Felix Brener

About

Trained as a painter. Working in applied AI.

My background is in photorealistic painting, and it is still how I judge an image: by composition, light, colour and proportion. That habit runs through the work here — an archive curated the way you would hang a show, a prompt instrument built from photographic decisions, and studies that measure whether models actually respond to the language we give them.

The other half is engineering. I adapt open models to run well on Apple Silicon, publish them with their measurements, and build production software, including an online pre-licensing course for New York State.

I study neuroscience and economics at the University of Rochester and live in New York.

Experience

  1. 2026

    Summer Analyst

    Quadrant Capital Advisors, New York

    Research automation for public-equity and credit review.

  2. 2026 —

    Founder

    Gesso Club, New York

  3. 2025 —

    Co-founder, developer

    DriverCourseOnline, New York

  4. 2022–23, 2024

    Research Assistant

    Abilities Research Center, Mount Sinai Hospital, New York

    Heart-rate variability and movement data from 752 adolescent athletes; sensor fusion for phone orientation; head-rotation angles from facial-landmark tracking.

Research

  1. 2025

    Use of Smartphone Application Assessment of Heart Rate Variability in Baseline Concussion Assessments of Adolescent Student Athletes

    Co-author. ACSM Annual Meeting; Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise

  2. 2026

    Filmstock responsiveness in image models

    Sole author. Study, paper and September 2026 replication

  3. 2026

Education

  1. 2027

    B.S. Neuroscience, B.A. Economics

    University of Rochester, Rochester, NY

    Coursework includes advanced computational neuroscience, brain–machine interfaces, statistical methodology and data methods for economists.

  2. 2025

    Data Science & AI Certificate

    Noble Desktop, New York

Tools

Python, TypeScript, MLX, PyTorch, NumPy, SciPy, pandas, scikit-learn, SQL, ComfyUI, Node.js, MNE-Python