Meet the Team: Full Stack Developer – Benji Kershenbaum

Written on
byHayfa Bukhari

This week we catch up with our newest full stack developer, Benji Kershenbaum. Benji’s background in AI and computer science led him to pursue a career in machine learning. He loves to code and is not afraid to experiment! Let’s learn more about Benji and what he loves about life at Aveni. 

 

Hey Benji, welcome to Aveni! How’s it going and what have you been up to since you joined?

 

Hello! I’m doing great. Since joining I’ve learnt so much about the startup world, and how to develop products that help real people.

 

Before we get started, tell us a little bit about your background and why you joined Aveni?

 

I’ve always enjoyed working with technology, building my own software as a kid, and eventually going to the University of Edinburgh to get my Masters in Computer Science and AI, with a focus on Automatic Speech Recognition. I was really excited to join Aveni after University because of my desire to work for a startup, especially one that focuses on NLP.

 

What are you currently working on and what do you enjoy most about your role?  

 

Currently I’m working on improving the Learning and Development on the Aveni platform. This involves developing a place for team leaders to understand how to help their team perform the best they can.

 

Tell us about a time when you  were challenged on a project and how you overcame it?

 

At university (home of most challenges of my life), I had a project to simulate a robotic arm, specifically how to move it from one location in 3D space to another. As with most university coursework, I underestimated the amount of work and found myself a day before submission with nothing more than a “hello world” script. That night I found another student in the same situation as me, and sat down to figure out how to complete this project. The first couple of hours were spent on understanding WHY we are even doing this course, and what it is we enjoy about it. Once we rediscovered our love for problem solving and robotics, the actual solution came easily. The key, I now understand, to completing a challenging project is passion.

 

What skills do you think are important when working in your field? 

 

I believe that understanding your users is paramount in a growing startup. It’s too often for developers to solve a problem which doesn’t exist. That is, a developer may tackle a problem by applying a solution which is not useful for the user. In a startup, customer satisfaction and retention is one of the most important factors. For this reason understanding the user, and solving their problem, from their perspective, is very important.

 

What do you enjoy doing outside of work?

 

I love music, especially jazz, and spend a lot of time listening to, and playing music. Piano is my instrument of choice, inspired by musicians like Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller (this list goes on and on…), but I always try to experience different styles of music, including Blues, Rock, Funk, Hip-Hop and more.

 

What are you most looking forward to in your next 6 months at Aveni? 

 

I’m really excited to see the team grow and the new features we are always talking about coming to fruition!

 

To learn more about what we’ve been working out, check out our Aveni Detect

 

Find us on LinkedIn and Twitter

Other recent posts

featured-image

Demonstrating Consumer Duty Compliance with Technology - Key Takeaways from Aveni’s recent webinar

In our latest Consumer Duty webinar series,”Demonstrating Consumer Duty Compliance with Technology,” Joseph Twigg, CEO of Aveni, sat down with John Liver, Strategic Adviser at Kore and NED at Barclays, and Alan Blanchard, Head...

Aveni SPW

Schroders Personal Wealth adopts AI-based Aveni Detect platform to transform compliance function

Aveni, has been selected by Schroders Personal Wealth (SPW) to transform its compliance function. Through the deployment of the Aveni Detect platform SPW will use the latest advances in Natural Language Processing (NLP) to...

Humain-in-the-loop

Human in the loop 101: what is it and why is it so important?

Financial services firms have been turning to Natural Language Processing (NLP) solutions to extract valuable insights from vast amounts of unstructured data. But even the most advanced algorithms can’t match the intuition and creativity...

Screenshot 2023-02-15 at 11.53.52

'Dear CEO' letter: The FCA highlights gaps in Consumer Duty Implementation plans

The FCA has sent its ‘Dear CEO’ letters to 8 sectors in the financial services industry, providing guidance on how to effectively implement and embed the Duty. The letter outlines four key components:   ...

Analyst working with computer in Business Analytics and Data Management System to make report with KPI and metrics connected to database. Corporate strategy for finance, operations, sales, marketing.

The top 5 things financial services CROs are prioritising

As the financial services industry continues to evolve, risk and compliance functions are facing unique challenges. At the forefront of this evolution, Chief Risk Officers (CROs) are working tirelessly to ensure that their organisations...

Auto QA

Auto QA - the key to compliance and risk reduction

We’re all aware that Quality Assurance is a critical aspect of managing risk in the financial services industry. Without it, firms would have no idea if they were adhering to regulatory requirements. However, with...

consumer duty resources

5 top RegTech trends Chief Risk Officers need to be on top of in 2023

As we progress into the new year, it’s important for Chief Risk Officers (CROs) to keep an eye on the latest RegTech trends. By adopting the right technologies, CROs can ensure that their organisation...

soundwaves

A quick history of Natural Language Processing 

Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a field of artificial intelligence that involves the use of algorithms, statistical models, and other techniques to analyse, understand, and generate human language. NLP has a wide range of...

pexels-anna-shvets-5325104-min

Aveni’s 2022 Consumer Duty Resources

As the year comes to an end, it’s a good time to reflect on the events of the past 12 months, both the good and the not-so-good. For both the Financial Services industry and...