Main Meeting: Build Smart Apps w/ Xamarin, Cognitive Services, and ML.NET

--TITLE--
Build Smarter Cross-Platform Applications Using Xamarin, Azure Cognitive Services, and ML.NET

--DETAILS--
Building "smarter" applications is a popular and important topic in the software development community. In many cases, machine learning is the primary tool used to create applications that improve their delivered value by dynamically adjusting as more relevant data is made available. In addition to "smarter" applications, maximizing code re-use by creating cross-platform applications is another popular and important topic among software development professionals. With Xamarin, you can deliver native Android, iOS, and Windows applications with a single .NET code base. What if you needed to deliver a cross-platform "smart" application? Is that possible?
In this session, we will explore how to leverage Azure Cognitive Services and ML.NET along with Xamarin to create a cross-platform RSS reader that is "smart" and improves (get smarter) as it is used.

--ABOUT OUR SPEAKER--

Richard L. Taylor Jr. is a 25 year software development and technology professional living in Huntersville, NC. His experience includes the design and development of small to enterprise class applications. He currently serves as Vice President of Platform and Cloud Engineering at SentryOne.

Richard is a believer of using the right tools for the job and has leveraged
ASP.NET (Web API, MVC), SQL Server/MongoDB, Angular, Bootstrap, JavaScript/NodeJS, KendoUI, and Xamarin (just to name a few) to deliver solutions. He has a great deal of experience but likes to explore new technologies, tools, and techniques to help create better software.

Richard has a passion for the software development community. He serves as one of the organizers of the Modern Devs Charlotte meetup group and is the founding organizer of the Charlotte Xamarin Developers meetup group. Both groups try to create environments where developers of all skill levels can come together and learn about the latest technologies, tools, and techniques to create software. These groups also provide a venue to network with fellow developers in the community. In addition to serving the local software development community via meetup groups, Richard also speaks at regional, national, and international technology users groups and conferences. His speaking schedule can be found at http://www.rightincode.com/page/speaking-schedule

Richard recently received the Progress (Telerik) Developer Expert designation. DE's are highly skilled, visible, and elite industry leaders who write, speak, help, and code using Progress (Telerik) products. There are 44 DE's in 13 different countries who are ambassadors for Progress Products to the tech community.

When not developing software, Richard is focused on spending time with his lovely wife Shondrecca (she gives the best hugs!!) and their five children (Richard III, Ayanna, David, Jonathan, and Stephen).

--Meeting Agenda--
5:30-6:00 - Welcome/Food
6:00-6:15 - Announcements
6:15-8:00 - Presentation