KUKA Laboratories sponsors CURAC Best Paper Award

For KUKA Laboratories, the annual conference of the German Society for Computer- and Robot-Assisted Surgery (CURAC) was not to be missed. KUKA Laboratories develops pioneering technologies and solutions in service and medical robotics, cooperating closely with science and research. At the twelfth annual conference which took place in Innsbruck in November 2013, institutes from the German-speaking world presented their latest research results. The three-day event afforded the opportunity to discuss new fields of research, define goals and develop possibilities for practical implementation. CURAC has set itself the task of promoting scientific work in the field of computer- and robot-assisted surgery and advancing its integration into medical practice.

As part of the annual conference, the Best Paper Award was presented to particularly innovative papers. Due to its close collaboration with the realm of research, it was natural for KUKA Laboratories to support the Best Paper Award. For the third year in a row, representatives from KUKA Laboratories contributed their expertise as members of the jury, and the company donated the 1,000-euro prize. First prize was awarded at a festive ceremony to T. Bergen for the contribution “Image stitching of sphenoid sinuses from monocular endoscopic views”, presented by the Vice President of CURAC, Prof. Arya Nabavi, together with Dr. Cyrill von Tiesenhausen, Business Development Manager at KUKA Laboratories GmbH. The second place award went to C.Vogelbacher for the contribution “Computer-assisted trajectory planning for deep brain stimulation and stereo-electroencephalography”. Owing to the many excellent contributions, the jury awarded third place to a total of three papers: to Dr. M. Gessat (“Biomechanical simulation of transcatheter aortic valve implantation”), Dr. R. Westphal (“Robot-assisted corrective osteotomy using water abrasive jet technology“) and G. Toporek (“A navigated 4-DOF mechanical aiming device for percutaneous ablation of liver tumours”).

The employees at KUKA Laboratories have already saved the date of 11-13 September 2014 for next year’s CURAC conference, which is to be held in Munich. The company will be sponsoring the Best Paper Award once again next year.

SOURCE: KUKA