About us
AppliedAI is a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to developing the next generation of AI leaders in Minnesota. We do this through a conference, podcast, weekly news, monthly newsletters, YouTube channel, and monthly meetups. Our events provide education, hands-on training, and real-world AI applications to help people of all ages learn how to use AI to solve real-life problems.
Additionally, we encourage you to subscribe to our Conversation On Applied AI Podcast. We publish new episodes every other week on topics related to Artificial Intelligence and its applications! We also publish a Monthly Newsletter with details on our current events and ways to engage with our community.
What is Artificial Intelligence
In computer science, artificial intelligence (AI), sometimes called machine intelligence, is intelligence demonstrated by machines, in contrast to the natural intelligence displayed by humans. Leading AI textbooks define the field as the study of "intelligent agents": any device that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of successfully achieving its goals. Colloquially, the term "artificial intelligence" is often used to describe machines (or computers) that mimic "cognitive" functions that humans associate with the human mind, such as "learning" and "problem solving".
What is AppliedAI?
Simple. :) It's the real-world applications that these far-fetched, big ideas lead to. Some things around us that are applications of AI include digital assistants (Google Home, Alexa), self-driving cars, robots, chatbots and many many more!
Who should go AppliedAI Meetups?
This group is a place for anyone who is interesting in learning, sharing and applying Artificial Intelligence to their products and services. It's also for people of all ages just interested in what's going on in the AI space by networking and talking with real-world practitioners of this exciting and new technology.
What happens at AppliedAI Meetups?
• We have speakers and panelists talking about AI in real-world scenarios
• We do demos of AI related projects and explain how they work
• We discuss, where AI has been, where it is today and where it's heading in the future
• We have fun!
Where else can I find you?
Follow us on social media!
Facebook, LinkedIN and Twitter
We also have a podcast and YouTube page.
What are the colors of your logo?
They are derived from the color palette of a few of the first-ever AI-generated photos from Google’s Deep Learning tool.
Upcoming events
2
- $25.00
AI Across Borders: A Fireside Chat on Global Innovation and Local Impact
Lab651, 550 Vandalia St #231, St Paul, MN, USOverview
Join us for an engaging conversation with Dr. Elizabeth M. Adams as she shares insights from her international AI work and explores what it means for Minnesota's technology landscape.
Fresh from a trade mission to Switzerland and Germany with the Governor, Dr. Adams will discuss how global AI developments are reshaping her vision for the Minnesota Responsible AI Institute. She'll share key takeaways from international approaches to AI governance and innovation—and how these insights could position Minnesota as a leader in responsible AI. She'll also share details about her upcoming book launch and the themes she explores in her latest work.
Agenda
6:00pm - 6:30pm: Networking - food & drinks
6:30pm - 8:00pm: Presentation & discussion
8:00pm: Networking at Lake Monster Brewing
Meet Our Featured Speaker
Dr. Elizabeth M. Adams is a Responsible AI leadership advisor, and founder of both the Minnesota Responsible AI Institute and EMA Advisory, where she works with senior leaders and boards around the world on high-stakes decisions at the intersection of artificial intelligence, ethics, leadership, and organizational purpose.
She is the author of the forthcoming book Leading in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Choosing Purpose Before Code and is known for helping leaders move beyond tools and trends to address deeper questions of stewardship, trust, and human-centered decision-making in an AI-enabled world.
Sponsors
This event is sponsored by Lab651 & Recursive Awesome6 attendees - $99.00
Building the Transformer from Scratch: A Hands-On AI Workshop & Hackathon
OWS-150 (Owens Science Hall), University of St. Thomas, 2115 Summit Avenue, Saint Paul, MN, USA hands-on session led by Abhishek Adile in collaboration with AppliedAI, Nexus, and with the support of Novabiota.
Ever wondered how ChatGPT, Claude, and other AI models actually work under the hood? Join us for an intensive one-day workshop where you’ll build a complete transformer model from scratch—and compete to see whose performs best.
What You’ll Learn
We begin with a fast-paced journey through AI history, from early debates on probability and free will to the breakthroughs that led from statistics to machine learning, neural networks, and finally transformers. You’ll see why attention mechanisms succeeded where earlier approaches fell short.
Then it’s hands-on. You’ll implement every major component of a transformer in Python and PyTorch:
- Tokenization and embeddings
- Self-attention and multi-head attention
- Positional encodings
- Transformer blocks
- Training loops and optimization
Who Should Attend
- Software engineers curious about AI internals
- Data scientists and ML practitioners who want to go beyond APIs
- Anyone who’s used ChatGPT and thought, “How does this actually work?”
Prerequisites: Python experience, a laptop with internet access, and curiosity. Neural network basics help, but aren’t required.
What You’ll Walk Away With
- A clear understanding of transformer architecture
- A working transformer implementation you can extend
- Real intuition for how modern AI models are trained and optimized
Schedule
- Morning (9:00–12:30): From early statistics to transformers, with a deep dive into attention and training
- Lunch provided (12:30–1:30)
- Afternoon (1:30–5:00): Build your transformer, train and tune it, submit results
14 attendees
Past events
217
