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Meet the People of CSTAR
The day-to-day activities of CSTAR (Canadian Surgical Technologies & Advanced Robotics) involve many people from clinical, research, education and private sector settings. Together, these talented individuals develop, deliver and evaluate CSTAR's ongoing programs and services.
For additional information about CSTAR Engineering, please visit the Lawson website.
Please take a few minutes to become acquainted with CSTAR's Teams.
| March 7, 2011
We are currently seeking individuals wishing to complete a masters or doctoral degree in Mechanical, Electrical or Biomedical Engineering. The interested candidate must have a GPA of 80% or greater and an undergraduate degree in Electrical, Mechanical, Software or Biomedical Engineering or Computer Science. Preference will be given to Canadian Citizens or Permanent Residents. If interested, please contact Dr. Rajni Patel (rvpatel@uwo.ca) or Dr. Michael Naish (mnaish@uwo.ca). |
Engineering
Assistants |
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Ali Asadian |
| Research Assistant | |
| Ali obtained his B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering/Control Systems from SharifUniversity of Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 2002 and his M.Sc. in the same field from University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran, in 2005. From 2005 to 2007, he was a Teaching Assistant and Lab Assistant in School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Tehran as well as a design engineer involved in some industrial projects. Ali joined Western in 2008 to pursue his Ph.D. studies, and at the moment he is working at CSTAR as a Research Assistant. His main research interests comprise needle insertion/steering, medical robotics, control theory and neural networks with application to minimally invasive surgery. | |
| Telephone: 519.685.8500 ext 35172 | |
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Hamid Azimian |
| Research Assistant | |
| Hamid obtained his B.Sc. in Electronics Engineering from Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran in 2004, and his M.Sc. with distinction in Electrical Engineering (control systems) from K. N. Toosi University of Technology, Tehran, Iran in 2006. He is currently a PhD candidate at Western and a research assistant at CSTAR. Hamid's research focus is on planning of robotics-assisted minimally invasive cardiac surgery. His research experience includes topics in optimization, robotics, motion planning, and identification and control of mechanical systems. | |
| Telephone: 519.685.8500 ext 36556 | |
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Srikanth Bhattad |
| Research Assistant | |
| Srikanth received his Bachelors of Engineering degree from Pune University, India in 2009. He worked as a Research Engineer in Fennecfox Technologies, India. Currently he is pursuing MESc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Western and working as a Research Assistant in CSTAR. His research interest lies in Robotics, Automation, Computer Vision and Medical Imaging. | |
| Telephone: 519.663.3111 | |
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Jeremy Breetzke |
| Research Assistant | |
| Jeremy received his B.Eng in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pretoria in South Africa. Jeremy is currently pursuing a M.E.Sc. degree in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Western, and working as a Research Assistant at CSTAR. His research interests lie in robotic systems and automation. | |
| Telephone: 519.685.8500 ext 36572 | |
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Abelardo Escoto |
| Research Assistant | |
| Abelardo obtained his B.Sc. in Industrial Production Engineering from the Institute of Technology of Costa Rica, Cartago, Costa Rica in 2006 and his M.Sc. in Planning Inspection from Western in 2008. At present, he is working as a Research Assistant at CSTAR. His research focuses on the development of mechanical devices and software for Minimally Invasive Lung Brachytherapy and Arthroscopic Surgery Training. | |
| Telephone: 519.685.8500 ext 36442 | |
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Natalie Galbraith |
| Research Assistant | |
| Natalie received her B.E.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from Western in 2007. In 2004, Natalie worked on the Telesurgery project at CSTAR. The research team produced three publications on the effects of latency on telesurgery and conducted a feasibility study for care in remote environments. Natalie has also worked professionally in the areas of protocol testing in the communications industry and electrical design in the building industry. Currently, Natalie is completing her M.E.Sc. degree in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Western while working at CSTAR as a Research Assistant. Her research interests include haptics, robotic surgery, system modeling and control. | |
| Telephone: 519.663.3111 | |
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Iman Khalaji |
| Research Assistant | |
Iman joined CSTAR in January 2010 as a Research Assistant and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. degree in Mechanical and Material Engineering at Western. He received a B.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran in 2003 and an M.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran in 2006. Prior to joining CSTAR, he was a Research Assistant in Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Western where he was developing a real-time tissue deformation simulation model for prostate needle biopsy. His research interests include biomechanical behaviour of soft tissue, biomedical image processing and analysis, elastography (tissue elasticity imaging) and minimally invasive surgery. |
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| Telephone: 519.685.8500 ext 36551 | |
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Hao Li |
| Research Assistant | |
| Hao received his B.E.Sc. degree in Electronics Engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China in 2008. He joined CSTAR as a research assistant in January 2011 and is currently pursuing his M.E.Sc degree in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Western. Hao's research interests include robotics-assisted minimally invasive surgery, the haptic control of a minimally invasive surgical tools and the development of tumour localization devices. | |
| Telephone: 519.661.2111 ext 80160 | |
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Nima Najmaei |
| Research Assistant | |
Nima received his B.A.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering (Control Systems) from the Shiraz University (Shiraz, Iran) in December 2006 and his M.A.Sc. degree in Electrical an Computer Engineering (Robotics) from the University of Western Ontario, London, Canada in August 2009. Since then, Nima has joined CSTAR as a research assistant and a NSERC CAMI program scholar. Meanwhile, he is also pursuing a Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering at this Department, under support of NSERC Canada Alexander Graham Bell PGS-D scholarship. Nima is involved in engineering research for minimally invasive surgery. His research interests include the design of surgical robots, Haptics systems, and human-robot interaction in medical setups. |
