CO-OP SHOW & TELL
I Tested AI Medical Robotics in Singapore
In a typical year, more than 89% of Drexel’s undergraduates participate in the Drexel Co-op program — our signature model of education that balances classroom theory with job experience. What does a contemporary Drexel co-op look like? We asked Lynelle Martin, BS/MS biomedical engineering ’26, to show us. She spent the spring and summer of 2025 in Singapore with the support of the Gilman International Scholarship, and she’s Drexel’s first recipient of the STEM Supplemental Award, which supports students conducting STEM-related research abroad. She co-op’d in Singapore with medtech company Biobot Surgical, which specializes in robotic systems for prostate cancer diagnostics. She tested software to support a robotic-assisted medical tool called the Mona Lisa.
The
Co-op
Every day is a new challenge, and I’ve been learning so much because my background isn’t necessarily in software. Biobot has a software called Urotherapy, and it basically stacks and merges together 3D images and helps with MRI and ultrasound images and biopsy models. I’m just running tests with that. I simulate the actions of a clinician, changing the parameters and settings so we can see where errors might happen where the software might fail so we can improve it before it reaches the hospital. I also helped out with their mechanical testing group, which focuses on the robot arm development to see what they need to do for it to reach failure. Sometimes they have to scroll through lines and lines of hex code to find where the error actually took place. I helped come up with the software to search through that so they can find the error.
The tool I couldn’t live without would probably be any type of notebook, like OneNote. I need my notebook everywhere I go, and it makes something complicated feel way more manageable. When I was building software to classify the Mona Lisa 2.0 robot’s error log files, I used it to keep track of all the different criteria the tool needed and to organize my troubleshooting notes. Having everything in one place made it easier to refine the system without losing track of the smaller details.
The Object
The Object
The tool I couldn’t live without would probably be any type of notebook, like OneNote. I need my notebook everywhere I go, and it makes something complicated feel way more manageable. When I was building software to classify the Mona Lisa 2.0 robot’s error log files, I used it to keep track of all the different criteria the tool needed and to organize my troubleshooting notes. Having everything in one place made it easier to refine the system without losing track of the smaller details.
The Takeaway
One thing I’ve learned through this co-op is that I achieved so much more than I thought I could, especially since I didn’t have a software engineering background. Overall, I’ve been putting myself out there and trying a lot of new things. Living and working here has been a unique experience. The main language is English, so it makes it easy to communicate. Singapore is like a cultural melting pot with Chinese, Malay, Indian and others, and it feels very welcoming. The food reflects the diversity. You can get food from basically anywhere, and the fusions are so beautiful, like Japanese Italian food. Reflecting on this experience, having a growth mindset exposed me to new skills that I can bring into whatever job I go into in the future. The medtech industry is growing, and AI is growing it even more. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men, and anybody can get it. I’ve had family members who’ve had cancer, so I understand how important it is. The future is here, and it feels so nice to make such an impact with the prostate cancer diagnostic robot.
Help students choose opportunity over affordability. Your generosity provides stipends for unpaid or underpaid co-ops, unlocking career-defining experiences in nonprofits, global placements and high-cost cities for students of all backgrounds. Give to The Co-op Opportunity Fund here. DM
Read more stories from this issue of Drexel Magazine.
Built with Shorthand
