How Randox turned “mission impossible” into a win with Waterloo co-op talent
By: Christie Zeb (she/her)
From project rescue to product innovation, Waterloo co-op students are shaping the future of diagnostics at health-care laboratory, Randox.
When COVID-19 disrupted industries worldwide, Randox Laboratories, a global leader in health care diagnostics, was at the forefront of the pandemic response. As the only private company among seven major labs overseeing COVID testing across the United Kingdom and Ireland, Randox pivoted its entire operation to meet public health needs.
But, as the pandemic subsided, the crisis left a legacy project long paused without a team and direction.
Mark Wilson, senior project manager at Randox Laboratories
“The legacy project was an existing analyzer that had been in development but never officially released to market,” says Mark Wilson (BASc ’08) (he/him), senior project manager at Randox Laboratories.
“Due to COVID and time lapsed, when the project was picked up again the development team were no longer with the company and the internal knowledge of the system was extremely limited.”
Rather than subcontract or hire externally, the team took a chance on something new: co-op students.
“I’m a Waterloo alum myself. I knew firsthand how capable Waterloo students are,” Wilson says. “When we needed to restart this project, I suggested we bring in Waterloo co-op students, not just for short-term help, but as a long-term talent strategy.”
What happened next lay the foundation for a co-op program that continues to shape the company’s future.
The first two students were handed the legacy analyzer that the team jokingly called “mission impossible”. It was a nearly abandoned project, no one on-site fully understood the software behind it. However, within 16 weeks, the students had not only revived the project, but they also advanced it so far that it became the catalyst for the company’s now-thriving co-op hiring program.
“They (Waterloo co-op students) improved the reliability of the system, significantly bringing it back into a functioning product for internal use,” Wilson says.
Encouraged by the outcome, Randox doubled down. “Based on the success of that project, we went from two students to six. Then our managing director, Dr. Peter FitzGerald, said, ‘take more,’” Wilson says.
“Now we take as many students as we can support as per project and business needs throughout the year.”
Today, co-op students are embedded across four major product development streams, contributing to globally released medical analyzers and new technologies.
Randox has about 1,500 employees operating in 145 different countries across the globe. The company hires students from Waterloo’s Faculty of Math and Faculty of Engineering to support its vision to improve healthcare worldwide.
All the students we've had ramp up very fast and take on challenges they haven’t seen before.
Tackling the toughest projects head-on
Lokansh Rai (he/him) (BASc ’25) was one of the two Waterloo co-op students hired to take on the intimidating legacy blood diagnostic machine.
“Due to COVID, this system had been abandoned over several years and as a result, the codebase was in disarray and most engineers avoided it. Only the other Waterloo co-op student and I were actively working on it,” Rai says.
“Because of its reliability issues, the project earned its well-deserved nickname “mission impossible”.
Rai overhauled the camera system, cutting 1,300 lines of code down to around 300 efficient ones. The changes improved compile times by 30 per cent, runtime by 50 per cent and camera performance by 63 per cent.
“I utilised a camera mechanism called pre-flash, which reduced standard deviation in images by over half, greatly improving diagnostic accuracy and precision,” Rai says.
Lokansh Rai (BASc ’25), Embedded Software Engineer co-op student, Randox
Rai also collaborated with the second co-op student to fix a long-standing scheduler bug that caused system crashes. By the end of his term, the system was stable, reliable and ready for future development.
“This was the most technically enriching and fulfilling experience I’ve had,” Rai says.
Calvin Sui (BSc ’25) worked at Randox as an embedded software engineer for his final co-op term. During this time, he contributed across three high-impact projects, including the legacy analyzer, a next-generation diagnostic machine called RABTA and an embedded systems initiative.
Calvin Sui (BSc ’25), Software Engineer, Randox
“I updated legacy code and created a quality-of-life feature that lets users manually debug a known issue, saving time and avoiding support calls,” Sui says.
On RABTA, Sui worked on both backend and frontend components, from managing patient sample data and building diagnostic algorithms to setting up embedded software communication protocols.
“I also explored the capabilities of an STM32 PCB board for a future product. These compact, programmable circuit boards are used in embedded systems and electronics prototyping,” Sui says. “I demonstrated how we could use its screen and video features for efficient decoding and instructional delivery.”
Sui is now in a full-time role as a Software Engineer with Randox where he is continuing his work on the company's analyzers and diagnostic machines while contributing to the company’s healthcare innovations.
Structured support system for co-op students
Waterloo co-op students relocate to the United Kingdom to work on-site at Randox headquarters in Northern Ireland. To support this move, the company has a comprehensive onboarding system that begins before students leave Canada. From personalized onboarding calls and visa guidance to arrival logistics, the company ensures students feel prepared and supported.
Once on-site, co-ops receive technical training, regular mentorship check-ins and peer support. Randox helps welcome students to the community with shared resources like household items, housing tips and local advice from past and current co-ops.
“We try to support students as much as possible when they come in,” Wilson says. “It’s a big move for them to come across the ocean and relocate with us.”
Diana Brebeanu, fourth-year Computer Science student and co-op student at Randox's Dublin-based subsidiary, Cellix.
For Randox, hiring co-op students has become more than a stopgap; it’s a strategic recruitment move. The company invites co-op students to present their work to senior management midway through their term, even to the company’s founder and managing director.
“This is a 16-week interview. If a student excels and thinks they would love to relocate to Europe when they graduate, we’ll welcome them,” Wilson says. “We are also pleased that several students have returned as graduates.”
In bridging a post-COVID skills gap, Randox not only revived a critical project but also discovered a pool of skilled talent that’s helping shape the future of global diagnostics.