New course in Medical Robotics launched by the Hamlyn Centre

Graduates can choose to study for a MRes in Medical Robotics and Image Guided Intervention at Imperial College for the first time.

Graduates can choose to study for a MRes in Medical Robotics and Image Guided Intervention at Imperial College for the first time. The new course, run by the Hamlyn Centre, has accepted students from a wide range of scientific and engineering backgrounds, and suitably qualified medical applicants were also considered for entry.

Medical robotics and image guided intervention are two technology driven areas of medicine that have experienced tremendous growth and improvement over the last twenty years. This has been driven partly by the progress in improving less invasive and harmful treatments surgical treatments, and the course will provide the research experience required to work within the highly innovative field. 

The first three months of the course will focus on research skills training and structured lectures, including modules in minimally invasive surgery, medical mechatronics, image guided intervention, medical imaging, ergonomics and neurogenomics and perception. The majority of the year is then spent studying an individual research project to solve a current problem in depth.

The course lectures and projects will be led by academics from the Hamlyn Centre, the Division of Surgery, the Department of Computing and other engineering departments.  All teaching and research will take place in the brand new facilities of the Hamlyn Centre, which was founded by Professor Guang-Zhong Yang and Lord Ara Darzi, supported by a major endowment from Lady Hamlyn and the Helen Hamlyn Trust, as well as a major medical robotics infra-structure grant from the Wolfson Foundation and the NIHR. 

Dr Daniel Elson, Senior Lecturer at the Hamlyn Centre and the MRes course director said:

“We hope that the students are able to expand on their previous degrees by studying the highly interdisciplinary taught modules and then develop these areas of interest in the eight month individual research project”

Professor Guang-Zhong Yang, director of the Hamlyn Centre said:

“I am pleased that the Hamlyn Centre is expanding the range of courses on offer to future students. The new course in Medical Robotics and Image Guided Intervention makes the most of the Centre’s unique research facilities and multidisciplinary environment. It will give students the opportunity to develop careers a range of fields from academia to commercial research and development in medical robotics, which is the fastest growing sector in the robotics industry, among many others.”

Graduate student, Alexandra Magill with a first class degree in Chemistry and Biology from Durham University said:

"I chose to study on the MRes because an undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences was simply not enough for me. The Hamlyn centre seemed like to perfect place to learn huge amounts about the most recent cutting edge technology and how it can be applied to a real life clinical setting."

And fellow student Menglong Ye from China said:

“Medical robotics and image guided intervention is an interdisciplinary programme which will apply computer science knowledge of my previous study into medical field. It is quite exciting to know I am able to use computer science to help medical issues such as diagnosis and surgery. And more importantly, through the course, I will know how to use my background knowledge in medical field and conduct projects in certain aspects. In addition to this, I can meet classmates from different subjects such as medicine, mechanical engineering or chemistry. It is beneficial and important to share our ideas from different perspectives in meetings.”

Find out more about the course