<p>Hey everybody Ive been doing some research on a engineering career in medical robotics, but really havent found anything as far as education. I have a chance to do a complete round of education (undergrad/grad) for free. Id like to work in the R&D field or maybe a technical specialist. Im not the MBA type person, Id rather work with my hands instead or lead a team in a project. So far I have a BS in BMET, thinking I was going to be an engineer. As everybody here knows its more of a technician/maintenence person. So I guess you can say I have a second chance for an engineer. As far as degree plan I was thinking a BS in EE or ME and a MS in BME. I also thought about Mechatronics but only thing I know about that its a combo of EE, ME, and CS. Im not sure if thats a degree or not. So does anybody have any experience or ideas? Thanks.</p>
<p>I read an IEEE article about mini robots that were designed for patients with stomach cancer. The procedure was much less invasive and required little to no setup time. The man who worked on it had a phd in MechE from some school in CA. If I can find an online version I’ll post it.</p>
<p>I have somewhat similar interests so hopefully I can help you out a little bit. </p>
<p>There are several areas related to medical robotics. There is a lot of data processing (Images, medical data, etc) which is closer related to electrical or computer engineering. Developing the robots that actually work on the human requires knowledge of articulated systems and design which is mechanical. </p>
<p>You should look into haptic devices. Haptics means the sense of touch and can be used for simulation of surgeries. For example a medical student could learn how to do a procedure using a haptics device rather than on a cadaver. Haptics device research is usually in mechanical departments. If you are interested in haptic rendering (figuring out the forces necessary to output to the device) then you get computer science departments involved. If you have more questions related to this let me know. It’s what I do my undergraduate research on.</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins has the Center for Computer-Integrated Surgical Systems and Technologies but otherwise most medical-oriented robotics labs are scattered around universities. If you are looking for mechatronics specifically there are very few schools that offer a complete degree. Names that come to mind are WPI (Mass.) and Waterloo (Canada). Robotics type classes are generally taught in graduate level programs.</p>
<p>So colincsl when you mention data processing (images/medical data) is that similar to bioinformatics? Ive also read about medical physics which combines principles of physics and engineering with those of biology. I dont know if I would be able to apply that to medical robotics. Im still doing research as far as education and what you mentioned about EE and ME makes sense. I guess I would have to decide on which one for my undergrad work. Still looking around on what my MS degree would be and what I can specialize in. I found one article that mentioned MS or Phd in computer science and thats where alot of area of focus in AI/Robotics would be in. Never really considered an MS in CS so I really dont know too much about that degree. Can anybody elaborate more about it? The school that I plan on attending for the BSEE program has a Computer Engineering option that sounds interesting.</p>
<p>DS, ME, CMU, did haptics as prof’s gofer. Did some more haptics in CS at Toronto. And still more at Microsoft Research. Now doing medical and robotics at UWash. His foundation is mechanical engineering with a smattering of CS for input/output control. </p>
<p>Cousin’s husband, also ME, Berkeley, does heart devices. </p>
<p>Both came into the field by chance. DS by knocking of professor’s door and asking for a ‘research’ assistant position. Cousin’s H by answering a classified advertisement (1970).</p>