Tartan Careers - Tiffany Tseng
Sport: Women's Swimming and Diving
Class Year 20-21: Sophomore
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Bio: See Tiffany's athletic bio
Internship Year, Title, and Company
Summer 2020, Technical Intern, ICARES Medicus.
Application process: I applied around late winter and early spring in 2020 and was accepted not too long after that.
Why did this internship interest you: I was interested in this internship since I was curious if I would be interested in biomedical applications of mechanical engineering since I am not taking any classes related to biomedical engineering. Also, I liked the location of the internship since it was in Taiwan.
How did you complete the internship - remotely or on-site: I completed it on-site.
Description of internship: I researched and drafted a clinical and non-clinical paper regarding the company's trifocal intraocular lens, comparing it to other brands. I also compiled information and made a presentation to compare trifocal lenses on the market. I worked mostly independently for 8 hours per day, 5 days a week.
How did this internship shape your next move: From this experience, I learned that I would be interested in biomedical applications of engineering, even if I may not be taking classes regarding it. And personally, it gave me an idea of the working culture in Taiwan and it was very inspiring to be around very bright and hard-working people. I would consider interning in Taiwan again, however, I will most likely search for an internship in the United States for the coming year to get a sense of the working environment here and possibly find one that is more related to robotics.
Tiffany has a career interest in Taiwan, mostly due to family ties, and since she is a citizen of Taiwan. Her parents are Taiwanese immigrants and the majority of extended family with some immediate family live there.
Due to the pandemic, travel to Taiwan was somewhat difficult since Taiwan is being very strict with who is allowed to enter the country. Once Tiffany arrived, she underwent a strict quarantine for two weeks, followed by another week that was more relaxed where she could go outside but had to always wear a mask.
Tiffany had this to say about communicating with colleagues during the internship, "I am not fluent in Mandarin, however, since my work was to write an English article it was not an issue in that sense. My mandarin level was proficient in communicating with others if I had questions and many of the people I worked with were fluent or had a good level of English."