Lister Wins Link Foundation Fellowship

Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. student Kevin Lister has won a 2011 Link Foundation Fellowship in Advanced Simulation and Training. He is the first University of Maryland student to win this award.

Lister is a Graduate Research Assistant a working in the Robotics Automation and Medical Systems Laboratory (RAMS Lab). He is advised by ISR-affiliated Associate Professor Jaydev Desai (ME). Lister’s research is focused on modeling and simulation of needle-soft tissue interaction. The models generated are used in the simulation of tissue probing during surgery.

About the fellowship
Each year The Link Foundation awards up to five $25,000 fellowships to doctoral students to support them as they complete their dissertation research. This program, in place since 1990, has awarded approximately $1.3 million in fellowships.

The Link Trainer, invented by Edwin Link in 1929, was the first successful flight simulator. The Link Foundation, founded by Edwin Link and his wife Marion, supports programs to foster the theoretical basis, practical knowledge, and application of energy, simulation, and ocean engineering and instrumentation research, and also supports doctoral fellowships in the areas of endeavor pursued by Mr. Link.

The fellowship Kevin Lister won originally was designed to support research in the field of flight training, but its scope has been expanded to a variety of non-aviation applications, including medicine and healthcare procedures such as various forms of surgery; less invasive procedures; the operation of complex medical tools and equipment; the training of handicapped patients to operate support equipment; and patient/doctor interactions.

Published April 5, 2011