Mathias Unberath, assistant professor of computer science and head of the Advanced Robotics and Computationally AugmenteD Environments Lab, has been named a recipient of the National Science Foundation’s prestigious Early CAREER Award, which recognizes the excellence of early-career faculty members with the potential for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research.

A core faculty member in the Malone Center and the Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics, Unberath works to advance healthcare by creating collaborative intelligent systems that support clinical workflows; to this end, he conducts synergistic research on imaging, computer vision, machine learning, and interaction design. He has published more than 100 journal and conference articles and has received numerous other awards, grants, and fellowships, including the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering’s Trailblazer R21 Award.

His five-year NSF Early CAREER award, “Digital Twins of Surgical Environments for Situational Awareness and Immersive Simulation,” will support the development of virtual reality simulations and computational models that closely mimic real patients, surgical tools, and operating environments to reduce the costs associated with developing new tools and procedures for robot-assisted surgery.