Niveditha Kalavakonda

Research Abstract:

Computer-Assisted Surgery (CAS) has myriad applications such as pre-operative planning, surgical navigation, and assistance during surgical procedures. Recently, robotic techniques have been used to overcome the limitations of Minimally Invasive Surgical tools, and provide the control and maneuverability required for precise microsurgical tasks. Patient outcomes rely on successful surgeon-robot collaboration and could benefit from increased utility and usability for surgeons. My thesis explores how we can provide safe, dynamic collaborative robotic assistance to surgeons using improved surgical scene understanding. In particular, my research harnesses knowledge from computer vision, human-robot interaction and human-computer interaction to a) design robust computer vision models for surgical scene understanding b) evaluate data efficient learning techniques to improve generalization of models, and c) study the use of surgical robots as collaborative agents and its impact on the operating room team.

Bio:

Niveditha Kalavakonda is a Ph.D. student at the University of Washington in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department advised by Prof. Blake Hannaford. Her research focuses on using robot vision and surgical data science to inform safe surgeon-robot interactions in a collaborative setting. She is also a part of the Science, Technology, and Society Studies Department, working on Tech Policy research for robotics, advised by Law Professor Ryan Calo. She is a recipient of the Amazon Catalyst fellowship, the first Student Impact Award recipient and finalist for the Yang Award for Outstanding Doctoral Student at UW-ECE, a founding board member of Women in Computer Vision (WiCV), and an R:SS Pioneer. Niveditha earned her M.S in Electrical Engineering at the University of Washington and B.Tech in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Amrita School of Engineering (India).