Overview
Siobhan Oca's research focusses on medical robotics and robotics education. Specifically, she is interested in developing safe and effective autonomous medical procedures. Her doctoral research focussed on development of autonomous ultrasound scanning with robotic arm, implemented in a human study, which also assessed trust and safety. Since starting as faculty, she studies the methods used in teaching robotics to understand their efficacy in student learning and perception of robotics as a future career field.
She leads the Masters programs in Robotics for MEMS and is passionate about robotics curricula development that prepares students for their future in robotics and impacts on society, including through her Case Studies of Ethics in Robotics and Autonomy course.
She leads the Masters programs in Robotics for MEMS and is passionate about robotics curricula development that prepares students for their future in robotics and impacts on society, including through her Case Studies of Ethics in Robotics and Autonomy course.
Current Appointments & Affiliations
Assistant Professor of the Practice in the Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
·
2022 - Present
Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science,
Pratt School of Engineering
Assistant Director for Robotics and Autonomy in the Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
·
2022 - Present
Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science,
Pratt School of Engineering
Director of Masters Studies in the Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
·
2025 - Present
Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science,
Pratt School of Engineering
Recent Publications
Lessons Learned in Developing ROS Asynchronous Tutorials for Robotics course: Guided versus Inquiry based Learning
Conference ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition Conference Proceedings · January 1, 2025 Robotics is a highly multidisciplinary area of study, with introduction to robotics taking many forms at different universities[1, 2, 3, 4]. ROS (Robot Operating System), a middleware package used in physical and simulated robotic systems and sensors is of ... Full text CiteCase Study: Using Synthetic Datasets to Examine Bias in Machine Learning Algorithms for Resume Screening
Conference ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition Conference Proceedings · January 1, 2025 The increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in recruitment, particularly through resume screening algorithms, raises significant ethical concerns due to the potential for biased decision-making. This case study explores these issues by developing a ... Full text CiteETHICS-2025 Session B3 – Workshop: Engineering Education for an Ethical Future: Equipping Engineers for Emerging Technologies
Conference Ethics 2025 2025 IEEE International Symposium on Ethics in Engineering Science and Technology Emerging Technologies Ethics and Social Justice · January 1, 2025 This workshop focuses on ethics education with emergent technologies that emphasize the future role of engineers to responsibly innovate, develop, and deploy for various shareholders. Our team of Duke faculty from biomedical engineering, mechanical enginee ... Full text CiteRecent Grants
Automated Vascular Access for Spaceflight
ResearchGraduate Student · Awarded by National Aeronautics and Space Administration · 2020 - 2021View All Grants
Education
Duke University ·
2022
Ph.D.
University of California San Francisco, School of Medicine ·
2017
M.S.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology ·
2016
B.S.