RRaahil

Raahil Sha

CTO, Zeta Surgical

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About Me

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Meet Raahil

Raahil is a co-founder of Zeta Surgical, a startup that develops surgical navigation and robotics tools to make minimally invasive surgeries easier, faster and more accessible. He graduated from Harvard in 2018 with a B.A. in Computer Science in the Mind, Brain, Behavior Program. Having done research on epigenomic factors affecting cancer at UT Dallas and on reconstructing the human connectome at Harvard, Raahil has extensive experience in computational biology and is interested in the intersection of technology and medicine. While not working, Raahil can be spotted using his private pilot's license to fly to scenic locations around the east coast.
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Resume

Cambridge, MA | raahil.sha@zetasurgical.com

Experience

Zeta Surgical

Co-Founder and CTO

2018 - present

Co-founded Zeta Surgical, a startup that creates tools for next-generation surgical navigation and robotics

Conduted pre-clinical and clinical studies at multiple trial sites

Raised $8.9 million in funding from VCs and angels

Published research in top clinical journals including JNS

Developed and obtained FDA clearance for the Zeta Cranial Navigation System, a neurosurgical image guidance system that provides surgeons with submillimeter accuracy in any surgical environment

AlgoDepth

Quant Finance Research

2017

Performed maintenance, optimization, and improvement of the hedge fund’s in-house backtesting engine systems

Created an interactive tool to allow analysts to evaluate performance of trading strategies through risk and volatility-related metrics and Profit and Loss analysis

Developed efficient and optimized evaluation algorithms for various machine learning models to use in high frequency trading, including one that can evaluate 500 decision trees within a random forest in under 45 microseconds

Human Connectome Project

Research Intern

2015 - 2016

Performed research on the Human Connectome Project (HCP) in the Visual Computing Group at Harvard University

Developed a pipeline to align scanning electron microscope images of brain tissue in 3D space

Analyzed over 961 gigabytes of high resolution image data using high throughput computational systems

Optimized algorithms using machine learning and parallel processing techniques for a 347% increase in speed

Art of the State LLC

Programmer

2015

Worked as a programmer in the production of Alliance: Air War, a photorealistic, high-intensity flight simulator for iOS

Incorporated real-world data to develop a physics model for fighter airplane flight simulation

Developed particle and trail rendering systems compatible with the Metal API

NanoTech Institute, UTD

Student Researcher

2011-2014

Worked on various projects involving the use of nanotechnology as part of the NanoExplorer program at UT Dallas

Created a novel statistical method to quantify methylation heterogeneity in various lung cancers, including Lung Squamous Cell Carcinoma (LuSC) and Lung Adenocarcinoma (LuAD)

Developed a platform to streamline transcriptomic characterization of bioinformatics experiments

Utilized Deep Neural Networks to predict DNA Nucleotide Modifications in cancer patients with a success rate of 81%

Media

News Articles

(2023, November 28) Forbes - 30 Under 30: Healthcare, North America 2024 (Link)

(2023, September 13) Fierce Biotech - Zeta Surgical zeroes in on FDA nod for 'GPS-like' neurosurgery navigation system (Link)

(2023, September 11) Boston Business Journal - Zeta Surgical secures first FDA clearance for robotic surgery system (Link)

(2023, August 9) Forbes - 30 Under 30: Boston Local List 2023 (Link)

(2022, March 10) TechCrunch - Zeta Surgical comes out of stealth with a $5.2M raise for image-guided surgery (Link)

Press Releases

(2023, September 11) PRNewswire - Zeta Surgical's Mixed Reality Navigation System Receives FDA Clearance (Link)

(2023, June 22) PRNewswire - Zeta Surgical Announces Successful Treatment of First Patient in Neurosurgical Navigation Clinical Trial at Singapore's National Neuroscience Institute (Link)

Education

Harvard University

2018

Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Computer Science

Specialization in Study of Mind, Brain, and Behaviour

McKinney Boyd High School

2014

Academics: 4.0 GPA; Rank 2/717

Test Scores: ACT: 36; SAT: 2370

Publications and IP

Papers

Jiang, Z., Hua, M., Li, J., Le Mau, H., Stolyarov, R. M., Gormley, W. B., Amich, J. M., and Sha, R. M. (2024) SCOUT: Skull-Corrected Optimization for Ultrasound Transducers. In preparation.

Lim, J. X., Sha, R. M., Amich, J. M., Stolyarov, R., Le Mau, H., Chiurillo, I., Gormley, W. B., Kirollos, R. W., and Chen, M. W. (2024) Real-time vision-based navigation for precision neurosurgery: a first-in-human ventriculostomy study. Submitted to journal.

Chiurillo, Isabella, Raahil M. Sha, Faith C. Robertson, Jian Liu, Jacqueline Li, Hieu Le Mau, Jose M. Amich, William B. Gormley, and Roman Stolyarov. 2023. High-Accuracy Neuro-Navigation with Computer Vision for Frameless Registration and Real-Time Tracking. Bioengineering 10, no. 12: 1401.

Robertson, F.C., Wu, K.C., Raahil, M.S., Amich, J.M., Lal, A., Lee, B.H., Kirollos, R.W., Chen, M.W. and Gormley, W.B., 2022. Stereotactic Neurosurgical Robotics With Real-Time Patient Tracking: A Cadaveric Study. Operative Neurosurgery, pp.10-1227.

Robertson, F.C., Raahil, M.S., Amich, J.M., Essayed, W.I., Lal, A., Lee, B.H., Prieto, P.C., Tokuda, J., Weaver, J.C., Kirollos, R.W. and Chen, M.W., 2021. Frameless neuronavigation with computer vision and real-time tracking for bedside external ventricular drain placement: a cadaveric study. Journal of neurosurgery, 1(aop), pp.1-10.

