Hands-on design and engineering education

The goal of Hardware Park’s NextGen programming is to fuel the growth of the design, engineering, and manufacturing of physical products in the state of Alabama.

College students: we are now accepting applications for the 2024 Fall NextGen internship cohort. Applications are due by 5PM CST on Friday, August 2^nd, 2024.

High school programs

We are excited to offer two MedTech programs this summer: a 2-day Design Exploration for rising 9th and 10th graders on July 10-11, 2024, and a 4-day MedTech Design Experience for rising 11th and 12th graders, as well as 2024 graduates, from July 15-18, 2024.

College internships

The 11 Summer 2024 full-time interns are from Auburn University, Tuskegee University, and University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). The summer internships start on June 3^rd, and the Student Showcase is scheduled for 4:00-6:00 pm on Thursday, August 1^st at Hardware Park.

Apply for 2024 NextGen Fall Internship

Innovate Alabama and Hardware Park - nextgen programming

Hardware Park's NextGen Education Programming is sponsored by Innovate Alabama.

View Hardware Park's NextGen Cohorts

Students design cutting-edge medical devices in our NextGen programs

Our programs let high school and college students explore the vast space of the medical device business category. Students take cues from external prompts, their own family health struggles, or common diseases.

Work with 3D printers and other engineering tools

Work with prototyping software and AI imaging software

Student testimonials

"Being able to participate in this type of program to have the opportunity to build a medical device that could save millions of people throughout the world was perfect for me."

Jeremy H

Student, Ramsay High School

"The instructors taught us that if we change one variable or one thought process and critically think about your goals, you’ll see how monumentally different the final product can turn out."

Caren S

Student, Woodlawn High School

"I want to create similar medical device technology as what we created through the program and look for problems in current devices to discover new methods to fix them."

Isaiah W

Student, Restoration Academy

Watch our 2024 Spring NextGen
cohort review video

Made by Gabriel Talley from Uphill Growth.

Check out our press coverage

"The goal of Hardware Park’s NextGen cohorts: to fuel the growth of the design, engineering and manufacturing of physical products within Alabama."

Anthony Cook

Reporter, Alabama Newscenter

Alabama political reporter and hardware park

"In those two weeks, students have designed two main projects while working on side passion projects. The main projects are a new crutch with a structure that eases stair use and a wrist-wearable inhaler holder usable in sports."

Samuel Stettheimer

Reporter, Alabama Political Reporter

"During the first week, students were split into two groups of four and were charged with developing an idea for and prototyping a new medical device which required that students thought about both marketability and practicality"

Ryan Michaels

Reporter, Birmingham Times

"The two-week summer program was designed to give students from various backgrounds the opportunity to collaborate on medical device prototype creation with the guidance of established innovators in the mechanical engineering industry"

Ashley Silver

Reporter, Govtech.com

"The Innovate Alabama grant will significantly amplify Hardware Park’s ability to provide educational programming for budding medical device engineers in high school and college, according to Conner."

Alabama Newscenter Staff

Reporters, Alabama Newscenter

Want to intern at Hardware Park?

If you're interested in interning at Hardware Park and are a college student in Alabama, please reach out to us. We'll keep you in mind for future opportunities.

Connect with us