My Co-op Experience as a Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate

During the year of 2017, I had the opportunity to spend two semesters, spring and fall, on co-op with Zimmer Biomet. A co-op is similar to an internship in that it entails working for a company to gain real world experience in your area of career interest. The difference between a co-op and an internship is that a co-op usually includes 3 to 5 sessions with the same company, alternating each co-op semester with a semester of classes. For my first session with Zimmer Biomet, I worked on the knee team as a Development Engineer co-op. There I learned the variety of designs for orthopedic knee systems and the instrumentation that goes along with the surgical techniques for each system. Besides attending a cadaver lab that utilized some of these knee systems in their surgical techniques, I worked mostly with revising and improving documentation of design history files for the products. Doing this allowed me to gain an understanding of the development process of medical devices in terms of the FDA documentation requirements and best practices. 

My second session moved me to the Surgeon Specialty Instruments group in which I was able to see projects from concept creation to shipment. This process involved creating a design history file and often times being part of the initial design of the part. I also learned a great deal about the manufacturing process or how the devices and instruments are actually created after development. I worked closely with Manufacturing, Quality, and other Development Engineers as well as Regulatory Affairs Specialists and weld experts. All of these experiences have helped me tremendously as I continue to make decisions about what industry I would like to pursue post-graduation.  I found that returning for a second session opened many new doors for networking that I possibly would not have experienced if I had only done an internship for one semester.  

I now plan to return to Zimmer Biomet for my third session in the summer of 2018 and will be placed in a new department to further my experience in the medical device industry. After completing most of my co-op, it is definitely an experience that I would recommend to any engineer who is interested in industry. The network and relationships that you will build over multiple sessions will be of great value to your future career search. In addition, you will have the opportunity to graduate with a great deal of experience in the real world. This characteristic is incredibly appealing to companies.

Co-op was also a great opportunity to meet other engineering students from a variety of other schools and backgrounds. I learned that many other schools actually require co-op as part of some of their engineering discipline’s curriculum, meaning their programs were 5 year programs for a Bachelor of Science degree. This reassured me that going on co-op for a year would not put me behind in the real world. All in all, the relationships I have created and experience I have gained on co-op has prepared me immensely for my engineering career. Stay tuned for a post about how I took the opportunity of a free summer in between co-op sessions to study abroad!

-Marisa Hughes, BME '20


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