Santa Clara University

Aiding surgeons with robots

Carol Reiley '04

B.S. computer engineering

With a team at Johns Hopkins University, Carol Reiley ’04 builds computer models that evaluate surgical technique in the operating room. Reiley will earn her Ph.D. in 2010, specializing in surgical robotics at the Johns Hopkins’ Computational Interaction and Robotics Lab. Reiley brings expertise in a range of fields—computers, robotics, and engineering—to research that will help medical students learn intricate and precise procedures.

It was her experience as an undergraduate at Santa Clara that led Reiley to this specialty, particularly research in the robotics lab with Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor Christopher Kitts. “Professor Kitts showed me this really interesting field, haptics—the sense of touch for robots,” she says. As a senior, Reiley built a remotely-operated robotic arm that gave the operator force feedback. She and her team created an arm that could allow users to tell the difference between the tactile force needed to pick up a rock and that needed to pick up an egg.

Reiley says studying engineering at Santa Clara was ideal, because of the location. “Silicon Valley is right where everything is happening.”

She hopes to return to the area after earning her doctorate, and to pursue teaching. “Because of Professor Kitts, I understand what a good teacher is. Professors at Santa Clara care about their students; they changed my life. I want to give back.”

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