Bioengineering Club

Co-ops: Experience Life and Work as an Engineer Before You've Graduated

The University of Maine has partnerships with Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center, IDEXX, and Instrumentation Laboratories (IL), in which students in Biomedical Engineering have the opportunity to have a paid co-op experience with one of these organizations, during which they are treated as entry-level engineers and engage in actual engineering work!  Each co-op experience varies considerably from the work that students do to the length of the program, but each is a worthwhile and a valuable educational experience!

Students typically apply for co-op positions the spring semester of their sophomore year and then (if they are offered and accept a position) participate in the programs over various time frames, including during the following summer or the fall or spring semester of their junior year!  

If students participate in the co-op program during the school year, they can take that semester of classes the previous summer (if doing a fall co-op) or the following summer (if doing a spring co-op) so that they won’t get behind in their coursework and still graduate in four years!