Impact Redesign

Many members of our staff at KARL STORZ in Goleta are graduates of UCSB, especially from the excellent engineering programs, and we feel a great connection to UCSB! We love bringing in interns each year to work in different areas of engineering such as FPGA design, image processing, mechanical engineering, manufacturing engineering, and electrical engineering. Whenever possible, we want to ensure these interns have a place at KARL STORZ after graduation, and many of them choose to join our engineering team.

Dr. Hua Lee was my master’s degree advisor. In addition, several current engineers in the Image Processing group were also his graduate students. Each year, Dr. Lee offers a class on applications of engineering and invites local companies to host a lecture. KARL STORZ is always eager to participate and provide an overview of the technology used in our imaging products for endoscopic surgery. After seeing what we do, we’ve had students in those classes take an interest in our work and go on to join the company.

We feel strongly that we should continue to support the next generation of engineers and scientists in their learning and growth through our internships and through UCSB programs like those listed. We know that many of the problems we face today will be solved by this next generation bringing their perspective and creativity to our industry. We invest in students to contribute to the future generation of engineers, and we also believe these investments help our business and contribute to innovations in the medical device industry. Sometimes, our relationships with UCSB programs help us connect with students who may want to join our teams in the future.

At KARL STORZ, we believe that a diverse workforce brings in valuable perspectives, is an important success factor and will help us bring the most innovative, customer-centric products to the market. In recent years, we have achieved more diversity, such as more women and people of color joining our company and rising in the ranks of leadership. We also recognize that there is still an imbalance, especially in some higher leadership positions, which is why we are strongly committed to supporting these programs.

We support organizations like UCSB’s WiSE, MESA, SWE, and SHPE because we want to ensure students from underrepresented backgrounds feel supported in their areas of study, and feel empowered, welcome, and included as they transition into industry. We invest in these programs as one of our many long-term efforts to help diversify our company and industry. KARL STORZ’s longstanding collaboration with UCSB is one of the ways we are actively partnering to affect our community and our future.