{"543281":{"#nid":"543281","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Industry Road Trip","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EEvery year, usually early spring or late winter, a group of representatives from the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) at the Georgia Institute of Technology hits the road to visit different biotech companies in another part of the country.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt\u2019s partly a recruiting trip but it\u2019s also a promotional junket to raise awareness for one of the nation\u2019s top-ranked BME programs.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cBasically, we\u2019re like a commercial for Georgia Tech,\u201d says James Rains, who directs BME\u2019s Capstone Design program and went on this years\u2019 trip to visit Indiana\u2019s sprawling biotech cluster back in February. \u201cWe\u2019re telling our story to these companies, and mostly it\u2019s about our number one product \u2013 our students.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn addition to Rains, this year\u2019s group of travelers included Sathya Gourisankar, director of the Biomedical Innovation and Development master\u2019s program, BME Professor Ajit Yoganathan, and the manager of student, alumni and industrial relations for BME, Sally Gerrish, among others.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThey started in Indianapolis then worked their way around the state, south to Bloomington, then north to Warsaw \u2013 \u201cthe orthopedic capital of the world,\u201d Gerrish says. They visited a who\u2019s who of biomedical-oriented companies, Eli Lilly, Cook Medical and Zimmer Biomet.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe number one purpose of the industry trip, as I see it, is to make sure these companies are aware of the great talent coming out of Georgia Tech,\u201d says Rains. \u201cCompanies tend to hire from universities in their backyard for the most part. We\u2019d like them to go a little beyond that, and raise awareness about our students, who are smart and have a great work ethic.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThere\u2019s something else about the Georgia Tech student body, though, that stands out in the discerning eyes of some companies.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cTake a company like Johnson \u0026amp; Johnson, with its focus on diversity,\u201d says Rains. \u201cWhen we tell them that more minority engineers graduate from Georgia Tech than any program in the country, that blows them away. Then we tell them that the BME department has more women than men in the major, and that blows them away.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor her part, Gerrish is keenly interested in recruiting companies to attend the career fairs she organizes on BME\u2019s behalf, and Rains wants them to travel to Atlanta for the Capstone Design expos.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThose career fairs and the expos are great recruiting mechanisms,\u201d Rains says. \u201cThe companies come to you.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGerrish calls the industry trip a relationship builder, \u201cand that goes beyond creating internship and job opportunities,\u201d she says.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt isn\u2019t just about getting our students hired,\u201d Rains adds. \u201cWe\u2019re also looking for research collaboration opportunities.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGerrish says they haven\u2019t booked the next industry trip yet, but they\u2019re considering the Boston area because, \u201cwe always hit areas of good biotech concentration.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECONTACT:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications Officer II\u003Cbr \/\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for\u003Cbr \/\u003EBioengineering and Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"BME takes its message to the front door of the biomedical industry"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBME takes its message to the front door of the biomedical industry\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"BME takes its message to the front door of the biomedical industry"}],"uid":"28153","created_gmt":"2016-06-09 09:02:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:21:53","author":"Jerry Grillo","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2016-06-09T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2016-06-09T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"543271":{"id":"543271","type":"image","title":"Biomedical sign","body":null,"created":"1465826400","gmt_created":"2016-06-13 14:00:00","changed":"1475895333","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:55:33","alt":"Biomedical sign","file":{"fid":"90815","name":"biomed_sign.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/biomed_sign.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/biomed_sign.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2900131,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/biomed_sign.jpg?itok=Poudhv3F"}}},"media_ids":["543271"],"groups":[{"id":"1254","name":"Wallace H. Coulter Dept. of Biomedical Engineering"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"1612","name":"BME"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications Officer II\u003Cbr \/\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for\u003Cbr \/\u003EBioengineering and Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}