{"id":3520,"date":"2026-05-06T13:50:40","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T13:50:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.labren.org\/mm\/?p=3520"},"modified":"2026-05-18T13:21:51","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T13:21:51","slug":"prof-pierre-dupont-delivers-faculty-of-engineering-distinguished-lecture-on-continuum-robotics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.labren.org\/mm\/news\/prof-pierre-dupont-delivers-faculty-of-engineering-distinguished-lecture-on-continuum-robotics\/","title":{"rendered":"Prof. Pierre Dupont Delivers Faculty of Engineering Distinguished Lecture on Continuum Robotics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>May 6, 2026<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The research group of Prof. Hongliang Ren was pleased to host Prof. Pierre Dupont as part of the Faculty of Engineering Distinguished Lecture series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prof. Dupont is a Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, Chief of Pediatric Cardiac Bioengineering at Boston Children\u2019s Hospital, and an IEEE Fellow. In his talk titled&nbsp;<strong>\u201cContinuum Robotics for Minimally Invasive Interventions: Design Tradeoffs for Clinical Applications,\u201d<\/strong>&nbsp;he presented an engineering perspective grounded in real\u2011world clinical challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.postimg.cc\/sXHhGS9k\/lecture2.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Prof. Dupont discussed three complementary continuum robot architectures \u2013 concentric tube robots, magnetic ball chains, and tendon\u2011actuated systems \u2013 each involving distinct tradeoffs in stiffness, steerability, force capability, and hysteresis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key highlights from the lecture:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Concentric tube robots<\/strong>&nbsp;enable precise intracardiac catheterization and bimanual neuroendoscopy.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Magnetic ball chains<\/strong>&nbsp;offer outstanding steerability for cardiac ablation procedures.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Tendon\u2011actuated systems<\/strong>&nbsp;provide a balanced tradeoff between stiffness and dexterity for transcatheter heart valve repair.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The lecture illustrated how tailoring robotic designs to specific clinical constraints can meaningfully expand the capabilities of minimally invasive interventions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Short bio of Prof. Pierre Dupont<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prof. Dupont received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University, later a Professor of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering at Boston University, and is now Chief of Pediatric Cardiac Bioengineering at Boston Children\u2019s Hospital and Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. He is an IEEE Fellow, a former Senior Editor for&nbsp;<em>IEEE Transactions on Robotics<\/em>, and a member of the Advisory Board for&nbsp;<em>Science Robotics<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Audience engagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The lecture attracted faculty members and students from engineering and medical backgrounds, followed by a lively Q&amp;A session. Attendees appreciated Prof. Dupont\u2019s clinically driven approach to robotic design, and the discussion continued informally after the talk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.postimg.cc\/wv4mRJQd\/lecture.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.postimg.cc\/B67KPDB3\/lecture3.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>May 6, 2026\u00a0\u2013 The research group of Prof. Hongliang Ren was pleased to host Prof. Pierre Dupont as part of the Faculty of Engineering Distinguished Lecture series. Prof. Dupont is a Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, Chief of Pediatric Cardiac Bioengineering at Boston Children\u2019s Hospital, and an IEEE\u2026 <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.labren.org\/mm\/news\/prof-pierre-dupont-delivers-faculty-of-engineering-distinguished-lecture-on-continuum-robotics\/\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.labren.org\/mm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.labren.org\/mm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.labren.org\/mm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.labren.org\/mm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.labren.org\/mm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3520"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.labren.org\/mm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3560,"href":"http:\/\/www.labren.org\/mm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3520\/revisions\/3560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.labren.org\/mm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.labren.org\/mm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.labren.org\/mm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}