BIOGRAPHY

Jaydev P. Desai is a Peterson Professor at Georgia Institute of Technology and the founding Director of Georgia Center for Medical Robotics. He received his undergraduate degree from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and graduate degrees from University of Pennsylvania. He has over 220 publications, is the founding EiC of the Journal of Medical Robotics Research, and recipient of several NIH R01 grants and NSF CAREER award. At 2018 ICRA, his prior work was the finalist for “IEEE RAS Award for the Most Influential Paper from ICRA 1998”. He is the recipient of 2024 IEEE RAS George Saridis Leadership Award in Robotics and Automation, 2021 IEEE RAS Distinguished Service Award, invited speaker at the National Academy of Sciences “Distinctive Voices” and invited to attend the National Academy of Engineering’s U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Symposium. His research has received several awards and is a Fellow of IEEE, ASME, and AIMBE.

IEEE ACTIVITIES

COMMITTEES/BOARDS:

• Associate VP, Technical Program, Conference Activities Board (CAB), IEEE RAS, 2024-2025
• Member, Inaugural steering committee for IEEE ICRA, 2022 – Present
• Member, IEEE RAS Representative to the Steering Committee, IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics (T-MRB), 2023-Present
• Member, 2022 IEEE RAS Evaluation Committee.
• Chair, Selection Committee, 2022 IEEE RAS Award.
• Member, Nomination Committee, 2022 IEEE RAS Award.
• Member, Technical Activities Board, IEEE RAS, 2022.
• Member, Conference Activities Board, IEEE RAS, 2022.
• Member, IEEE RAS Administrative Committee (AdCom), 2020-2022.
• Member, Selection Committee, 2021 IEEE RAS Award.
• Associate Vice President – Technical Program, Conference Activities Board (CAB), 2020-2021.
• Co-Chair – Education Committee, Member Activities Board (MAB), 2019 – present.
• Member, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) Administrative Committee (AdCom), 2019.
• Co-Chair of the IEEE-RAS Technical Committee on Surgical Robotics, 2005 – 2013.
• Member of the Technical Committee on BioRobotics for IEEE EMBS, 2005 – 2017.
• Chair of Awards Committee for the 2010 IEEE Haptics Symposium.
• Chair of the Travel Awards Committee for the 2010 IEEE ICRA, Anchorage, AK.
• Chair of Awards Committee for the Third IEEE/RAS-EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics – BioRob 2010, Tokyo, Japan, September 26-29, 2010.
• Member of the Awards Committee for the Best Conference Paper award for 2007 IEEE ICRA.
• Member of the 2001, 2002, 2006 IEEE ICRA Program Committee, Orlando, Florida.
• Member of the 2001, 2003, 2005 IROS Program Committee, Alberta, Canada.
• Member of the 2003 International Conference on Advanced Robotics Program committee.

SOCIETY:

• Associate VP, Technical Program, Conference Activities Board (CAB), IEEE RAS, 2024-2025
• Member, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Representative to the Steering Committee, IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics (T-MRB), 2023-Present
• Member, Inaugural steering committee for IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2022 – Present

CONFERENCES:

• General Chair, International Symposium on Medical Robotics (2018-2024) – IEEE RAS Technical Co-sponsor
• Program Chair – ICRA 2019, Montreal, Canada.
• Program Co-Chair – 2017 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Vancouver, Canada.
• Organizer of the 2-day single-track Symposium on Surgical Robotics as part of IEEE International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics, Rome, Italy, 2012.
• Co-organizer of the workshop titled: “Image-guided Medical Robotic Interventions” at IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, San Francisco, CA, September 2011.
• Co-organizer of the workshop titled: “Meso-scale Robotics for Medical Interventions” at IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Anchorage, AK, May 2010.

· Program Chair of Second Biennial IEEE/RAS-EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics – BioRob, October 2008.

• Theme Co-Chair for “Biomechanics, Bio-Robotics, and Surgical Planning” at IEEE 2006 International Conference of the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, New York, NY.
• Track chair for Surgical and Rehabilitative Robotics Theme at the 26th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, San Francisco, CA, September 1-5, 2004.

OTHER:

• Panel Member, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and MedicinePanel on Assessment of Military Information Sciences (2023-2024)
• Senior Editor, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (2022-present)
• Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Medical Robotics Research (2014-present)
• Member, AIMBE Review Committee, 2020, 2021, and 2022 Class of the College of Fellows.
• Associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering (TBME), 2009-2012.
• Associate Editor of IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Conference Editorial Board (CEB) for ICRA 2010.
• Guest Co-editor IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics Focused Section on Healthcare Mechatronics, (2008-2010).
• Guest Co-editor IEEE TBME Letters Special Issue on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (2008-2009).

· Associate Editor of IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Conference Editorial Board for ICRA 2007.

• Editorial Board of IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics (2005-2008).

QUALIFICATIONS

I have been involved with IEEE for over 20 years – first as a graduate student and then as an Assistant, Associate, and Full Professor. During this time, I have seen IEEE RAS evolve rapidly and I have always been excited to make a difference in IEEE RAS activities. This is evidenced by my several contributions to IEEE and IEEE-RAS in particular. Contributions to IEEE conferences, include, ICRA, EMBS, BioRob, IROS, etc., with being the Program Chair for 2019 ICRA held in Montreal, Canada. I have served as a Program Committee member for several IEEE conferences, Co-Chair for the Technical Committee on Surgical Robotics for about 8 years (2005-2013), member of the Technical Committee on BioRobotics for IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology (EMB) Society from 2005-2017, Program Co-Chair for 2017 IROS, General Chair for International Symposium on Medical Robotics (ISMR: 2018 – 2024, IEEE RAS Technical Co-Sponsor), and Program Chair of 2019 ICRA. I have also been a member of awards, evaluation, nomination, and selection committees. I have always emphasized high quality in all my endeavors and that was evidenced by being the Program Chair for 2019 ICRA, General Chair for ISMR (a highly successful symposium and rapidly becoming a “go-to” place for presenting medical robotics research), Program Chair for 2008 BioRob, and organizer of 2-day single-track Symposium on Surgical Robotics at 2012 BioRob.

