The venture builder gave me the chance to bring together medicine, business and tech, three areas that don't usually overlap, and shape them into something I really care about. Seeing it recognised means a lot, and it's shown me there's a genuine space here to make a real impact."
Nir Mathur, Medical student, King's College London
01 July 2026
King's medical student's surgical AI places third globally in Harvard's health venture programme
Nir Mathur, a medical student at King's and member of the Surgical Data Science research group, has been placed third in the world in the Harvard Health Systems Innovation Lab's 2026 venture building programme.
Organised by Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the programme drew 1,553 teams from more than 30 countries, all exploring the theme Building High-Value Health Systems: Leveraging AI.
Nir’s team, Foresight, secured first place at the London round, hosted by UCL, competing against teams from across the UK and Europe that included students, practising clinicians and industry professionals. They then advanced through two bootcamps and a venture-building immersion, culminating in the global final in Boston.
Nir co-founded Foresight, an AI-powered surgical training platform, alongside Ramzi Ben Hassen, a biomedical engineer at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, whom he met on the opening day of the competition.
Their work focused on transforming surgical training for endoscopic procedures by using AI and machine learning to gain insights into surgical performance that were previously not possible. By analysing recorded procedures, the platform delivers precise, detailed feedback to surgeons, improving accuracy while making high‑quality training more widely accessible.
Along the way, Nir drew on the guidance of Dr Alejandro Granados, Lecturer in Surgical Data Science, who has mentored him over the past five months and Dr Nicolas Huber of King's London Institute for Healthcare Engineering, who helped refine the project's vision before Boston.
Surgery is entering a period of profound transformation, with artificial intelligence set to reshape how we plan, perform and evaluate surgical care. Seeing Nir's work pitched and translated into practical prototypes highlights the enormous potential of surgical AI to deliver real value to patients and clinicians. Nir's award is testament of the recognition on a global stage of what King's students can achieve, and of the support my research group can bring in. What excites me most is seeing medical students develop the technical capabilities to turn ambitious ideas into practical tools that address genuine challenges faced by surgeons every day."
Dr Alejandro Granados, Lecturer in Surgical Data Science, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences.
The success of Nir and Foresight reflect King’s ongoing commitment to equip our students with enterprising skills beyond academic education, particularly in key strengths such as biomedical engineering and surgical data science. The London Institute for Healthcare Engineering (LIHE) at King’s is proud to have played a small role in supporting Nir’s team’s success in this globally recognised competition.”
Dr Nicolas Huber Director, Commercial Operations and Partnerships, London Institute for Healthcare Engineering
Looking ahead, Nir's team's focus is on developing the software fully and deploying it in real training environments. Over the longer term, the aim is to broaden access. High-quality, detailed feedback—the kind that truly supports trainee development—is often limited to major teaching hospitals. Their goal is to make that level of support available to all learners, wherever they are.
In this story
Lecturer in Surgical Data Science
Director, Commercial Operations and Partnerships, London Institute for Healthcare Engineering