Dr. Eugene Chang and Dr. Samuel Barber are recent recipients of an Accelerate For Success Grant, awarded by Research Discovery, and Innovation (RDI) at the University of Arizona. Other collaborators on the grant are co-principal investigator Dr. Young-Jun Son PhD, and co-investigator, Saurabh Jain, MS. Dr. Son is the head of the Department of Systems and Industrial Engineering at the College of Engineering. Their grant, worth $100,000, will serve as serve as seed funding for surgical simulation research.
Dr. Barber also received a competitive grant from Formlabs. The Innovation and Research 3D Printing Grant, awarded to one academic lab per quarter, provides the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery with a 3D printing package including a Form 2 stereolithography (SLA) printer. Dr. Barber and Dr. Chang plan to utilize the 3D printer to design and implement 3D printed surgical instruments for use as custom VR controllers in surgical simulation modules.
