Ron Alterovitz

Ron Alterovitz

NIH Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences
University of California, Berkeley

UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center
University of California, San Francisco

E-mail: 

ron

@

ieor.berkeley.edu

Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
M.S., University of California, Berkeley
B.S., California Institute of Technology (Caltech)


Starting January 2009, I will join the Computer Science Department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as an Assistant Professor. My web page will move to http://www.cs.unc.edu/~ron.

My research focuses on developing and combining motion planning algorithms and physically-based simulations to provide novel solutions to problems in medicine, including treatment planning, device control, medical image registration, and physician training.

I am currently an NIH Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the UC Berkeley EECS Department and the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center, and I am actively collaborating with researchers at UC Berkeley, UCSF, The Johns Hopkins University, and LAAS-CNRS in Toulouse, France. I earned my doctorate from UC Berkeley in 2006 in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research with minors in Computer Science and Bioengineering, and I earned my B.S. degree with Honors from Caltech in 2001 studying Computer Science. My Ph.D. thesis, completed with advisor Ken Goldberg in the Berkeley Automation Sciences Lab, introduced new motion planning and optimization algorithms for image-guided medical procedures. I have funded my research through multi-year fellowships and grants from NSF, DOD, and NIH.

Selected Publications

  1. Ron Alterovitz, Thierry Siméon, and Ken Goldberg, "The Stochastic Motion Roadmap: A Sampling Framework for Planning with Markov Motion Uncertainty," in Proc. Robotics: Science and Systems, Jun. 2007. (Download PDF)
  2. Ron Alterovitz, Michael Branicky, and Ken Goldberg, "Constant-Curvature Motion Planning Under Uncertainty with Applications in Image-Guided Medical Needle Steering," in Proc. Workshop on the Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics, Jul. 2006. (Download PDF)
  3. Ron Alterovitz, Etienne Lessard, Jean Pouliot, I-Chow Joe Hsu, James F. O'Brien, and Ken Goldberg, "Optimization of HDR brachytherapy dose distributions using linear programming with penalty costs," Medical Physics, vol. 33, no. 11, pp. 4012-4019, Nov. 2006. (Download PDF)
  4. Ron Alterovitz, Ken Goldberg, Jean Pouliot, I-Chow Joe Hsu, Yongbok Kim, Susan Moyher Noworolski, and John Kurhanewicz, "Registration of MR prostate images with biomechanical modeling and nonlinear parameter estimation," Medical Physics, vol. 33, no. 2, pp. 446-454, Feb. 2006. (Download PDF)
  5. Ron Alterovitz, Andrew Lim, Ken Goldberg, Gregory S. Chirikjian, and Allison M. Okamura, "Steering Flexible Needles Under Markov Motion Uncertainty," in Proc. IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Aug. 2005, pp. 120-125. (Download PDF)
  6. Ron Alterovitz, Ken Goldberg, and Allison Okamura, "Planning for Steerable Bevel-tip Needle Insertion Through 2D Soft Tissue with Obstacles," in Proc. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Apr. 2005, pp. 1652-1657. (Download PDF)
  7. Ron Alterovitz, Ken Goldberg, John Kurhanewicz, Jean Pouliot, I-Chow Hsu, "Image Registration for Prostate MR Spectroscopy Using Biomechanical Modeling and Optimization of Force and Stiffness Parameters," in Proc. 26th Annual Int. Conf. of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS), Sept. 2004, pp. 1722-1725. (Download PDF)
  8. Ron Alterovitz, Jean Pouliot, Richard Taschereau, I-Chow Joe Hsu, and Ken Goldberg, "Sensorless Planning for Medical Needle Insertion Procedures," in Proceedings of the 2003 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2003), Oct. 2003, pp. 3337-3343. (Download PDF) (Best Paper Award Finalist)
  9. Ron Alterovitz, Jean Pouliot, Richard Taschereau, I-Chow Joe Hsu, and Ken Goldberg, "Needle Insertion and Radioactive Seed Implantation in Human Tissues: Simulation and Sensitivity Analysis," in Proceedings of the 2003 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2003), Sept. 2003, pp. 1793-1799. (Download PDF)
  10. Ron Alterovitz, Jean Pouliot, Richard Taschereau, I-Chow Joe Hsu, and Ken Goldberg, "Simulating Needle Insertion and Radioactive Seed Implantation for Prostate Brachytherapy," in Medicine Meets Virtual Reality 11 (MMVR11), J.D. Westwood et al. (Eds.), IOS Press, Jan. 2003, pp. 19-25. (Download PDF)

Complete list of publications