Soumya Ganesh was impressed when she boarded one of Carnival’s cruise ships for the first time. The vessel resembled a floating city, complete with a theater, waterpark, casino, many shops and restaurants, as well as a medical center. But unlike most cruise ship visitors, the Northeastern University student wasn’t there for a getaway. Instead, she was starting a groundbreaking co-op placement.

“Visiting a cruise ship exceeded all my expectations, especially in seeing how much the medical team contributes,” says Ganesh, who completed her co-op with Carnival Corporation’s health services informatics team. “It’s exciting to have worked on something that has such relevance to the cruise industry.”

After four months and many more cruise ship visits, the Master of Science in Information Systems student has gone from a wide-eyed guest to a confident full-stack developer. Ganesh successfully built a health and clinical risk management app from the ground up. When Carnival Corporation deploys it, the innovative tool will drive safety initiatives into the future, illustrating the impact of the Northeastern University co-op program.

A New Chapter for Northeastern and Industry Partnerships

For 115 years, Northeastern has provided students with valuable experiential learning opportunities through its renowned co-op program, which thrives on strong partnerships. Ganesh’s co-op at Carnival Corporation — a first for the recently opened Miami campus — is a notable instance of the benefit of such collaborations.

Benjamin Brandt is Carnival Corporation’s senior director of health administration and finance. He played a key role in the student hiring process and hosted Ganesh during her engineering co-op experience.

“It’s incredibly beneficial to have a co-op where all partners are equally invested,” he says. “Sometimes, the employer drives the co-op, putting all the expectations on them. But Northeastern was very engaged, and that level of involvement allows us to foster a true partnership that can easily expand to other opportunities.”

For the initial engagement, Carnival Corporation aimed to bring on a student to develop an innovative solution for monitoring potential health and clinical risks across its extensive network of medical centers onboard more than 90 ships that sail for eight unique cruise line brands. This initiative encompasses facilities staffed with trained physicians, nurses, and support personnel ready to help any of the millions of guests sailing annually on Carnival Corporation-owned cruise lines.

It also marked a significant shift for Carnival Corporation’s clinical governance team, which previously outsourced its quality standards systems, to a more responsive and agile centralized structure.

“Once it is rolled out to all of our fleets, the app will be a game-changer,” says Dr. Jae-Hong Min, director of population health and analytics at Carnival Corporation. “It allows us to streamline how we track and analyze patient safety events, so the right teams can take these inputs and proactively find ways to provide even better medical care.”

Posted on NUworks, Northeastern’s internal platform for co-ops, full-time jobs, and internships, the opportunity attracted considerable interest. With more than 400 applications, the selection process became highly competitive. It involved three interviews, during which the Carnival Corporation hiring team assessed candidates on their technical expertise and soft skills.

“It was important we brought on someone with the right skill set because this role was critical,” says Brandt. “Soumya had a solid skill set and stood out for her professionalism and eagerness to learn. She was even willing to move from Boston to Miami for the role so we could immediately see her dedication.”

Solving Real-world Engineering Problems

With a professional background as an app developer in India, Ganesh found the co-op program an invaluable opportunity to adapt her skills to the American landscape. To prepare for this transition, she took a career management course, attended webinars hosted by Northeastern’s co-op advisors, and engaged in personalized sessions with her dedicated co-op advisor.

“The opportunity to gain real-time experience working on real-life challenges while applying what you are learning is very attractive,” Ganesh says. “I applied for many co-op jobs and got rejections, but it’s about trusting in the process. When I hit apply on the Carnival Corporation application, it stood out for some reason. I really wanted the job.”

In her role, Ganesh leveraged her experience and the knowledge she gained at Northeastern to deliver a minimum viable product, which she presented to Carnival Corporation stakeholders. She also enhanced her skill set by learning a new platform, primarily working with Microsoft Power Platform, which Ganesh had never used before.

“I’ve worked with students from various education levels, and Master’s students often bring a fresh perspective and a willingness to learn with the maturity of implementing their existing expertise,” says Min. “Soumya was a great example. She quickly learned Power Platform and was able to simplify complex workflows into an app. She understood complicated data relationships and transformed them into the right data structure while ensuring good visualization.”

Sums up Ganesh, “My cop-op experience has made a huge impact on my career journey and future. I realized that if you have a strong foundation, it doesn’t matter what tools you use. Northeastern University and my background gave me the fundamentals I needed to help solve one of Carnival Corporation’s challenges and make the solution scalable for the future.”

By: Izabela Shubair