Benjamin Wheeler
City Councilor at City of Somerville
Somerville, Massachusetts, United States
Summary
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Rockstar🎓
Top School
Top expert inFont and Web Development Technologies
Benjamin Wheeler is a founder and software engineer in Somerville, MA who combines algorithmic engineering with curriculum design and product work for children’s creative coding platforms. As a Senior Software Engineer at Scratch he shipped UI and analytics improvements across Scratch and ScratchJr, and co-led authoring of a NYC DOE citywide computer science curriculum used in over 50 schools while delivering professional development to 150 teachers. Earlier he spent six years as an algorithm developer at Hudson River Trading, helping scale the firm into a top global trading player, and he has consulted for clients including Twitter and HappyFunCorp. He founded Ada & Leo to run creative technology programs for ages 5–10 and even built the technology behind an early internet-based video series that made the jump to MTV. He holds a BA from Columbia in History and Computer Science and a master’s in Learning Design, Innovation & Technology from Harvard, a combination that fuels both his product instincts and pedagogy.
12 years of coding experience
23 years of employment as a software developer
High School, High School at Cambridge Rindge and Latin SchoolMaster's degree, Learning Design, Innovation and Technology, Master's degree, Learning Design, Innovation and Technology at Harvard Graduate School of EducationBachelor of Arts - BA, History and Computer Science, Bachelor of Arts - BA, History and Computer Science at Columbia University
Spanish, French, Georgian, Sign languages
Stackoverflow
7,046reputation
3.1mreached
85answers
41questions
openssl
top-5%
word-wrap
top-5%
reactjs
top-5%
react-router
top-5%
python
top-5%
javascript
top-5%
Github Skills (30)
firebase-analytics10
debugging10
debug10
javascript10
ios10
lib10
css10
user-interface10
userinterface10
android-development10
javascripts10
front-end-development10
react10
mobile-development9
mobileweb9
Programming languages (11)
Github contributions (5)
scratchfoundation/scratch-gui
Aug 2018 - Sep 2022
Graphical User Interface for creating and running Scratch 3.0 projects.
Role in this project:
Front-end Developer
Front-end DeveloperContributions:17 reviews, 483 commits, 217 PRs in 4 years 2 months
Contributions summary:Benjamin's contributions primarily focused on enhancing the graphical user interface (GUI) for the Scratch-gui project. They made improvements to the project title editing functionality, including styling and file name safety. Additionally, the user implemented various UI-related changes by adjusting padding and margins in the layout, adding features for account navigation, and creating new components and styles for the menu bar and alerts. These changes indicate a focus on improving the user experience and overall design of the GUI.
graphicalscratchuser-interfacegraphical-user-interface
scratchfoundation/scratchjr
Mar 2020 - Oct 2020
With ScratchJr, young children (ages 5-7) can program their own interactive stories and games.
Role in this project:Mobile Developer (Android/iOS)
Mobile Developer (Android/iOS)Contributions:1 review, 22 commits, 15 PRs in 6 months
Contributions summary:Benjamin primarily focused on integrating analytics tracking into the ScratchJr mobile applications for both iOS and Android platforms. They implemented event logging using Firebase Analytics, adding specific event triggers within the application's editor and UI components, such as when a scene is added or a text sprite is created. Furthermore, the user added functionality to set user properties related to initial options and user preferences. In addition, the user refactored the grid functionality, ensuring analytics events are triggered based on user actions.
agesgamegamesinteractive-storiesjavascript
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