Congratulations to Mr. Chen Jibiao and Mr. Yan Junyan, Ph.D. students of Professor Cheng Shing-shin, on receiving the Gold Prize in the “science and technology innovation and future industry” category at the 13th Challenge Cup China College Students’ Entrepreneurship Competition (第十三屆「挑戰杯」中國大學生創業計劃競賽).

The gold prize project: A Robotic Cannula for Minimally Invasive Intracerebral Hemorrhage Evacuation

Neurosurgery involves high-risk, highly complex operations that require great precision. Mr. Chen Jibiao and Mr. Yan Junyan, under the guidance of Professor Cheng Shing-shin, invented a new type of continuum robotic cannula for neurosurgery with a motion planning and navigation system. It consists of a straight or precurved rigid body and a flexible tip. The navigation system can reconstruct the brain map of the patient before operations, carry out preoperative and intraoperative motion planning and control, and customise the optimal cannula design based on the patient’s anatomy, enabling the cannula to be accurately positioned while minimising damage to normal brain tissue and improving the evacuation completeness of intracerebral hemorrhage. This new type of neurosurgical robotic cannula can be used not only for intracerebral hemorrhage evacuation but also for other neurosurgical and interventional procedures that require nonlinear trajectories.

a) Illustration of the proposed robotic cannula used for intracerebral hemorrhage evacuation.

b) Side view of the brain: When accessing a hematoma, a curved insertion trajectory allows avoidance of critical functional brain areas while keeping the cannula along the long axis of the hematoma.

c) The flexible tip provides dexterous local manipulation inside the hematoma.

Mr. Yan Junyan (left) and Mr. Chen Jibiao, Ph.D. students of Professor Cheng Shing-shin

The competition, organised by the HKNGCA, is the largest entrepreneurship platform for Chinese youth; the scale, number of entries and influence are second to none in the country. It aims to encourage students to explore technology, nurture complex, innovative talents, and promote the integration of enterprises, universities and scientific research institutes.

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