Ben Soyka
Software Engineer Intern at Medium
Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolBen Soyka is a computer science student and hands-on software engineer intern based in Minneapolis with eight years of practical experience across coding, customer-facing roles, and small-business operations. He contributes to well-known open-source Discord projects (python-discord/bot and sir-lancebot), focusing on backend refactors and improving command usability and test coverage. At Thomson Reuters via Maverick he’s applying his backend skills in a professional engineering context while balancing campus work supporting residential life overnight shifts. Beyond code, Ben runs a self-built photography business and is a prolific writer on Medium, demonstrating strong independent initiative, client communication, and the ability to translate technical ideas for broad audiences.
8 years of coding experience
2 years of employment as a software developer
Bachelor's degree, Computer Science, Bachelor's degree, Computer Science at University of MinnesotaHigh School Diploma, High School Diploma at Leavenworth Sr High SchoolHigh School Diploma, Computer Science, High School Diploma, Computer Science at Chapin High School
English, Spanish
Stackoverflow
864reputation
80kreached
28answers
10questions
Github Skills (15)
bots10
python10
discord-js10
discord-bot10
discord10
googlebot10
testing9
discord-py9
visual-studio-code6
google-cloud-firestore6
firebase-realtime-database6
github6
firebase6
python-asyncio6
list-comprehension6
Programming languages (14)
Github contributions (5)
python-discord/bot
Aug 2019 - Feb 2022
The community bot for the Python Discord community
Role in this project:
Backend Developer
Backend DeveloperContributions:4 reviews, 20 commits, 11 PRs in 2 years 6 months
Contributions summary:Ben primarily contributed to the bot's functionality by modifying the `!user` embed command. These changes included refactoring code to improve efficiency, such as using `Member.colour` instead of list comprehensions and removing colourless roles. The user also updated tests related to the embed's colour logic and other minor changes to the tests. Further contributions involved refactoring code and updating the `site.py` with regards to shortening text.
python310python311pythondiscord-pythondiscord
python-discord/sir-lancebot
Dec 2021 - Jan 2022
A Discord bot started as a community project for Hacktoberfest 2018, later evolved to an introductory project for aspiring new developers starting out with open source development.
Role in this project:Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:8 reviews, 10 commits, 2 PRs in 2 months
Contributions summary:Ben primarily contributed to the Advent of Code (AoC) feature within the Discord bot. They refactored the `.aoc lb` command, making `self_placement_name` a keyword-only argument and shortening its parameter name. They also addressed quote handling in the AoC name, improving the command's usability. Furthermore, the user updated the love calculator feature, including fixing a footer reference and using constants for the Python bot prefix.
pythondiscordbotdiscord-botintroductory
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