UToledo Bioengineering Student Flexes Problem-Solving Muscles Via Hands-On Research

UToledo Bioengineering Student Flexes Problem-Solving Muscles Via Hands-On Research

Shawn Monteiro can point to the moment his engineering training stopped being theoretical.

It happened inside a University of Toledo Medical Center operating room, not a classroom, during a co-op that asked him to do something no textbook could fully prepare him for: watch a surgeon work, find a real problem and solve it from scratch.

Monteiro, a bioengineering student in UToledo's Jesup Scott Honors College, is now pursuing a master's degree through the University's accelerated MSBS pipeline. He'll complete his undergraduate degree in December, his master's next July and start medical school at UToledo immediately after, his admission to UToledo's medical school already confirmed thanks to an early-admission pathway.

But it's the research itself, which he began as an undergraduate, that changed how he thinks.

The Gap Between the Classroom and the Field

UToledo bioengineering students complete at least three required full-time, semester-long co-op placements. Monteiro has done four since 2024.

His first, a clinical immersion co-op funded by the National Institutes of Health, placed him in the operating room with an orthopaedic surgeon for roughly 400 hours over 10 weeks with a simple charge: identify something worth improving.

For Monteiro, that assignment exposed a gap that lectures alone can't close.

"You have all the tools given to you when you're in the classroom like the expertise in CAD [computer-aided design], the mathematics, the workflow of thinking like an engineer," he said. "But you don't really get to flex those muscles until you're put into a situation where you have to think through a problem and iterate a design from start to finish, from nothing but a thought in your head to a full-fledged solution."

From Problem to Patent to Pitch

Monteiro came out of his very first co-op with more than a passing grade.

He designed a Plate-and-Strap Hand Immobilizer, a reusable alternative to the single-use aluminum devices surgeons currently rely on - which are prone to slipping and also generate unnecessary medical waste - to secure a patient's hand and wrist during delicate procedures.

Monteiro's design concept, which he believes could eventually scale to immobilize other joints, including knees and shoulders, has already earned him a provisional patent and he has since worked with the UToledo Technology Transfer Office to submit a utility patent application, which is now moving through an accelerated review track.

On Oct. 29, he'll pitch the invention to investors as one of five finalists chosen for the Tech419 Pitch Competition Showcase as he continues pursuing licensing and the quality-testing validation he believes will make the device attractive to manufacturers.

None of it, he said, would have been possible without the interplay between the classroom and the clinic.

The UToledo Advantage

Taking classroom knowledge and applying it to the full weight of building something real is what Monteiro said separates coursework from experiential learning. One gives you the parts. The other makes you assemble them under pressure, with a real problem and no guaranteed answer.

It's why UToledo is now requiring experience-based learning for every new undergraduate student in every major as part of the UToledo Advantage.

For Monteiro, the habit of iterating - sketching an idea, testing it, watching it fail, adjusting - has stuck with him well beyond that first co-op. He said it's shaped not just how he approaches design problems, but how he expects to approach medicine itself.

"I have more of an engineering mind to begin with, but being an engineer allows me to have the mindset to visualize a problem and figure it out," he said. "So, when I think about going into orthopaedics in the future, it's not just about doing things routinely in a surgery but how you approach a situation when things inevitably go wrong, or the anatomy is different, or something's off; I'll be able to think through it properly."

He also credits his research experience with sharpening a skill he expects to lean on throughout his medical career: translating between two groups that don't always speak the same language.

"There's a lot of push and pull between what's feasible for engineers to build and what's easy to use for physicians in the operating room, and a lot gets lost in translation," Monteiro said. "Being someone who's well-versed in both can be really valuable."

A Foundation for What's Next

Monteiro said the research experience didn't just teach him to solve problems - it helped him figure out what kind of physician he wants to be. He's now set on orthopaedics, and he hopes to eventually work as a consultant who bridges the gap between the engineers designing surgical devices and the physicians who use them, a role he said requires exactly the kind of hands-on, iterative thinking his co-ops demanded.

It's also, he said, part of why he believes he was admitted to medical school a year ahead of schedule. And he credits not just the research findings themselves, but the way that experience forced him to grow and think.

It's a perspective Monteiro said traces directly back to a co-op that was supposed to end with course credit and instead became the foundation for both a patent application and a physician's career still taking shape.

About Tech419

The University of Toledo Business Incubator's Tech419 Pitch Competition Showcase is the premier event for emerging tech startups in Northwest Ohio.

Two UToledo students are among the 2026 finalists who will present their ventures to a panel of judges and a live audience of investors, community leaders and supporters as they compete for more than $20,000 in funding and prizes.

Leading up to the public final pitch, Tech419 provides finalists with hands-on coaching and a structured pitch training experience as participants refine their public speaking skills, strengthen their investor decks and learn to craft compelling business narratives.

The final pitch showcase takes place at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 29, at Nitschke Technology Commercialization Complex. Visit the Tech419 event site for more information or to reserve a spot.