Week 0: Introduction

Hi, I’m Daniel Popov and this is my senior project blog. I’ve been at Basis Independent Brooklyn since the 6th grade, and for my Senior Project I will be exploring the viability of robotics based automation in the field of Dental Hygienics. I’ve been interested in robotics and dentistry for most of my life, and have always wanted to apply knowledge of one to benefit the other.

For my placement, I hope to be working with Dr. Farokh Atashzar, head of the robotics department at the New York University, whose main research focuses on medical, surgical, and rehabilitation robotics. I will begin my research by gathering data on existing robotic devices applied to dentistry, which already exist in a variety of  forms and functions. 

However, the specific field of Dental Hygienics appears to have very limited previous attempts at automation. There are a great number of devices that utilize a robotic arm for various purposes such as dental fillings, and there have been many applications of AI on various imaging techniques to identify plaque and deformations in teeth. The main goal is for me to look into these techniques and see how they can be combined to create a functioning Dental Hygiene device, along with using patient and dentist inputs to my surveys and insights gathered in my interviews, so that I can ensure the device is a useful and beneficial prospect to both patients and dentists.

Thank you for reading and if you’d like to know more, here is my senior project proposal.