relevant fields as robotics, AI, medicine, ethics, laws and natural language processing.

See you there

Theoretical and laboratory sessions will both take place at Verona University. Physical presence is mandatory.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Costs and fees

Masters and Ph.D. students 400 €
Post-doctoral researcher 500 €
Professionals and others 700 €

The fee includes:

  • Access to all sessions
  • Conference materials
  • Coffee breaks and lunches
  • Social dinner (on Wednesday 17)

Payment instructions will be sent via email to the selected candidates. To ensure the best possible experience for participants, particularly during the practical sessions, the number of participants admitted will be limited to 40 people.

Late Breaking Results

You will be given an opportunity to present the key highlights of your research, new findings, novel methodologies and innovative solutions in a 3-5 mins teaser pitch presentation. Following the session, there will be an interactive discussion with the speakers focusing on future research directions.

Certification of attendance

At the end of the school it will be possible to get a certification of attendance. The certification can be used by students to obtain the corresponding ECTS from their PhD courses, or to comply to any other requests by their home university.

Accomodation

We offer accomodation at a special fare at the Hotel Indigo in Verona: https://www.indigoverona.com/it/. The hotel offers both single and double rooms and you can proceed with the reservation on the hotel website soon!

Transportation

Update soon!

programme and speakers

Last editing: 16 Mar 2024

15-18 July 2024 at Room Green
Department of Computer Science 
Department of Engineering for Innovation Medicine

University of Verona – ITALY

Monday, July 15th
CONTROL
Tuesday, July 16th
SIMULATION
Wednesday, July 17th
SENSORS
Thursday, July 18th
AUTONOMY
9.00 - 9:45Robotic surgery introduction (Fiorini)Multi sensory guidance (Mariani)TBD (Ficuciello)-
9.45 - 10.30TBD (MD perspective)Multi sensory guidance (Mariani)Occlusion robust manipulation (Jones)TBD (De Momi)
10.30 - 11.00Coffee breakCoffee breakCoffee breakCoffee break
11.00 - 12.00Teleoperation (Muradore)Simulation in surgery (Tagliabue)Electric Impedance (Dall'Alba)Late breaking results
12.00 - 14.00Lunch breakLunch breakLunch breakLunch break
14.00 - 14.45Teleoperation lab (Piccinelli)RL surgery lab (Scheikl)Situation awerness lab (Roberti)Reasoning lab (Meli)
14.45 - 15.30Teleoperation lab (Piccinelli)RL surgery lab (Scheikl)Situation awerness lab (Roberti)Reasoning lab (Meli)
15.30 - 16.00Coffee breakCoffee breakCoffee breakCoffee break
16.00 - 16.45Teleoperation lab (Piccinelli)RL surgery lab (Scheikl)Situation awerness lab (Roberti)Reasoning lab (Meli)
16.45 - 17.30dVRK hardware (Kazanzides)dVRK software (Deguet)dVRK results (Gozzi)Open challenges and farewell

Confirmed speakers per area 

CONTROL

Paolo Fiorini

Altair Robotics Lab – University of Verona
Full profile

Talk title: TBD

CONTROL

MD Expert

Desert – Univeristy of Arrakis
Full profile

Talk title: TBD

CONTROL

Riccardo Muradore

Altair Robotics Lab – University of Verona
Full profile

Talk title: TBD

CONTROL

Anton Deguet

Johns Hopkins University
Full profile

Talk title: TBD

SIMULATION

Andrea Mariani

Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna Pisa – SoundSafe Care
Full profile

Talk title: TBD

SIMULATION

Eleonora Tagliablue

Zeiss
Full profile

Talk title: TBD

SIMULATION

Peter Kazanzides

Johns Hopkins University
Full profile

Talk title: TBD

SENSORS

Fanny Ficuciello

Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II
Full profile

Talk title: TBD

SENSORS

Diego Dall’Alba

Altair Robotics Lab – University of Verona
Full profile

Talk title: TBD

SENSORS

Alessandro Gozzi

Intuitive Surgical
Full profile

Talk title: TBD

AUTONOMY

AI expert

Desert – University of Arrakis
Full profile

Talk title: TBD

Registration OPEN

5

Registration

DEADLINE by May 17th fill up the registration form to express your interest to attend. Participants can join from anywhere. 

 

5

Selection

The number of participants is limited in accordance with the group activities.

5

Reservation

By May 31th accepted participants will be notified by email.

Contacts

Location

Room Verde
Department of Computer Science
Department of Engineering for Innovation Medicine

University of Verona (Italy)
Strada le Grazie 15, 37134 Verona
Get directions

 

Organization and Partners

Diego Dall’Alba – diego.dallalba@univr.it

Nicola Piccinelli – nicola.piccinelli@univr.it

Andrea Roberti – andrea.roberti@univr.it

Daniele Meli – daniele.meli@univr.it

Ameya Pore – ameyaravindra.pore@univr.it

Paul Maria Scheikl – paul.m.scheikl@fau.de

Prof. Riccardo Muradore – riccardo.muradore@univr.it