Monteris Medical is a biotech and life science company that develops neurosurgical technology for the treatment of brain lesions and tumors. Something of a SciTech superstar, this small MedTech company has regularly used the program to hire cohorts of interns, 15 in total since they signed up in 2017. Their internships over the years have given many students hands-on opportunities to develop new devices and techniques that also help to continually advance Monteris’ projects.
“This arrangement we’ve had with SciTech is just fantastic,” said Marty Emerson, Monteris Medical’s President and CEO. “We’ve been blessed, not just with great interns, but some who have blossomed into fulltime hires. In general, I could not be more proud of how the Monteris team has managed the intern program.”
There are many aspects of a Monteris Medical internship that contribute to this program’s success, like the encouraging, hands-on environment and the team collaboration and learning that the students receive when working in a group. One element that the SciTech team looks forward to every year is the Monteris Intern Presentation, where the students get the chance to reflect on and share their progress to the company’s executives.
Last year’s interns Thomas Beall, Olivia Meyer and Isaac Winter made some significant contributions during their time at Monteris and learned a lot along the way.
Thomas Beall | Biomedical Engineering Major | University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
As a manufacturing/engineering intern, Beall worked primarily on Monteris’ Neuroblate® System, a minimally invasive surgical tool that uses a laser probe to ablate brain tumors and epileptogenic tissue that causes seizures. In addition to creating documentation for the device, he also helped manufacture a new part for it, 3D printing the piece himself.
Working on this project gave him the opportunity to learn how to solder and pick up Agile coding techniques.
“I really appreciated the supportive and welcoming environment of Monteris Medical,” Beall said. “It was instrumental in allowing me to be confident and comfortable in the work I had accomplished, as well as allowing me to step out of my comfort zone and approach others to learn about their roles! Without that, I wouldn’t have been able to learn as much as I did!”
Olivia Meyer | Biology and Chemistry Major | St. Mary’s University of Minnesota
During her science and clinical internship, Meyer conducted research and wrote a white paper for Monteris on the implications and applications regarding Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy (LITT), Behavioral Psychosurgery and Pain.
By organizing her findings in a library spreadsheet, Meyer improved her confidence when working in Excel. She honed her technical writing abilities as well and learned a lot about the business side of things while attending leadership development meetings.
Her greatest takeaway, however, is the impact this internship had on her excitement toward research.
“Never have I met so many inspiring people in such a short time – nonetheless work with them,” Meyers said. “Throughout the summer I have been able to solidify that clinical research will be a portion of my career as a physician. I am now prioritizing research in ways I never thought I would! This will impact not only the medical schools I apply for, or the hospitals that I will choose to work for, but the way that I practice medicine. I am ecstatic to be a physician in research. I thought I was excited for medical school before… Now I feel as if my excitement has increased tenfold!”
Isaac Winter | Mechanical Engineering Major | University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
Throughout his time as a manufacturing/engineering intern, Winter assisted with a wide range of projects, but one of his more significant responsibilities involved developing software, testing it and then validating the results for Monteris’ cooling test jig.
Using LabVIEW™ Software, he generated a user interface that could be used with the software he created and accomplished all of this with only a few software classes under his belt.
“No amount of schooling can prepare you perfectly for a job position, and knowing how to research, when to ask questions, and what to do if you get stuck on a project will be very useful in my career moving forward.,” Winter said. “I appreciated the spirit of collaboration and company attitude at Monteris. There were multiple instances in which people went out of their way to ask if I needed help, or if I was interested in learning more about a topic. I will definitely look for these values in a company as I move forward in my career.”
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College STEM majors looking to get involved can enroll here while returning SciTech students can send their current transcript to scitechmn@mntech.org to reactivate their account.