Research Associate in Surgical Vision and Artificial Intelligence

Applicants are invited to apply for a new vacancy at Research Associate level in Surgical Vision and Artificial Intelligence for intraoperative surgical guidance during cancer resection. The post is based within the Hamlyn Centre at Imperial College London and the appointed applicant will carry out research at the South Kensington laboratories. The Hamlyn Centre is dedicated to developing safe, effective and accessible imaging, sensing and robotics technologies that can reshape the future of healthcare for both developing and developed countries. The Hamlyn Centre is part of the Institute of Global Health Innovation and is supported by two stake-holding departments, Mechanical Engineering, and Surgery & Cancer.

The post is funded by the EPSRC grant ‘Self-propelled soft robotic endoscopes for next-generation gastrointestinal surgery and beyond’ – Robogast (PI Professor Ferdinando Rodriguez y Baena). This 5-year programme will build self-propelled soft robotic endoscopes for use in the diagnosis and minimally invasive treatment of conditions of the lower gastrointestinal (GI) tract.

You will play a pivotal role in developing a cognitive platform for surgical navigation during colonoscopy. This platform will enable accurate and highly personalised tissue characterisation with the aim of improving both the efficacy and safety of tumour resections. To this effect, the project focuses on computer vision and artificial intelligence (AI) for intraoperative surgical navigation and visualisation during robotic-assisted cancer resection. You will be a key member of a large team of engineers, scientists and clinicians, from multiple departments of Imperial College and the NHS. Key responsibilities include the development of a platform that integrates endoscopic vision data with other sensing modalities such as optical spectroscopy, providing better visualisation and navigation for the robot. This will involve the use of advanced machine learning methodologies for the analysis of the multimodal and optical spectroscopy data.

You will hold a PhD in Visual Computing, Machine Learning, AI, Image Guided Interventions or a closely related discipline, or equivalent research, industrial or commercial experience, and have programming experience in C++/Python, ML and computer vision. Experience of working with clinical partners is important, and you should also have a creative approach to research projects and exceptional problem-solving skills. Communication and scientific writing skills are also required to ensure the widest impact of the work. You will also be committed to championing the ‘Imperial Expectations’.

*Candidates who have not yet been officially awarded their PhD will be appointed as Research Assistant.

This is a Full Time and fixed term role for 3 years based at the South Kensington Campus

Hybrid working may be considered for this role. Staff working in roles that are suitable for hybrid working will normally be expected to work 60% of their time onsite. The opportunity for hybrid working will be discussed at interview.

More information is available on the following web page:

The College believes that the use of animals in research is vital to improve human and animal health and welfare. Animals may only be used in research programmes where their use is shown to be necessary for developing new treatments and making medical advances. Imperial is committed to ensuring that, in cases where this research is deemed essential, all animals in the College’s care are treated with full respect, and that all staff involved with this work show due consideration at every level.

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