VISE Spring Seminar 1.29.26 with Marcia K. O’Malley, PhD
VISE welcomes Marcia K. O’Malley, PhD, to our Spring 2026 Seminar Series.
Marcia K. O’Malley, PhD
Thomas Michael Panos Family Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Bioengineering
Rice University
Date: Thursday, January 29, 2026
NEW Location: Light Hall 214
Time: 11:45 am for lunch,12:00 start
Title:
Guiding with touch: Objective assessment and haptic cueing to improve surgical performance on virtual and robotic platforms
Abstract:
Recent advances in simulation and robotic surgery have changed the way surgeons are trained in terms of their ability to gain experience without risk to patients. However, the feedback surgical trainees receive during training is still delayed, subjective, and qualitative, which does not provide the maximum support for rapid acquisition of motor skill. In this talk, I will describe our research on identifying objective and quantitative metrics that capture surgical skill in the endovascular domain. Specifically, we have shown that low-level properties of movements (e.g., smoothness) made in the performance of several motor tasks—including surgery in both virtual and robotic environments—are highly correlated with high-level performance outcomes, such as expert evaluations in surgical environments. I will also describe our progress in transforming these performance metrics to haptic representations that are provided in real-time to a trainee. We have shown that the provision of real-time haptic feedback during training of complex motor tasks can alter trainee strategies and learning curves. We hypothesize that we can enhance surgical performance and training by providing performance feedback based on these same motion-based metrics that quantify movement quality and strategies rather than task outcomes. This approach allows trainees to receive feedback that is immediate and quantitative, which should amplify human capabilities and result in improved performance in difficult-to-train motor domains such as surgery.
Bio:
Dr. Marcia K. O’Malley is the Thomas Michael Panos Family Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Bioengineering at Rice University, where she serves as Chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the George R. Brown School of Engineering and Computing. She directs the Mechatronics and Haptic Interfaces (MAHI) Lab and holds adjunct appointments in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. Dr. O’Malley earned her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Vanderbilt University. Her research advances physical human-robot interaction, haptic feedback, and wearable robotic and exoskeleton systems for rehabilitation and assistive applications. She has pioneered strategies for motor adaptation and skill acquisition through psychophysical studies and shared control, enabling technologies that restore movement coordination after neurological injury and enhance training of complex motor skills in virtual environments. At Rice, she has twice received the George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching, and was honored with the Faculty Award for Excellence in Research, Teaching, and Service. Dr. O’Malley is a Fellow of ASME, IEEE, AIMBE, and IAMBE, and her contributions have been recognized with the ONR Young Investigator Award, NSF CAREER Award, and the Grand Nagamori Award.