Hi everyone! My name is Benson and I am a 4th year Computer Science student from UBC. I grew up in the Vancouver area. I am currently living in Surrey but I have lived in both Vancouver and Richmond as well. I completed a BSc. in Chemistry from UBC in 2016 and worked as a lab technician for a few years. I learned many soft skills and met some great people. However, I was unsatisfied with the lack of career opportunities and growth so I decided to transition into a career in technology after working for a few years. My career transition journey is coming to an end as I will be finished with my last courses by the end of 2022.

My main academic interests are in creating scalable and performant backend systems. In the most recent semester, I took a software engineering project course where I helped build additional functionality on top of Zoom with a group of four other students. In my co-op terms, I was able to build other systems with the use of cloud computing technologies such as AWS. Since my co-op terms were 100% remote, I noticed that being able to communicate professionally through a digital medium was critical to all business workflows and that is why I was driven to this course.

Some of my interests outside of school are weightlifting, playing sports like basketball and volleyball, and playing video games. I follow the NBA and am currently enjoying the playoffs as a Dallas Mavericks and Luka Doncic fan. I played recreational volleyball before the pandemic and I hope to form a team with my friends again in the near future. I enjoy playing single player video games with a focus on storytelling. Some of my favorite games are the Dragon Age trilogy, the Witcher 3 and Divinity: Original Sin 2.