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Akhil Madhani, a PhD graduate student of Mechanical Engineering from the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab was honored on February 11, 1998 with the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Award Student Prize for his robotic invention. Madhani invented a surgical device that would allow medical teams to perform operations inside the human body through a much smaller incision than was previously possible. By using a smaller incision, doctors can reduce trauma to a patient during surgery.

The 29-year-old inventor received the award and prize money for his Black Falcon teleoperated surgical instrument that operates by remote control and fiber optics. Madhani has five patents pending, and two of his inventions are already being used by NASA. The young inventor currently works for Walt Disney Imagineering Research and Development in Glendale, California, on robotics, computer controlled systems and digital technologies.

The Black Falcon was inspired by Madhanis' father Dhanvant Madhani, an orthopedic surgeon, who allowed his son to watch him perform arthroscopic surgery. Akhil Madhani designed his teleoperation device to aid in coronary artery bypass surgery (an operation that involves the ribcage being split through the sternum and spread apart to expose the heart). His device may allow such surgery to be performed by inserting instruments gently between the ribs.

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