Back to School - Summer Internship Recap
If I were to reflect on my time as an undergraduate, a major area of focus that I only developed in my later years was how I can provide the most value to those I work with, and to society. After all, my discipline of biomedical engineering is focused on using efficient design principles to create products that will revolutionize the space of health care, and medical devices, and improve patient outcomes. From a technical standpoint, I learned a wide range of engineering skills through my coursework, personal projects, and previous internship experiences. However, by the time I was wrapping up my senior year, I realized I was missing a crucial aspect of what it takes to design and develop products, ideas, and tools that have the potential to improve the human experience. That crucial aspect was human-centered design: learning to work directly with the people you are building for, empathize with them, and channel that feedback directly back into your technical thought process.
My time at Ibility as an intern in the Summer of 2023 opened my eyes to the world of human-centered design. I became fond of Ibility when I met Danielle Krakora, Co-founder, and CEO, at a workshop geared towards entrepreneurship in the healthcare industry in September of 2022 - since then, it’s been history. We quickly formed a working relationship, and I began my internship shortly after graduating. At first, I was taken aback by my non-technical role. Where did I fit in? What value could I provide? I was surprised that I found my answer rather quickly.
The projects I began tackling were very out of my comfort zone. Coming from a technical engineering background, I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to provide enough value or satisfy the requirements of our clients, and that the work I would provide would be a poor reflection of Ibility’s competencies. However, after my initial panic, I approached these non-technical projects with the same energy and mindset that I approach any of my engineering projects with by answering one fundamental question: how can I make this process as efficient as possible for the client and Ibility? From here on out, I flourished. Guided by my wonderful Ibility mentors, Danielle and Ken, I embraced my non-technical side and dove into the world of human-centered design. The best part was, that I discovered that my technical skills had direct compliments to the non-technical skills I was learning on the job. From this wonderful growth experience, I worked on projects that I can proudly stand by, from developing market analysis reports for a novel product aimed at curbing the opioid crisis to developing Ibility’s very own employee onboarding guide. I am proud to say that I will be continuing my internship at Ibility as I begin my graduate studies at UT Austin. To me, Ibility is a team of dreamers who aren’t afraid to take on the toughest challenges head-on - and I think it’s where I fit in perfectly!
— Anuj Swaminathan