Students from the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute got the chance to interact with cutting-edge surgical robots and augmented reality applications during their visit to the Advanced Robotics and Computationally AugmenteD Environments (ARCADE) Lab last month.
Under the guidance of the lab’s graduate students, the high schoolers piloted the da Vinci surgical robot, tried out various augmented reality applications for surgical guidance and medical imaging, and explored digital twin virtual reality environments.
“It was a wonderful opportunity for some of Baltimore’s top young talent to see where their hard work in calculus, computer science, and robotics might take them in the future,” said Benjamin Howard, a calculus teacher at the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute.
Colloquially referred to as “Poly,” the local public high school emphasizes a focus on STEM education. This was Poly’s first visit to the ARCADE Lab, which is no stranger to educational outreach, having previously hosted young visitors from the Homewood Early Learning Center.
“I think it’s important to give back to the community,” says Mathias Unberath, an assistant professor of computer science and the principle investigator of the ARCADE Lab. “We need to engage diverse audiences early and get them excited about the future of technology for health care so that they have more experience and agency in choosing their career paths.”
The ARCADE Lab develops autonomous intelligent systems that support clinical workflows to increase access to—and expand the possibilities of—the highest-quality healthcare. Learn more about its research efforts here.