(7 Feb) – Valentina Vitiello is thirty years old, she is from Campania and she’s been working in London since 2008. Blacks eyes and a reassuring smile, she has a great passion, medicine robotics, and a huge desire to learn and study. She dreams to come back to Italy soon but for now her place is there, at Imperial College London, where she works at the Robotic Surgery Center. Valentina, who defines herself a ‘swot’, is a researcher. She works on a multidisciplinary project funded by the Wellcome Trust: “Among my colleagues there are engineers, physicists, medical doctors and computer scientists. We are developing – explains the young researcher – a robot in order to improve the quality of the so-called ‘minimally invasive surgery’, both for the patient and the surgeon. Our robot – adds Valentina – is flexible and articulated as a snake, so the name i-Snake ® (Imaging-Sensing Navigated and Kinematically Enhanced) robot. I primarily work to the modeling and controlling of the robot, to make its use more ergonomic for the surgeon”. Valentina tells how she started: “Before Ph.D. at Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery at the Imperial College London, I have studied Medical Engineering at the University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’. I’ve always loved math, and at the same time I was fascinated by my father’s stories. He is a surgeon and he told me about his work with joy and an incredible passion. That’s why, after high school, I came across a course in Medical Engineering. During the last year I found the course of robotics very interesting so I decided to propose a thesis project to Professor Antonio Tornambé: so it started my passion for medical robotics. My inclination to research led me to continue with my studies with a Ph.D. In Italy there were very few advanced laboratories in this field so I applied for a scholarships abroad. I was lucky to be selected by Professor Guang-Zhong Yang, Director of the Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery at the Imperial College London, and I loved the experience so much that, after I finished the Ph.D., I continued to work as a researcher in his group”. Valentina achieved many successes over the years collected: “I have published several articles and presented my work at several international conferences. I’m also co-inventor of a patent, and one of the articles on the robot that we are designing has won the award for best article in the category ‘Robotic Surgery’ at Icra IEEE Conference (International Conference on Robotics and Automation) in 2011”. Her path will continue abroad, Valentina is sure of it: “I love what I do and I will definitely continue work in this field. I plan to stay at the Hamlyn Centre for at least another couple of years, the group is fantastic and London is beautiful. I will do my best to enhance my résumé, always hoping to return home one day”. At last, a thought for the young talents on the run: “I understand why many of our brightest young compatriots decide to work abroad. At the Imperial College, I realized how much our laboratories and our universities are very backward. The same Italian professors to whom I asked if there was opportunity for me to return to Italy and work with them – she concludes -, they have recommended not to do so”. (Gil)
WHO IS VALENTINA VITIELLO?
Valentina Vitiello has studied Medical Engineering at the University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’. He is working as a researcher at the Robotic Surgery Center at Imperial College of London. Her research focuses on the kinematic modeling and control of articulated robotic instruments for minimally invasive surgery. Vitiello personal website can be browsed at http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/people/v.vitiello07 , and some of her projects at Hamlyn Centre website , http://www3. imperial.ac.uk / roboticsurgery and at Wellcome Trust page at http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/News/2011/Features/WTVM052056.htm.
