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Advanced Curriculum Spotlight: ADV Thesis
Student Research on Surgical Robots Leads to Industry Invitation

Story by Kate Auger and Taylor Fox ’26 | Photography by Kate Auger

7-minute read

Durham Academy Upper School’s Advanced (ADV) curriculum — an internally designed, academically rigorous set of courses that emphasize depth over breadth, global relevance and independent problem-solving — has 60 ADV courses running in 2025–2026.

Upper School students and teachers at Durham Academy have raved about the advantages and benefits of ADV courses. Lasting learning. Real-life applications of knowledge. Enduring skills that span academic journeys and professional careers. We’ve taken a behind-the-scenes look at Dr. Brian Fennessy’s ADV History of Durham course and Josh Klein’s ADV History: Constitutional Law, which turned an Upper School classroom into an active courtroom.

Our third ADV spotlight features Taylor Fox ’26 and her ADV Thesis project: Patient Perception of Surgical Robots. This project represents Fox’s year-long exploration of robotic technologies in the medical field, inspired by her grandmother’s successful robotic hip and knee surgeries.

This fall, Fox’s work was recognized outside of DA when she was invited to present the results of her research at Intuitive, an RTP-based pioneer in robot-assisted surgery. A group of DA classmates and DA faculty/staff tagged along for the presentation, a tour of the facilities and even a hands-on test of the company’s flagship da Vinci robotic surgical system.

Among those tagging along for the visit was Associate Head of School Kristen Klein, who was thrilled to see the ADV curriculum in action: "Taylor's experience in the Advanced Thesis class empowered her to do research about a real problem in the real world and her visit to Intuitive gave her research a real audience. Taylor's project exemplifies the ways our new Advanced Upper School curriculum allows students to use the skills they build here at school to develop possible solutions and partner with community professionals working to address pressing local, national and global challenges."

The following conversation has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

DA: How did you decide to pursue an ADV Thesis project, and what drew you to this particular topic?

Fox: Starting in the fall of 10th grade, I decided to take ADV Global Inequalities with Mrs. [Shannon] Harris, which is now called ADV Research. Throughout the semester, I wrote two research papers, both of which I chose to focus on inequalities in the medical field.

[Editor’s note: In ADV Research, an interdisciplinary Upper School semester course, students synthesize their analysis of scholarly research about a real-world topic of interest. This work culminates in a project or presentation. In ADV Thesis, students further the skills they gleaned in ADV Research by designing, planning and implementing a year-long investigation of an independent research topic of their choice. This work culminates in the production and defense of a scholarly academic paper. Students who successfully complete ADV Thesis receive a Thesis Scholar distinction on their transcript. ]

When I began ADV Thesis in the fall of 11th grade, I knew I wanted to spend the year exploring something related to technology in the healthcare system, although I was not yet sure what direction to take. After lots of reading in the current body of knowledge, I decided to focus on robotic technologies in the medical field, specifically robotic surgery. As I researched, I found myself especially drawn to this topic because I already was a little bit familiar with it through my grandmother. A few years ago, she had her hip replaced using the Mako robotic system. She was released from the hospital the same day and was even able to walk on the beach three weeks later. Her recovery was remarkably quick, and she believes it is all because of the robotic system used in her surgery. Since then, she has had her other hip and her knee replaced by the same robot and insists she will only pursue robotic surgeries from now on. At the same time, I knew that many people felt very differently, which ultimately led me to investigate the broader perceptions and debates surrounding robotic surgery.

DA: How did the Intuitive visit come about?

Fox: At the end of ADV Thesis, our final project required us to share our research and findings with the community. I decided to take this a step further by writing a letter to the CEO of Intuitive, the global medical-technology company that created the first da Vinci robotic system, which remains the most widely used robotic surgery platform today. A few weeks after sending the letter, I heard back from the CEO, who connected me with Jay Rohde, the senior group product manager at Intuitive. He invited me and a few classmates to visit their Durham facility, present my research to members of his team, and tour the space. We finalized a date for mid-November, and I had the opportunity to present my thesis to him and his colleagues, meet with the CEO over Zoom, and take a two-hour tour of their 60,000-square-foot facility where my classmates and I were able to practice on the surgical robots.

DA: Tell us about your research. How did you get buy-in from the community, and what were your takeaways from the results?

Fox: Once I finalized my research question, I began collecting my data. For this study, I chose to use a descriptive research design to explore high school students’ perceptions of surgical robots, and I chose the survey method to collect the data. The survey was distributed via email to all high school students in the beginning of 2025, and 321 students at DA completed the survey. When I received the responses, I was very surprised by the results. Overall, DA students knew very little information about surgical robots, with only 8 out of the 321 students answering that they knew a lot of information about this technology. Also, the majority of students were very hesitant to accept surgical robots for high-risk procedures like open heart surgery. These findings showed me that there is a clear need for more education and awareness surrounding robotic surgery and emerging medical technologies.

DA: What were some highlights of your visit to Intuitive?

Fox: After I presented my research to the employees at Intuitive, they gave me, along with some of my classmates and faculty at DA, a tour of their facility. At the end of the tour, we were taken into a mock operating room that contained the da Vinci system and an operating table with a 3D-printed human abdomen filled with simulated tissue and muscle. This was especially interesting because we were able to test out the system firsthand and learn how to operate different components of it. We practiced inserting the instruments into the robotic arms, manipulating the tools inside the simulated abdomen, and even adding staples to the tissue. Seeing how precise the system was and experiencing how surgeons actually control the robot made the entire visit even more interesting and meaningful. I also think that getting to practice on the system helped inform my perspective on robot-assisted surgery. Through my data collection, I found that many people are skeptical of surgical robots because they believe the robot performs the surgery entirely on its own, which is a very common misconception. However, after getting to use the system myself, I now better understand how much control the human surgeon has throughout the entire procedure. The surgeon is fully in charge, and the robot is only there to function as a tool to provide greater precision and minimally invasive techniques.

DA: What was the most surprising thing when getting to see a behind-the-scenes look?

Fox: I think the most surprising thing was realizing how many employees with completely different skill sets and academic backgrounds work together to develop a single robot. There are software engineers who design and refine the systems that allow the robot to move with such precision, biomedical engineers who focus on how the instruments interact with the human body, data scientists who analyze performance data to improve safety and efficiency and so many more. There are also teams focused on testing, training, quality assurance and product design. Seeing how all of these roles come together to create a single surgical system showed me how collaborative and interdisciplinary this field truly is.

DA: Did the visit impact your thoughts on robot-assisted surgery at all? Has this experience sparked any fresh ideas for research related to this technology and patient psychology?

Fox: My visit to Intuitive definitely made me more willing to have robot-assisted surgery in the future, even for high-risk procedures. As mentioned earlier, a common misconception about robotic surgery is that the robot is all alone in the operating room performing the procedure. However, after getting to use the robotic system to cut through simulated tissue, I now better understand how much control the human truly has throughout the entire procedure. Also, I learned that recovery time for robotic surgery is often much faster than traditional open procedures, which made me even more confident in the technology. I do think it would be interesting to further research the impact that this technology has on patients. To start, I think it is important that patients are fully aware of this system and how it operates before they have a robotic surgery. A lot of the fear comes from not knowing what the robot actually does — so understanding the role of the surgeon, the precision of the system, and the benefits of minimally invasive techniques could change how patients feel going into a procedure. I also think it would be interesting to explore whether learning about these benefits reduces anxiety or even influences how patients perceive their recovery afterward.

View Taylor Fox’s Intuitive Presentation