The MIT-Brazil program works with students from all disciplines to coordinate tailored internships, short-term research projects, and science education opportunities throughout Brazil. The program’s mission is two-fold: 1) to connect MIT students and faculty with industry, research, and teaching partners in Brazil to develop innovative solutions to shared challenges and 2) to promote open dialogue within the MIT and Boston/Cambridge communities on critical issues in Brazil.
From 2014 to 2017 the Medtronic (previously Covidien) Research and Development (R&D) team partnered with the MIT-Brazi Program to create comprehensive internships for select students interested in the medical devices industry. Medtronic’s dedication to introduce interns to its technologies and provide practical experience within the contexts of public healthcare and socioeconomic realities in Brazil and other MISTI countries embodied MIT’s “mind and hand” approach to education.
For the four students who have interned with Medtronic in Brazil, the experience has underscored that forging strong engineer-doctor-vendor relationships is critical to improving local healthcare. “Medtronic taught me what goes into the development and launch of a medical device: technical viability, clinical need, and market opportunity,” said Electrical Engineering and Computer Science senior Erica Santana. “I participated in projects requiring these factors to be aligned, which helped me visualize how to achieve the desired results.” The students also have seen value in their cultural contributions to the group, which collaborates with other teams in Medtronic’s global R&D network.
For the company, the students’ ability to apply their skills while adapting to the local environment has been key to the partnership’s success and has exceeded expectations. “Kenneth [Vieira] was very important in helping us finalize our lung and colorectal cancer reports and bio-absorbable materials study,” said Almir Ferrer, R&D Manager of Medtronic’s Minimally Invasive Therapies Group. “Kenneth’s two reports enabled us to present our results at Medtronic’s Science & Technology Conference in Minneapolis in October [2017]." The Group will also present its results at the Science & Technology Conference in India in December 2017.
Medtronic’s first two MIT interns graduated and both continued to build upon their experiences, one as a medical student at Harvard and the other as an engineer with a medical devices company in California.
The MIT-Brazil program looks forward to continuing to collaborate with Medtronic and to strengthening the relationship between the company and the MIT community.
