PROJECT
New tools to improve surgery
Discovering better biomedical engineering solutions
Surgeons need new tools to enable them to perform better surgery. In many instances, the groundbreaking technological advances of recent years have not been translated to operating theatres, and surgeons rely on primitive assessment tools.
For example, when removing breast tumours, surgeons often rely on the sense of touch and eyesight to determine if they have removed the entire tumour. This project aims to address this issue by developing new surgical devices.
The project will focus on three main areas, spread across the disciplines of surgery, engineering and psychology, and will answer the following questions:
- What are the biggest challenges facing surgeons?
- What technologies can be developed to address this?
- How will the surgeon interact with these technologies?
Research team leader: Dr Brendan Kennedy
I am a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering at UWA and Head of BRITElab at the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research. My primary research interest is the development of novel optical imaging techniques. I graduated with a PhD from Dublin City University, Ireland, in 2006. Before joining UWA, I was employed as a teaching and research academic at the University of Santiago, Chile (2006-2007).
This project will be co-supervised by Professor Christobel Saunders (Medical School, UWA) and the School of Psychological Sciences.
How to apply
Interested in becoming part of this project? Complete the following steps to submit your expression of interest:
Step 1 - Check criteria
General UWA PhD entrance requirements can be found on the Future Students website.
Step 2 - Submit enquiry to research team leader
Step 3 - Lodge application
After you have discussed your project with the research team leader, you should be in a position to proceed to the next step of the UWA application process: Lodge an application. Different application procedures apply to domestic and international students.
Scholarships
- Scholarships specific to this project
-
Details of scholarships provided specifically for BioZone PhD projects are available on the UWA Scholarships website.
- Domestic students
-
All domestic students may apply for Research Training Program and University Postgraduate Awards (UPA) scholarships
- International students
-
A range of scholarships are available from international organisations and governments. The full list, organised by country, is available on the Future Students website.
In addition, all international students may apply for International Research Training Program scholarships.
- Indigenous students
- Indigenous students are encouraged to apply for Indigenous Postgraduate Research Supplementary Scholarships.
- Prestigious postgraduate research scholarships
-
Prestigious postgraduate research scholarships support graduate research training by enabling students of exceptional research promise to undertake higher degrees by research at the University.
