The Advice I Give Engineers Interested in Medical Robotics
Introduction
I’ve ended up on countless phone calls over the years with promising college students who are interested in jobs in medical robotics in general, if not my company specifically. I found myself addressing many of the same topics with a lot of these bright students and I thought I would write those down to share with a broader audience and for a reference after the fact. Some of the points are specific to the field of medical robotics but many apply no matter the field you're interested in. If you have an up-and-coming coming engineer in your life, please share this with them so they can benefit from it.
Build the Skillset You Need
Fundamental to any job is the need for qualifying skills. If you don't have the capabilities to get the job done, you won't be hired. However, just because the job you're looking for has ‘engineer’ in the title and you have an engineering degree, doesn't mean you have the right qualifications. As you get into more niche industries like medical robotics, the required toolkit becomes more specific.
Engineering Fundamentals are Essential
No matter the field you enter, mastering the fundamentals is essential to a solid understanding of the more advanced, most valuable skills. Before you can design a robot arm and size the motors or gearboxes you must have mastery of free body diagrams and centers of gravity, before you can write the control algorithms for a robot, you must fully grasp the equations of motion for a spring, mass, damper system.
Every organization that truly values their technical capabilities, a true enabler of innovation, will have some form of evaluation of these fundamentals in their interview or onboarding process. It has been one of the best indicators of future success for the many candidates I have interviewed and hired over the years. Be prepared to use and even explain these in any interview you enter.
These fundamentals will be a first pass filter for candidates to see if they are worth taking to the next step. But you also need to have other application specific skillsets on your resume to make you a top candidate.
Broad Categories of Medical Robotics
With the increasing number and flavor of medical robotics out in the market, the skills needed to design, manufacture, and maintain them are increasingly broad and just as diverse.
The Robot
Machine design, component selection, stiffness, and vibration are critical skills for designing robotics designed for a hospital or other healthcare environment. Understanding manufacturing processes for medium size components at lower annual volumes will come in handy. CNC machining, various casting processes, and some plastic injection molding will be your bread and butter.
Vision
Endoscopes and other vision tools will be much smaller (think micro-machining, metal injection molding, and plastic injection molding) and often involve optics and illumination which naturally leads to the need for thermal management. In addition to mechanical complement design you'll use heat transfer, fluid dynamics, and even CFD to model and design for effective heat dissipation.
Instrumentation
Standard surgical instruments will be similar to endoscopes without the heating elements. Kinematics and mechanism design are fundamental here. More advanced instruments will become more electromechanical if dealing with cautery or other energy forms.
Accessories
Accessories are more likely to be disposable so high volume and cost effective designs are paramount. Injection molding and an intimate knowledge of tool designs will be required for successful projects here. Many of the principles of net shape or near net shape part design will apply regardless of the specific manufacturing process. Any molded part will deal with parting lines, shrinkage, sink, draft angles, cooling considerations, mold release, tool safe design changes, and the list goes on.
Controls
Controls engineers, called systems analysts at Intuitive, are reasonable for the magic behind making robots move. They model the mechanical parameters of a robot and design the algorithms that control the physical hardware. Many controls engineers start as mechanical or robotics engineers and get graduate degrees specializing in controls. Algorithms are written in a variety of coding languages so they are well-versed in mechanical and software domains. Other topics they need to consider include kinematics, dynamics, vibration control, system modeling, and more.
Electrical Design
Electrical engineers design the nervous system of any robot. The circuit boards are the brains and the cabling act as the nerves that send an the signals required to make the system move and function. Power distribution, motor drivers, motor windings, sensor communication, board layouts, electromagnetic emissions, signal integrity, thermal dissipation, are just a few of the topics electrical engineers are responsible for designing around in medical robotics.
User Facing Considerations
These days, there are options to study human factors engineering in programs around the country but it's not uncommon for these functions to have individuals who started in more traditional engineering pathways and found themselves gravitating towards the user needs. These roles tend to be very hands on and steeped in user evaluations of the products being developed.
Knowing What You Want to do is Helpful, Not Required
If one of these areas of design speak to you and you know that's what you want to pursue, that will be helpful to you. Align your studies with that desire and make it known to the world and every professional contact you make whether it's a recruiter, University careers services employee, or a parent's friend who asks about your studies. The more you work for that goal and share where you're headed, the more you'll find people who are willing to help you get there.
