man in blue shirt

Though I don’t currently work in regulatory affairs, what I learned while on my co-op placement still stands with me today. In my role as an R&D engineer, I interacted with regulatory affairs daily and the knowledge I picked up while on my co-op has made my role in R&D easier.

Iain shares with us how despite his co-op placement being impacted by COVID-19, he still managed to get essential experience which continues to help him with his role today. 

Tell us a bit about yourself, what course did you study in UL, and what has your career looked like to date?

My name is Iain Campbell and I’m from Limerick. I previously attended Castletroy College before going on to study Biomedical Engineering at UL. Since graduating from UL I have worked as a CAD Technician for Boston Scientific working on the design of manufacturing equipment. I currently work as an R&D Engineer for J&J MedTech working on the development of neurovascular devices which are used in the treatment of hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke.

Tell us a bit about your co-op placement, what organisation did you work with and what year it took place?

For my co-op placement, I worked as a regulatory affairs assistant at Teleflex Medical. My co-op experience was unique as I was originally due to have my placement be from May 2020 to January 2021, but due to the outbreak of Covid 19 in March 2020, my placement began in September instead. My first taste of working in the medical device industry was experienced from the spare room in my house as I was required to work from home for the duration of my placement.  Working in regulatory affairs gave me a great insight into the complexities of the medical device industry as I was exposed to the processes to get a device approved to go to the market and how post-market compliance is managed.

In my role, I carried out regulatory impact assessments which is when we would determine the impact to a region if there was a planned change to a device. I also managed license blocks, which are when a device is requested in a region where it hasn’t been permitted before. I would decide based on my knowledge of regulations in that region whether it was acceptable for it to be shipped.

What impact did your co-op placement have on your future career?

Though I don’t currently work in regulatory affairs, what I learned while on my co-op placement still stands with me today. In my role as an R&D engineer, I interacted with regulatory affairs daily and the knowledge I picked up while on my co-op has made my role in R&D easier. I also found that the people I worked with while on co-op impacted my future. Having the opportunity to connect with experienced professionals who worked in the industry I wanted to enter gave me great insight into what I wanted to do when I graduated from UL. In my regulatory affairs team, I worked with people who had been R&D engineers, manufacturing managers and even a former archaeologist!

What piece of advice would you give to students going on co-op now?

Even if you are going into a co-op role that doesn’t seem like the type of job you’d want in the future, go into it with an open mind, chat with your colleagues to see what their past experiences are and try to soak in as much information as possible.