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Benjamin Howe

Software Developer

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Experience

American Express

Graduate Technology Engineer

I've recently started working on American Express' technology graduate scheme. My first placement is within loyalty, where I am working on modernising APIs, as well as developing a tool to assist with GDPR compliance.

The University of Reading

Student Demonstrator

I helped run various lab sessions, including 1st year C / C++ Programming and 2nd year Computer Architecture (ARM Programming). My role was to award marks, as well as helping resolve issues with lab hardware / software and answering any questions students may have.

Junction11 Radio

Head of Technology

I assisted University IT services in enabling IPv6 throughout the studio, and set up a new webcam system to serve images over HTTPS using LetsEncrypt. I redeveloped the website and improved performance. In 2017 I was awarded "Best Media Committee Member".

Krystal Hosting

Software Engineer

I identified repetitive support requests and developed automated self-service tools, helping clients resolve their issues faster and reducing the support workload. I also built a prototype pfSense-based firewall to replace existing Palo Alto firewalls, and created an IPv6 addressing plan.

American Express

Technologies Analyst

I taught myself the Elastic Stack and became an internal expert - helping run an internal "hack day" in my first week. I created bespoke plugins for a dashboard to monitor SLA compliance, overseeing the progress of my work into production so it could start delivering value to the business.

Education

University of Reading

Sept 2015 - May 2018

BSc (Hons) Computer Science

  • Studied a wide array of modules, including Codes & Code Breaking, Neural Networks, and Transcomputation.
  • Elected course representitive two years in a row (2016/7 and 2017/8), chaired the Staff Student Liason Committee (2016/7).
  • Final year project: YAMM (an open-source money manager application written in Java and JavaScript).

Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys

Sept 2012 - May 2014

A Levels, Extended Project

  • Studied A Levels in Computing, Physics and Mathematics.
  • Wrote an Extended Project titled "A ciphertext-only attack on classical substitution ciphers in Python".
  • Won awards for IT (2014) and General Studies (2013).

Projects

ShareLive

ShareLive uses JavaScript, Pusher, and about 18 lines of PHP to allow users to share YouTube videos "live" (up to 5 seconds of latency) over the internet with friends. It was inspired by an article published in the "Frontiers in Psychology" journal by researchers at the University of Oxford about how sharing the experience of listening to music can increase social bonding.

Live Demo
Code on GitHub

KeyringPi

KeyringPi allows a Raspberry Pi Zero to be powered and controlled using a single microUSB cable. After plugging the Raspberry Pi into the "host" computer and allowing it to boot, it can be controlled by visiting my.keyringpi.com in a web browser.

Please note that KeyringPi images are based on Raspbian Jessie (not Stretch).

Code on GitHub

Skills

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