Meet Our Interns!

June 24, 2022
COTA Team

Covid-19 may have prevented our internship programs over the past 2 years, but this year we are proud to welcome 8 interns to the COTA family. We are so excited to have these eager and bright students joining us for the next 12 weeks. As they continue to grow and learn towards their bright futures during this time, they will also be helping us to bring clarity to cancer!

So, a drumroll please… Meet our amazing 2022 interns!

Anshul Agrawal

Intern on our Engineering team
New York University, Computer Science (Masters)

Why did you choose this major / education path?

“I started off with writing codes to solve mundane simple problems. Enjoying doing that, I started developing simple games, and this interest continued to develop and I am here doing my MS in Computer Science and interning as a Software Developer at Cota.”

Why did you choose COTA?

“First, COTA is a purpose driven company with such a noble purpose of bringing clarity to cancer. It feels very self satisfying to be a part of it. Second, I get to learn and work in my area of interest with some of the brightest minds in the world. This is going to be a great learning opportunity for me.”

What are you excited to learn about this summer?

“I am excited to learn in-depth about Data Ingestion, and see how it happens in the real world. This is an area which I always wanted to understand and learn in greater detail.”

What hobbies do you enjoy?

“I enjoy playing badminton, table tennis and swimming. I have just started to go on Treks regularly, and I’m liking it so far.”

Hailey Adler

Intern on our Legal team
University of Colorado Law School; Masters in Public Health

Why did you choose COTA?

“I chose to intern at COTA because I am passionate about evidence-based health care solutions.”

What are you excited to learn about this summer?

“I am excited to learn more about safeguarding personal health information and look forward to continuing to protect patient rights and privacy.”

Argun Ananda Padmanabhan

Intern on our Product team
University of Michigan, Health Informatics (Masters)

Why did you choose COTA?

“My career goal and vision align with that of COTA: bringing clarity of cancer treatment.”

What are you excited to learn about this summer?

“I am excited to learn more about data warehousing.”

What was your favorite course you have taken at college?

“Natural language processing and data.”

Hannah Ashbrook

Intern on our Legal Team
2L at Fordham Law; Tulane University, BS in Neuroscience

Why did you choose this major / education path?

“After doing hands-on research in undergrad and seeing how excruciatingly slow the research process can be, I wanted to be on the other side – helping researchers navigate the legal hurdles between them and affecting real change.”

Why did you choose COTA?

“COTA is the perfect opportunity to see this in action and get a sense of all the myriad legal issues that arise in corporate governance.”

What are you excited to learn about this summer?

“To learn more about RWD – the world of data science is all new to me.”

What are you most passionate about and why?

“The intersection of science and the law, whether that be the use of neuroimaging technology in a courtroom, patents, or data privacy laws.

Kevin Lyskawa

Intern on our Medical (Research) team
Senior at Trinity College, BS in Biochemistry, Concentration in Neuroscience

Why did you choose this major / education path?

“My mother has been a nurse her whole life and I have always been fascinated by her stories dealing with patients and medicine altogether. From early on, I had a suspicion that a career in medicine awaited me. At Trinity, I got to explore different STEM programs and after not being able to decide between chemistry, biology, or neuroscience, I was able to combine all three and get the best of all worlds!”

Why did you choose COTA?

“After learning about their approach incorporating real world data and technology to better cancer patient outcomes. Furthermore, I was drawn to this internship because I knew that it possessed the greatest opportunity for me to grow intellectually and build new skills in the realm of data analytics.”

What are you excited to learn about this summer?

“I am most excited to observe the real-world implications and clinical advantages of using RWD. Secondly, and this is unique to COTA, is that I am looking forward to meeting various professionals, data scientists, physicians, etc. within different teams at COTA. Not only does doing help you learn, but there is so much to learn from just observing and I am grateful for the opportunity to do both this summer!”

What are your goals after graduation?

“I am solely focusing on absorbing all that I can from this internship to put myself in a competitive position in whatever I decide to do. My future goals, however, are to work towards a post-graduate degree and then on to a career in medicine that is meaningful and for the betterment of those around me.”

Moesha Malik

Intern on our G&A (HR) team
Sophomore at University of Maryland, College Park, BS in Finance & Marketing

Why did you choose this major / education path?

“I’m drawn to “edtech,” or the world of educational startups. In “edtech,” I see many industries and verticals ripe for “disruption” and possible transformation. During this COVID-19  pandemic, I felt horrified by how many students lacked reliable broadband internet access once schools shuttered. For this reason, I am drawn to join public-and-private sector approaches to close this digital gap. At college, I’d build a solid foundation in marketing, finance and computer science, I’ll hone my skills and gain further insight into the industry. In class, I’d relish the chance to pitch my professor and classmates, practicing how to strike the best possible investment deal for my “edtech” product.”

Why did you choose COTA?

“Interning at COTA would allow me to gain knowledge regarding how to manage employees, scale a company, strike deals, build relations, and one day, build my own firm or work at an “edtech” firm – with the overarching goal of transforming education and serving our community.”

What are you excited to learn about this summer?

“I am excited to learn and experience how COTA builds a healthy relationship with each and every employee in its company. As a sophomore in college, this interests me as I have never engaged with a start up and/or scale up company before, so seeing the process from the very beginning is exciting to me.”

What is one thing on your bucket list?

“One thing on my bucket list is to go skydiving in Dubai.”

Ke Zeng

Intern on our Medical (Research) team
Economics PhD candidate in Economics at Graduate Center, CUNY; BS in Finance

Why did you choose this major / education path?

“My undergraduate major was Finance which was chosen by my parents. My own interest was becoming a medical practitioner. Now when I chose my own research interest learning Economics, I made my own choice to be in the field of Health, Education and Labor.”

Why did you choose COTA?

“My thesis is about Medicare payment reform, which is more on Medical and welfare system. I noticed there was an opportunity to be closer to the cancer treatment when COTA offering this position; and I knew this position could give me more sense about how the medical research is conducting.”

What are you excited to learn about this summer?

“to work on the research project at COTA, and also how COTA turn the research into productivity. It is the time that I could really learn and apply my knowledge, maybe bringing some causality inference techniques to the projects.”

What is one skill you have always wanted to learn?

I want to learn how COTA identifies and sells the research questions.

Archer Zhao

Intern on our Data Analytics team
Columbia University, Operations Research (Masters)

Why did you choose this major / education path?

Both of my parents are engineers, so from childhood, I decided
to pursue an engineering career. Then I realized how amazing it
is to use data to build insights and make contributions. I enjoyed
deciphering insights from data analytics.”

Why did you choose COTA?

“I’ve always wanted to work in healthcare industry, since I think it’s most related to actual human lives, and the contributions and efforts are directly related to human beings. COTA offered me such wonderful platform so I can use my own expertise to work in an industry I like.”

What are you excited to learn about this summer?

“Learn more about healthcare industry and how to utilize data analytical skills to make contributions to the healthcare industry.”

How would your friends describe you?

“Energetic, funny, helpful, and optimistic.”

We cannot wait to see each of our interns excel over the next 12 weeks and we will check back in with them at the end of the summer!

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