Testimonial

Jack Lemmon

[MSME 1993, Ph.D. ME 1998]
Senior Mechanical Development Engineer
Medtronic Heart Valve Division
Minneapolis, Minnesota

My graduate experience at the Woodruff School prepared me very well for my career in Product Development in the Medtronic Heart Valves Division. There was freedom within the Woodruff program to tailor my academic education to meet the challenges that I felt would face once in industry. This freedom allowed me to gain a traditional education in the core competencies of Mechanical Engineering while pursuing research in my chosen field of bioengineering. This has helped tremendously in an industry where there must be an interface between research, development and manufacturing to bring products to market, while still understanding the specifications of the device that help bring patient back to full-health. This work environment makes it is essential to understand the capabilities and limitations of each area in order to develop and manufacture the products.

In addition to the traditional classroom education, the research projects performed allowed exposure to the newest ideas being pursued in bioengineering, and gave exposure to Industrial Partners that shared there views on the direction of the industry.

The strength of the Woodruff School Graduate Program is the people. The staff understands the inter-workings of the different departments at Georgia Tech and helps make everything from registering to filing the graduation documentation as simple as possible. This helps relieve some of the stress of completing the administrative tasks necessary to navigate from filling out the application form to graduation day. The faculty that has been assembled for this program is top-notch across the board in all disciplines that the school pursues. This commitment to assemble the best faculty gives students exposure to the leading research in each area. This breadth of research gives students opportunities to chose and grow into areas of engineering that best fit their background.

I think that the quality of the Woodruff school can be summed up in my experience of choosing a graduate school and the reason I decided to attend Georgia Tech. In sending out the applications to numerous programs and awaiting responses, the staff at the Woodruff School was the only one who called me personally to inform me of the status of my application, different steps going on with the process, and the next steps needed to complete the process. It was this commitment to make me feel part of the process and their interest in me as a student led me to an easy decision on where to pursue my graduate education.