The company is looking to develop AI foundation models based on multi-modal surgical data to enhance the capabilities of the da Vinci surgical system by integrating Visual-Language-Action (VLA) models and advanced robot learning techniques.
Requirements
- Current enrollment in an Computer Science, Electrical Engineering or Robotics with emphasis on AI, Machine Learning and Computer Vision or related degree-seeking program at the Master’s or Doctorate level.
- Publications in top-tier conferences/journals
- Experience building systems based on machine learning and/or deep learning methods.
- Strong hands-on Python skills.
- Strong hands-on experience with deep learning frameworks such PyTorch, TensorFlow, and Caffe.
- Good hands-on experience with the state-of-the-art deep learning models for language modelling and text retrieval of structured and unstructured text.
- Good hands-on experience with open-source LLM models and libraries (HuggingFace, LLaMa, LangChain, LlamaIndex, etc).
Responsibilities
- Conduct research and development on AI technology for surgical robotics, specifically integrating visual data (endoscopic video), surgical context (language/data), and precise robotic actions (instrument control).
- Develop and implement novel algorithms for VLA models focused on surgical scene understanding, procedure phase recognition, and learning from expert demonstrations (e.g., imitation learning) to improve system guidance and automation features.
- Analyze and process large, real-world surgical datasets from the da Vinci system to train and evaluate AI models.
- Validate models using both internal simulation platforms and, where appropriate, physical da Vinci systems, adhering to strict quality and regulatory protocols.
- Collaborate with a cross-functional team of engineers, researchers, and potentially even clinicians/surgeons, to translate research prototypes into robust, testable software solutions.
- Document research outcomes and contribute to technical reports and internal documentation, with potential opportunities for patent filings or conference submissions.
Other
- Must be currently enrolled in and returning to an accredited degree-seeking academic program in the Fall.
- Must be available to work starting January 2026 and full-time (approximately 40 hours per week) during a 10-12 week period.
- Self-starter and able to work in a collaborative and results oriented environment.
- may require that you show current proof of vaccination against certain diseases including COVID-19.
- U.S. Export Controls Disclaimer: In accordance with the U.S. Export Administration Regulations (15 CFR * 743.13(b)), some roles at Intuitive Surgical may be subject to U.S. export controls for prospective employees who are nationals from countries currently on embargo or sanctions status.
