Ruben Hartogs
Class of 2018
Biomedical Engineer at TandemLife - LivaNova
Combining Your Passions
My passion for biology and engineering, as well as my desire to contribute to public health, motivate me to enter the medical product design field. I spent every high school study hall in my AP Bio teacher’s room talking about what we were learning and reading anything she recommended, however becoming a doctor does not align with my interests, rather developing devices that aid doctors in their work is my chosen way of contributing to the medical field and helping patients.
Being an engineering-oriented individual, I love to analyze the design intent of products and systems I see in my daily life, a habit I attribute in part to my father’s similar fascination with these concepts that he passed on to me. Throughout high school my favorite courses were those in sciences and mathematics, and I was heavily involved in the FIRST Robotics team as well. Back then, I was drawn to robotics purely for the mechanical design aspect, but as I have matured and continued my education I have recognized that the most valuable lessons learned from those years on the team are about functioning in a multidisciplinary group on a shared project. The mechanical, electrical, and programming aspects of the robot all depended on each other, and I have seen that same intertwining of teams in my educational and professional settings since.
One of the most valuable experiences during my undergraduate years at Pitt was my year-long co-operative education experience at Zimmer Biomet, an orthopedic implant company. My first two rotations gave me an appreciation for working in the corporate setting and the basics of bioengineering-related mechanical design work, however my third rotation with the company as a part of the Patient-Matched Implants (PMI) department was the most fulfilling and enjoyable. There, I modified implants for special uses and designed fully custom implants, and I loved working in that department specifically because I accepted tasks from up to five engineers at once, so I always had a new project to mull over and work on, rather than the same task every day. Working on these customized implants also gave me a special kind of satisfaction that each implant was made for a specific patient and I knew that my work impacted their quality of life directly.
I have tailored my bioengineering undergraduate curriculum to further explore my interest in design and taken on a mechanical engineering minor to that end as well. By taking various design-based courses, I have also familiarized myself with the product development process and consistently enjoyed the experience of defining a problem, ideating solutions, and finally further developing a device to resolve the issue. Additionally, through participation in Innovation Institute programs at the University of Pittsburgh, I have also discovered my interest in entrepreneurial endeavors. A Master of Science degree in Medical Product Engineering will allow me to continue to develop my passion for innovation, design, and engineering in a direction that will prepare me for the challenging and fulfilling field of medical products.