Benjamin A. Vega 5800 Central Avenue Pike Apt. 3704 Knoxville, Tennessee 37912 (865) 801-7236 chk864@vols.utk.edu

EDUCATION The University of Tennessee, Haslam College of Business Knoxville, TN Master of Business Administration December 2017

Study Abroad May 2016 Japan The University of Memphis Memphis, TN Bachelor of Arts, Philosophy + Cognitive Science, GPA 3.42 (4.0) December 2014

EXPERIENCE

The Crump Firm Memphis, TN Architecture Intern January 2015 – May 2015

Developed complex sets of construction documents for large scale commercial projects maximizing project acceptance rate leading to the acquisition of the new $60 million recreation center project from The University of Memphis

Led 15 weekly educational seminars for senior members of firm on emerging technologies and how to integrate them into design and documentation workflow to enhance productivity leading to a 40% increase in profit margins

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, ALSAC Memphis, TN Data Analyst, Brand Strategy April 2014 – September 2014

Investigated demographics of social media users and their online behavior strengthening the fundraising activities on social media websites delivering St. Jude a 30% increase in their brand recognition within their target demographic

Developed a measure to predict likelihood to donate, the frequency and quantity of the donation, and what intervention would be required to persuade a person to donate to St. Jude resulting in a 40% increase in the number of donations to the foundation

Institute for Intelligent Systems Memphis, TN Lab Manager January 2012 – December 2014

Formed a team of 6 researchers pioneering the study of emotions involving the human interface of intelligent systems leading to the publication of more than 12 academic papers and the securing of more than $40 million in grants and outside funding

Adapted emotions research for adult literacy in the Memphis area resulting in the development of complex artificially intelligent tutoring

systems producing a 300% increase in literacy rates Directed a group of 10 undergraduate researchers keeping projects on schedule enabling the other 15 research groups to coordinate their

software and hardware updates reducing down time by 60% Communicated research findings to faculty and public increasing the understanding of our research securing research and development

projects from the United States Armed Forces as well as Educational Testing Services (ETS). Decooda International, Inc. Memphis, TN Researcher August 2012 – May 2014

Identified emotions of social media users as it relates to the writing style of social media feeds creating novel techniques to compare social media users enabling Decooda International, Inc. to secure multiple projects from Proctor and Gamble, Starbucks, and AT&T

Created a real-time linguistic analysis tool for companies to examine social media feeds to assess the emotional state of customers

predicting with a 98% success rate future behavior of customers and the response of the company needed to address the situation SKILLS

Computer: Bloomberg, MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, SPSS Design: Rhino, Grasshopper, Autodesk AutoCAD, Autodesk Revit, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign Languages: JAVA, C#, R

CERTIFICATIONS

Bloomberg August 2016 LEED GA 2015

HONORS AND ELECTED POSITIONS

Fund Manager, LaPorte Torch Fund 2016 Chancellor’s Fellowship 2016 Graduate Honors Society 2015 University of Memphis Honors Program 2014 Treasurer, AIAS Memphis Chapter 2010

PUBLICATIONS

Reading the Text: Investigating the Influence of Text Complexity on Cognitive Engagement. Educational Data Mining, 296-299. (2013) Confusion can be beneficial for learning. Learning and Instruction. 29, 153-170. (2014) Learning by communicating in natural language with conversational agents. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 23, 374-380. (2014)