Graduate Poster Session Celebrates Students' Research

The event is a highlight of the annual Graduate Student Appreciation Week

On April 11, 57 graduate students shared their work with about 200 members of the community at Dartmouth’s annual Graduate Poster Session. The research spanned topics from the magnetic properties of neutron stars to how our facial expressions influence other people’s opinions of us.

Five graduate students received awards for their work this year, including engineering PhD candidate Xiaotian (Dennis) Wu:

Photo by Lars Blackmore

Xiaotian (Dennis) Wu, Thayer School of Engineering

Hometown: East Greenwich, RI

Poster Title: Laryngoscopy System for Intra-operative Imaging During Trans-oral Surgery

Research: “I design surgical tools and develop image-based guidance systems to aid surgeons during an operation. In Professor Halter’s lab, we explore a plethora of medical devices to assist clinicians and improve patient outcomes. In this particular work, we designed, 3D-printed, and built a CT/MR-compatible laryngoscopy system with Dr. Paydarfar, an ENT surgeon at DHMC. Our scope and system has been used on a number of patients to obtain beautiful, artifact-free CT images. This gives the surgeon the ability to get the most updated view of the patient’s anatomy during the operation. Our study also allows us to understand the tissue deformation that occurs during surgery. We hope that we can use this information to generate predictive tissue deformation models to reduce the need for expensive intra-operative imaging in the future.”

Why Dartmouth: “I fell in love with Hanover in the fall of 2010 and have loved it here ever since. It is just such a nice feeling to walk out of a high-tech engineering or medical facility and be embraced by nature. Beyond its natural beauty, Dartmouth also has tremendous resources. Having a world-class surgical facility (the Center for Surgical Innovation) right next door is a huge benefit to my research. It is wonderful to meet and collaborate with people from all over the world here at Dartmouth as well. The community makes me feel at home, and I feel extremely supported by my mentors, professors, employees, and friends here.”