Dr. Sunita Chauhan

UG Program Chair, Robotics & Cyber-Physical Systems



Professor, Plaksha University



Area of Expertise

Medical and Surgical Robotics, Robotics and Automated Systems, Cyber Physical Systems

 

Research Interests

  • Medical/Surgical Robotics, Biomechatronics
  • Robotics, Mechatronics and AI - in Structural Healthcare, Agriculture, Smart Buildings, Sports Engineering etc.
  • Ultrasound - Imaging & Diagnostics (Medical/Industrial), Therapeutics and Surgical Ultrasound
  • Flexible and Soft Robotics - configuration system development for applications in Industrial and Healthcare systems
  • Intelligent/Smart Systems - Sensing, Monitoring, Manufacturing

Education

  • Ph.D. and DIC (Medical Robotics) from Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, United Kingdom

Past Associations

  • Director, Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering, Monash University, Australia
  • Professor, Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Monash University, Australia
  • Assoc. professor (Mechatronics & Design); Asst. prof. (Systems & Eng. Management), School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, NTU, Singapore
  • Academic, Visiting Fellowships/Roles, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, Klinikum Mannheim, Karl Ruprecht Uni. of Heidelberg, Germany, Kings College, London, NTU, Singapore
  • Director R&D, Robotics and High Tech Instruments (P) Ltd. Delhi.
  • SRA (CSIR), IIT Delhi, Scientist Fellow, CSIO, RA, National Physical Laboratory, Various other Research and visiting positions, India

Bio

Sunita CHAUHAN (PhD, DIC, Medical Robotics, Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine, London, UK -1999), has recently joined as Professor and Founding director - Center for Centre for Equitable & Personalized Healthcare at Plaksha University. She is Professor (adj.) at the Mechanical and Aerospace Department, Faculty of Engineering and held the positions of Professor and Director of the Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering at Monash University, Australia for almost a decade; Chief Investigator of the BmRAS (Bio- mechatronics, Robotics & Automated Systems) research group. Prior to joining Monash in 2012, she had worked at Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) 1999-2011, Newcastle University (UK) 2011-12 and several other industrial R&D and scientific positions. She had been on several academic/research visiting fellowship/roles at Klinikum Mannheim, Karl Ruprecht's University of Heidelberg, Germany; Kings College, London, UK; NTU, Singapore etc.

Her current research interests include: Medical/Surgical Robotics (comprising state of the art surgical assist technologies such as Computer Assisted and Integrated Surgery (CAS/CIS) systems including safety driven design, development (using both subtractive and additive manufacturing) and intelligent control of novel medical/surgical robotic systems for minimally invasive and non-invasive surgery, Robotic exoskeletons, Intern-replacement, system safety etc.); Surgical training and automated assessment using AI based deep-learning methodologies; Intelligent Diagnostics and Robotics in Infrastructural Healthcare for inspection and proactive maintenance (Railways, Aerospace, Defence, Agriculture, Buildings, Solar farms etc); Sports Eng.- high performance swimming, cycling, archery etc.

Professor Chauhan is a member of several prestigious professional organizations, such as senior member-IEEE and its Robotics & Automation Society, life member-IACAS, member of UIA and ISTU & SPIE (past). She had been an invited key-note speaker and panel member in various Intl’ conferences and many scientific and public events; invited to hold special conference sessions; general chair for Sports Eng. conference; invited for several expert Intl’ review panels: ASTAR (SG), NHMRC (Australia), FP7/8 and Horizon2020, ESF European grants. She serves on the boards of directors and advisory of several organizations/institutions globally. 

She has been conferred various awards and accolades internationally, notably - IEEE Asia Pacific Most Inspiring Engineer of the Year Award -by IEEE R10 (Asia and Pacific region) for contribution towards advancing technology for humanity through her work on Surgical Robotic Systems for Management of Breast Cancers; ROAR & OASIS fellowship with professional attachments in Europe; the Public-sector Innovation award (TEC -The Entrepreneur Challenge), Prime minister office, SG) along with her enterprising students, 2006; Hind Rattan Award (Jewel of India), by NRI Soc., c/o Govt. of India, nominated for Sword of Honor (Pravasi Bhartiya Divas) and Mahatama Gandhi Samman (organized at the House of Commons London), Commonwealth scholarship/fellowship award to pursue PhD in Robotics & AI by British Council.

Her work caught Intl’ media attention several times and published in leading newspapers and scientific magazines. She has supervised national and internationally-funded research projects and is a sole/principal inventor of several patents granted/pending related to her research. She delivered more than 70 invited talks and participated in various short courses/workshops conducted by local as well as overseas organizations. She is a reviewer of several international journals and conferences, and participates actively in their program and organizing committees as specialized session-chair, track-chair, publicity-chair etc.