International Summer Program

Our Mission

As one of the top 10 bioengineering graduate programs in the United States, we are focused on connecting our students with the best opportunities in the medical technology industry. Historically graduates of our program end up with top-tier jobs in industry, but most of those opportunities are in the US. We receive a proportionally high number of students with an interest in working outside the US, but most other top 10 programs do not have a way to connect those students with high-level medtech companies globally.

Over the last 8 years, our students have collaborated with companies in the Zona Franca Coyol, and we want to formalize a similar relationship with your company to create a lasting connection between one of the best graduate programs in the US and one of the best medtech hubs outside of the US.

Two main goals of the Costa Rican Industry Partnerships Program:

• To give students an opportunity to collaborate with high-caliber medtech companies outside the US.
• To create a pipeline of world-class medtech and bioengineering talent from a top US university into the Zona Franca Coyol.

The Costa Rica Industry Partnerships Program has historically been beneficial for all parties

Rice University has maintained partnerships with medtech companies in Costa Rica since 2014, with 5-6 active partnerships per year. Feedback from partner companies has followed two main trends:

1. Rice University students have been valuable additions to teams, especially for the short-term work that best fits a summer internship. The high caliber of these students has allowed our partner companies to focus their full-time staff on highest-caliber projects without falling behind on other initiatives.
2. Recurring partnerships with Costa Rican med tech companies make it easy for the onboarding of students yearly into their med internship.

We are proposing a formal agreement between Rice University and your company to continue providing benefits to both our students and your companies, but without the onboarding hurdles that have been seen in the past. We can work with you to help develop this pipeline in a manner that best fits your company.

We want our students to be able to experience working in a medical technology company in Costa Rica, and we believe you might benefit from their presence like your neighbors in the Zona Franca Coyol have. We have had past relationships with approximately 20% of the large companies in the Zona Franca Coyol and many of them have continued to maintain relationships year-after-year. We’d like to grow this number this year and hope that we can work together.

Our students come into the program with a high level of technical skill from top programs in the United States. You can expect these students to be able to contribute in technical areas such as:

• Biomedical Research
• Laboratory Testing
• Technical Communication

We are seeking companies that will utilize these students working on projects that would be both meaningful for the company and a good learning experience for the students. We match students to companies after all students have enrolled based on your needs and the students’ strengths. We will work with you to create a project description for the internship.

The pipeline of talent between Rice University and the Zona Franca Coyol looks like:

• Your company would host 2-3 students from Rice University onsite every summer (June – July).
• Rice will provide you with a summary of the technical skills each cohort has, so that you can identify what would be most beneficial to you. Rice will help to match the best students to fit your needs.
• If you and your team would like any interaction with our students throughout the academic year to facilitate hiring of talent, Rice will help set up those conversations as you see fit.

Logistical details:

• 8 week on-site collaboration with students and your existing teams
• Your company is not responsible for students’ expenses such as housing and commute
• Rice University will provide any professional mentorship as needed by the students.

This year (Summer 2023), the students possess the following skills:

• An understanding of the end-to-end biodesign and medical device processes
• Understanding of engineering design and production documentation per ISO guidelines
• Development and testing of mechanical, electrical, and software components including CAD, drawings, and documentation
• Creation of change control documents and drawings with minimal instruction, and demonstration of some independent design judgment where appropriate
• Ability to assist in regulatory filings with FDA and CE Mark, and ability to learn what is needed to file with the Costa Rican Ministry of Health
• Development of verification and validation methods for production processes
• Fabrication and tooling skills including 3D printing, laser cutting, use of tools
• Electrical skills including microcontrollers, coding, and circuitry/breadboarding