Google Developer Group (GDG) Capital Region

RSVP: https://gdg.community.dev/events/details/google-gdg-lethbridge-presents-machine-learning-design-patterns-and-principles-with-reza-ardestani/cohost-gdg-capital-region

We're thrilled to announce an upcoming session that provides the toolkit and technics helping researchers and practitioners to conduct their work with remarkable ease. In today's fast-paced world, agile and rapid development is the key, encouraging developers to use code auto generation tools like ChatGPT.

🚀 Exciting Learning Opportunity: Machine Learning Design Patterns and Principles with Reza Ardestani 🚀
We're thrilled to announce an upcoming session that provides the toolkit and technics helping researchers and practitioners to conduct their work with remarkable ease.
In today's fast-paced world, agile and rapid development is the key, encouraging developers to use code auto generation tools like ChatGPT. These tools, however, are not able to tackle large-scale real-world ML projects, unless you have a command over the different concepts, patterns, and the big picture of your ML projects. This session is aiming to provide these concepts some of which are listed as follows:
Data Handling: Batching and padding, Masking, imbalanced dataset
Model Training: Loss function, Loss function, Time efficiency, Vectorization, Penalization
Optimization and Resource Management: Caching, Profiling, Hyper-parameter organization, Memory management, Computational resources, SLURM commands
Miscellaneous: GitHub for documentation, Structuring a machine learning project/thesis proposal, etc
"By leveraging these concepts, I proposed a model that outperformed counterparts developed by Microsoft and Facebook. Additionally, it expedited the development process by three months as well." Reza said.
We are looking forward to seeing all of you.

Speaker
Reza Ardestaini - University of Lethbridge

RSVP: https://gdg.community.dev/events/details/google-gdg-lethbridge-presents-machine-learning-design-patterns-and-principles-with-reza-ardestani/cohost-gdg-capital-region

RSVP: https://gdg.community.dev/events/details/google-gdg-capital-region-presents-build-with-ai-workshop/

Intro to AI + Gemini 101
What is AI? How is it different from ML, deep learning, and generative AI?

Let’s demystify the buzzwords and find out why they’re getting so much attention now. Then, we’ll learn about Gemini, Google’s latest AI model, and build an AI-powered app of our own.

Pre-workshop survey: https://bit.ly/cheng2workshops-survey

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Speaker

ChengCheng Tan - Cheng2 Designs LLC (Founder and Managing Director)

ChengCheng Tan is the Owner of Cheng2 Designs, LLC and Sr Communications Specialist at FAR AI, where she works in AI Safety with Large Language Models. With over two decades of experience, ChengCheng has a background in AI/ML/NLP consulting, UI/UX research, design, and programming, with a focus on delivering customized solutions for clients. She holds an M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University and a B.A. in Linguistics & Computer Science from UCLA. As a Women Techmakers Ambassador, she is committed to making AI and CS education more accessible to everyone!

Hosted By

Linda Kovacs, GDG (Google Developer Group) Lead & WTM Ambassador

Fausto Hernandez, Team Member

Blain Smith, Team Member

Chadd Portwine, Team Member

RSVP: https://gdg.community.dev/events/details/google-gdg-capital-region-presents-build-with-ai-workshop/

RSVP: https://gdg.community.dev/events/details/google-gdg-cloud-southlake-presents-gdg-cloud-southlake-33-boule-amp-rebala-effective-appsec-in-sdlc-using-deployment-firewall-and-dbom/cohost-gdg-capital-region

Effective Application Security in Software Delivery lifecycle using Deployment Firewall and DBOM. Can you protect yourself from software supply chain attacks?

The modern software delivery process (or the CI/CD process) includes many tools, distributed teams, open-source code, and cloud platforms. Constant focus on speed to release software to market, along with the traditional slow and manual security checks has caused gaps in continuous security as an important piece in the software supply chain. Today organizations feel more susceptible to external and internal cyber threats due to the vast attack surface in their applications supply chain and the lack of end-to-end governance and risk management.

The software team must secure its software delivery process to avoid vulnerability and security breaches. This needs to be achieved with existing tool chains and without extensive rework of the delivery processes. This talk will present strategies and techniques for providing visibility into the true risk of the existing vulnerabilities, preventing the introduction of security issues in the software, resolving vulnerabilities in production environments quickly, and capturing the deployment bill of materials (DBOM).

Agenda
5:30 PM: Welcome & Intro
5:35 PM: Speakers Presentation + Q&A
6:30 PM: Break (Optional 5 minutes)
6:35 PM: (Optional) Virtual Networking

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Speakers
Bob Boule
Robert Boule is a technology enthusiast with PASSION for technology and making things work along with a knack for helping others understand how things work. He comes with around 20 years of solution engineering experience in application security, software continuous delivery, and SaaS platforms. He is known for his dynamic presentations in CI/CD and application security integrated in software delivery lifecycle.
Gopinath Rebala
Gopinath Rebala is the CTO of OpsMx, where he has overall responsibility for the machine learning and data processing architectures for Secure Software Delivery. Gopi also has a strong connection with our customers, leading design and architecture for strategic implementations. Gopi is a frequent speaker and well-known leader in continuous delivery and integrating security into software delivery.