Robertson, F.C., Sha, R., Amich, J., Lal, A., Lee, B., Wu, K., Segar, D.J., Calvachi, P. and Gormley, W., 2020. Computer Vision Registration as a Novel and Accurate Approach for Frameless Stereotactic Neuronavigation. Neurosurgery, 67.

Sha, R.M., 2018. Efficient Object Localization and Scene Registration Using Contour-Enhanced Point Cloud Resampling Techniques (Undergraduate dissertation).

Presentations

Robertson, F.C., Raahil, M.S., Amich, J.M., Essayed, W.I., Lal, A., Lee, B.H., Prieto, P.C., Tokuda, J., Weaver, J.C., Kirollos, R.W. and Chen, M.W., 2021. Frameless neuronavigation with computer vision and real-time tracking for bedside external ventricular drain placement: a cadaveric study. Presented at the Congress of Neurological Surgeons meeting, October 2021

Robertson, F.C., Wu, K., Raahil, M.S., Amich, J.M., Lal, A., Lee, B.H., Prieto, P.C., Kirollos, R.W., Chen, M.W. and Gormley, W.B., 2021. Robotic Neurosurgery with Frameless Stereotaxy and Real-Time Patient Tracking: a cadaveric study Presented at the Congress of Neurological Surgeons meeting, October 2021

Robertson, F.C., Raahil, M.S., Amich, J.M., Essayed, W.I., Lal, A., Lee, B.H., Prieto, P.C., Tokuda, J., Weaver, J.C., Kirollos, R.W. and Chen, M.W., 2021. Frameless neuronavigation with computer vision and real-time tracking for bedside external ventricular drain placement: a cadaveric study. Presented at the New England Neurosurgical Society Annual Meeting, June 2021

Raahil, M.S., Su, W., Kulkarni, A., Liu, Y., Wang, Y., Ray, P. and Zhang, M., 2013. SPIE: An Integrative RNS-seq Pipeline for Optimized Processing of RNA-Seq Data. Presented at the George A. Geffrey NanoExplorers Symposium, August 2013

Patents

Sha, Raahil M., Amich, Jose M. "Systems and Methods for Real-time Multiple Modality Image Alignment”: US17/635,693 (US Application), JP2022536909A (Japan Application), CN202080071899.XA (China Application), EP20762004.8A (Europe Application), AU2020332683A (Australia Application), PCT/US2020/046473 (PCT Patent Application)

Sha, Raahil M., Amich, Jose M., et al. "Systems and Methods for Handheld Real-time Surgical Navigation Guidance.": PCT/US2022/012329 (PCT Patent Application)

Sha, Raahil M., Amich, Jose M., et al. "Systems and Methods for Robotic Surgical Control and Navigation.": AU2022341973A (Australia Application), PCT/US2022/042659 (PCT Patent Application)

Sha, Raahil M., Amich, Jose M., et al. "Systems and Methods for Real-Time Noninvasive Surgical Navigation": PCT/US2023/026065 (PCT Patent Application)

Jiang, Zheng, Sha, Raahil M., et al. "Systems and Methods for Simulating Ultrasound Beam Profiles": 63/627,480 (US Provisional Patent Application)

Amich, Jose M., Sha, Raahil M., et al. "Surgical Cart": 0090908220001, 0090908220002, 0090908220003, 0090908220004 (EU Registered Design), 6220409, 6220410, 6220411, 6220412 (UK Registered Design), 202230463140.8 (China Design Application)

Skills and Interests

Technical
  • C++
  • Python
  • C#
  • Java
  • OCaml
  • R
  • MATLAB
  • HTML/CSS
  • JavaScript
  • LaTeX
  • SQL
  • Amazon AWS
  • Microsoft Hololens
  • Mobile Dev
  • Adobe Creative Suite
  • Bioinformatics
  • Machine Learning
  • Computer Vision
Management
  • Fundraising
  • Budget Management
  • Public Speaking
  • Business Strategy
  • Risk Management
  • Agile
  • Confluence
  • Project Management
  • Jira
  • Clinical Trials
  • Intellectual Property
Languages
  • English
  • Tamil
  • Spanish (Limited)
Hobbies
  • Photography
  • Private Pilot (IR, Complex, High Perf)
  • Jewelry Design
  • Road Trips
  • Hiking
  • Art History
  • Historical Fiction
  • Cooking Desserts
  • Tennis
  • Archery

Accolades

Personal Distinctions

Forbes 30 Under 30 Healthcare 2024

Forbes 30 Under 30 Boston Local List 2023

Millennium Campus Network Fellow

Harvard Frankin Fellowship Tech x Social Impact Speaker

Harvard Distinction in Teaching Award

Harvard iGEM Biohackathon Judge

MakeHarvard Hackathon Judge

Harvard Crimson's 15 Most Interesting Seniors (2018)

Martin Nguyen Community Service Award

O'Donnell Excellence in Arts and Music Theory Award

VASE Visual Arts Competition District Finalist

Accelerators

Brinc Global Acclerator 2020

Y Combinator Summer 2019

MassBio MassCONNECT 2018

MassChallenge 2017

Harvard Law Entrepreneurship Project 2017

Harvard Innovation Labs VIP 2017-2018

Brinc Global Acclerator 2020

Company Awards

NY 2023 Product Designer of the Year - Medical Devices

Gold Good Design Award - Medical and Scientific Category

iF Design Award 2023 - Healthcare Category

New England Neurosurgical Society Integra Award for Innovation 2021

Best Operative Technique, Congress of Neurological Surgeons 2021

Swissnex Global Pitchfest Finals

CODE_n Contest Finals

US-China Health Summit Innovation Competition Finals

Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition Finals

My Photography

Here is a collection of pictures from the various adventures that I've been on over the years.