Name: Ha Phan
Class Year: 2022
Major: Computer Science
Hometown: Ha Tinh, Vietnam
Internship Organization: ShopRunner
Job Title: Data Science Intern
Endowed Internship Funding Award: Betsy Zubrow Cohen 1963 Presidential Innovation Fund
Location: Remote
What’s happening at your internship?
I’m wrapping up my main project as we move into the last week of the internship. My main task is to create a deep learning model to classify retailer web pages into different page types such as product page and checkout page. This model would be helpful in analyzing customer shopping and building a fully automated order placement tool. Building a deep learning model is both tricky and challenging, especially for one without previous machine learning experience like me. My model is nowhere near perfect, but I’m proud that I have been able to achieve several project milestones and received positive feedback from other people in the company.
Why did you apply for this internship?
As a CS major, I have always been interested in the intersection between business and technology. Driving business success by leveraging data has always been something I want to do, and that’s why I was very excited about the opportunity to intern at a data-driven e-commerce company like ShopRunner. Also, I attended their information session, and hearing about past interns’ projects really made me feel that I would learn a lot at the company.
What has been your favorite part of this internship?
My favorite part of this internship has been about all the people I have met at the company. Even though the internship is remote this year, my mentor and colleagues have put a lot of effort into making me feel welcomed and included. The people on my team are among the most amazing and intelligent I’ve met. It is really nice to get to know a group of people from very different backgrounds who all ended up in the same place. ShopRunner has data scientists with academic background in physics, public policy, and even philosophy, and they do make a great team together. I definitely have benefited a lot from working with such a diverse group.
Can you give us three adjectives and three nouns that describe your internship experience?
Adjectives: inquisitive, fun, challenging.
Noun: Slack, Zoom, coffee chats.
Visit the Summer 2020 Internships page to read more student stories.