WPI professor elected a senior member of the National Academy of Inventors

Akin to the Beatles’ “Penny Lane,” engineering and medical technology were in Worcester Polytechnic Institute professor Gregory Fischer’s "ears and in his eyes" all his life, fostering an innovative spirit, which led to his recent election as a senior member of the National Academy of Inventors.

Mr. Fischer, a William Smith Dean professor of mechanical engineering and robotics engineering at WPI, is part of the inaugural group of 66 senior members, who represent 37 research universities and government and nonprofit research institutes.

Senior members are active faculty members, scientists, and administrators from NAI member institutions who have demonstrated success with patents, licensing, and commercialization, producing technologies “that have brought, or aspire to bring, real impact on the welfare of society,” as well as “fostering a spirit of innovation within their communities through enhancing an inventive atmosphere at their institutions, while educating and mentoring the next generation of inventors,” according to NAI’s website.

Mr. Fischer is a second-generation inventor. “I was always exposed to engineering and medical technology. My father spent his whole career as an engineer in a medical device company with a number of significant innovations. In fact, he won an innovation award for his patents recently,” he said.

As director of WPI’s Automation and Interventional Medicine Robotics Research Laboratory, Mr. Fischer conducts pioneering research and development in areas that include medical and surgical robotics, wearable assistive and rehabilitative robotics, and socially assistive robotics. He is also director of PracticePoint, WPI’s new medical technology lab, which is under construction on the Gateway Park campus.

Over the past decade, Mr. Fischer has received more than $8 million in funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health to develop innovative image-guided surgical robotic systems designed to operate inside MRI scanners, along with shared hardware and software platforms for cooperative surgical robotics. He led a team of robotics engineers at WPI, in collaboration with colleagues at Johns Hopkins University, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Acoustic MedSystems Inc., in developing a system to assist surgeons in conducting prostate cancer biopsies by precisely aligning the biopsy needle using real-time MRI imaging.

“The most significant achievement was the validation of our hard work when we got to see our MRI-compatible robotic prostate cancer system used is clinical trials on 30 men at Brigham and Women’s Hospital,” Mr. Fischer said.

Development of another MRI-compatible robotic system, which will enable more effective treatment of metastatic brain tumors, was recently advanced through a $3.5 million award from the NIH National Cancer Institute. The award is shared by co-principal investigators Fischer and Dr. Julie G. Pilitsis, chair of the Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics and professor of neurosurgery at Albany Medical College.

How far along is this project?

“We started work in MRI-guided robot-assisted brain surgery approximately 10 years ago. We completed our first five-year NIH grant, which demonstrated the feasibility of a specialized MRI-compatible robot operating within the bore of the MRTI scanner with the patient during imaging. The robot was able to accurately deliver a needle-based high intensity therapeutic ultrasound probe into the brain and monitor the thermal therapy dose with real-time MR-based thermometry. We recently were awarded a five-year renewal for this grant, with which we are developing a precision conformal thermal ablation system to treat arbitrary size and shape brain tumors under live dose monitoring feedback. The goal of this phase of the work is to translate the prototype into a system ready for clinical trials,” Mr. Fischer said.

Other ongoing projects include simulation and augmented reality guidance for surgical robots, wearable assistive and rehabilitative robots for disabled people (including an actuated glove for stroke rehabilitation and a lower-limb exoskeleton for lower body paralysis), and robotic devices for interacting with children who have pervasive developmental disorders such as autism. Mr. Fischer’s research has resulted in eight granted U.S. patents, a number of which have been licensed by AiM Medical Robotics, a startup that will commercialize his innovations in medical and MRI-compatible robotics.

The announcement about the inaugural group of senior members was made on Feb. 11, which would have been Thomas Edison’s 172nd birthday.

The famous inventor once said, "I have not failed, I've just found 10,000 ways that have not worked.”

College Town asked Mr. Fischer if on his path to successful inventions there have been things that haven't worked.

“One thing I love about engineering is the ability to try new approaches and learn along the way. Especially at WPI, we have a very hands-on combination of theory and practice. One of my favorite quotes is from Yogi Berra ‘In theory, there is no difference between practice and theory. In practice, there is.’ I really love problem-solving and the satisfaction of really making things work,” he said.

Professor compiles memoirs

Assumption College English professor Lucia Knoles collaborated with a group of residents of the Eisenberg Assisted Living Center in Worcester to produce "Our Stories, Our Lives," Volume 3, a compilation of stories commemorating the lives of 10 residents. Ms. Knoles and her fellow authors will celebrate the release of this memoir at 7 p.m. Feb. 19 at Eisenberg Assisted Living Center, 631 Salisbury St., Worcester.

World Day of Social Justice

Becker College will host a program to celebrate World Day of Social Justice from 12:30 to 2 p.m. Feb. 20 on the Worcester campus in the Weller Academic Center, Room 210. Suja Chacko, the chief diversity officer for the city of Worcester, and Esperanza Donovan Pendzic, from Worcester public schools, will discuss the social justice initiatives in the city.

Dual enrollment programs

Mount Wachusett Community College President James Vander Hooven, Gardner Public Schools Superintendent Mark Pellegrino and Gardner Mayor Mark Hawke signed a memorandum of understanding on Monday establishing a partnership between the college and the Gardner school district for the college’s Gateway to College and Pathways Early College Innovation School dual enrollment programs.

The agreement will go into effect for the 2019-2020 school year. Students graduating in May 2019 from either program will receive their high school diplomas from Ralph C. Mahar High School, which was the previous district partner for both programs. In coming years, student’s high school diplomas will be from Gardner Public Schools.

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