Keshav Bimbraw, Ph.D.

केशव बिम्बरा | ਕੇਸ਼ਵ ਬਿੰਬਰਾ

I am a Machine Learning Research and Development Engineer at OnPoint Surgical, Inc., based in Concord, Massachusetts. I apply advances in AI/ML to medical imaging modalities to support the next generation of surgical robotics. I completed my PhD in Robotics at WPI's Medical FUSION Lab, where my research focused on applying deep learning to ultrasound and other biosignal data for real-time unimodal and multimodal biosignal-based prediction. My work has applications across robotic teleoperation, AR/VR, surgical robotics, rehabilitation robotics, and gaming.

During my PhD, I interned at Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories in Cambridge, Massachusetts during the summers of 2023 and 2024, where I worked on improving robustness of multimodal biosignal-based gesture estimation and using large vision-language models for biosignal-based human-machine interfacing. In Summer and Fall 2022, I worked as an Augmented Human Sensing Researcher at Nokia Bell Labs, where I worked on multimodal biosignal processing and low-latency robotic teleoperation.

Prior to starting my PhD, I interned in Active Noise Control Engineering at Bose and worked as an Audio DSP Engineer. I hold a Master's in Music Technology from Georgia Tech, where I worked on AI-based human-machine interfacing and robotic musicianship. I completed a research internship at IIT Delhi during my undergraduate studies in Mechatronics Engineering at Thapar University.

News

Recent research updates, publications, invited talks, and professional milestones.

Jul 2025

Presented edge AI work at MIDL 2025

Presented our paper Transfer Learning and Quantization for Efficient AP vs. LA X-Ray View Classification on an Edge Device at the Medical Imaging with Deep Learning Conference held at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

May 2025

Graduated with a PhD in Robotics Engineering

Graduated with a PhD in Robotics Engineering. I was one of the first PhDs to graduate from my adviser Dr. Haichong K. Zhang's lab.

Feb 2025

Passed my PhD thesis defense

Passed my thesis defense. Huge thanks to my committee, with members from Harvard University, Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, and WPI.

More updates from 2024 and earlier
Nov 2024

Invited talk at IEEE BHI 2024

Delivered an invited talk titled Integrating AI with Ultrasound for Enhanced Human-Machine Interfacing at the AI in Tele-echography workshop at IEEE BHI 2024.

Oct 2024

GPT Sonography accepted to NeurIPS AIM-FM workshop

The GPT Sonography paper based on work done at MERL in Summer 2024 was accepted to the AIM-FM workshop at NeurIPS 2024.

Oct 2024

Started full-time work at OnPoint Surgical

Started full-time work at OnPoint Surgical to advance surgical robotics.

Sep 2024

Presented acoustic reflector ultrasound work at NERC 2024

Presented and gave a live demonstration of our acoustic-reflector-based forearm ultrasound system for hand gesture classification with Yichuan Tang at Northeast Robotics Colloquium at UMass Amherst.

Jul 2024

Accepted full-time ML offer at OnPoint Surgical

Accepted a full-time Machine Learning Software Engineer offer at OnPoint Surgical, starting work in October 2024.

Jun 2024

Two papers accepted to IEEE IUS 2024

Two out of two papers were accepted to IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium 2024.

Jun 2024

Started second research internship at MERL

Started a research internship at Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories under Dr. Toshiaki Koike-Akino.

Jun 2024

Passed my PhD thesis proposal

Passed my PhD thesis proposal.

May 2024

Won IEEE EMBC NextGen Scholar Award

Won the IEEE EMBC NextGen Scholar Award.

Apr 2024

Multimodal biosignal robustness paper accepted to IEEE EMBC

A paper on improving robustness of multimodal biosignals for gesture classification based on my Summer 2023 internship at MERL was accepted to IEEE EMBC 2024.

Nov 2023

Mirror-based ultrasound work accepted to SPIE Medical Imaging

Mirror-based forearm ultrasound for hand gesture classification using CNNs and Vision Transformers was accepted for presentation at SPIE Medical Imaging 2024 in San Diego, CA.

Oct 2023

Ultrasound-based virtual object manipulation presented at IEEE BSN

Ultrasound-based virtual object manipulation work was presented at IEEE EMBS BSN 2023 at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, MA.

Sep 2023

Finger force estimation paper presented at IEEE IUS

Ultrasound-based finger force estimation was presented at IEEE IUS 2023 in Montreal, Canada.

Jul 2023

Ultrasound-based virtual object manipulation accepted to IEEE BSN

Our work on ultrasound-based virtual object manipulation was accepted to IEEE BSN 2023, held at the MIT Media Lab.

