Ben Silver

Hobbies

What I like to do on a rainy Sunday afternoon

Leatherworking

My favorite of them all. The intense concentration it takes to get everything perfect puts me in the zone and clears my mind of any distractions. Ask me anything about leatherworking and be ready for 30 minutes of random leatherworking facts you never asked for!

The same wallet, a year apart

The first wallet, standing open: dark scuffed outer leather, uneven white stitching and rough unburnished edges
The first oneIt looks worn down, but that's just the skill level I was at back then. Nothing lines up evenly, and the leather was fraying from day one.
The second wallet in the same pose: navy outer leather with a tan interior, regular white saddle stitching and clean burnished edges
A year laterSame pattern, same blue and tan but wildly different in quality. Cleaner edges, more consistent stitching, and overall a more professional look.
The second wallet open flat, showing six tan card slots stitched in white thread
Two (almost) perfectly symmetrical halves of the wallet.
Six paper pattern pieces laid out on a sheet of black leather over a gridded cutting mat
Patterns I draw in Inkscape, cut in paper and fitted before anything touches the leather
Ten seconds of the wallet I made for my dad

I draw my own patterns in Inkscape and prototype them in paper first, checking the measurements before anything gets cut. You'll find me on YouTube constantly learning new ways to get cleaner stitching, cuts, and edges.

Bikes

I ride a 2024 Niner AIR 9, and half the parts are upgraded from stock: brakes bled and upgraded, a dropper post fitted, headset and drivetrain adjusted, and the cassette upgraded. As annoying as it is when something breaks, I enjoy spending my Sunday afternoon tweaking parts to get rid of the smallest squeak.

A silver and blue Niner hardtail mountain bike leaning against a tree on a wooded trail
My upgraded Niner Air 9 2-Star, feel free to ask me about the specs if you are interested :)
A tool tray of bike gear: hex keys, cable cutters, screwdrivers, a brake rotor, bleed kit and bagged spares
My favorite part of the hobby.

Also, with less to show for them

Gear trading

Hunting marketplace listings for anything from bike parts to furniture. I will spend 2 hours searching just to save 10 dollars on a nightstand.

Knife sharpening

Sharpening with whetstones and restoring knives. My most recent is my grandfather's rusted deba all sharpened, sanded and polished to nearly brand new, without losing the rustic feel.

Taiwanese food

1. Danzai noodles 2. Taiwanese pork chop rice

Tufts SEDS

The L1 certification rocket with Tufts SEDS — designed, cut, assembled and flown.

Currently hunting for a Herman Miller Aeron under $100 that isn't a scam and a pair of skis to try skiing this winter.

At a glance

An overview of everything I've done so far. Click into the links for more detail.

Studying

Tufts University, class of 2028BA Computer Science, focus in Biological Sciences. Rising junior.
Dean's List, 3.9 GPAEvery semester so far.

Research

Mass General, Vaccine & Immunotherapy CenterA Python pipeline that identifies immune cell populations, on datasets of over a million cells.
Sonkusale Research LabsFabrication protocols the group can repeat, from benchtop signal characterisation.
The full research page

Projects

CraveCastPredicts high-risk windows for people in recovery. Offline, live, open source.
TCP echo serverServes many clients at once, one thread per connection. C++ on raw POSIX sockets.
gerpSearches a whole directory tree for a word instantly. C++, hand-built hash index.
TRACEReads a photo of a meal for allergens and alerts you of likelihood.
The full projects page

Also

Tufts Technology ServicesResearch computing requests in one place, and a request workflow eliminating wait times for 500+ daily users and researchers.
Teaching and buildingPython workshops for thirty-odd students, and an L1 certification rocket that flew.
More on the about page

Reach me at silverbenh1@gmail.com

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At a glance