Aspiring Biomedical Engineers Gain Industry Insights

12/09/2024
By Ed Brennen

With graduation on the horizon, senior biomedical engineering major Marci Hartai didn’t want to miss the recent “Student Employer Mashup,” co-hosted by the Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center (M2D2) at UMass Lowell and the student chapter of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES).

Hartai knew just how fruitful the networking event can be: At last year’s mashup, she landed an internship at Northeast Biomedical in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts, as a product development technician. 

“There aren't very many career fairs that are specific to our industry, so this is a great opportunity to get students and employers together in the biotech and medical device space,” the Bedford, Massachusetts, native said.

Representatives from 18 medical technology and biotech companies from across the region, including Bristol Myers Squibb, Insulet and RevBio, attended the event at M2D2’s 110 Canal St. location in downtown Lowell, where dozens of students learned about internship and career opportunities in fields such as medical device design, biosensors, drug delivery and bioreactors.

Senior biomedical engineering major Joshua Frechette remembers attending the inaugural mashup as a first-year student in 2021. Now president of the BMES, he was happy to help play career matchmaker for younger students.

“Coming in as a freshman, I had no idea what any of these companies were like and what they were looking for,” said the Leominster, Massachusetts, native, who had a co-op at Pfizer last spring. “This event has been a great resource for me and many others, so we like to continue that on.”

Biomedical engineering alumna Kaylin Donoghue ’23 landed a product development engineering technician internship at Northeast Biomedical during her junior year. She now works for the company as a design quality engineer — and was recruiting talent at the mashup.

“We primarily source our product development engineering technicians from this event and this event only, so it’s an important one for us,” said Donoghue, who told students how she enjoyed the variety of her work at Northeast Biomedical.

“I love being at a company that doesn't have its own device, per se,” the Dracut, Massachusetts, native said. “The projects are always rotating, so my work is revolving. I am presented with a constant flow of new technology that I get to contribute to.”

Donoghue was at the event with the company’s president and CEO, Timothy Looney ’94, a senior adjunct faculty member in the Biomedical Engineering Department. Looney started Northeast Biomedical at M2D2 13 years ago.

One of his current students is senior biomedical engineering major Nataly Ortega. The Lawrence, Massachusetts, native is graduating this winter and was at the event with résumé in hand.

“There are a lot of companies here that would be great to work for,” said Ortega, who recently completed a yearlong internship at NxStage Medical in Lawrence as a disposables research and development engineer. “Research and development was kind of my niche and I really liked it, so I definitely want to continue doing that.”

Senior biomedical engineering major Ardon Zibel, who just finished a systems engineer research and development co-op at NxStage, said the mashup was a good way to network with smaller startup companies that he might not meet at a bigger career fair.

“There's a lot of therapeutics companies here, but they have other departments, too,” the Leominster native said. “It’s good to hear that there are a lot of opportunities for biomedical engineers, not only in cell and tissue engineering, but medical device design and other tracks as well.”