If you still don't know what you want, that's ok. But I would still recommend picking a direction. If you're sailing a boat and don't set the rudder for a set course, you certainly won't get anywhere. Pick a destination and head out with full purpose. You may find out that it's not where you want to be when you arrive but the process of getting there will have equipped you with more experience and additional tools in your professional toolbelt. Now pick your next destination with new experiences guiding your path.
Medical Robotics and Biomedical Engineering
It's very common that I talk to people interested in medical robotics who are either already in or considering a biomedical engineering program. Most people associate any combination of healthcare and engineering to be biomedical engineering but the truth is that biomedical engineering specifically targets medical technologies that interface with or augment the human body. Implants, prosthetics, and even engineered tissues are examples of products well suited to be worked on by a biomedical engineer.
Medical robotics is much closer to traditional robotics than many assume. You will need the full spectrum of robotics skills to get the job done, much less, get in the door. Unfortunately, many biomedical engineers, unless they have deliberately focused on them, lack the strong grasp of the engineering fundamentals needed to really succeed in such a technical environment. Full engineering programs like mechanical, or electrical tracks often are the best track for those wanting to develop the robotics products themselves.
Where biomedical engineers do well in medical robotics is in clinical roles. Many med tech or other related industries often have functions that act as internal clinicians. These individuals act as surgeon, physician, or representatives of the end user, have more of a focus on the clinical applications, and provide valuable feedback to the engineering development teams. Because they are the in-between for the customers and the engineers, being able to speak the language of both sides is crucial to their central role in the product development process. The biomedical engineer is a great fit here, however, for many highly technical organizations, even these clinical engineers are expected to have a traditional engineering background to aid them in their work. The underlying knowledge of physics, product development, and their structured approach to problem solving is a pre-requisite for the job.
My advice to college students interested in the design of medical robotics is to stick with one of the main branches of engineering. Any necessary clinical information can be learned on the job. For those looking for clinical roles, I recommend a traditional engineering undergraduate degree with a biomedical masters as a supplement. This has served many of my colleagues well in both these tracks.
Getting a Foot in the Door
Many soon-to-be graduated I speak with have a specific title in mind for their first job out of college. While knowing what you want us an asset in finding your first job, it can also make an already difficult task artificially even more challenging. I encourage students to keep an open mind about the specific role, while they focus more on the product they want to work on, or the organization that will help them achieve their professional goals.
Once you have your foot in the door, it's much easier to prove your value, network with individuals who have the decision power, be aware of good opportunities when they arise and be poised to take full advantage of them.
Roles Up or Down the Product Development Process
As I have spent most of my career in roles that focus on designing and launching products, I naturally get a lot of my interviewers asking about how they can get in a similar role. I always steer them to be open to roles up and down the product development process as well. I started my career in a rotation program where I got early exposure to manufacturing, supplier quality, and even automation functions. Seeing the world through their eyes has been invaluable in my work as a design engineer. I took with me a better understanding of the impact of design downstream and the crucial role these other functions play along the way.
Examples of similar functions up and down the product development process
R&D Engineer
Design Engineer
Sustaining Engineering
If you enter an exciting company in a role that's not a perfect fit long term, you can be then be honest with your management about your career goals and work together to find a better fit. In the meantime, you're in the right industry, at the right company, learning valuable skills.
Adjacent Functions or Teams
If you know exactly what type of project or product you want to work on, congratulations, you're in the minority! If you happen to be so lucky, you may not find job postings on your favorite medical robotics company's website. If that's the case, don't despair. Just as a role up and down the product development process can open the window to the role you're ultimately after, adjacent roles can be just as helpful.
Here are examples of functions adjacent to mechanical design engineering that can be a great stepping stone in your career.
Manufacturing/New Product Introduction Engineering
Supplier Engineering
Quality Engineering
Clinical Development Engineering
Controls Engineering
There's No Perfect Path
Design and engineering rarely takes a linear path in achieving their goals. The reality is that product development is messier than that. Any product worth anything has gone through many iterations of designing, building, and testing to reach it's final form. Your career will take a similar path. Be open to twists and turns along the way and you'll likely find yourself someplace even better than you ever imagined.
