Dr Thanh Nho Do

Dr Thanh Nho Do  is currently a Scientia Senior Lecturer at Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering (GSBmE), University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney.  He directs UNSW Medical Robotics Lab. In 2015, he was awarded his PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering (Surgical Robotics) from the School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering (MAE), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore.  He also received his B. Eng. degree in Manufacturing Engineering with Honor Program from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, Vietnam. He was a Postdoctoral Scholar at California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI), UC Santa Barbara (UCSB), USA. He also worked as a Research Fellow and a Group Leader at Robotic Research Center, School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering (MAE), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore.

His main research interests include:

• Flexible surgical devices, especially Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES) systems, for gastrointestinal cancer treatments
• Soft robotics including stretchable sensors and actuators for haptic/tactile displays and their applications to other robotic systems
• Soft assistive device for heart failure and soft artificial organs
• Soft Wearable Haptic Devices 
• Functional materials for soft electronics and biomedical applications
• Variable stiffness structures for flexible endoscopic systems, soft robotics and other biomedical applications
• Miniature soft magnetic robots for drug delivery systems
• Soft magnetic capsule endoscopy for obesity treatments and gastrointestinal diagnosis
• Soft pneumatic/hydraulic actuators
• Soft programmable planar fabric actuators
• Advanced wearable systems for haptic/tactile displays and NOTES systems
• Advanced mechatronic systems for the treatment of tracheal diseases and other respiratory disorders
• Nonlinear backlash/hysteresis modeling and identification methods
• Advanced control algorithms (feedforward and nonlinear adaptive control) for flexible medical systems and smart materials and structures

Editorial Activities:

• Editor-Nature Communications Engineering
• Guest Editor-Sensors, Special Issues "Soft Sensors, Actuators and Sensing Technology for Medical Applications"
• Guest Editor-Micromachines, Special Issues "Soft Robotics: Design, Fabrication, Modeling, Control and Applications"
• Topic Editor-Frontiers in Medical Technology-Diagnostic and Therapeutic Devices, Research Topic "Wearable Soft Robotics in Diagnostics and Therapeutics"

Lab Members and Research Activities:

Please visit UNSW Medical Robotics Lab 

Dr. Do is currently looking for undergraduate and postgraduate students to join his research group starting 2025. The research projects include

• Project 1: The design, fabrication, modeling, control of novel soft artificial organs using soft robotic technologies (soft sensors and actuators) 

• Project 2: The development of flexible surgical surgical robotics for gastrointestinal cancer treatments,

• Project 3: Soft wearable haptic devices for VR/AR and medical applications

• Project 4: Soft wearable assistive device for human augmentation

Prospective students with background in mechanical design, mechatronics, robotics, control systems, and soft materials with good hands-on skills please feel free to contact Dr. Do to discuss desired projects. Please also include CV and transcript together with names and contacts of at least two academic referees.

There are several scholarships available for both domestic and international students. Please follow the below links for deadlines and other information:

• Determine Your Eligibility for a Scholarship: https://selfassessment.research.unsw.edu.au/

• Meet English requirement: https://www.unsw.edu.au/english-requirements-policy 

• Key-dates: https://research.unsw.edu.au/key-dates, opens in a new window

• UNSW Post Graduate Research Scholarship for International Students, opens in a new window,

• UNSW Post Graduate Research Scholarship for Domestic Students, opens in a new window

• Australia Awards and Endeavour Scholarships and Fellowships, opens in a new window

• UNSW/Home Country Joint Scholarship

• Vietnam-Vingroup Scholarships (for Vietnamese candidates)