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SURPASS Projects Tackle the ‘Beyond Possible’
Whether addressing the shortage of organs for transplant, harvesting hydrogen in revolutionary ways, or enabling flight in very low Earth orbit, the latest three winning SURPASS projects unite experts from the Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering and Johns Hopkins APL to solve world-changing problems.
Three Johns Hopkins teams have won funding through the latest cycle of the SURPASS initiative, a joint effort between the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, and the Johns Hopkins University’s Whiting School of Engineering (WSE) in Baltimore to tackle ambitious, high-impact challenges.
SURPASS provides up to $3.75 million to support cross-divisional teams pursuing innovative, multidisciplinary research. Each team is led by two principal investigators (PIs), one from APL and the other from WSE, and collaborates with researchers across the Johns Hopkins University ecosystem.
“SURPASS pushes the boundaries of research and innovation,” said Ed Schlesinger, dean of WSE. “The ambitious scope of these projects reflects the power of bringing together APL’s mission-focused expertise and WSE’s diverse engineering capabilities. Together, they’re tackling challenges that have the potential to transform entire industries and improve lives around the world.”
The program’s latest cycle, its third, received 31 submissions, three of which were selected to receive funding and have 18 months to conduct their research.
“The complexity of the challenges the SURPASS teams are taking on really demonstrates their commitment to creating game-changing advances,” said Dave Van Wie, APL director. “These bold projects exemplify the kind of visionary, collaborative research that happens when APL and WSE are united.”
The three winning teams are tackling challenges in health, energy, and space, respectively.
The Autonomous Robotic Surgery for Xenotransplantation at Scale team, from left: Axel Krieger (WSE), Co-PI Mathias Unberath (WSE), Co-PI Corban Rivera (APL), Seth Billings (APL), Andrew Cameron (SOM), and Nathanael Kuo (APL). Not pictured: Jeffrey Jopling (SOM), PM Mike Wolmetz (APL), and APM Gautam Vallabha (APL).
Credit: Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman
Autonomous Robotic Surgery: Addressing the Organ Transplant Shortage
Team: Co-PI Corban Rivera (APL), Co-PI Mathias Unberath (WSE), Program Manager (PM) Mike Wolmetz (APL), Assistant Program Manager (APM) Gautam Vallabha (APL), Seth Billings (APL), Grayson Byrd (APL), Nathanael Kuo (APL), Axel Krieger (WSE), Andrew Cameron (Johns Hopkins School of Medicine [SOM]), and Jeffrey Jopling (SOM)
Thousands of Americans die each year while waiting for an organ transplant. Even for patients who receive one, access to highly skilled surgeons remains a challenge, particularly in underserved areas.
To help address that problem, the Autonomous Robotic Surgery for Xenotransplantation at Scale team will work to develop an autonomous robot for procuring pig kidneys. Led by co-PIs Corban Rivera of APL and Mathias Unberath of WSE, the project builds on advances in xenotransplantation, an emerging field that explores the use of animal organs for human transplantation.
“Autonomous robotic surgery is on the critical path to help solve the organ shortage,” said Unberath, the John C. Malone associate professor in WSE’s Department of Computer Science. “This work builds the foundation for its broader adoption in and around the operating room.”
The team will draw on robotics and surgical expertise across APL, WSE, and the SOM to advance automated surgical capabilities that could help improve access to and quality of surgery, addressing a public health crisis and paving the way for the future of automated surgery.
Johns Hopkins Hospital is a world leader in xenotransplantation research and has 25 xenotransplantation surgeries planned this year, said the hospital’s surgeon-in-chief, Dr. Andrew Cameron. To put that in perspective, only four living people in the U.S. have received a xenotransplantation as of early 2026. The team already has a venture-backed spin-out company that will help transition their research products to the market when ready.
“It’s far down the road, but this work is best done at a place like Johns Hopkins and APL, with incredible expertise in clinical medicine, surgery, engineering, and a commitment to seeing where AI can take us,” Cameron said.
The AI-Driven Discovery of High-Entropy H2 Generators (ADD-H2) team, from left: Co-PI Corey Oses (WSE), Kenneth Kane (APL), Co-PI Avi Bregman (APL), Karun Kumar Rao (APL), and PM Leslie Hamilton (APL). Not pictured: Anthony Hall (WSE).
