Chicago JavaScript Meetup Group

Holy smokes, we have quite the lineup for our July meetup! Three speakers, three very different topics; no matter what you're in the mood for tech-wise, we've got you covered.

📌 The new React Native killer? Testing Lynx so you don't have to!
with Adrian Debbeler

Tired of reading Reddit threads about "React Native vs. Flutter"?

Well, a new player has joined the arena: meet Lynx, the multi-platform framework from ByteDance. We will check if the tech used by 1.8 billion TikTok users is also the right choice for your next project or if it's better to stick to good old React Native.

📌 Smarter Prompts, Cleaner Code with David Nicholas

AI is rapidly transforming the way we write software, but for many developers, tools like GitHub Copilot still feel more like autocomplete on steroids than a true coding assistant. Too often, it generates inconsistent code, ignores team conventions, and introduces more cleanup work than it saves. The problem isn't the model — it's the prompt.

In this talk, we'll explore how developers can take control of AI-assisted coding by learning the fundamentals of prompt engineering and applying them to real-world software development. We'll focus on GitHub Copilot and how to use instruction files and smart prompts to make it produce code that aligns with your team's standards, patterns, and expectations.

📌 Quantum Computing: What is it and where is it going! with Carl Anderson
Quantum Computing regularly grabs tech headlines, but what exactly is it and how could it change our future?

In keeping with the quantum theme of Tech Week in Chicago, we will walk through the basics of how quantum computing works, what kinds of problems it could help solve, and what the current state looks like. We will also do a tour of some quantum computing frameworks & tools that you can begin to tinker with today!

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📌 Svelte in Orbit by Mike Rourke

My employer, which has been building products that have been used by NASA and private space companies for over 25 years, has gone all-in on Svelte. We're using Svelte for a spaceflight mission planning desktop app, a web-based orbit simulation tool, and other internal and external tools. Svelte is uniquely tailored for our use cases because of its speed and how seamlessly it works with the rest of the web platform.

In this talk, I'll demonstrate why Svelte is the obvious choice for building scalable and highly performant applications. I'll walk through examples of using Svelte with Atomics, WebGPU, OffscreenCanvas, as well as other Web APIs in the context of an astrodynamics app. After listening to this talk, you'll learn that the sky is (literally) not the limit in terms of what you can achieve with Svelte!

We are looking for another speaker for this event. Please feel free to reach out if you're interested.

📌 Composable Content with Nextjs: Leveraging Server Components and Suspense for Content-Driven Sites by Daniel Mendoza

This talk explores how building content-driven applications has evolved with Next.js. We’ll start by looking at the limitations of the traditional Pages Router and SSR in the context of content-driven sites and its challenges like increased complexity, inefficient data fetching, and the difficulties of integrating a headless CMS. Then we’ll dive into how React Server Components (RSC) and the App Router have transformed the developer experience. With features like Suspense and streaming, you can now build a truly composable architecture that plays seamlessly with headless CMSs, enabling more maintainable, performant, and scalable content-driven sites.

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📌 Simplify Application Login, Access, and User Management with IAM Providers with Harsha Thirimanna

This session offers a detailed exploration of login functionalities, covering foundational authentication methods as well as advanced implementations like Single Sign-On (SSO), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), and social login integrations. Participants will gain practical knowledge on using the SDK to ensure OpenID Connect (OIDC) compliance, optimize token management, and follow industry best practices for robust application security.

This session is perfect for developers aiming to deepen their understanding of user authentication, embrace best-in-class security practices, and smoothly integrate modern identity solutions into their applications.

⭐️ We are looking for another speaker for this event. Please reach out if you're interested.

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