The Function -- Tech Talk Week! --

*** THIS WEEK AT THE FUNCTION ***
This week we're shaking things up at The Function. The day this week will be Tuesday, November 19th and we'll be featuring a Tech Talk from local machine learning expert Katya Vasilaky of Pydata SLO, on the topic of causal inference in machine learning.

Machine learning and big data are hot topics right now, but many of the fundamental issues regarding casual inference in data analysis still remain. For example, it is difficult to determine if your social network is what causes you to adopt new behaviors, or if recent trends (marketing, weather, media, etc.) that you and your network are simultaneously exposed to change your behavior. Economists have long been in the business of differentiating between correlation and causation, particularly in observational data. In this talk, Katya will discuss some of the relevant research being done at the intersection of economics and machine learning that address issues of causality.

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WHAT IS THE FUNCTION?

The Function is a brand-new kind of weekly meetup for the Central Coast tech community, presented by CodeSLO and Boltabout Coworking. Featuring plenty of space and everything you need to work on projects, form study groups, or even build the next big thing.

The Function is an event by and for the coders and builders. Once per month, we'll have a guest speaker that will give an interactive talk about a different technology. We'll always have lots of time for Q&A, hands-on exercises, and learning from our peers.

When we're not having a talk, The Function is all about working on projects. Want to give the tech from the last talk a try? The speaker might be there to help! Want to form a study group for a new language you're working with? Do it! Want to bring a robotics kit and work on it with some of your fellow tech geeks? That's what we're all about.

Anyone is welcome at The Function, even beginners. Just make sure you're the kind of person that wants to know how things work because we're going to dive into the details.

The Function is loosely based on the Math Circle events held in the Bay Area and elsewhere, and we're trying to build a similar environment of collaboration and cooperation. Some guidelines:

• If someone disagrees with me, it does not mean they are wrong.
• If someone makes a mistake, it does not mean they are stupid.
• If someone is less experienced, it does not mean they have nothing to contribute.
• We're here to support each other, and help each other learn & succeed.
• Feelings matter. If you made someone feel bad while helping them, you didn't really help them.