Mallek prepared for her next chapter

After visiting The Ohio State University, Kate Mallek knew she wanted to be a Buckeye and experience the possibilities on the vast campus.  

As a Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) member at Ohio State, Mallek focused on managing women empowerment, STEM education, and mental health events as the special initiative’s co-chair. A fellow member of BMES, Maariyah Ahmed, recommended that Mallek apply to the Medical Modeling, Materials and Manufacturing (M4) Lab.  

After she joined the M4 Lab, Mallek worked to pursue innovative approaches to advance health and well-being in our society. In her role as a quality technician, Mallek worked on a cube study to gain more insight into the 3D printer tolerances and performance. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows test coupons to be a sample of additive-manufactured medical devices, enabling the quality team to use a calibration cube as a test for 3D prints.  

“Since we are making patient-specific anatomic models that surgeons use for preoperative planning, it's important to have great precision and accuracy,” said Mallek. “In the cube study, we printed 135 total cubes for the first study and took 2,430 measurements. We evaluated that data to see if there were any differences among either the printers or the people measuring. Then, we repeated the study again but with randomization of the cubes. This study gave us valuable information on process variation and insights into how our 3D printers work.” 

To understand the accuracy of physical models compared to their Standard Tessellation Language (STL) file, Mallek employed a landmark study with the quality team.  

In addition to working on the quality assurance of the 3D printers, Mallek used software such as Materialise Mimics, Materialise 3-matics and Formlabs PreForm. She worked with Formlabs and J5 printers to ensure their modeling capabilities are to their fullest accuracy. Gaining real-life experience with innovative health care solutions provided her with the necessary technical and professional skills to expand her future career. 

Teri Snyder, M4 quality and regulatory program manager, was a major influence on her academic success. Snyder taught her skills applicable to her engineering courses and guided her to integrate new technologies into industry applications.  

"Kate has been instrumental in helping us to develop new process controls, analyze existing workflows and document our processes,” said Snyder. “We have implemented a medical device industry cloud-based quality management system and Kate has supported testing and workflow deployment. More importantly, Kate does all this with great positivity and insight.  Kate has an innate understanding of the value of process. She can propose solutions to problems that allow for the processes to meet requirements and still be agile.”  

After graduation, Mallek will return to Chicago, her hometown, and join Accenture, a technology consulting company, as a Technology Development Program Analyst. Accenture’s analyst development programs offer exposure to many technologies, projects across industries, on-the-job training, mentorship, volunteer opportunities and peer connections.  

“Look out medical device technology world, Kate is here to help you with innovation and meet the regulatory and quality challenges needed to deliver to customers,” said Teri Snyder. “All of the M4 Lab team share that it has been a joy to work with Kate. I can’t say this enough.” 

Ways to connect with Kate Mallek: 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-mallek-8953461b5/ 

By: Evahanna Cruz, CDME marketing and communications student assistant