BUILDING BRIDGES TO INDUSTRY
UCSB hosted an event to educate and expose bioengineering students to careers in industry
By Andrew Masuda
Representatives from nearly one dozen bioengineering companies participated in the 6th annual UC Santa Barbara Bioengineering Industry Showcase on November 15. The event united the campus’s bioengineering (BioE) community with industry professionals to build new relationships and research collaborations and to help undergraduate and graduate students explore career paths in industry. The event also featured a poster session, providing UCSB students with an opportunity to share their research projects with industry members and other attendees.
“Hearing from experienced professionals helps students demystify what a career in industry can be and underscores how valuable their graduate training is,” said Elizabeth Floyd, the program coordinator for BioE training programs. “By offering curated panels and networking through the poster session and roundtable lunch, our goal is for graduate students to have more field-specific resources and connections before they launch into their next career and to feel confident that they will be successful once they graduate. It’s exciting to hear about the many productive conversations that result from this event and how our industry partners are equally inspired by the conversations they have with students about their research.”
Yulun Wang, who earned his PhD in electrical and computer engineering from UCSB in 1988, delivered the keynote address during the Medical Technology session. He invented the voice controlled robotic arm, making Computer Motion, founded in 1990, the first company in the world to bring an FDA-approved surgical robot to market. Computer Motion merged with Intuitive Surgical in 2003. Wang later founded InTouch Health in 2003, becoming a pioneer in remote medical consultation. The company sold to Teledoc for $1.1 billion in 2020. In 2017, he formed the nonprofit World Telehealth Initiative (WTI), leveraging a global network of tens of thousands of physicians to sustainably provide medical expertise to the world’s most vulnerable and underserved communities. His latest company, Sovato, is focused on using remote telesurgery to address the extreme shortage of surgeons in many parts of the U.S. and the world.
Jenny Du, the co-founder and vice president of operations at Apeel Sciences, gave the keynote address during the Biotechnology session. Apeel created organic compounds to extend the shelf life of fruits and vegetables. Du worked two years as a postdoctoral researcher at UCSB, during which time she met her Apeel co-founders, James Rogers and Lou Perez, who were both materials PhD students at the time.
In addition to Apeel Sciences and Sovato, representatives from Distek, Inari Medical, Medtronic, Lifescience Business Solutions, Taiho Oncology, Pacira Pharmaceuticals, Wyatt, BP, Cytokinetics, Integrated Biosciences, and Prothena also participated as panelists and moderators.
