Data & AI Meetup – Belfast Tech Week Special

Data & AI Meetup – Belfast Tech Week Special
As part of Belfast Tech Week, we’re bringing together some of the brightest minds in data and AI for an evening of cutting-edge talks and practical insights. Whether you’re a data engineer, researcher, or just curious about how AI is shaping the world, this session is packed with ideas you can take back to your own work.

🔹 Speakers & Talks
Mark Ormerod – LinkedIn
Peering Inside the Black Box: How cognitive science can reveal what large language models know and where their limits lie
Large language models have transformed how we think about AI—but they remain stubbornly opaque. Mark will show how cognitive science techniques like Representational Similarity Analysis can help us peek inside these models, understand their limits, and explore how aligning them with human cognition could build more trustworthy AI.

Antone Bagnall – LinkedIn
Unlocking Data Orchestration: Power Up Your Pipelines with Dagster
Data orchestration is the backbone of scalable data workflows. Antone will walk through how Dagster can supercharge your pipelines for performance, resilience, and scalability.

Aaron Gorman – LinkedIn
The Population Health Model: Scenario-Based Forecasting for Smarter Public Health Decisions
Aaron introduces the Public Health Agency’s Population Health Model, which uses microsimulation to create a synthetic population of NI. The model forecasts health outcomes and disease burden, providing powerful intelligence for data-driven decision making in public health.

Daniel Parke – LinkedIn
The Power of Data Visualisation
Data is only as useful as it is understood. Daniel will share how simple, clear visualisations can communicate complex insights to non-technical stakeholders and play a critical role in shaping effective decision making.

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📍 Location: MCS HQ (Floor 10, The Ewart, Bedford Sq, Belfast)
📅 Date & Time: Wednesday 24th September 2025, 18:00-20:00

This is your chance to connect with Belfast’s growing data & AI community during Belfast Tech Week. Come for the talks, stay for the discussion – and network with fellow data and AI enthusiasts over the course of the evening.