SPARC member Lennart Karstensen was selected as a finalist for the RIG Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award at the 2nd German Robotics Conference in Cologne. Out of 27 nominations from universities and research institutions across Germany, five theses were shortlisted by an international selection committee.

Dr. Karstensen’s doctoral thesis focused on simulation-based control learning for patient-specific autonomous navigation in endovascular interventions, addressing the challenge of transferring learning-based control from simulation to real-world medical robotics applications.

The award was presented at the RIG Heroes Award Night on March 12, 2026.

Prof. Dr. Franziska Mathis-Ullrich

Professorship for Surgical Planning and Robotic Cognition

Professors