DASI Simulations Teaches Interns Hands-on and Hands-down All About Entrepreneurship
Kelsey Sniatynsky has always had a summer job. Her internship at DASI Simulations was the first of those jobs that she could imagine as a career.
Currently a senior at The Ohio State University, Kelsey is completing studies in communications and English. She heard about the DASI internship from a friend in a group chat.
“I was looking for marketing internships,” she said. “I researched DASI. I loved how the website looked, and was blown away by what they do. I decided to give it a shot. It was one of my best decisions.”
DASI has participated in Rev1’s Innovation Internship Program since the program launched in 2020, bringing students and startups together to create exciting opportunities for both. This year, Rev1 is expanding a mentoring component to help students with personal development and networking. More than 215 students have taken 342 placements over the last two years.
Aniket Venkatesh, who is earning his master’s in biomedical engineering at Georgia Tech, was also a summer intern at DASI Simulations. Aniket is a researcher in the independent laboratory of DASI Founder and CTO Lakshmi Dasi, Ph.D. His summer at DASI connected him with medical teams in a way that is not possible in the lab.
“The heart is a passion for me,” Aniket said. “I joined Dr. Dasi’s lab at Georgia Tech to focus on computational modeling, predicting complications, and simulating procedures. Collaborating on work in the lab and at DASI, I had an amazing time. The internship surpassed my expectations.”
Real Work, Fast Pace, Spontaneity, and Feedback
DASI Simulations improve heart surgery outcomes with artificial intelligence, creating a pre-planned surgical procedure optimized for an individual patient. Aniket and Kelsey were two of DASI’s six summer interns.
At DASI, Kelsey worked on projects in social media and marketing. The work was very hands-on; she was asked to step out of her comfort zone. “I came in nervous,” she said. “They gave me the confidence to do my job. They trust me to do my job.”
Aniket collaborated with clinicians on research projects while assisting the engineers with analyzing prospective clinical cases. For him, the opportunity to move beyond the lab and to work directly with clinicians on calls, discussing complex cases in real time, was beyond beneficial.
“I was told by my lab mentor to get closer to clinicians and listen to what they had to say with my own ears,” he said. ”Seeing the impact of our research with real people and being able to assist with our solutions in a way they haven’t seen before is something very special to me. It is gratifying.”
Internships Open the Door to Entrepreneurship as a Career
Before her internship at DASI, entrepreneurship wasn’t on Kelsey’s radar.
“I was a little tentative at first. I definitely hadn’t thought about entrepreneurship as a career. I had watched Shark Tank, and sometimes those entrepreneurs feel great, and sometimes they don’t,” Kelsey said.
“I didn’t realize I would love being in a startup so much,” she said. “There is so much room to grow. They taught me about market research and how to go into Google and dive deep I learned to be more flexible and spontaneous. Seeing each day how our name is getting out there and how new people are talking about DASI is really cool. I went to an investor conference where DASI showed a PowerPoint that I had created. Seeing my work in the real world and making a difference is really exciting. I could see myself being here in five to ten years. As they grow, I grow.”
Aniket favors a startup environment for speed and flexibility. “Whatever work I do,” he said, “has a greater impact. I see the effects up close. It is easier to communicate with everyone, from the CEO on. It has helped me develop as a team player and to learn to juggle multiple roles.”
Mentoring Is a Cornerstone Internships at DASI Simulations
“I get a lot of mentoring at DASI, working hands-on with the CEO and execs. They have so much experience that they share with me,” Kelsey said. “They bring me along to conferences and medical technology symposiums. They are great at helping me see how everything works and helping out if I get overwhelmed. They do that for all the interns. They are there for me, and there for us. This internship is helping me along with my career and what I want to do in my life and feel for myself,” said Kelsey.
Kelsey is continuing to work at DASI part-time now that she is back at OSU.
Aniket is also continuing to work at DASI part-time while returning to the Lab and his graduate studies at Georgia Tech. His connections with the other interns from his summer at DASI are powerful. “The interns feel like an extended family,” he said. “I pretty much made lifelong friends. Even if I move on to different companies or focus, I will definitely hold that special,” he said.
