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Biomedical engineering has been an up-and-coming career field for years, but graduating and getting that first job can feel like scaling a cliff. At George Mason’s bioengineering department, however, the faculty, staff, and fellow students collaborate to rig their future colleagues a safety net.
The department recently held its Third Annual Bioengineering Networking Force Event and Poster Competition. Open to students ranging from freshmen to PhD candidates, the event gives them a chance to present their work to, hobnob with, and learn from academic, government, and industry leaders. A careers table featured a representative from American Type Culture Collection (ATCC), a local employer supporting biomedical research who offered tips on the types of jobs available at the company, including the ones that might not show up on career sites—or might not seem interesting at first glance.
“Being in a company is the best way to learn about a company and the jobs it offers,” said Ted Mullins, an ATCC representative. “There are lots of opportunities you won’t know about from the outside. We like to hire students from internships—come test-drive us and we’ll test-drive you. If it’s a good fit, you might graduate and find a desk waiting for you.”
This seemed to be a recurring theme. A career panel Q&A session featured Tara Ruttley, chief scientist at Blue Origin following a long career at NASA sending science to the International Space Station (“basically, experiment that floats, I managed it,”).
“These days, NASA mostly hires through internship programs,” she said, and offered to answer questions from anyone interested in applying the next time internship applications are open. Overall, she stressed the importance of taking opportunities when they became available. “Sometimes you’re at the right place at the right time,” she said, sharing a story about dropping her resume at a NASA career fair table and then writing them off when she heard there was a hiring freeze. They called a few days later, saying that they needed someone with her precise expertise in both biology and mechanical engineering.
Other panelists included Minh Quan Do, a researcher and software engineer from MITRE AI; Michael Taylor, director of medical physics with the INOVA Health System; Parag Chitnis, an associate professor in the bioengineering department; and current students Alessandra Coogan who interned with the National Institutes of Health and Yogesh Karnam who completed a co-op at Abiomed. All were there to give career advice to students on what—and what not—to do.
Do emphasized that right now AI is offering the “opportunity of a lifetime,” he said. “AI in bioengineering is making us step out of the thinking that biological systems are too complicated to simulate. Now we have the tools to build these simulations. We’ll need people who can work on three fronts: making simulations, verifying the accuracy of the simulations, and moving them to physical labs where people can make use of them as quickly as possible.”
Speaking from the academic perspective, Chitnis urged students to find opportunities to fill in learning gaps. “If you want to go into academia, seek out opportunities while you’re still in school. If you want to teach, find ways to teach. If you need funding, seek grants. There is no class for teaching and grant-writing,” he said.
Overall, whether presenting posters, networking, or simply listening, the 110 students attending had ample avenues for inspiration. The poster winners, Eray Tulun (bioengineering ’24; currently a master’s student in the Costello College of Business) and bioengineering PhD Candidate Erica King took home the grand prizes—but everyone left with good advice.