Credit: Johns Hopkins APL/Craig Weiman
ADD-H2 Year 2: Revolutionizing Hydrogen Harvesting
Team: Co-PI Avi Bregman (APL), Co-PI Corey Oses (WSE), PM Leslie Hamilton (APL), Kenneth Kane (APL), Karun Kumar Rao (APL), and Anthony Hall (WSE)
Hydrogen is one of the most abundant elements in the universe, essential for the production of feedstock and fertilizer as well as for oil processing that support feeding half the world’s population. Yet the process for harvesting hydrogen typically relies on natural gas — an expensive method that also generates carbon dioxide.
The AI-Driven Discovery of High-Entropy H2 Generators, or ADD-H2, team, led by co-PIs Avi Bregman of APL and Corey Oses of WSE, aims to discover materials that could harvest hydrogen from water at lower temperatures and lower cost, potentially revolutionizing hydrogen harvesting and paving the way for on-demand hydrogen — a growing need as the market for hydrogen-fueled vehicles grows.
“Water is ubiquitous,” said Oses, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering. “If we can leverage water for energy, this would be a huge boost for humanity because it would democratize the ability to make energy and make it cheap.”
The team, which continues its work from the previous SURPASS cycle, is using computational modeling and machine learning to rapidly identify, test, and refine potential high-entropy catalysts — single materials made up of many different elements — that could split hydrogen from water at lower temperatures. In the project’s first seven months, the team identified a promising new high-entropy material. In the second cycle, the researchers are focused on refining their predictions, creating better-performing catalysts, and increasing their product yield through the support of autonomous robotic experimentation.
“This problem sits at the intersection of fundamental materials science, advanced computation, and mission-informed systems engineering,” said Leslie Hamilton, program manager for Science of Extreme and Multifunctional Materials in APL’s Research and Exploratory Development Mission Area.
The team behind the SPARROW effort to enable flight in very low Earth orbit, from left: Ben Estacio (APL), Co-PI Jaafar El-Awady (WSE), Joseph Katz (WSE), Co-PI Kinga Wrobel (APL), PM Matthew Zuber (former APL), Astrid Raisanen (APL), and Kenneth Kane (APL). Not pictured: Tamer Zaki (WSE).
Credit: Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman
SPARROW: Enabling Flight in Very Low Earth Orbit
Team: Co-PI Kinga Wrobel (APL), Co-PI Jaafar El-Awady (WSE), PM Matthew Zuber (former APL), Ben Estacio (APL), Kenneth Kane (APL), Astrid Raisanen (APL), Tamer Zaki (WSE), and Joseph Katz (WSE)
Very low Earth orbit, or vLEO, is a region roughly 60 to 240 miles (100 to 400 kilometers) above Earth, where the rarified atmosphere creates significant drag and the plasma environment adds further engineering challenges for sustained spacecraft operations.
The team behind SPARROW, a name derived from the Scalable Platform for Agile Response Into Very Low Orbit, aims to close critical capability shortfalls between current mission demand and future vLEO operations. Led by co-PIs Kinga Wrobel of APL and Jaafar El-Awady of WSE, the team is working to develop a rapid-response, modular spacecraft that can operate in vLEO for up to one year, leveraging lower-cost, commercially available components.
“We’re working between air and space,” said Wrobel, a space systems engineer. “We’re trying to combine theories from both in order to create an optimized spacecraft.” The team’s vision is to create a spacecraft that meets current sponsor demands to execute time-critical missions sooner, while also acting as a low-cost demonstration platform for emerging technologies.
To achieve their vision, the researchers will study the vLEO environment; evaluate how candidate materials perform under those conditions; and use modeling, simulation, and testing to guide spacecraft design.
If successful, the work could enable rapid-response missions and lower the barrier to entry for operating in vLEO, creating the potential for expanded capabilities in areas such as communications, imaging, and weather observation.
“This is truly a ‘One Hopkins’ endeavor,” Wrobel said. “We’re bringing together experts from the Whiting School and across the Lab, and we’re already engaging with sponsors and potential industry partners that are extremely interested in vLEO.”