The role of the bioengineering external advisory board
The bioengineering external advisory board makes meaningful contributions to the bioengineering department in its mission to sustain academic excellence by continually improving curriculum and training our students to become technically competent and prepared to address the ever-changing needs of society. The board plays a critical role in enhancing academia-industry collaborations and recruiting new industry partners to our programs.
In particular, the board advocates and promotes our academic programs to local industries and institutes in the Bay Area and beyond. The board also provides input to the department, supporting its teaching, research, and outreach activities. The input is also valuable in planning for new programs and setting directions for the department.
We greatly appreciate board members’ efforts in connecting our students to medical device and biotech companies for internships and employment opportunities. Some board members are also active in co-advising students engaged in senior design and other research projects and serving as judges for the annual senior design conference.
The current members of the board include respected leaders and entrepreneurs from local industries as well as medical practitioners from local hospitals and clinics.
Principal Scientific Manager II, Biochemical & Cellular Pharmacology, Genentech
Krzysztof Izdebski, F.K., M.A., Ph.D., CCC-SLP, FASHA
Founder and Chairman, Pacific Voice and Speech Foundation
Attending Radiologist at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center
Chief Executive Officer, Smartlens, Inc.
Shengjiang Shawn Liu, Ph.D., D.V.M.
Chief Scientist and Department Head, Bayer HealthCare
Global Section Head of Medical Informatics, Genentech / Roche
Founder and Principal, Manty Medtech
"Being a lecturer in the program, advisor to the program, and employer of SCU interns and graduates over many years has given me a unique perspective to the students, graduates, faculty, and university. Santa Clara University (SCU) Bioengineering students are well suited for industry internships and graduates of the program successfully transition into the medical technology and devices industries. In addition to engineering fundamentals, core skills that SCU Bioengineering students learn include CAD, prototyping, introduction to quality and regulatory systems, testing, and biomaterials. Major employers of graduates in the medical device segment for which I am involved include Abbott, Boston Scientific, Intuitive Surgical, Medtronic, Penumbra, and Stryker."
"I have had the honor to be an advisor to the Bioengineering Program for several years. I have mentored SCU undergraduates as well as coached them on senior projects involving instrumentation, biosignal processing and computers in medicine. I have also volunteered as a judge for senior projects, including those involving machine learning algorithms. I can truthfully say that SCU bioengineering students are on par or better than many students and young biomedical engineers that I have encountered or worked with who graduated from other institutions. In fact, I have seen a progressively improving trend in the quality and rigor of the senior projects over the years, a testament to the high educational standards that SCU stands for and the attitude of continuous improvement that SCU fosters.More important than just graduating with technical knowledge, I have had the pleasure to discover that education at Santa Clara University also provides her graduates with a moral compass that is so necessary in today’s society. When this is paired with the type of products that biomedical engineers work on in industry and deliver to society for clinical use, I feel optimistic that an education from Santa Clara will foster a lifelong career of integrity and servitude to the betterment of healthcare through judicious deployment of life science technologies."
"As a serial entrepreneur, inventor, scholar in the medical device industry, I have been impressed by the level of interest by the SCU BioE students in solving healthcare problems affecting the community. The SCU faculty has done an outstanding job preparing the students for an "all hands on deck" approach very typical of Silicon Valley spirit. I have hired a former SCU BioE Graduate student, and his contribution to advancing technologies to treat patients suffering from Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) has exceeded my expectations. I highly recommend the SCU BioE program."
"During 40 years I have brought medical devices, such as CT, MRI, Digital Imaging and presently Interactive Mixed Reality to the medical marketplace. In addition, I have taught these subjects at SCU and Stanford. The reason that I am continuously excited about serving on the Board of Advisors at SCU is due to the focus of the student body on both the Clinical and Workflow aspects of device utilization. The combination, Patient Outcomes, is the foremost objective for this industry. Recently I have participated in connecting SCU and Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. This is another step in building a Patient Outcome focused program."
"I have had the opportunity to advise two SCU Bioengineering teams on their capstone projects. In each of these projects I was impressed with the capabilities of all of the 3 team members. They demonstrated excellent engineering skills, the ability to effectively perform key research to clearly understand and define the clinical need they were solving and cohesive and productive teamwork in developing a solution to the need."