Career Conversation
with 2010 University of Rochester BME Graduate:
Nicole (Telleri) Simpson
Sr. Systems Engineer
HeartWare Inc
November 2015
As part of our continuing “Career Conversations” series, we had another great Skype “visit” from a former student, Nicole (Telleri) Simpson, who is now working at Heartware in Framingham, MA. It’s an exciting time to be a Verification and Validation (V&V) engineer at Heartware, as they start a new clinical trial for a smaller, improved Ventricular Assist Device. Nicole shared how rewarding it is for her to be helping to work for approval of these amazing devices for patients awaiting heart transplants. She showed us the new model – a smaller version, with enough battery power to allow patients to leave a hospital room and return to more routine activities, like taking a walk or playing with their grandchildren!
Nicole also shared her story about her path after graduation, including an MS degree at U Penn and an internship at Siemens Healthcare. While at Siemens, she worked in Quality Control for SPECT imaging systems and was glad to have some great skill with Matlab for image processing.
Nicole offered great perspective on her role in the medical device industry, advice about the importance of writing, and encouragement for students seeking similar paths.
The important of career conversations cannot be underemphasized. CMTI MS 2016 Graduates: Andrew Zeccola and Martin Gitomer were later hired by HeartWare.