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| Telephone: 519.685.8500 ext 36554 | |
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Abhijit Saxena |
| Research Assistant | |
| Currently, Abhijit is working as a Research Assistant at CSTAR while pursuing M.E.Sc degree in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Western Ontario. Prior to joining CSTAR, Abhijit received his Bachelor of Engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Pune, Pune, India in 2009. His research focuses on catheter insertion and Minimally Invasive Therapy. | |
| Telephone: 519.685.8500 ext 36555 | |
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Karen Siroen |
| Research Assistant | |
| Karen joined the CSTAR team in 2004 as a research assistant. More recently, she worked as a Surgical Suite Associate at CSTAR helping researchers, educators and students with various projects, and industry courses. Karen graduated from University of Guelph, Ridgetown College Campus with honours in 2002. She obtained her medical laboratory technician through the Ontario Society of Laboratory Technologists in 1997. Karen is currently working on Hands Free Pointer project. Karen enjoys learning each and every day. | |
| Telephone: 519.685.8500 ext 36563 | |
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Amir Takhmar |
Research Assistant |
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| Amir received his B.A.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (Mashhad, Iran) in September 2004 and his M.A.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the K. N. Toosi University of Technology (Tehran, Iran) in September 2007. He is currently a research assistant at CSTAR and a NSERC CAMI program scholar, and pursuing his Ph.D. degree in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Western Ontario. Amir is involved in engineering research for cooperative haptic-enabled teleoperation for minimally invasive surgery. |
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| Telephone: 519.661.2111 ext 88170 | |
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Ali Talasaz |
Research Assistant |
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| Ali received his B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Chamran University, Iran, in 2001 and his M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Iran, in 2003. He is currently a research assistant at CSTAR and a doctoral candidate in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Western Ontario. His research interests include teleoperating systems for minimally invasive surgery, haptic enabled dual arm, intelligent control and robust control techniques. | |
| Telephone: 519.685.8500 ext 36553 | |
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Christopher Ward |
| Research Assistant | |
| Chris received his B.E.Sc and M.E.Sc degrees in Mechanical and Materials Engineering from The University of Western Ontario, London, Canada in 2006 and 2008 respectively. Christopher has since been working at CSTAR as a Research Assistant. He is currently involved in the development of a minimally invasive surgical training tool. | |
| Telephone: 519.685.8500 ext 36441 | |
| Associates | |
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Mahta Khoshnam |
| Research Associate | |
| Mahta received her B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Tehran, Iran in 2005 and her M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran in 2008. From 2005 to 2009, she lectured some courses in Amirkabir University of Technology. She was also involved in several projects dealing with analysis and design of nonlinear control systems, optimization through intelligence based algorithms and speech processing. Currently, she is pursuing her Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Western Ontario and she is also a Research Associate at CSTAR. Her research project deals with the modeling and robot-assisted control of a catheter for cardiac ablation. | |
| Telephone: 519.685.8500 ext 36585 | |
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Ana Luisa Trejos |
| Research Associate | |
| Ana Luisa received her B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica in 1997 and her M.A.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, in 2000. From 2000 to 2003 she worked as an applications engineer for Progressive Moulded Products in Concord, Ontario. Since 2004, Ana Luisa has worked at CSTAR and in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Western as a research associate. Currently, she is also pursuing a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering. Ana Luisa is involved in several projects dealing with engineering research for minimally invasive surgery. Her research interests include the optimization of robot performance and the design, integration and testing of mechatronic devices and systems. | |
| Telephone: 519.685.8500 ext 32529 | |
| Director | |
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Rajni Patel, Ph.D. |
| Director of Engineering | |
| Dr. Patel holds a Tier-1 Canada Research Chair in Advanced Robotics and Control and is a Distinguished University Professor at Western. He is the Director of Engineering at CSTAR and a Scientist at the Lawson Health Research Institute. He is a leading scientist with expertise in the area of robotics and other mechatronic systems and haptics. He is an internationally renowned researcher with over 25 years of experience in the design and control of advanced robotic systems with the focus in the last eight years on applications in minimally invasive surgery and therapy. He has published over 300 refereed journal and conference papers and 9 books and monographs in these areas. | |
| Telephone: 519.685.8500 ext 36618 | |
| Professors | |
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Michael D. Naish, Ph.D. |
| Assistant Professor | |
| Michael is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Western with a cross-appointment in Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is also an Associate Scientist with the Lawson Health Research Institute. He received a B.Sc. degree in Computer Science and a B.E.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Western in 1996, a M.A.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of British Columbia in 1999, and a Ph.D. degree in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering from the University of Toronto in 2004. Dr. Naish's research interests are in the areas of mechatronics, robotics, intelligent control, minimally-invasive surgery (MIS), vision and sensing systems. He is involved in the development of tools for MIS tumour localization, a mechatronic device for natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES), sensorized laparoscopic tools for surgical skills assessment and the haptic control of surgical robotic manipulators. | |
| Telephone: 519.685.8500 ext 36557 | |
| Students | |
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Paul Christiaans |
| Masters Student | |
| Paul received his B.A.Sc in Mechatronics Engineering from the University of Waterloo in 2009. He is currently working in association with CSTAR towards a M.E.Sc in Electrical Engineering with a Biomedical focus. Paul’s research interests include mechatronic systems and minimally invasive surgery. | |
| Telephone: 519.663.3111 | |
