Utrecht JUG Dec 10th Meetup: Securing AI & Making Better Architecture Decisions

We are excited to announce our next Utrecht JUG meetup, featuring two exceptional talks from Brian Vermeer and Bert Jan Schrijver; two well-known voices in the Java community.

On this evening, we’ll dive deep into two essential topics shaping today’s software landscape.

First, we’ll explore how to build and secure LLM-powered applications, uncovering the real security and privacy risks that come with AI integration and how to mitigate them effectively.

Then, we’ll shift focus to making significant software architecture decisions, discussing how to evaluate trade-offs, balance competing concerns, and make informed, high-impact choices that stand the test of time.

Join us for an evening of practical insights, real-world lessons, and community connection!

The meetup will be hosted by Axxes, Europalaan 400, Utrecht.

Please join us and RSVP!

Because of the limited number of seats, please keep your RSVP up-to-date, so we can welcome someone else of you can't make it.

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17:30 Doors open
18:00 Food & Drinks
19:00 Breaching LLM-Powered Applications: Overcoming Security and Privacy Challenges by Brian Vermeer
20:00 Break
20:15 Making significant Software Architecture decisions by Bert Jan Schrijver
21:15 Drinks

Giveaway
1 JetBrains licence

Talks

Breaching LLM-Powered Applications: Overcoming Security and Privacy Challenges

LLMs accessing databases and intelligent agents performing online purchases? The possibilities for AI applications seem endless, but so are the security and data privacy risks. In this session, we’ll cover common issues such as prompt injection, key leakage, misuse of private customer data for training, legal restrictions, and more. Additionally, we will demonstrate how general security vulnerabilities in your systems can also affect the behavior and outcomes of LLMs. During this session, you’ll gain a clear overview of the vulnerabilities to watch out for, strategies to ensure data privacy compliance, and best practices for developing secure LLM-powered applications.

Making significant Software Architecture decisions

Software architecture represents the significant design decisions that shape a system, where significant is measured by the cost of change. At its core, architectural decision-making is about balancing trade-offs to align technical solutions with broader requirements.

But how do you approach a trade-off analysis? How do you choose between different solutions, frameworks, tools, languages, or cloud providers? Which factors should guide your decisions beyond just technical fit? And how do you make sure you’re not overlooking non-technical aspects like team expertise, long-term supportability, and hiring feasibility?

In this session, I’ll share a structured approach to making informed, high-impact architecture decisions. We’ll break down technical, organizational, financial and other trade-offs and explore how to evaluate and balance competing concerns. You’ll walk away with practical strategies to make better architectural decisions in real-world projects.

Speakers

Brian Vermeer

Staff Developer Advocate for Snyk, Java Champion, Oracle Ace Pro, and Software Engineer with over a decade of hands-on experience in creating and maintaining software. He is passionate about Java, (Pure) Functional Programming and Cybersecurity. Brian is a JUG leader for the Virtual JUG and the NLJUG. He also co-leads the DevSecCon community and is a community manager for Foojay. He is a regular international speaker on mostly Java-related conferences like JavaOne, Devnexus, Devoxx, Jfokus, JavaZone and many more. Besides all that, Brian is a military reserve for the Royal Netherlands Air Force and a Taekwondo Master / Teacher.

Bert Jan Schrijver

Bert Jan is CTO at OpenValue and focuses on Java, software architecture, Continuous Delivery and DevOps. Bert Jan is a Java Champion, JavaOne Rock Star speaker, Duke's Choice Award winner and leads NLJUG, the Dutch Java User Group. He loves to share his experience by speaking at conferences, writing for the Dutch Java magazine and helping out Devoxx4Kids with teaching kids how to code. Bert Jan is easily reachable on BlueSky via @bjschrijver.dev.