Paola Ruiz Puentes

Universidad de Los Andes, Johns Hopkins University

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Paola Ruiz Puentes is a researcher working at the intersection of surgical robotics, computer vision, and human-computer interaction, with a particular focus on advancing the intelligence and safety of next-generation surgical systems. Her most cited work, "Towards Holistic Surgical Scene Understanding" (2022, 47 citations), reflects her commitment to developing comprehensive perceptual frameworks that enable robotic systems to interpret complex operating room environments with greater contextual awareness — a foundational challenge in autonomous and semi-autonomous surgery. Beyond scene understanding, Ruiz Puentes has carved out a distinctive niche in cognitive load assessment for telerobotic surgery, pioneering the use of eye gaze tracking and pupillometry as non-invasive windows into surgeons' mental workload. Her comparative studies evaluating pupillometry algorithms and head-worn eye-tracking solutions address a critical practical gap: determining which technologies reliably function within the demanding physical constraints of robotic surgical platforms. This line of research holds meaningful implications for surgical training, operator safety, and adaptive human-robot interfaces that respond to a surgeon's real-time cognitive state. Through her interdisciplinary contributions, Ruiz Puentes is helping to lay the groundwork for more responsive, safer, and ultimately more human-centered robotic surgical systems.