Corporate America? More like corporate Costa Rica! This past Monday we started our internships around San Jose after a busy few days of the medical device design bootcamp. Here’s a recap of the past week and a half:
Medical Device Design Bootcamp:
From June 1-3, we attended a medical device bootcamp with students from across Costa Rica. At the bootcamp, we had a spaghetti tower making competition, learned all about the medical device design process, and listened to presentations about different clinical needs. Once we got through all of the presentations, we ranked our preferences for our projects and were put into our final project teams. Our first challenge as a team was to create a bajaj, or rickshaw, out of low fidelity prototyping materials (basically just crafting materials, stuff you would find around your house). The bajaj needed to be able to hold 2 ping pong balls upon impact and move fast down a string. Pictured below, my team made our bajaj, and it was pretty successful (even if we didn’t make top 3).
Our bajaj!
Next, our team moved on to our actual project, which was an improved device for electromagnetic therapy (also pictured below!).
Low fidelity, electromagnetic therapy device
Like the bajaj, this was made out of low fidelity materials and was presented to a panel of judges.
Internship week:
Monday was our first day of work! This summer, Santi and I are working for Meditek, a company that services medical devices and equipment in hospitals all across Costa Rica. In the morning, we headed over to the Meditek office in San Jose to meet the team and learn about what we’ll be doing for the rest of the summer. In the afternoon, we went to Hospital Calderón Guardia and took apart some smart beds, cleaned them, and put them back together. We also got scrubbed up and were introduced to some broken anesthesia machines (pictured).
Santiago & I with anesthesia machine
From Tuesday through Friday, we worked at Hospital Calderón Guardia to take apart hospital beds and some anesthesia machines — we actually fixed a machine, which was really cool! I didn’t realize how much went into hospital beds, like all of the circuits, motors, and filters. They’re also pretty comfortable (we got to try out all of the different settings). On Friday after the hospital, we went back to the office for the monthly meeting for May, were shown some holter monitors, and got some cake. The hot chocolate at Meditek is 🔥🔥 so I think I’ll be drinking that like water for the next 2 months. We also play company soccer every Friday after work which is really fun!
Meditek soccer Fridays
Right now, I’m writing this from Pablo’s house. We came here today to watch the Champion’s League Finals, play some pool and darts, and went for a walk around the neighborhood. We also got a homecooked meal, which was a godsend after only eating restaurant food for the past 2 weeks.
This next week, Santi and I are going to Siquirres with some of our coworkers to look at some medical equipment in the hospitals in that region. Wish us luck!