May 2023

Finger force estimation work accepted to IEEE IUS

My work on ultrasound-based finger force estimation was accepted to IEEE IUS 2023.

Mar 2023

Passed my PhD qualifiers

Gave my PhD qualifiers and passed.

Dec 2022

Completed a productive Co-Op at Nokia Bell Labs

Ended a very productive Co-Op at Nokia Bell Labs, producing deliverables including published and future papers, patents, and demonstrable videos.

Oct 2022

Biosignal-controlled HMI paper accepted to IEEE SII

The paper Towards the Development of a Low-Latency, Biosignal-Controlled Human-Machine Interaction System was accepted to IEEE SII 2023.

Aug 2022

Nokia Bell Labs Co-Op extension accepted

Based on my summer internship performance, the Data and Devices Group in the Artificial Intelligence Research Labs at Nokia Bell Labs extended a Co-Op offer, which I accepted.

Jun 2022

Joined Nokia Bell Labs as an Augmented Human Sensing Intern

Joined the Data and Devices Group in the Artificial Intelligence Research Labs at Nokia Bell Labs in New Providence, NJ.

May 2022

Presented ICRA paper and workshop poster

Presented a paper at the Autonomous Systems session and a poster at the Workshop on Human-Centered Autonomy in Medical Robotics at IEEE ICRA 2022 in Philadelphia.

Jan 2022

ICRA paper accepted

My recent paper was accepted to IEEE ICRA 2022.

Dec 2021

Completed PhD qualifier coursework

Completed all courses required for my PhD qualifier.

Sep 2021

Submitted forearm ultrasound hand movement paper to ICRA

Submitted my paper on predicting continuous and discrete hand movements using forearm ultrasound images to ICRA 2022.

Oct 2020

Robotic lung ultrasound paper published

My ultrasound image capture code was useful for Ryosuke's robotic lung ultrasound paper, which was published.

Aug 2020

Started PhD in Robotics Engineering at WPI

Started my PhD in Robotics Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Mar 2020

Accepted PhD offer from WPI

Received PhD offers from Georgia Tech and WPI. Accepted the WPI offer and started working in the Medical FUSION Lab.

Dec 2019

Ultrasound prosthetics work featured in The Age of A.I.

My project and code for controlling prosthetics with ultrasound were featured in the first episode of The Age of A.I.

Apr 2019

Sonomyography soft robotic gripper work presented at ISMR/SSMR

Presented Sonomyography-Based Real-Time Hand Grasp Configuration Identification via Supervised Learning to Control a Soft Robotic Gripper at ISMR/SSMR 2019.

Oct 2018

Presented SMG and EMG work at BMES

Presented Comparison and Integration of SMG and EMG at BMES Annual Meeting 2018.

Selected Papers

Mirror-based ultrasound system demonstration

Mirror-Based Ultrasound System for Exploring Hand Gesture Classification through CNN and Vision Transformer

SPIE Medical Imaging 2024 · San Diego, CA

Ultrasound sensing for virtual object manipulation

Leveraging Ultrasound Sensing for Virtual Object Manipulation in Immersive Environments

IEEE BSN 2023 · Cambridge, MA

Finger force estimation from forearm ultrasound

Estimating Force Exerted by the Fingers Based on Forearm Ultrasound

IEEE IUS 2023 · Montreal, Canada

Low-latency biosignal-controlled human-machine interaction system

Towards the Development of a Low-Latency, Biosignal-Controlled Human-Machine Interaction System

IEEE/SICE SII 2023 · Atlanta, GA

Forearm ultrasound hand configuration and joint angle prediction

Prediction of MCP Joint Angles and Classification of Hand Configurations from Forearm Ultrasound

IEEE ICRA 2022 and IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics · Philadelphia, PA

Forearm ultrasound ASL classification

Forearm Ultrasound Images Can Be Classified to Predict Static American Sign Language Letters

IEEE ICRA 2022 Workshop on Human-Centered Autonomy in Medical Robotics · Philadelphia, PA

Sonomyography prosthesis control

Towards Sonomyography-Based Real-Time Control of Powered Prosthesis Grasp Synergies

IEEE EMBC 2020 · Montreal, Canada

Volunteer Advising / Mentorship

Please feel free to contact me for advice on graduate school and career guidance. Many people have generously helped me over the years, and I would like to give back in the same spirit. Mentoring has also been deeply fulfilling for me, especially when supporting students from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds. Reach out at last_namefirst_name@gmail.com.