Technical Seminar with Aaron Bernstein

Abstract:  I will discuss the innovation, development of a hobby (yes, literally in the garage), and productization that is currently leading the way toward a new generation of computer-assisted surgery in the operating room. I will describe how the scanner was a solution looking for a problem, when brain surgery, spine surgery, and orthopedic medicine found it (at a party).  I will discuss the shocking state of affairs in the operating room, and my thrown-in-the-deep-end journey into medicine. I'll relate learnings of going from academia to startup to seeking FDA clearance. I will describe the technology at VISIE, fundraising for a startup, and the two main strategies of obtaining intellectual property.  Warnings will be given before graphic anatomy is shown on screen.

Bio: Dr. Bernstein is co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer of VISIE, Inc. He earned a PhD in Optical Science and Engineering at the University of New Mexico before joining Todd Ditmire's group at the University of Texas at Austin as a post-doc in early 2005. There he became a Research Scientist at the Center for High Energy Density Science, helping to manage graduate student labs and run research at the Texas Petawatt Laser (TPW) and at collaborating institutions, including as a PI on research performed at the Sandia National Labs Z-Machine. He discovered two-beam coupling in air in 2009. In 2015 Aaron joined Dr. Michael Downer's group at the University of Texas at Austin as Research Scientist to help run experiments on the TPW. In 2017 Aaron co-founded Advanced Scanners (now VISIE) to develop and commercialize his innovation on a structured light optical 3D scanning method he started as a hobby and pursued outside of his work at UT. Aaron is currently helping VISIE innovate solutions for the scanner in medicine toward FDA clearance for the next generation of surgical navigation.