Victor is named after Sir Victor Horsley, appointed at Queen Square to what is widely described as the first dedicated neurosurgical post in history. His work helped establish modern neurosurgery and changed what surgeons believed was possible.
More than a century later, Panda Surgical was founded at Queen Square as an independent UCL spinout, by three people who arrived at the same conclusion from different directions: minimally invasive surgery could become easier, more effective and more widely available if surgeons were given better information and better instruments.
That conviction is why Victor is two technologies rather than one.
Panda Surgical was founded at Queen Square by Hani, Manios and Dan, bringing together neurosurgery, robotics engineering and AI.
Manios Dimitrakakis obtained a combined BA and MEng in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Patras, with his Master's thesis subject being the development of a novel robotic manipulator for thoracic surgery. He then went on to do a PhD in University College London Computer Science on the development of handheld robotic devices for minimally invasive neurosurgery. To translate the technology he developed during his PhD into the operating theatre, he co-founded Panda Surgical, a UCL spinout, alongside his PhD supervisors UCL CS Prof. Danail Stoyanov and UCLH neurosurgeon Mr. Hani Marcus. Since May 2023, he has been leading the effort at Panda Surgical as the company's CEO.
Hani Marcus is Professor of Neurosurgery at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology and a consultant neurosurgeon at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. He specialises in minimally invasive approaches to brain and skull base tumours and has led related international guidelines. He was awarded a PhD from Imperial College London for his work on surgical robotics and now leads research focused on robotics and artificial intelligence. His group has attracted substantial research funding, produced more than 250 peer-reviewed publications, and contributed to major frameworks for surgical innovation, including the IDEAL framework on surgical robotics. He was also editor of the first book dedicated to neurosurgical robotics, and his work has been recognised through visits from Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal and the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology. He co-founded Panda Surgical to help bring these technologies into everyday surgical practice.
Dan Stoyanov is a Professor of Robot Vision in UCL Computer Science, Co-Director of the UCL Hawkes Institute, and Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies. His background and research interests are in the fields of surgical robotics and AI where he has co-authored over 500 papers and is co-inventor on over 70 patent applications. He is elected Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (FIEEE); Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (FIET); Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng); and Fellow of the MICCAI Society (FMICCAI). Dan is also Chief Scientist at Medtronic Surgical R&D, and co-founder of Odin Vision Ltd (an Olympus Corporation Company), both companies specialising in developing AI products for interventional healthcare.
We welcome conversations with clinicians, hospitals, researchers, patient organisations and partners who share our ambition.
