About
I am a Postdoctoral Fellow in Mechanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, working with Axel Krieger, Ph.D. since August 2026. I completed my Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Duke University in 2026, advised by Patrick Codd, M.D. and Boyuan Chen, Ph.D. in the Brain Tool Lab.
I build full-stack robotic systems that connect sensing, inference, and control — across multisensory information streams from acoustics to imaging, and across optomechanical systems, embedded platforms, and learning-based models — to achieve reliable and scalable autonomy in high-stakes, unstructured settings. My vision is to turn rich sensory data into actionable intelligence, making precision robotic operation safer and more effective.
Before Duke, I co-led Futures+ across four countries and founded TEDxNITW. These experiences inform how I think about technology design for communities that need it most.
I served as Lab Manager at the Brain Tool Lab (2023–2026) and Instructor of Record for two semesters of an undergraduate experiential-learning course developing teleoperated surgical systems for rural clinics.
My master’s research at Duke was advised by Xiaoyue Ni; my bachelor’s research at NIT Warangal was advised by P. Bangaru Babu.
Current appointment
- Postdoctoral Fellow
Johns Hopkins University
August 2026–present
Education
- Ph.D. MEMS, Duke
2022–2026 - Master’s MEMS, Duke
2020–2021 - Bachelor’s ME, NIT Warangal
2015–2019
Reviewing
- IEEE TRO
- IEEE/ASME T-MECH
- IEEE RA-L
- CoRL
- IEEE/RSJ IROS
- IEEE ISMR
- IEEE/EMBS BSN
- IEEE/RAS RoboSoft
- JMRR
Awards
Sponsored research & grants
Selected projects and my role. Project amounts are total support, not individual awards.
Intelligent Ultrasonic Aspirator for Soft-Tissue Resection
Project Lead — project scoping and strategy; led proposal writing and assembly; IP coordination. PI: Patrick Codd, Duke University.
Reimagining Surgery for Rural Needs
Team Lead, Project Manager, and Instructor of Record. PI: Patrick Codd, Duke University.
Flexible sensors for precision laser surgery
Team Lead; led proposal writing. Faculty mentor: Patrick Codd.
Portable tumor diagnostics
PI; led proposal writing and built clinical collaborations in India. Faculty mentor: Patrick Codd.
Patent applications
- Systems and Methods for Neural OCT Tissue Representations for Robot-Guided Intervention
Prakash, R., McNabb, R. P., Codd, P. J. · US 64/045,412 · Provisional, patent pending.
- Systems and Methods for Acoustically Guided Surgery
Prakash, R., Chen, B., Codd, P. J., Lu, Yongjun. · US 63/988,766 · Provisional, patent pending.
- Device for Treating Orthostatic Syncope and Methods Thereof
Fudim, M., Richardson, E., Butch, J., Cross, V., Nandi, B., Lyon, R., Prakash, R., Ouyang, X., Miao, Y., Weil, B., Mitra, K., et al. · US 18/618,762 · Patent application, October 3, 2024.
Invited Talks
- Sensing–Driven Surgical Autonomy
Arizona State University · Medical Robotics Course · September 11, 2026
- Multimodal Autonomous Robots for Healthcare
Johns Hopkins University · March 30, 2026
- Innovating Surgical Robotics: Enhancing Precision and Automation in Minimally Invasive Procedures
IIT Patna · February 9, 2024
- Understanding the Basics of Natural Language Processing and Its Application to Processing Physicians’ Notes
Duke Family Medicine and Community Health Grand Rounds · September 14, 2021