AMMI Lab
Advanced Materials & Medical Instruments Lab
We have open positions for graduate students on our recently-funded project.
Prospective graduate students should click here to find about our new positions, research assistantship, and application process.
At AMMI lab, our aim is to develop smart medical instruments that could help surgeries to be less invasive and more accurate. To accomplish this task, we intend to incorporate advanced biocompatible materials and active components in our designs. Our projects cover a vast majority of topics such as material characterization and training, actuation, design and development, testing and evaluations, shape sensing, robotic instrumentation, image processing, and nonlinear feedback control studies. To find out more about our research activities, please check out the research tab.
AMMI is a research laboratory in the Mechanical Engineering Department at University of Hawaii at Manoa.
We have an opening for a competent visiting research scholar.
We also host limited number of interns every summer from highly motivated individuals.
Undergraduate students: To check out our Vertically Integrated Projects (VIPs) click here.
Our current major projects are: (a) a robotic needle that bends through the tissue with actuation, shape sensing, and control to deliver therapeutic drugs or to take biopsy samples, (b) ultrasound tracking of needle tip during a needle insertion task and image-guided needle steering, (c) a control algorithm for a robust adaptive motion planning of active surgical needles, and (d) Finite Element Analyses and simulation of medical devices steering inside the tissue.
Minimally Invasive Surgery
Jul 31, 2026 Sung Soo presented at the 2026 SURE Symposium
Jul 17, 2026 Chris Lynne presented at the 2026 NHSEMP Symposium
Jul 9, 2026 Sarah, Ava, and Jacob presented at 2026 JESSE Symposium
Jun 20, 2026 Abstract accepted and presented at ABS 2026 Annual Conference
Apr 13, 2026 Sydney received UROP funding
Feb 27, 2026 Sung Soo received UROP funding
Jul 16, 2025 Josh successfully defended his MS thesis
Fall 2025 Selected for NSF I-Corps Cohort
Jul 31, 2025 Grant awarded from Hawaii Community Foundation
Jul 09, 2025 Rex successfully defended his MS thesis
Jun 18, 2025 Abstract accepted and presented at ABS 2025 Annual Conference
May 14, 2025 1 paper accepted and presented at 2025 ISMR Conference
Apr 30, 2025 Blayton successfully defended his PhD dissertation
Apr 29, 2025 3 papers accepted and presented at 2025 DMD Conference
Dec 6, 2024 Paper published in JMRCAS
Nov 19, 2024 2 papers accepted and presented at 2024 IMECE Conference
Sep 01, 2024 66th AAPM Editor's Choice awarded
Aug 09, 2024 Malia presented at 2024 NHSEMP Summer Internship
Jul 21, 2024 Poster presented at AAPM 66th Annual Meeting & Exhibition
Jul 13, 2024 Poster presented at ABS' World Congress of Brachytherapy
Jul 11, 2024 Emi and Tayte presented at 2024 JESSE Summer Internship
May 08, 2024 Paper published in Robotica
May 02, 2024 Paper published in Med Phys
Apr 11, 2024 2 papers accepted and will be presented at the DMD Conference
Mar 03, 2024 Paper accepted in JRS
Nov 22, 2023 Sam successfully defended his MS
Aug 17, 2023 Paper accepted in ASME JESMDT
Jul 28, 2023 Chris presented at 2023 CREATE Summer Internship Poster Presentations
Jul 07, 2023 Poster presented at AAPM 65th Annual Meeting & Exhibition
Jun 15-16, 2023 Dr. Konh presented at NIH BIBIB 2023 TRAINING GRANTEES MEETING
Apr 18-19, 2023 3 papers accepted and presented at the DMD Conference. 1 poster presented at ISMR
Apr 2023 Dr. Konh was added to the Editorial Advisory Board for IJMRCAS
Jan 03, 2023 Paper accepted in JMRR
Nov 21, 2022 Zolboo successfully defended his MS
Aug 23, 2022 Paper presented at 9th IEEE RAS/EMBS BioRob 2022
Jul 10, 2022 Paper accepted in JMEP
Apr 13, 2022 Dr. Konh presented at ISMR workshop. 1 oral presentation at ISMR & 2 oral presentations at DMD Conference
Nov 18, 2021 Oral and Poster presentations at ISMR Conference
Aug 2021 New funding from NIH
Apr 26, 2021 Paper accepted in The International Journal of Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery
Jan 27, 2021 Paper accepted in JMRR
Feb 3, 2021 Paper accepted in DMD Conference
Dec 13, 2020 Dr. Konh presented at IEEE NANOMED
Dec 4, 2020 Blayton successfully defended his MS
Dec 1, 2020 Oral and Poster presentations at IEEE BioRob Conference
Nov 25, 2020 Gabrielle Baguio received UROP funding
Nov 13, 2020 Paper accepted in ASME Journal of Medical Devices
Nov 10, 2020 New funding from Cancer Center (Strategic Investment in Translational Science
Jul 7, 2020 Paper accepted in Surgical Innovation
Jun 25, 2020 Paper accepted in ASME Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering
Jun 17, 2020 New Peer-Reviewed Hawaii Community Foundation (HCF) External Grant
Jun 17, 2020 Saeed successfully defended his PhD
Jun 03, 2020 Paper accepted in Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures
May 11, 2020 Dr. Seong Young Ko joined our lab as a visiting scholar
May 09, 2020 Paper accepted in IEEE BioRob Conference
May 05, 2020 Two papers presented at Design of Medical Devices Conference
Nov 26, 2019 Zahra successfully defended her MS Thesis
Jun 05, 2019 Paper published in ASME Journal of Medical Devices
May 27, 2019 Paper published in Robotica
Apr 26, 2019 Saeed passed his comprehensive exam
Apr 16, 2019 Two papers presented at Design of Medical Devices
Hawaii Community Foundation
University of Hawaii Cancer Center (UHCC)
