ATLANTA – Emory University School of Medicine and the Georgia Institute of Technology have launched a new dual-degree program pairing a Doctor of Medicine (MD) from Emory with a Master of Science (MS) in Robotics from Georgia Tech. The five-year MD/MS in Robotics program offers medical students the opportunity to combine physician training with graduate-level engineering, robotics and technology development without having to choose one path over the other.
Admitted students spend their first year at Georgia Tech, completing core courses, professional-preparation seminars and electives spanning mechanics, controls, perception, artificial intelligence, human-robot interaction and natural systems. They then move to Emory for four years of medical school. While at Emory, students stay connected to faculty mentors at both institutions and finish their remaining Georgia Tech requirements, including a discovery/capstone project.
“This program is about training physicians who can identify the clinical problems that matter most and also have the engineering background to help build the solutions,” says Jason Bariteau, MD, professor in the department of orthopaedics at Emory University School of Medicine, who is helping lead the new pathway. “We are not simply adding a technical degree onto a medical degree. We are preparing a new kind of physician-leader for healthcare technology.”
The pathway targets highly motivated students, particularly those with undergraduate backgrounds in engineering, biomedical engineering, robotics or computer science, who want to stand out for competitive residency programs while building skills to lead innovation in their field. Program leaders expect four to six students per year.
“This is a truly interdisciplinary dual-degree program that enables future clinicians to have a strong foundational understanding of robotics and artificial intelligence so that they are better informed and educated as they encounter and use new technologies in their profession,” says Jaydev P. Desai, professor and Cardiovascular Biomedical Engineering Distinguished Chair in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory.
The new dual degree program comes five years after Georgia Tech launched a Master of Science in Robotics (MS-ROBO) program. Associate professor Nader Sadegh was one of MS-ROBO’s key contributors and said the goal was to create an interdisciplinary program in which students could bring robotics into many different fields.
“The MD/MS collaboration with Emory is an exciting and unique realization of that vision,” says Sadegh, a faculty member in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech who served as the former director of the robotics graduate program. “By educating students both as physicians and as roboticists, we are preparing a new generation of leaders who will not simply adopt emerging technologies but will play a key role in advancing them. Robot-assisted surgery is a prime example of where advances in healthcare robotics can directly lead to a better patient outcome and shorter recovery time.”
“Emory has always put people first in its research and care, and Georgia Tech has long built technology meant to serve them. This program is what that commitment produces when we put our strengths to work together,” says Sandra Wong, MD, MS, dean of Emory University School of Medicine. “It brings the depth of Emory’s medical training and the rigor of Georgia Tech’s engineering program into a single path for students who want both. We are training physician leaders who can build the technology medicine will need next.”
Career pathways
Graduates of the program will be positioned for a range of career paths, including:
- Academic physician-scientist careers focused on robotics, AI, medical devices or technology-enabled care
- Leadership roles in surgical robotics, medical device and digital health companies
- Entrepreneurship and the founding of new medical device or robotics ventures
- Clinical innovation roles within health systems
- Translational research at the interface of engineering and medicine
- Traditional clinical careers in fields such as surgery, rehabilitation, radiology and cardiology, paired with the ability to lead technology development within those specialties
How the program works
Applicants apply through Emory School of Medicine’s standard admissions process and may indicate their interest in the MD/MS in Robotics pathway on the application or during the interview process. Admission to the dual-degree program first requires admission to Emory’s MD program. Students admitted to Emory who have expressed interest are then evaluated for the dual-degree pathway in coordination with Georgia Tech; no separate application to the dual-degree program is required.
The Georgia Tech component follows the academic requirements of the 36-credit Master of Science in Robotics. The dual-degree structure changes the timing and integration of that work: students complete the classroom-based MS coursework during the first year at Georgia Tech, then complete their remaining discovery/capstone and related MS requirements while enrolled in the four-year MD curriculum at Emory.
This structure allows students to build a strong technical foundation before beginning medical school and then apply that foundation to clinical problems as their medical training progresses. Faculty mentorship across both institutions is intended to help students connect engineering concepts with real clinical needs and develop projects that can move from problem identification toward translation.