Having a background in computer or electrical engineering opens doors to many fields, especially in regard to medical discipline. Several BYU graduates end up working for medical companies after their time at BYU.
Merit Medical, housed in South Jordan, Utah, is one of those medical device companies that hires students from BYU to work on their products. Those products include microcatheters, syringes, and more used by medical professionals. Merit Medical is currently working on transitioning into the STEM field right now.
One of their interns this summer was Connor Folkman, a sophomore electrical engineering student. He worked on the microcatheter team, along with 4 other engineers.
Folkman explained the importance and usefulness of microcatheters: “Microcatheters are long tubes that go into your veins and can access almost any point in your body with them. It’s basically used as a feed into your body, so they can inject liquids into that particular part of the body, or they can put a balloon in there and help a blockage. It’s really useful tool right now and it’s really growing in the medical field.”
Folkman’s specific role was to ‘qualify’ the equipment, or make sure it runs properly. Because he worked with the company for the past several summers as a technician, he was experienced with the processes.
“Because of my background on the product and on the line, I was uniquely suited for it,” Folkman said. “I actually worked there before I came to BYU. I went back the next summer after I had done a Fall and Winter semester and kept the connections there. This next summer I was going to go back as a technician, but instead they had me become part of their internship program.”
The internship was a great opportunity for Folkman. He expressed his interest in the field and his hope to continue the work in the future.
He said, “I really like the medical device business. This career is definitely a path I want to take because I think the medical device industry is one that is fast-growing and something that’s always going to be there. Especially with this company and how fast they’re growing, I’m sure there will be plenty of opportunities to move up in this company if I get hired on later. I’ll definitely be sticking with this for a while.”