Artificial intelligence helps to create medical cutting-edge devices

Galym-Galam: Prashant Jamwal, Professor at NU SEDS

After engineering several medical robots, Nazarbayev University Professor Prashant Jamwal won two grants from the World Bank and has launched the startup companies. Now, he is working on a robot in collaboration with orthopedic surgeons.

The Professor laso dreams of launching a nanosatellite, the development of which has already begun jointly with the space agencies of Kazakhstan and India. He spoke about these and other projects in our rubric interview.

Can you please tell us about your educational and professional background?

I graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), a well-reputed Institute in India, securing the first position in all the disciplines. This achievement helped secure the prestigious doctoral scholarship at the University of Auckland (UoA), New Zealand. Only one scholarship was available for the entire School of Engineering at UoA. Immediately after finishing Ph.D., I won a grant at UoA and continued as a post-doctoral fellow (on an employment contract) for another year. Later, I also taught at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

In India, I worked with Rajasthan Technical University (RTU) and became its youngest full professor in 2013. Later, in 2014, I joined Nazarbayev University as Assoc. Professor in the School of Engineering and Digital Sciences has continued until today. I also hold an Adjunct Associate Professor position at the Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Canberra, Australia, and another adjunct faculty position at South Asian University, New Delhi.

Can you please tell us about your current research project?

My research interests include Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Power Systems, and Space missions. I have made significant contributions to the following research areas recently:

1) Development of robots for rehabilitating disabilities due to Stroke or injuries;

2) Dynamic Energy Management in Smart Distribution Systems;

4) Development of a Robot for Advanced Long-Bone (Femur) Fracture Reduction;

5) Big data analytics for personalized cancer treatment;

6) Multi-criteria evolutionary optimization;

7) Working on developing Kazakhstan's indigenous Nanosatellite with Ghalam LLP and JSC "National Company" Karysh Sapary.

What are your key research findings?

So far, I have developed many rehabilitation robots to treat stroke survivors. Gait Robots and the Ankle robot are designed for the lower limb. Two instances of upper limb robots have also been developed, and one of these was quite popular for being controlled by human thoughts. This robot had attracted United Nations’ recognition and was funded by the World Bank Grant. A startup company ReLive LLP was eventually launched with this grant money by my Ph.D. student Mr. Beibit Abdikenov. ReLive company is doing great nowadays, working on government and private-funded projects.  

A surgical robot is also developed for bone reduction procedures, especially to treat long bone fractures. The Director of Trauma Hospital in Kazakhstan is helping me in this project with her team of orthopedic surgeons. This robot is capable of fixing fractured bone parts automatically with precision.  

In yet another project, I am developing a Micro Grid at NU. This project will help develop energy management models to consider the optimal utilization of the energy flexibility of various resources connected to the system, along with different pricing choices of consumers or prosumers. A blockchain-based financial tool is being developed to improve the reliability of the transactions among the energy players and integrate it into the market models.

Regarding fulfilling my passion for developing an indigenous Nanosatellite, I am working with two Kazakhstan space agencies, Ghalam LLP and JSC Karysh Sapary, apart from the Indian space agency ISRO. The conceptual design phase for the structure, mechanisms and launch module of the nanosatellite is underway. I have also received the prestigious “Asian Universities Alliance Scholar Award,” another testimony of my research accomplishments. 

I have realized that our research eventually should benefit society, and so lately, I have started to take my medical robots from the labs to the hospitals through commercialization projects. Thanks to the two World Bank grants (won in 2019 and 2021), I have been able to launch two start-up companies within the university and have been grooming my students to be entrepreneurs.

Why did you choose to join NU?

One of my friends at the University of Auckland had joined NU, and he informed me about the conducive research environment here. Since NU also has similar academic freedom and values as other western universities, so I chose NU as my next workplace. The country's rich and vibrant culture and the land's beauty also attracted me here.

What are your future plans?

I have been teaching courses in the School of Engineering and Digital Sciences and the School of Medicine, which is a rare combination. I plan to bring students and faculty from these schools together to plan and execute collaborative projects.

My scientific ambitions dictate that I conduct extensive research in medical robotics and develop cutting-edge devices. Recently, I have been working on “Artificial Intelligence assisted cytopathology for an early diagnosis of lung cancer.” I would like to create a patent from this study and also obtain patents for my medical robots.

So far, I have launched two startup companies that NU students are successfully running. However, we need more industries in this country, so I would like to strengthen the medical industries in Kazakhstan by launching other startups.Last but not least, I would like to develop a NanoSat at NU that can be launched into space by 2025.