At ICRA 2019, we introduced several innovative concepts for the first time, namely: 1) the (6+n) pages format for regular ICRA paper submissions, where “n” referred to the number reference pages (there was no limit on the number of reference pages, thereby enabling an increase in citation count for the entire robotics community by giving the authors the freedom to cite ALL relevant references to the prior work). Furthermore, to make it equitable to all authors world-wide, there was also NO additional page-charge for regular ICRA 2019 papers; and 2) A new theme of “Notable Failures”, where we had two invited Keynote talks reflecting both academia and industry perspective on this topic and the lessons learned from them – both of these keynotes were tremendous successes. ICRA 2019 was a tremendous success with a record number of paper submissions, registrations, exhibitors, etc., as well as the overall organization of the conference. I also recently served as the Conference Co-chair for the 12th Annual Southeastern Pediatric Research Conference held in Atlanta, GA, in 2023.

During my tenure as the Associate Vice President, Technical Program, CAB (IEEE RAS), I championed the inclusion of gender and geographical diversity in the organizing committee as well as invited speakers during the application process, which is now a mandatory requirement. In fact at 2021 ISMR, we had the first ever ISMR Workshop on Diversity in Medical Robotics that was organized by an all women organizing committee. In recognition of my service to IEEE RAS, I was honored to receive the 2021 IEEE RAS Distinguished Service Award and the citation for the award read: “In recognition of his distinguished leadership, outstanding service, and innovative contributions to IEEE RAS Conferences and Technical Activities”.

Finally, I have also spearheaded the development of the charter for the ICRA Steering Committee, which was approved by IEEE RAS AdCom. This steering committee has been tasked with guiding future ICRA’s from initial proposal submission to the actual ICRA event. In my opinion, this has already been well received by our RAS community. In recognition of my research and service to the IEEE RAS, I was honored to receive in May 2024, the 2024 IEEE RAS George Saridis Leadership Award in Robotics and Automation from the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) and the citation reads: “For Foundational Research in Medical Robotics and Swarm Robotics and Service in Society Management”.

MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• General Chair, International Symposium on Medical Robotics (2018-2024) – IEEE RAS Technical Co-sponsor
• Spearheaded the development of the charter for the ICRA Steering Committee.
• Instituted mandatory requirement of gender and geographical diversity in the organizing committee as well as invited speakers while I was the Associate Vice President – Technical Program, Conference Activities Board (CAB), 2020-2021.
• Program Chair – ICRA 2019, Montreal, Canada.
• Co-Chair of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Technical Committee on Surgical Robotics, 2005 – 2013.

POSITION STATEMENT

During more than two decades of my involvement with IEEE RAS, I have seen its activities grow unprecedentedly, while having a significant positive impact on graduate and undergraduate students as well as faculty of all ranks. In my opinion, this has primarily been due to the core mission of IEEE, namely: “We foster technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity”. I plan to be directly involved in promoting initiatives relating to: a) increased accessibility, outreach, and education and c) Innovative RAS conferences and Activities.

Increased accessibility, outreach, and education: There is a greater need to improve access for students across the globe to attend IEEE RAS conferences. As a prior member of IEEE RAS AdCom, I had championed to reduce the registration fees for students to attend ICRA. IEEE RAS activities can have a direct impact at the grassroots level through several initiatives, such as engaging distinguished IEEE RAS members to give guest lectures in elementary, middle, and high schools as well as universities, especially those in under-privileged institutions around the world. I also plan to be directly involved in formulating and supporting initiatives aimed at “Global Community Building”, which is one of the other core values of IEEE. We accomplished this to a large extent at ICRA 2019 in Montreal, where the public was able to view some of the conference activities. These activities help to engage the community and make them more aware of the robotics activities worldwide.

Innovative RAS Conferences and Activities: In the last decade or so, ICRA and IROS submissions have more than tripled, whereby some of the workshops are mini-conferences in themselves. As ICRA and IROS continue to grow rapidly, we must not forget the core mission of IEEE. We must continuously innovate and bring in new ideas to help humanity and make our community grow stronger. Additionally, with the advent and growth of several other new conferences, RAS must continuously evolve through innovation to retain its flagship status. We must also be open-minded and invite, nurture, and flourish journals in new domain areas in RAS. At the same time, we must also support focused conferences in specific emerging topics. For example, having served as the Co-Chair for RAS Technical Committee on Surgical Robotics for 8 years, I ensured the rapid growth and success of surgical/medical robotics within IEEE RAS, which is now evidenced by several medical robotics publications and tracks at ICRA and IROS, as well as the latest IEEE T-MRB, of which I am honored to be the IEEE RAS representative member of the steering committee. I am also the founding General Chair of the International Symposium on Medical Robotics (ISMR), which is rapidly becoming a “go-to” place to present medcial robotics research. IEEE RAS is the Technical Co-Sponsor of ISMR and it recently completed its 6th year anniversary in 2024.

In summary, we must continuously evolve to address the needs of our society and humanity at large, to have a significant and positive impact on maintaining the highest quality of IEEE RAS activities.