DevMotion Meetup

This Meetup we'll get a sneak preview for the J-Fall talks by Cedric & Chiel and Jorrit & Gijs! Schedule and more info: Schedule • 17.45: Doors open • 18.00: Pizza & Drinks • 18.45: Quicky: Why you should embrace Gradle and ditch Maven - Gijs & Jorrit • 19.05: Neural networks: insane in the membrane - Chiel & Cedric • 20.00: Drinks • 20.30: Slowly wrap-up Why you should embrace Gradle and ditch Maven Still using Maven as a build tool in your projects? If so, are you using it because you think it is a great tool, or just because you’ve always done it this way? Within 15 minutes we’ll share with you the reasons that made us ditch Maven and fall in love with our build tool again. Be aware though, after you’ve visited this quickie there is a big chance you’ll find yourself migrating all your projects tonight. Luckily, this is easier than you might think. Neural networks: insane in the membrane Neural networks are one of the most dominant forms of AI algorithms being used today. They seem to be the right solution to a myriad of problems and are often considered to provide objective answers to a variety of complex questions, but why? A neural network can be tuned to cope with a wide range of situations, which is great, but is it always correct to do so? We will present a range of manipulations to a predefined neural network to show their effects on the results it can produce. Examples are the use of different training sets and variations in configuration, but also changing the neural network during runs, which could affect it in certain and uncertain ways. We will explain why this is not necessarily a fault of the network or even a bad thing in general, but that it does require some careful thinking when working with neural networks. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, but how about the opposite? All over the world, people working on neural networks are taking different approaches but are expecting the same results. Is that not insanity? Bio Cedric van Beijsterveldt - Software Developer @ JCore Having turned his hobby into his job, Cédric is a driven developer at JCore. While currently being focussed on Java and JavaScript, he is always keeping an eye out for any other interesting technologies that cross his path. Bio Chiel van de Steeg - Software Developer @ JCore Chiel is a passionate back-end developer with a background in Human Movement Sciences, where he developed a profound interest in neuroscience, data processing techniques and Big Data. He is curious about functional programming and enjoys learning the fundamentals in Scala and Kotlin. Bio Jorrit van der Ven - Software Developer @ JDriven Jorrit is a Java Developer at JDriven. He has more than 10 years of experience in Java development, but doesn’t mind to get his hands dirty with other programming languages as well, even when they don’t run on the JVM… In his spare time he likes to make his house a bit smarter using wires, chips and a soldering iron. Bio Gijs Leussink - Software Developer @ JDriven Gijs Leussink is a Java technologist at JDriven. As contractor he worked with key players in finance, mobility, automotive, telecom and scientific industries to help them sustainably minimise lead time to business impact (thanks Dan North). Besides delivering features to users with as little code as possible, he’s very much passionately involved in improving deployment pipelines. Gijs lives with his family in Breda, Netherlands