Portland AI Engineers [PIng] June Meeting

AI is transforming how we build software, and Portland engineers are at the forefront of this revolution. Whether you're integrating LLMs into production systems or just starting to explore AI capabilities in your personal projects, PIng is your community.

Our meetings bring together developers passionate about practical AI applications that solve real-world problems. Come ready to learn, share, and connect with fellow engineers.

This event is presented in partnership with WeWork.

Featured presentations

[1 of 2]
The Battle for Data Protection in AI and Data Analytics in Today's World
Kellyn Pot'Vin Gorman, Database and AI Advocate and Engineer with Redgate
In today’s era where data is the new nuclear power fueling AI, its protection has become a battleground. From high-profile breaches that shake industries to the ethical dilemmas posed by AI, ensuring data security is more critical—and complex—than ever. This keynote explores real-world data breach stories that highlight vulnerabilities in the data lifecycle and the profound consequences of lapses in protection.

In this presentation, Kellyn will examine practical strategies for safeguarding data throughout its lifecycle—from creation and storage to analysis and deletion—emphasizing robust compliance and governance practices. Discover how cutting-edge AI technologies may and have enhanced data protection with AI and machine learning, automate threat detection, and foster proactive defense mechanisms. The goal of this talk is to equip you with insights and tools to navigate the challenges of securing data in AI-driven analytics, empowering your organization to turn this battleground into a stronghold of resilience and trust or at least give you some sense of hope in today’s AI challenges.

[2 of 2]
How Meta-Programming With AI Will Transform Your Software Engineering Career
Randal S. Olson, Ph.D.
You've heard the hype: AI boosts coding productivity 10x and will make you millions overnight. But instead of vibe coding bliss, you're wrestling with unexplainable bugs and half-baked web apps. Here's the truth: AI isn't a magic coding genie. It's a powerful partner - if you know how to lead it. I'll show you how to ditch the generic prompts and start setting crystal-clear direction, inject crucial context, and build a collaborative feedback loop that turns your AI coding assistant from foe to friend. Forget traditional coding. The future is about collaboration - humans and AI working together to build things we never thought possible.

Bio: I'm Randy Olson, and I build AI that builds AI. You might know me from TPOT, the open source AutoML tool that uses AI to optimize machine learning pipelines without any human intervention. I earned my Ph.D. in AI at Michigan State and did postdoctoral work at UPenn, and I've been obsessed with making data science and AI accessible to everyone ever since. But I'm not just about algorithms; I'm about impact. As a consultant, a community leader at /r/DataIsBeautiful, and a relentless pusher of automation's boundaries, I'm on a mission to drag the future of software engineering into the AI light.

Schedule:

• 5:00 - 5:45: Snacks and networking
• 5:45 - 6:30: Presentation
• 6:30 - 7:00: Wrap up and networking
• 7:00 - ~~~ For those looking for more networking after the meeting, we propose Spirit of 77 Bar on MLK (5 min walk) for what we are calling PIng Post Training

Details:

• Date: Wednesday, June 4th
• Location: WeWork 830 NE Holladay St, Portland, OR

Parking & Directions:

• Street parking is mostly PakingKitty managed in the area
• Free street parking is usually available on NE 9th–11th and Schuyler St. It’s about an 8-minute walk to WeWork.
• Public transit is super convenient—the NE 7th Ave MAX stop (Blue, Green, and Red Lines) is right outside the building.

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About PIng:
Portland AI Engineers brings together software developers at all experience levels who are passionate about building with generative AI technologies. We focus on practical applications that solve real-world problems by leveraging existing language models and the surrounding GenAI tools ecosystem.
Learn more

Get involved:

• Present your work: Email us at info@portlandai.engineer to discuss sharing your project or insights
• Provide feedback: Help shape our community by sharing your ideas and suggestions
• Sponsor an event: Contact us to discuss partnership opportunities

For more information and to join our community, visit portlandai.engineer

Thank you to our amazing sponsors

Portland Incubator Experiment (PIE)
Silicon Florist
DevThink.AI