Team

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Andrea MENDIZABAL

Andrea MENDIZABAL

PhD Student

Bio

My research focuses on augmented surgery where it is essential to perform an elastic registration between the preoperative models and the intraoperative images. To this end, a patient-specific biomechanical model must be built to produce real-time finite-element simulations of the deformed organ. This is in practice very difficult to achieve as the problems to be solved are highly complex, in particular when non-linear deformations are considered.

During my PhD, I proposed a method combining finite-element simulations and deep neural networks in order to satisfy the rapidity and accuracy requirements of medical applications. In particular, I built the U-Mesh framework, capable of predicting in real-time the shape of a highly deformable organ like the liver in order to guide surgeons during interventions where following the organ’s deformation is crucial for the surgery to be successful.

I defended my PhD on December 2020 and I am currently working as a post-doctorate researcher at the Centre Hépato-Biliaire of the Paul Brousse hospital in Paris. My goal is to integrate the U-Mesh framework in the operating room during laparotomy.

Interests

  • Finite Element Method
  • Deep Learning
  • Data Driven Simulations
  • Augmented Surgery

Publications