On November 6, 2018, AEMB (Alpha Eta Mu Beta), BMES (Biomedical Engineering Society), and IEEE-EMB (Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society) student chapters hosted the first “Evening with the Industry” event at FIU’s Modesto Maidique Campus.

The event was attended by students, faculty, and several industry professionals from companies such as Vivex, Stryker, Cordis, Zimmer Biomet, TissueTech, and InnFocus. This event provided an opportunity for our BME community to connect with professionals and learn about different perspectives on the industry and network with them. "This event can be considered the first step on the creation of a strong network platform for the BME department at FIU," said Gabriela Rodriguez, president of FIU's AEMB student chapter. "It is a great incentive for our students and faculty, and it can become the foundation to more scientific collaboration between FIU and the biomedical industry." Our department was also able to introduce their work to industry professionals, thus increasing job/internship opportunities for them. With the same spirit, company representatives were provided with booklets of student resumes. “We hope this will increase the attendance of BioFlorida employees in the future career fairs,” said Ph.D. candidate Zahra Nafar, who is also president of FIU’s BMES student chapter.

We welcomed keynote speaker Nicolas Leonardi, principal consultant at Electronic Business Development Experts, who gave a talk about the development of his business and gave students career development advice. We also welcomed our newest faculty member, Dr. Raj, who spoke about the formation of an industry advisory board. Lastly, was a summary presentation of ongoing research in our laboratories, presented by Ph.D. candidates, Maedeh Mozneb, Zahra Nafar, Amirala Bakhshian Nik, and Andres Pena.

“I am really proud of the students at BME that did everything in their power to initiate a great tradition of networking events with BME local industries,” said Nafar. “I believe undergraduate BME students are very creative and motivated and I hope with more support from department, these activities will continue to be successful.”

As we are continuously encouraging our students to network and make connections, we plan to extend this event to all of Florida in the near future, as well as continue this semesterly tradition.

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