Shan Lin

Shan Lin cultivated her interests in engineering and medicine into a career developing surgical robotic tools that can ultimately perform autonomous surgery.

After getting her doctoral degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Washington and working as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California San Diego, Lin will join the Sun Devil community in the spring of 2025 as an assistant professor in the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, part of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University.

She says she was drawn to ASU for its big engineering community, cutting-edge resources, exciting research projects and strong industry connections.

“I’m excited about the opportunity to collaborate closely with clinicians at Mayo Clinic and bring more research projects that benefit clinical applications, as well as the outstanding faculty and students at ASU in creating new technologies,” Lin says.

She looks forward to teaching courses in robotics, control, signal processing and emerging technologies for health care. Lin encourages her students to begin her classes with experience in programming and practical hands-on skills.

She won the Best Student Paper Award at the 2024 International Symposium on Medical Robotics, received the Pioneers of Medical Robotics Award at the 2023 IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, and was selected as a 2022 Rising Star in EECS.

“Current commercialized surgical robots do not have much intelligence and are mostly controlled in a leader-follower manner,” Lin says. “With advancements in understanding the surgical procedures and environments — which I plan to do at ASU — there is a significant potential to make the robots better assist surgeons and lead to better surgical outcomes.”

With a strong background in robotic perception and motion, medical devices and medicine, Lin aspires to advance the use of robotics in the medical industry. When not in the lab, Lin can be found rock climbing, hiking and camping.

Meet the newest faculty members of the Fulton Schools of Engineering here.

Written by Hannah Weisman