Chen-Hao (Paul) Lin
Working in a Startup Company Can Be More Rewarding Than You Think
By Paul (Chen-Hao) Lin (PHYS ’22)
My name is Paul (Chen-Hao) Lin, a 6th-year Ph.D. in Physics at Washington University in St. Louis, working in the Institute of Radiology. This summer, I was honored to work for Nous Imaging, an MRI medical imaging software startup company in St. Louis, as part of my Pivot 314 Fellowship training. Nous Imaging’s mission is to provide software enabling real-time (showing the images at the same time when scanning) monitoring of MRI. When using MRI for imaging patients’ brains, one of the biggest problems is the twisted images due to the movement of patients, which is hard to detect. Nous products create real-time videos to show motions and the quality of scanning to address this challenge. To be honest, I had never expected this internship journal can be that rewarding.
During the summer, one of my projects was working on leveraging deep learning models to reduce the costly time for our bottleneck imaging process, which usually takes more than 16 hours. This deep learning approach reduces the processing time by 75%, which significantly reduces the time and cost to obtain MRI results. It was very fulfilling to realize the training we got is valuable and know that we can contribute in a short time.
In the internship, I learned many new technical skills along the path. In my lab at the university, I am focusing on developing the hardware of a novel imaging system. Even though I use some software for imaging processing, I have rarely used Python or other famous computing tools. During my internship at Nous, I used Python almost every day and also learned many new tools for software development, which are the skills I lacked before my internship and also the skills I desired to obtain. This internship taught me how to learn new skills in a very short period. Furthermore, I learned a very crucial life skill – problem-solving.
Other than the technical training during my internship in this startup company, I got many mentors to help me develop communication, leadership, entrepreneurial, and resume writing skills. I even got some chances meeting with the company’s CEO a few days after my start date for interviewing the CEO’s techniques for managing a fast-growing company, shaping the company’s culture, and obtaining funding for the company. The company also provides many opportunities for networking. During the 10-week internship, we had two meals with current company members and other interns to learn experience with how current employees pursued their careers and the difference between working in academia and industry. These are invaluable experiences for students who are starting their careers right after school.
In summary, I am super thankful for this invaluable opportunity working in a startup company as a summer intern. I learned many important technical skills for pursuing my future careers, developed strong communication skills, and got many new friends with various backgrounds. Working in a startup company may be risky, but it can also be quite rewarding, and you will learn a lot during this journey.
