Josh Liebowitz has an ambitious destination for his career path, which happens to run right through the Georgia Institute of Technology.

“It is my goal to be the CEO of a medical device company,” says Liebowitz, who earned an undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering and technology innovation (Boston University). “But I wanted to acquire a fundamental knowledge of the medical device industry from concept to commercialization.”

And that led him to Atlanta and the Master of Biomedical Innovation and Development program, or BioID, offered through the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory.

The program is designed to address a gap in current professional biomedical education – the bench-to-bedside progression that transforms research into practical, usable techniques and products for improving patient care.

BioID is an intensive one-year ride, exposing students to clinical practice, engineering design and development, best-practices manufacturing, financial planning, and commercialization – bringing together the strengths of a top-ranked engineering university (Tech) and leading medical school (Emory) with the expertise of guest lecturers from throughout the diverse healthcare industry.

“I knew that if I wanted to lead a medical device project or company, the BioID cross-functional exposure would be very helpful,” says Liebowitz, a 2017 BioID graduate. “I was drawn by [the Coulter Department’s] reputation as the best biomedical engineering program in the country and its intimate partnership with Emory. I really enjoyed the clinical exposure – observing surgeries and interacting with healthcare professionals.”

Following graduation, Liebowitz begins his career as part of the Johnson & Johnson R&D Leadership Development Program. For the next two years, he’ll work in the company’s medical device division, one of only six master level engineers in the country accepted into the competitive program.

So, it’s a rare honor and opportunity, but not the only one accorded to this year’s class of diverse BioID graduates. Recently, Elizabeth Coyle was among six Georgia Tech students, and only 10 nationally, selected to participate in the first Polish President Internship (May 24-June 4, 2017). The students spent 10 days traveling through Poland, visiting political and cultural sites in some of its greatest cities, as well as meeting with the president of Poland, Andrzej Duda.

Coyle was the only Georgia Tech student from the College of Engineering to win an internship. She graduated from the Catholic University of America (Washington, D.C.) with a degree in biomedical engineering.

But after the past year in Atlanta, Coyle says she has more confidence, and hopes to parlay the wide-ranging skills gained through the BioID graduate program into a career in the medical device industry (she’s currently interviewing for positions with some of the corporate giants, including St. Jude/Abbot, Medtronic, and Boston Scientific).

“From learning about R&D prototyping methods to learning about quality, regulatory, marketing, and business strategy, everything we learned is extremely applicable to the medical device industry,” says Coyle, who is from Cleveland, Tennessee. “I always tell people that I learned more in this one year of my graduate studies than I did in all four years of undergrad.”

BioID Program

CONTACT:

Jerry Grillo

Communications Officer II

Parker H. Petit Institute for

Bioengineering and Bioscience