Ben Schmidt

Greater Philadelphia Area ยท linkedin.com/in/benschmiidt

Page
Resume
Revised

Education

Virginia TechBlacksburgBachelor of Science, Computer Science, May 2028May 20283.88 GPA
  • Minors: Mathematics, Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  • Dean's List: Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026

Skills

LanguagesPython, Java, C, SQL, Bash, Rust
Frameworks & LibrariesNumPy, Pandas, React, Streamlit
Developer ToolsGit, Bitbucket, GitHub CI/CD, VS Code, Cursor, Eclipse, Jira, Claude Code
Data & DevOpsGoogle BigQuery, Apache Airflow, AWS S3, AWS EC2, Docker, Linux

Experience

Undergraduate Student Researcher (BURGS Cohort)Virginia Tech Department of Computer Science, Blacksburg, VAAI safety and reward-hacking defenses for MARCO, an autonomous GPU code optimization agent.August 2026 - Present
  • Researched AI safety and reward-hacking defenses for MARCO, an autonomous agent system optimizing high-performance GPU code.
  • Built Python automated testing pipelines and a 20-strategy adversarial benchmark to measure the reliability of grading safeguards against unfaithful optimizations.
  • Python
Data And Analytics InternIdentity DigitalBuilt an ML interpretability web app for in-house CatBoost models and streamlined SQL data pipelines.June 2026 - August 2026
  • Independently engineered an ML interpretability web application using Python and Streamlit to demystify black-box CatBoost models, visualizing SHAP feature importance across multiple dynamic analytical modes.
  • Architected an "Auto Interactions" algorithm utilizing NumPy and Pandas to identify key feature combinations, mathematically converting Tree SHAP values into absolute probability shifts with custom confidence intervals.
  • Streamlined data pipelines and processing by pulling high-volume Parquet datasets (100K+ rows) directly from Amazon S3 and revamping complex SQL queries to fulfill ad-hoc marketing reporting requests.
  • Collaborated with company executives to support international STEM education, hosting an Anguillan delegation for campus tours and traveling to Anguilla to assist in leading a youth robotics initiative.
  • Python
  • Streamlit
  • NumPy
  • Pandas
  • SQL
  • AWS S3
Software EngineerStudyGuido via BITS, Blacksburg, VAArchitected the core RAG backend for an AI learning platform, driving semantic textbook ingestion, precision re-ranking, and grounded conversational tutoring.August 2025 - Present
  • Engineered a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) backend for an AI-powered learning platform, utilizing Python, FastAPI, and Amazon S3 to handle textbook ingestion, chunking, and embedding pipelines.
  • Optimized context retrieval by implementing a two-stage search pipeline: querying a PostgreSQL (pgvector) database via cosine similarity, then re-ranking results with a BERT Cross-Encoder, improving median context relevance by 33%.
  • Co-architected the platform's Mastery module, supplying textbook-grounded RAG context to the Gemini API to facilitate conversational AI tutoring based on the Feynman technique.
  • Slashed AI flashcard generation latency by building a PostgreSQL caching layer and spaced-repetition algorithm, reducing LLM dependency while ensuring data persistence with automated cron cleanups.
  • Python
  • FastAPI
  • AWS S3
  • PostgreSQL
  • pgvector
  • Gemini API

Campus Involvement

TreasurerBuilding Impactful Technology with Students (BITS)Manage club finances and support cross-functional student teams deploying real-world tech solutions.August 2025 - Present
TreasurerG.E.R.M.A.N. ClubDirect financial operations and manage a $30,000 annual budget for a 75-member fraternity.February 2026 - Present