Four WPI Faculty Tackle Groundbreaking Research With Prestigious CAREER Awards

Jeannine Coburn

Jeannine Coburn, an assistant professor in WPI’s Department of Biomedical Engineering, was awarded $606,146 to develop a transparent wound dressing that was inspired by a natural biopolymer she observed when fermenting kombucha at home. She will attach antimicrobial peptides to a cellulose produced by Komagataeibacter hansenii, a bacteria found in food, to produce a material that can cover and treat a wound while remaining transparent so that health care workers can visually inspect tissue without disturbing it. Coburn also will develop educational activities for elementary school students and WPI undergraduates, and she will provide summer lab positions to first-generation college students.

Loris Fichera

Loris Fichera was awarded $599,663 to enable surgical robots to treat disease through the focused delivery of energy, such as light, without cutting or touching human tissues. An assistant professor in the Department of Robotics Engineering, Fichera will develop a technique that will use low-intensity energy pulses to map a site in the body and determine how much focused energy a surgeon should apply. He also will build better control and automation into surgical robots, including a hand-held laser device he is developing to vaporize tumors in the vocal folds of a patient’s throat. Fichera plans to create research opportunities in his lab for up to 60 WPI undergraduates and expand a graduate-level course on surgical robots.

Tian Guo

Department of Computer Science Associate Professor Tian Guo was awarded $657,776 to develop software techniques that will improve the performance and privacy of mobile augmented reality (AR) systems, with a focus on edge computing servers that process data close to their physical source. Her project will develop ways to better capture high-quality data from smartphones and other AR devices at a scene while also ensuring the privacy of sensitive data. Guo will develop techniques to coordinate and schedule AR tasks on edge servers for speedier experiences, and she will build a testbed to evaluate AR applications. Guo will create research opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students.

Markus Nemitz

Markus Nemitz, an assistant professor in the Department of Robotics Engineering, was awarded $599,815 to develop an innovative architecture for low-cost custom robots capable of swimming, crawling, climbing, and diving through hostile and confined spaces as part of search-and-rescue operations. Nemitz will develop small and flexible 3D-printed robots with integrated fluidic circuits that can be rapidly fabricated for specific disasters, and he will test the robots in a miniaturized model that will be built at WPI to replicate parts of the Tham Luang cave in Thailand where flooding trapped 12 members of a youth soccer team and their coach in 2018. He also will develop a robotics summer camp for girls.

“Combining high quality research with excellent teaching is a quality that distinguishes WPI faculty members,” says Vernescu. “Their CAREER Awards and other accomplishments help set WPI apart as a premier technological university that prepares its graduates for success.”