Battelle Medical Devices Internship – With a Twist!

Nathan Platfoot – STEP-Funded Internship

Medical Devices Division at Battelle Memorial Institute – Columbus, OH

My name is Nathan Platfoot, and this summer my transformational experience involved an internship at Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, OH. It was one of the greatest work environments I’ve ever been in, and my summer spent with some of the best co-workers and interns challenged me in multiple dimensions. The technical content of the internship was quite challenging, which I absolutely loved. I learned about devices and design techniques before I even took the classes on them, which will help as the fall semester goes underway! The variety of project work demanded the development of multiple technical and personal skills, and it helped me realize my own abilities and skill sets – even outside of working hours. As a whole, this internship helped push my boundaries, challenge myself, realize my abilities as well as my weaknesses, and invest in great relationships with fellow co-workers that I can proudly call my friends. I finished my work term with a week-long retreat in Minnesota – read on to see how an amazing love changed my life that week!

All of the interns presented one of their projects at the end of their work term, and this is a picture of my presentation.

I was the Electrical Engineering Hardware Co-op in the Medical Devices Division at Battelle. This means that I was supporting some of their full-time engineers with their projects by performing tests, building prototypes, programming devices, writing code on the computer, and creating relevant circuitry for the design. I worked on a number of different projects related to medical device applications, and the poster below gives some insight into one of those projects. It involved work on a device Battelle was creating with one of their customers which focused on detecting for traumatic brain injury (TBI) using ultrasound. In this case, it has a focus on detecting TBI in the battlefield for soldiers, requiring the design to be durable, quick, and portable. I assisted another engineer in creating a solution to detect the alignment of the soldier’s head in the device, which was used to properly align the probe. You can review my poster for more of the gory technical details if that excites you (for many it doesn’t, but I appreciate you if it does!). At the end of my work term, I attended the School of New Evangelization retreat in Minnesota, which was hosted by a Catholic organization I’m in called Saint Paul’s Outreach. It was a week-long retreat focused on spiritual formation, praise and worship, and practicals on how to spread the Gospel to college students. Over 400 students and young missionaries attended from campuses across the country, and of course our OSU group won their Ultimate Frisbee tournament!

Poster presenting one of my main projects while at Battelle.

This internship reassured me that life after college will be beautiful. Giving me an insight to what the working world will be, this internship showed me that it’s not as dark and restricting as many make it out to be. You always hear people say, “Enjoy college, they’re the best years of your life,” but why do they say that? What comes after college that makes every day you live after that point worse? I don’t think it’s the working world, or “real world” as many describe it. It’s perspective. Of course, there are peaks and valleys of every day, every year, every lifetime. But if you’re not living your absolute best life today, not giving it your all, not happy with where you’re at in life, then what are you doing?

This summer also showed me that life is what you make of it. It’s not about what you do, it’s about how you do it. It doesn’t matter if you’re the janitor or the CEO – each day is a blessing. You don’t have to be happy every single day to be joyful every single day. “Embracing the suck” in the day and raising it up for a greater cause was a large focus (or theme, if you will) for my summer. There’s something about that deep, welling joy that people notice – and it’s contagious! You can live each day regretting not doing the things you wanted to do and always wishing you were somewhere else, but nothing is more beautiful and empowering than living in the present and being where your feet are. Give up the complaints, harness those little ways you suffer every day, and offer it up for striving after a greater mission or goal in your life. After this, I found myself looking forward to going to work every day. I wanted to give each day all of my energy and do my best. I wanted to challenge myself. My perspective this summer changed everything, and I truly felt like I was doing what I loved. To put the cherry on top, the retreat reminded how much God loved me, how big my mission to spread His love to others is, and how I have to strive after showing others His love every day regardless of personal circumstance. So many students and young adults are devoid of that deep, unconditional love in their life, and I want to share that beautiful gift of love He’s shown me. My heart was so happy throughout everything that happened this summer, and it still is as I’m writing this.

What would a summer work term be without playing sand volleyball with some of the other interns?

These realizations wouldn’t have come to fruition if it weren’t for the day-to-day interactions I had with my friends. At work, I would push myself so I could report back good news on progress to my managers. My mentor and other fellow engineers would take the time to teach me various concepts in the electrical engineering field, and they would learn some from each other as well. We would talk about how to apply it to our work and how it impacts our testing or design. Although I often ventured on my own to put it into practice, they would always assist in troubleshooting when things weren’t performing as we had expected. There was nothing better than the conversations at their desks. Getting to know them beyond a work scope was some of the most rewarding part of the internship. Walking away as friends who have had silly discussions about events in the office, talked about the depths of life, and worked side-by-side on projects was incredibly satisfying. Getting lunch and playing sand volleyball with other interns extended that to a broader group of people my age, where I had more people to relate to on the daily college and “adulting” struggles. Then, when I went home, I had the seven men I lived with in my house to lean on. We would all eat and pray together in the evenings twice a week, and we all invested in each other’s lives beyond catching up on what happened that day. We dove into what our struggles were, how our relationships with others were going, and how our relationship with God was going. We’d make random late-night runs to go get food, shoot each other with Nerf guns, and solve way too many puzzles at the kitchen table. One of the guys got engaged that summer, and we had plenty of conversation on his nervousness and stress of getting the perfect engagement ring. Last week, he asked me to be a groomsman in his wedding, and I couldn’t have been happier for him and his future wife. It was much less of the events that made this summer great. It was the relationships that made it beautiful, and the events were simply building blocks for forming those friendships.

This summer was so valuable for me in forming myself into the person I want to be and living the life I want to live. I challenged myself in my work abilities. I made great friends at work, and I built brotherhood with the men at home. I pursued the Lord in my daily interactions, and used the SNE retreat as the pinnacle of the summer, raising all of my hard work up to the Father to glorify His name. I loved my life in the summer, and I want nothing less for my life after graduation. This summer helped form me into the man I want to be in the workplace, at home, and in the eyes of our loving and gracious God. Praise the Lord for this opportunity He gave me this summer!