Graduate Internships
The bioengineering field has seen an increasing number of students opting to pursue their research in industry rather than academia in recent years. To prepare them for success outside university settings, the Lehigh bioengineering department has ramped up the master’s and doctoral curricula, in particular, with courses and opportunities for those headed toward careers in the private sector, to provide them with skills and tools they will need to thrive there. "With immersive, hands-on learning and professional development, our students are prepared to lead and innovate in diverse industries," says Anand Ramamurthi, chair of the Department of Bioengineering at Lehigh.
Bonaire Berry [BS 2018] is a senior research and design engineer at Medtronic, based in Boulder, Colorado, where she focuses her research on pulse oximeters and patient monitoring. After graduating from Lehigh’s bioengineering program, Berry earned a master’s degree in bioengineering from the University of Colorado, and a doctorate in engineering management from George Washington University. While pursuing graduate studies, Berry worked in industry continuously, and has an informed view of both sides of the discipline. Berry says that the number one indicator that someone joining a company from a degree program will succeed is if they have done an internship. “Part of it is just knowing the lingo in industry, learning the acronyms and knowing how things get done.” In addition, Berry says, corporate structures can be complex and not always easy to discern, and processes are necessarily different from those in a university research lab. “Knowing who reviews what, and who you would need to ask for help will make you immediately effective.”
The second quality that gives bioengineers moving from academia to industry an advantage, says Berry, is critical thinking ability. “A lot of times in interviews people are asked questions more to see how an interviewee will approach it, rather than to get the right answer. It’s a way to see how their mind works and assess problem solving skills.”
Esraa Ismail, a fifth-year doctoral student, came to Lehigh because the university had a strong reputation for its inclusive environment and for promoting diversity, but also because the bioengineering department had opportunities for students to connect with industry leaders. “I was interested in the networking events, and I had heard a lot about how the department helps students succeed both in academia and industry.” While here she has taken advantage of the co-op option, which gave her the chance to work for an extended period at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. “We could be working on multiple projects as Ph.D. students, but the projects are all within the same field,” she says. “In an industrial setting, where it is very fast paced and there are multiple projects going on, your brain has to be very flexible to see how you can employ several things into multiple different projects in different areas.”
As a doctoral candidate in bioengineering at Lehigh, Praneetha Pulyala has done two internships with Johnson & Johnson, working in drug product development on drug formulation stability. “I was very motivated to do internships while here because I knew I wanted to go into industry in the healthcare sector,” she says. “I had a conversation with my PI, Professor Xuanhong Cheng, early on because I knew internships would enhance my profile when I began applying for jobs. Professor Cheng agreed to that and we were very aligned.”
Pulyala is also doing a thesis collaboration with Dow Chemicals, developing analytical methods to characterize thermophoretic behavior of polymers. She emphasizes that soft skills are not to be overlooked and can provide a competitive advantage. “We meet biweekly with our colleagues at Dow, updating them on how the projects are going. It has given me a much better understanding on what is expected, and how best to communicate with them.”
Ismail concurs that soft skills, like communication and the ability to work productively on teams and with colleagues, are extremely helpful for success in industry, where the culture differs from the academic environment. “I'm now well equipped with the technical skills, lab skills and know how to manage projects. In industry, I realized that I have to think more deeply about how my skills could be employed across several projects, how I can contribute to discussions, and push projects forward," she says. "Then there's the need to communicate and to real pitch my ideas. You have to know how convey your ideas to a group of people, and convince them that the idea is worthy of pursuing."
In the end, though, companies have to get products to market to survive, which is main driver of the increased pace of work. "A lot of research that we do in school is not calibrated for the market. It's just still in the very early phase, “ says Pulyala. “One of the main adjustments in moving from the university to industry is learning how to translate that work into products.”
“The biggest difference is that business wants to move. Academia is a little bit more inquisitive and investigational,” says Berry. “In business, you have to be able to make decisions quickly.”