News Story

UM Recognizes Robotic Surgery, Virus Filter

Two of this year's UM Office of Technology Commercialization Invention of the Year awards went to Clark School faculty and students.

The Physical Science Invention of the Year went to mechanical engineering professors Jaydev Desai and S. K. Gupta along with University of Maryland School of Medicine professors Marc Simard and Rao Gullapalli. Clark School graduate students Nicholas Pappafotis and Wojciech Bejgerowski were also recognized. The group's invention is a robot that can assist surgeons operating on brain tumors.

The Invention of the Year in the Life Sciences category went to Prof. Peter Kofinas and graduate student Daniel Janiak in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering. Their invention is a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) capable of filtering viruses from the blood. A press release about this project is available online

Clark School alumnus Sameer Hemmady (Ph.D. '06, electrical engineering) secured the runner-up position in the Physical Sciences category along with Prof. Steven Anlage (CMPS) for their "wave fingerprinting" invention (see related story).

April 21, 2008