Sunita CHAUHAN (Ph.D., DIC, Medical Robotics, Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine, London, UK -1999) is a Professor at the Mechanical and Aerospace Dept., Faculty of Engineering; Director of Mechatronics Engineering Program (one of the core Eng. branches at Monash); Chief Investigator of the BmRAS (Biomechatronics, Robotics & Automated Systems) research group at Monash University, Australia.
Her current research interests include three main areas:
- Medical/Surgical Robotics (including Computer Assisted and Integrated Surgery, Medical Ultrasound – Imaging, Therapeutic and Surgical ultrasound, Tissue characterization, Image, and Sensor-data processing/fusion/interpretation and the like;
- Intelligent Diagnostics and Robotics in Infrastructural Healthcare (High-rise Buildings, Railways, Aerospace, Defense/Airforce, Solar farms, etc.);
- Mechatronics & Automation in Sports Eng.
Chauhan worked as Associate Professor at the Mechatronics and Design Division, School of MAE, Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) and Systems Eng. Dept. at Newcastle University (UK) prior to joining Monash. Other concurrent positions included Focus-group lead for Bio-Design, Bio-Robotics (Robotic Systems addressing aspects of clinical activity) of the Intelligent Devices and Systems, IDEAS Cluster, NTU; Principal Investigator of the BIDS research group at the Robotics Research Center, NTU.
Professor Chauhan received various fellowships and awards notably – ‘Hind Rattan’ Award (Jewel of India, by NRI Soc., c/o Govt. of India, 2015), nominated for ‘Sword of Honor’ and ‘Mahatma Gandhi Samman’ (House of Commons London, 2018), IEEE’s Most Inspiring Engineer of the year 2009 based upon her contribution to humanitarian technology, the Public-sector Innovation award (The Entrepreneur challenge, Prime minister office, SG) with her students, ROAR and OAS fellowship awards (professional attachments respectively at Univ. of Heidelberg, Germany and Kings College, London), C’wealth scholarship/fellowship award etc.
She serves on the Board of Directors of Ultrasound Industries Association (USA), nominated – Medical Advisory Board of Global Cancer Technologies (USA); Scientific board of ResearchGate (past), Editorial Board of Int. J. of Biomechatronics and Robotics, Editorial Board of Recent Patents on Medical Imaging, nominated – Editorial board of Springer’s handbook initiative on Medical Robotics, Vice-Chair–WIE, SG (past), Geographic Coordinator (Asia)–IIWE, France (past), Judges panel of National Science Challenge, Science and Engineering Fair, National Junior Robotics Competition organized by Science Center and A*STAR, Singapore.
Sunita Chauhan is a member of several prestigious professional organizations, such as senior member-IEEE and its Robotics & Automation Society, life member-IACAS, member of UIA and ISTU & SPIE (past). She had been an invited keynote speaker and expert panel member in various Intl’ conferences and many scientific and public events, invited to hold special conference sessions, invited for expert Intl’ review panel of FP7 European grants. Her work caught Intl’ media attention several times and published in leading newspapers and scientific magazines.
She has supervised national and internationally-funded research projects and is a sole/principal inventor of several patents granted/pending related to her research. Sunita Chauhan delivered more than 50 invited talks and participated in various short courses/workshops conducted by local as well as overseas organizations. She is a reviewer of several international journals and conferences, and participates actively in their program and organizing committees as general chair, specialized session-chair, track-chair, publicity-chair, etc.
