Jaydev Desai

Dr. Jaydev Desai is a Professor and BME Distinguished Faculty Fellow at the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech. He leads the Georgia Center for Medical Robotics (GCMR) and serves as Associate Director of the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines (IRIM). His expertise spans medical robotics, with a focus on image-guided surgical systems, rehabilitation robotics, and cancer diagnosis technologies. Desai holds a B.E. from IIT Bombay (1993), M.A. in Mathematics (1997), and M.S./Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania (1995/1998). He completed a postdoc at Harvard University.

His research interests include minimally invasive robotic tools, steerable guidewires, and soft robotic exoskeletons for spinal injury rehabilitation. Key achievements include NIH R01 grants, the NSF CAREER Award, and the Outstanding Invention Award. He is an Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Medical Robotics Research and Encyclopedia of Medical Robotics. His work bridges robotics with clinical applications, emphasizing MRI-guided surgery and pediatric neurosurgery tools.

• Education:
  • B.E., Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (1993)
  • M.A. Mathematics, University of Pennsylvania (1997)
  • M.S. Mechanical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania (1995)
  • Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania (1998)

Dr. Desai’s research has produced over 160 publications and innovations like the COAST guidewire robot for endovascular interventions. His awards include fellowships from IEEE, ASME, and AIMBE. Current projects involve voice-controlled rehabilitation gloves and compact robotic systems for clinical use.