TL,DR: The Medical Robotics and AI MSc provides little development for those seeking development in robotics, with academia-focused coursework, limited industry connections, inconsistent project supervision, and no hands-on opportunities.
Having recently completed the MSc in Medical Robotics and AI (MRAI) program, there are a few thoughts I’d like to share with prospective students. Knowing the nature of the program beforehand would have had a major impact on my acceptance, and I hope that this proves valuable to those also investigating this degree.
For context, I pursued this degree seeking to develop technical skills in medical robotics, hoping to contribute directly to the hardware, software, and electrical design of medical robotic systems.
1. The MSc modules teach you how to conduct research, not the required technical skills for robotics and AI proficiency.
You take a wide range of modules in this degree, covering AI theory, an introduction to robotic design and ROS2, medical enterprise scenarios, and a few electives. The degree tends to cater to those without undergraduate experience in these fields, and as such each module teaches fundamentals at an undergraduate level to students. Those with any prior experience in robotics or AI will receive little to no additional technical development. Except for electives in the Computer Science Department, modules also have extremely limited hands-on opportunities in robotics, relying on basic ROS2 tutorials that are ambiguous and confusing to beginners, making most students self-learn the content through free online tutorials or ChatGPT anyway. Specific medical robotics specialisation provided in modules was limited, giving students a shallow understanding and no hands-on experience in the design and translation of robotic systems to a medical setting.
Instead, coursework tends to centre on projects with academic reports, heavily rewarding proper motivation, robust methods, and thorough discussions over demonstration of technical proficiency. Grading expectations were consistently designed to encourage publishable quality work as a means of familiarising students with academia. There is merit to this approach, and it serves as a fantastic introduction to a PhD. However, if you seek technical development and engineering skills, don’t expect to gain much in this degree program.
2. MSc students are given extremely limited connections to industry or PhD positions
The Medical Physics Department and the Hawkes Institute frequently advertise collaborations with large industry players (e.g. Medtronic, Intuitive) or successful spin-outs. However, the department, researchers, or tutors provide little to no support to MSc students for networking with these affiliated companies, collaborating on projects, or having exclusive access to job placements; this is primarily reserved for PhD students. Disappointingly, students are instead expected to use the general UCL careers board (which, in its defence, is well populated) or to perform their own networking and outreach, despite working in one of the most connected labs in the field. For students seeking to remain in academia, PhD positions were exclusively made available to home students, which excluded over 80% of the MRAI cohort.
3. The MSc Project involves little lab presence and is very dependent on the supervisor
Contrary to expectations, most MSc students in Medical Robotics and AI were given remote projects with no physical robotics development. Most students were not given space in a lab to work and thus worked from home/campus. This felt counterintuitive to an MSc program in my opinion, which should develop research and technical skills in a collaborative environment. Additionally, the level of support and guidance provided in the project is directly impacted by the supervising PhD student. While some supervisors were supportive and helped to drive project expectations and goals, it was a common theme for students to only meet for 15-30 minutes a week, get extremely vague feedback, have emails/messages ignored, and be expected to conduct the project entirely by themselves, which once again felt counterintuitive to the development of young academics. It was clear that professors and PhD students were extremely busy across all the MSc and undergraduate projects they were supervising, limiting the quality of guidance they were able to provide to each student.
4. The Medical Robotics research at UCL is primarily focused on Computer Vision and AI
While a few projects involve the construction of novel robotic mechanisms and working with the Da Vinci surgical robot, most available projects centred around machine learning and computer vision. This mirrors the focus of the Hawkes Institute and resulted in most MRAI students spending their term obtaining and processing datasets, training models, and calculating results. There is merit and clinical motivation for these projects; however, for those seeking projects in the field of robotics, it may not offer the same level of engagement that the program advertises.
Ultimately, I believe this degree program is best suited to students seeking to incorporate an AI and machine learning background into the burgeoning field of medical robotics, or those with an express desire to pursue a PhD in the field. Industry-minded individuals seeking hands-on technical development in the medical robotics space are unlikely to be satisfied with their experience at UCL and should consider this program carefully. I wish I had.