Flinders University  > People

Dr Greg Ruthenbeck

Position/s:Senior Research Associate - Medical Simulation
School of Computer Science, Engineering and Mathematics
Phone: +61 8 82015023
Email:
Location: Engineering (318)
Postal address: GPO Box 2100, Adelaide 5001, South Australia

Biography

Simulation will revolutionise medical training in the next decade. Many components of computer games and techniques from other disciplines such as digital effects for movies are readily transferable when developing virtual reality medical simulations. However, key pieces, such as haptic cut-able soft-tissue, are missing from the tool-kit of medical simulation developers. 
Greg's research focuses on the development of new core technology that will enable haptically interactive computer-based simulations of surgical interactions. Since 2002 Greg has prototyped numerous medical simulators that show-case innovations including his PhD research where he developed a new GPU-accelerated approach to sugically interactive soft tissue simulation.

Qualifications

Doctorate of Philosophy (Thesis: Interactive Soft Tissue for Surgical Simulation (pdf 4MB))
Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical and Electronic) (Hons)

Honours, awards and grants

2009 Best Student Presentation (IEEE/CSIRO Science Symposium, Brisbane) 
2003 IEE Australia Technical Presentation Prize

Key responsibilities

Maintaining, developing, and integrating new capabilities into a re-usable medical simulation engine that leverages the best available technologies. This includes administration of computers, setup and maintenance of configuration management and software development best practices. 
This year (2012) I will be developing course materials and delivering 2 new topics (at the 4th year undergraduate level); (S1) Computer Graphics and Interactive Physics, (S2) Haptic Enabled Systems.

Teaching

Teaching interests

Computer graphics. Shader Programming. GPU Computing (CUDA). Interactive Physics. Physics-based Animation. Haptic Interfaces. Haptic Rendering. Medical Simulation.

Topic Lecturer:

  • COMP4720  Ad.Stud.Comp.Sci: Computer Graphics and Interactive Physics
  • ENGR4720  Adv. Stud. Engineering: Computer Graphics and Interactive Physics

Research and consultancy

Research interests

  • Medical Simulation
  • Physics-based Animation
  • Visual Effects
  • Real-time Parallel Computing using the GPU (GPGPU)
  • Haptics (precision force-feedback)

Recent Work

Virtual Reality Subtotal Tonsillectomy Simulator (download poster as PDF 709KB from Google Docs).
Virtual Reality Endoscopic Sinus Surgery Simulator (download poster as PDF 1020KB from Google Docs).

Media

Greg discussing Haptics on ABC Radio Science in the Studio

Postgraduate research supervision

PhD co-supervisor of Yongyao Yan. Topic: Collaborative Haptics

Publications

Refereed journal articles

Ruthenbeck, G.S., Tan, S.B., Carney, A.S., Hobson, J.C., & Reynolds, K.J., 2012. A virtual-reality subtotal tonsillectomy simulator. Journal of Laryngology & Otology, 126(5).

Field, J.R., Mcgee, M., Stanley, R.M., Ruthenbeck, G.S., Papadimitrakis, T., Zannettino, A., Gronthos, S., & Itescu, S., 2011. The efficacy of allogeneic mesenchymal precursor cells for the repair of an ovine tibial segmental defect. Veterinary and Comparative Orthopaedics and Traumatology, 24(2), 113-121.

Ruthenbeck, G.S., Owen, H., & Reynolds, K.J., 2008. A virtual reality throat examination simulation. Studies in health technology and informatics, 132, 433-435.

Ruthenbeck, G.S., Carati, C.J., Gibbins, I.L., & Reynolds, K.J., 2008. A virtual reality 3D jigsaw for teaching anatomy. Studies in health technology and informatics, 138, 436-438.

Sprick, C.D., Ruthenbeck, G.S., Owen, H., & Reynolds, K.J., 2008. Virtual patient monitors for new user familiarization. Studies in health technology and informatics, 132, 484-486.

Refereed conference papers

Ruthenbeck, G.S., Lim, F., & Reynolds, K.J., 2011. TSF: A Versatile New Tissue Simulation Framework For Simulating Haptically Interactive Tissue with Volumetric Cutting. Proceedings of Virtual Reality International Conference (VRIC 2011).

Ruthenbeck, G.S., Carati, C.J., Gibbins, I.L., & Reynolds, K.J., 2007. A virtual reality tool for teaching anatomy. Australasian Physical and Engineering Science in Medicine, 30(4), 417-418.

Owen, H., Ruthenbeck, G.S., & Reynolds, K.J., 2006. The Flinders Virtual Reality Endotracheal Intubation Simulator. Australian Society of Anaesthetists 65th National Scientific Congress.

Conference publications

Ruthenbeck, G.S., Sloan, S., Carney, A.S., & Reynolds, K.J., 2011. Towards Photorealistic Rendering in Endoscopy Simulation.

Ruthenbeck, G.S. & Lim, F., 2009. Software framework for performance assessment in medical training simulations. Simulation Technology and Training Conference (SimTecT) - Beyond Technical Skills.

Further information

Since completing the first prototype of ISim for his Engineering Honours Project in 2002, Greg has worked in the simulation industry developing a range of virtual reality simulator prototypes that push the boundaries of what is possible with cutting edge technology. His work includes Defence simulator components, radar image processing algorithms, and numerous applications including ISim version 1 (2002), ISim version 2 (2004), Live Sports Monitoring GPS Tracking (hardware and software - comms, gui, embedded C etc) (2004), Haptic Playground (2004), 3D Skull Jigsaw (2004), CT Data Analysis Wizard (2006), Mobile Phone Psychometric Tester (2006), GPU Tissue Simulation (2007 - 2010), ISim version 3 (2009 with Fabian Lim), and the Flinders Endoscopic Sinus Surgery Simulator (2010). (Note: Skull 3D Models courtesy of Miro Kirov at NYU.)



Click on the links below for more screen shots.

Documents



inspiring achievement