About the company:
Beachfront Design is a medical device consulting firm based in Excelsior, Minnesota. When companies need help developing their device and preparing for FDA trials, Beachfront is there. Their name is a nod to the owner, Kevin Arnal’s West Coast origins, having grown up in Seattle.
Today, he and his wife Lynn Arnal, Beachfront’s Business Manager, are closely connected within Minnesota’s MedTech ecosystem, regularly bringing in new clients all across the Twin Cities.
“The medical device industry is very busy right now and it can be difficult to get engineers at any one time,” explained Lynn. “So our interns jump right in and get to do a lot. I don’t think our business would be as robust without our interns.”
Having worked with students in the past, Beachfront has developed a well-rounded internship experience. A big part of their success, Lynn said, comes from engagement and inclusion.
“We want our interns to come in and be really excited about this field, this career and this opportunity,” said Lynn. “I want to create a culture within engineering that allows female engineers to excel and keep going throughout several decades of great work.”
This summer, Lynn hired Riley Vaughan, a biomedical engineering major at the University of Minnesota.
Meet the intern:
Since starting her internship, Vaughan said, “everything has surprised me. My second or third week, we were creating prototypes. I started off slow but last week I made five in one morning. It’s fun to see how far I’ve come.”
Vaughan has spent a lot of time working with clients and their devices. This means traveling around the Twin Cities and collaborating with physicians and engineers. Thus far she’s done everything from helping with packaging to conducting R&D and assisting with prototype development. Vaughan even had the opportunity to work in a cadaver lab for the testing of a device.
“It’s been an excellent experience for our business,” Lynn said. “We couldn’t have excelled during this time without our interns. And Riley is going to be able to use all the skills she’s gained to really make a name for herself.”
“It’s pretty awesome,” Vaughan agreed. “At the end of every week, it’s like, ‘wow, look at all the things I wasn’t able to do on Monday.’ I feel that growth, and it’s pretty cool to think about where I’ll be at the end of the summer or where I can go long term with biomedical engineering.”