Ben Wetherfield
Associate
New York, New York, United States
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolBen Wetherfield is a computational optical engineer and software-savvy researcher with 11 years of experience translating advanced mathematical methods into practical solutions for photonics, optics, and large-batch simulation. With a Cambridge PhD that produced two new frameworks for diffractive integrated photonics and a method for aberration-free lens design, he blends rigorous theory with hands-on implementation—from bespoke diffraction models to optimization and numerical analysis. He has applied these skills across academia and industry, including a software engineering stint at SpaceX and contributions to widely used open-source tooling for XML parsing in Swift. Comfortable leading architecture and systems work, Ben pairs technical depth with a human-centered approach informed by his musical and multilingual interests, often bringing creativity from the arts into problem-solving.
11 years of coding experience
2 years of employment as a software developer
Doctor of Philosophy - PhD Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Doctor of Philosophy - PhD Electrical and Electronics Engineering at University of CambridgeBachelor's degree Applied Mathematics, Bachelor's degree Applied Mathematics at Harvard University
Github Skills (10)
xml10
encode10
xml-parser10
swift10
decode10
decoder10
encoder10
codable10
cocoapods7
carthage7
Programming languages (6)
Github contributions (5)
CoreOffice/XMLCoder
Jul 2019 - Jan 2021
Easy XML parsing using Codable protocols in Swift
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:9 commits, 15 PRs, 35 comments in 1 year 6 months
Contributions summary:Ben primarily contributed to the `coreoffice/xmlcoder` repository, a Swift library for XML parsing. Their work focused on enhancing the library's functionality for XML decoding and encoding, specifically addressing edge cases such as empty string handling and nested enum arrays. The contributions included implementing new test cases to ensure the robustness and accuracy of the XML parsing process, particularly for choice elements and attribute encoding. The user also refactored and improved existing code to handle special cases of empty string decoding and mixed content within XML elements.
cocoapodsobjective-cxml-serializerxml-parsingcodable
bwetherfield/chord-sequence-chooser
Oct 2018 - Nov 2018
Music theory teaching aid ("Choose your own harmonic adventure")
Contributions:214 commits, 6 PRs, 28 pushes in 1 month
scalesmusic-compositionteachingharmonicaid
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