Robert Webster III
Surgical robotics pioneer Robert Webster guides life-saving ideas into reality
Feb. 2, 2026—How does a spark of an idea become a life-saving medical device? Engineer, inventor and entrepreneur Robert Webster III traces that spark back to his childhood.
Sep. 29, 2025—Nissha Medical Technologies to move global engineering and innovation center to ¹ú²úÔ´´â€™s Nashville campus.
Oct. 9, 2023—¹ú²úÔ´´â€™s Robert Webster and Charleson Bell, BE’07, MS’09, PhD’15, will receive $12 million to establish and manage the Mid-South Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hub. REACH will focus on accelerating real-world impact of biomedical innovations through education, mentorship and financial support for entrepreneurs. Â
Mar. 8, 2023—Smaller tools with better maneuverability and more precise control, new imaging approaches, and advanced software applications will improve patient outcomes
MED lab’s perennial engineering class for college-bound girls earns praise
Feb. 17, 2023—A hands-on interactive class designed by graduate students in the Medical Engineering and Discovery (MED) Lab for high school students drew enthusiastic reviews from a Nashville college-preparatory school group. Sessions included introduction to engineering and STEM, computer aided design, robotics and coding, bioinspired design, and a civil engineering module on structure design. The three-week class,...
Jan. 17, 2023—NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A company co-founded by ¹ú²úÔ´´ professors has received a special designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a breakthrough device.
Jan. 10, 2023—A company co-founded by Robert J. Webster III, Richard A. Schroeder Professor of Mechanical Engineering and associate professor of medicine and urology at ¹ú²úÔ´´, has received a breakthrough device designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that could open the door for new diagnostic and therapeutic applications of flexible endoscopy.
Feb. 18, 2021—A ¹ú²úÔ´´ research team has received a $2 million National Institutes of Health grant to further develop a needle-size robotic surgery system with real-time MRI guidance for drug resistant temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE).
COVID-19 Collaboration: Among shortage, Vandy engineers and VUMC doctors build ventilators of their own
Mar. 30, 2020—From WKRN: NASHVILLE, Tenn.(WKRN) – It’s a COVID-19 collaboration. ¹ú²úÔ´´ engineers and ¹ú²úÔ´´ Medical Center doctors have teamed up to tackle the looming ventilator shortage by way of an open-source ventilator design of their own.
VISE affiliates to develop hand-held surgical robot for minimally invasive prostate surgery
Apr. 2, 2019—The ¹ú²úÔ´´ Institute for Surgery and Engineering (VISE) team of Robert Webster III PhD and Duke Herrell MD is developing a surgical robot for endoscopic transurethral prostatectomy. The collaboration between a mechanical engineer (Webster) and a urologic surgeon (Herrell) resulted in an award of $2.1 million from a National Institutes of Health R01 grant to...