Wachs researches using robotics to improve healthcare. The article is entitled "Robots in the operating room: the Argentinian pioneer of telesurgery", and the subtitle reads: "Juan Wachs leads a project in the U.S. based on virtual reality to enable performing surgery thousands of miles away from a hospital".

He is spending the fall semester in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as a Fulbright scholar, taking part in an exchange program between the governments of the U.S. and Argentina. His project is entitled “Using Attention Modeling and Analysis to Understand Gestures Interaction”.

Wachs’ Intelligent Systems and Assistive Technologies Lab performs state-of-the-art research in machine vision specializing in the fields of intelligent systems and human-machine interfaces. One ground-breaking project is the System for Telementoring with Augmented Reality (STAR) project, experimenting with augmented reality to improve the effectiveness of telementoring between surgeons. 

He and his Purdue IE students also work with a human-like robot called “Baxter”, who may be able to help with surgery. Wachs’ PhD students made a video showing how to run a laboratory consisting of a robotics simulation with Baxter so that distance learners and other off-campus students can learn these topics.

Read more about Prof. Wachs' research: http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~jpwachs/

Watch Prof. Wachs' STAR project video