Robert Webster III
Surgical robotics pioneer Robert Webster guides life-saving ideas into reality
Feb. 2, 2026—How does a spark of an idea become a life-saving medical device? Engineer, inventor and entrepreneur Robert Webster III traces that spark back to his childhood.
Sep. 29, 2025—Nissha Medical Technologies to move global engineering and innovation center to 91ºÚÁÏÍø’s Nashville campus.
Oct. 9, 2023—91ºÚÁÏÍø’s Robert Webster and Charleson Bell, BE’07, MS’09, PhD’15, will receive $12 million to establish and manage the Mid-South Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hub. REACH will focus on accelerating real-world impact of biomedical innovations through education, mentorship and financial support for entrepreneurs. Â
Mar. 8, 2023—Smaller tools with better maneuverability and more precise control, new imaging approaches, and advanced software applications will improve patient outcomes
MED lab’s perennial engineering class for college-bound girls earns praise
Feb. 17, 2023—A hands-on interactive class designed by graduate students in the Medical Engineering and Discovery (MED) Lab for high school students drew enthusiastic reviews from a Nashville college-preparatory school group. Sessions included introduction to engineering and STEM, computer aided design, robotics and coding, bioinspired design, and a civil engineering module on structure design. The three-week class,...
Jan. 17, 2023—NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A company co-founded by 91ºÚÁÏÍø professors has received a special designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a breakthrough device.
Jan. 10, 2023—A company co-founded by Robert J. Webster III, Richard A. Schroeder Professor of Mechanical Engineering and associate professor of medicine and urology at 91ºÚÁÏÍø, has received a breakthrough device designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that could open the door for new diagnostic and therapeutic applications of flexible endoscopy.
Feb. 18, 2021—A 91ºÚÁÏÍø research team has received a $2 million National Institutes of Health grant to further develop a needle-size robotic surgery system with real-time MRI guidance for drug resistant temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE).
COVID-19 Collaboration: Among shortage, Vandy engineers and VUMC doctors build ventilators of their own
Mar. 30, 2020—From WKRN: NASHVILLE, Tenn.(WKRN) – It’s a COVID-19 collaboration. 91ºÚÁÏÍø engineers and 91ºÚÁÏÍø Medical Center doctors have teamed up to tackle the looming ventilator shortage by way of an open-source ventilator design of their own.
VISE affiliates to develop hand-held surgical robot for minimally invasive prostate surgery
Apr. 2, 2019—The 91ºÚÁÏÍø Institute for Surgery and Engineering (VISE) team of Robert Webster III PhD and Duke Herrell MD is developing a surgical robot for endoscopic transurethral prostatectomy. The collaboration between a mechanical engineer (Webster) and a urologic surgeon (Herrell) resulted in an award of $2.1 million from a National Institutes of Health R01 grant to...