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Staff

Francesca Paola Maenza

Ph.D. candidate in Bioingegneria E Scienze Medico-chirurgiche , 41st cycle (2025-2028)
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (DIMEAS)

Profile

PhD

Research topic

The PhD project focuses on the development, control and validation of robots and sensorised platforms for endolumial surgery, targeting on polyps removal.

Tutors

Keywords

Endoluminal surgery and Interventional endoscopy
Robotic surgery
Biomedical signal and image processing

Biography

I studied for five years biomedical Engineering at Politecnico of Torino (Turin, Italy) in which I obtain my Bachelor degree in July 2021 and my master degree in December 2023. I did my master thesis at TNE laboratory of Campus Biotech in Geneva (EPFL) in which I developed the control of an Extra Robotic Arm (XRA) using eye tracking and a gradual control of respiration pattern. I had one year and half experience in WRL Laboratory at BioRobotic institute in Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna (Pisa, Italy), in which I was able to control, characterize and develop an hand exoskeleton and I was able to functional study hand movements. I'm currently doing my phD at MITIC lab (Molinette Hospital, Turin, Italy), in which I'm able to control, develop, characterize and validate surgical robots and sensorised platforms for endolumial surgery, targeting on polyps removal, through force feedback, sensorisation of surgical instruments and trajectory planning.
I developed skills ranging from the design of electronic components and sensor for programmable medical device to biosignal and medical image processing to the control of robotic device.
I have strong interest in characterization and development of robotic devices, control and feedback of robots.