Janus AI, a system that retrieves past surgical video to help trainees, won a €5,000 European robotic-urology prize as its UAE-led developers plan further validation work.
Eight finalists presented from 11 submissions at the inaugural Robotic Urology Breakthrough Innovation Challenge. The European Association of Urology’s robotic-surgery section (ERUS) announced the winner Sept. 10 during its ERUS26 meeting in Padua, Italy, which ran Sept. 9–11.
ERUS said the winning team received €5,000, along with opportunities for a European robotic-urology fellowship experience, mentorship and advisory programs, and a presentation at MedTech Malta 2026. The team spans three continents, and ERUS identified Chicago-based Dr. Luca Morgantini as the person who accepted the prize on its behalf.
Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) said its researchers led the project. The university describes Janus AI as a system that compares video from an ongoing operation with stored 30-second recordings of similar procedures. ERUS said the system reviews the half-minute before the current point in an operation and returns three comparable videos within two seconds. At the time of the award announcement, ERUS reported that the Janus AI model contained 37 hours of footage across more than 2,500 micro-clips.
The tool is intended to give trainees examples to consult when a mentor is unavailable. “If Dr. Crivellaro is not available, we can get stuck,” Morgantini said. Cesare Stefanini, an MBZUAI professor of robotics, described the tool’s potential for junior surgeons as “gold.”
MBZUAI said the team plans to revise the system’s architecture, add hundreds of surgical videos and continue development and validation toward clinical translation. The National reported that Janus AI is not ready for use in live operations and requires further refinement and regulatory approval before clinical use. MBZUAI’s announcement described planned validation work but did not give a regulatory timetable.
ERUS said the challenge program is expected to return in 2027, but it has not announced a date.