Hosts
James Anderson - Sabre (Sr. Director, Enterprise Architecture)
AWS and Google Cloud Certified Solutions Architect - Professional and Azure certified. Sr. Director of Enterprise Architecture @ Sabre helping lead the company and the travel industry into the future. Cloud instructor helping tech newbies transition careers.

Yujun Liang - Accenture (Associate Director)
Yujun is an Associate Director at Accenture. He started his Google Cloud journey in 2017 and had been on many challenging projects including leading roles on some of them. His expertise spans Cloud Infrastructure and Data analytics. Currently, Yujun works as the cloud architect on a Data Analytics Platform and helps the team remove roadblocks in networking and security.
He is also known…

RSVP: https://gdg.community.dev/events/details/google-gdg-cloud-southlake-presents-gdg-cloud-southlake-33-boule-amp-rebala-effective-appsec-in-sdlc-using-deployment-firewall-and-dbom/cohost-gdg-capital-region

RSVP: https://gdg.community.dev/events/details/google-gdg-cloud-southlake-presents-gdg-cloud-southlake-34-neatsun-ziv-automating-appsec/cohost-gdg-capital-region

Are manual AppSec process bogging you down in too much noise and not enough signal? Can adding automation to your AppSec activities add value, make your life easier and your code in production more secure?
The lecture titled "Automating AppSec" delves into the critical challenges associated with manual application security (AppSec) processes and outlines strategic approaches for incorporating automation to enhance efficiency, accuracy, and scalability. The lecture is structured to highlight the inherent difficulties in traditional AppSec practices, emphasizing the labor-intensive triage of issues, the complexity of identifying responsible owners for security flaws, and the challenges of implementing security checks within CI/CD pipelines.
The Pains of Manual AppSec:
This section will explore the time-consuming and error-prone nature of manually triaging security issues, including the difficulty of prioritizing vulnerabilities based on their actual risk to the organization. It will also discuss the challenges in determining ownership for remediation tasks, a process often complicated by cross-functional teams and microservices architectures.
Automating CI/CD Gates:
Here, the focus shifts to the automation of security within the CI/CD pipelines. The lecture will cover methods to seamlessly integrate security tools that automatically scan for vulnerabilities as part of the build process, thereby ensuring that security is a core component of the development lifecycle. Strategies for configuring automated gates that can block or flag builds based on the severity of detected issues will be discussed, ensuring that only secure code progresses through the pipeline.
Triaging Issues with Automation:
This segment addresses how automation can be leveraged to intelligently triage and prioritize security issues. It will cover technologies and methodologies for automatically assessing the context and potential impact of vulnerabilities, facilitating quicker and more accurate decision-making. The use of automated alerting and reporting mechanisms to ensure the right stakeholders are informed in a timely manner will also be discussed.
Identifying Ownership Automatically:
Automating the process of identifying who owns the responsibility for fixing specific security issues is critical for efficient remediation. This part of the lecture will explore tools and practices for mapping vulnerabilities to code owners, leveraging version control and project management tools.
Three Tips to Scale the Shift Left Program:
Finally, the lecture will offer three practical tips for organizations looking to scale their Shift Left security programs. These will include recommendations on fostering a security culture within development teams, employing DevSecOps principles to integrate security throughout the development process, and utilizing machine learning to improve the accuracy and efficiency of automated security tools.
By the end of this lecture, attendees will have gained a comprehensive understanding of the limitations of manual AppSec practices and how automation can address these challenges. More importantly, they will leave with actionable strategies and tips to implement and scale automated AppSec solutions within their organizations, ultimately leading to more secure software development processes.

Agenda
5:30 PM: Welcome & Intro
5:35 PM: Speakers Presentation + Q&A
6:30 PM: Break (Optional 5 minutes)
6:35 PM: (Optional) Virtual Networking

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Speakers
Neatsun Ziv - Ox Security, Co-Founder and CEO
Neatsun Ziv is the CEO and co-founder of OX Security, the first end-to-end software supply chain security solution for DevSecOps. Before founding OX, he was the VP Cyber Security at Check Point, where he oversaw all cyber initiatives. His team was one of the first to respond to SolarWinds, NotPetya, and other major attacks, working closely with Interpol, Local CERT and other enforcement agencies.
Neatsun is a passionate and seasoned entrepreneur with vast cyber security experience. He served in the IDF Cyber Intelligence Unit and is a frequent speaker at global forums, including CPX, frequently being selected as one of the top talks.
Neatsun holds a BSC from Israel’s Open University (honors) and an MBA from the Technion (Magna Cum Laude).

RSVP: https://gdg.community.dev/events/details/google-gdg-cloud-southlake-presents-gdg-cloud-southlake-34-neatsun-ziv-automating-appsec/cohost-gdg-capital-region