Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning Robotics

✨ We are delighted to be hosted by Liberty IT this month. 🎤 Talk details will be coming soon. 📚 And thanks to [Packt](https://www.packtpub.com/), we have a physical book to raffle after the talk: * [Python Illustrated: Not another boring Python book, learn programming the fun way](https://www.packtpub.com/en-us/product/python-illustrated-9781836646327) by Maaike van Putten and Imke van Putten \-\-\- 🎟️ **PLEASE REGISTER ON LUMA TO ATTEND:** **[https://luma.com/pm0gpsda](https://luma.com/pm0gpsda)** \-\-\- **​Schedule (\*subject to change)** * ​18:30 Event Starts * ​18:40 Welcome and Introductions * ​18:50 Talk: Learning in Public, Again by Sarah Novotny * 19:15 Networking after * ​20:30 Event Ends **TALK DETAILS:** **TALK 1: Learning in Public, Again** (10-20 mins) I spent two decades building software communities. Kubernetes, NGINX, MySQL. And then I moved to Dublin and enrolled in a master's programme in political science at Trinity College. People have asked me why I took a left turn away from a perfectly good career. The honest answer is that I kept running into questions my industry experience couldn't answer. How do open source communities actually function as political systems? What does "technological sovereignty" mean when the phrase shows up in EU regulation, national security strategy, and corporate marketing decks, all in the same week? Why is corporate investment in OSS not patently obvious? I needed different tools. So I learned Python. Not the "I'll automate a spreadsheet" kind. The "I'm running topic models on 1,600 EU consultation responses to figure out who is shaping digital policy and how" kind. I learned statistics. I learned how to scrape legislative databases. I learned how to be bad at something in front of people half my age, which, if you've spent twenty years being the expert in the room, is its own special discipline. This talk is about what happens when you decide the next interesting problem matters more than the comfort of the last solved one. It's about moving countries, going back to school, picking up a programming language for the first time in decades, and discovering that the willingness to be a beginner is a skill that compounds. Whether you're 25 and pivoting, 45 and reinventing, or anywhere in between, the capacity to start over is not a concession. It's a superpower. **About Sarah Novotny** Sarah Novotny is a technology executive renowned for her pioneering leadership in open source, cloud computing, infrastructure automation, and big data.. She has led an Open Source Ecosystem and Strategy group for both Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. During her tenure at Google, Sarah played a pivotal role in expanding the Kubernetes open source project leadership and represented the company during the founding of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. At her core, she is driven by the ethos of open-source collaboration – where every line of code and every contributor interaction contributes to a greater collective purpose. She believes in fostering mutual aid and community care to build bridges across diverse coding languages and experiences. * [https://sarahnovotny.com](https://sarahnovotny.com/) * [https://linkedin.com/in/sarahnovotny](https://linkedin.com/in/sarahnovotny) **TALK 2: I'm a Software Engineer and I (Barely) Code** (10-15 mins) I dabbled in coding for years while working as a library manager, learning to write "Hello World" in at least four languages before moving to Belfast and coding my way through a master's degree in Software Development. I took my first job as a software engineer only to find that - surprise! - I barely code at all. I work in Machine Learning Operations, and while I touch a whole lot of Python code, most of my time is spent working with configuration files and infrastructure-as-code. Can I still call myself a software engineer if I'm not writing code? What does this mean when I’m faced with the next inevitable coding assessment, at this job or the next? This talk raises questions about what defines a software engineer in a world of increased software abstraction and, while I promise I won't talk too much about it, AI. **ABOUT Frances Veit** Associate Software Engineer, Liberty IT Frances is originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota, but has called Northern Ireland home since 2018. She holds a Master's degree in Library Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Master's in Software Development from Queen's University, Belfast. Frances is glad to have done her software training before AI was on the scene, but she's equally grateful to have an on-screen mentor while she figures out what she's doing. When she's not not-coding, she's at the beach with her two little kids, or baking. * [https://linkedin.com/in/frances-veit-49169926/](https://linkedin.com/in/frances-veit-49169926/) \-\-\- 🎟️ **PLEASE REGISTER ON LUMA TO ATTEND:** **[https://luma.com/pm0gpsda](https://luma.com/pm0gpsda)** \-\-\- **💖 THANKS** **Sponsors** * [Liberty IT](https://www.liberty-it.ie/about-us/overview): Hosting * [Packt](https://www.packtpub.com/): Raffle prize **Community Partners:** * [Coding Grace](https://codinggrace.com/) * [PSF](https://www.python.org/psf/): Meetup * [PyLadies](https://pyladies.com/) 🔍 **FAQ** **Note that all our events are 18s+. Although this a social event, it's a professional networking event, please refer to the [Code of Conduct](https://dublin.pyladies.com), e.g. behave as you would attending a work event.** **Q. I'm not female, is it ok for me to attend?** A. Yes, PyLadies Dublin events are open to everyone at all levels. We encourage non-female attendees to suggest a female friend/colleague to sign up to the event. So bring a friend! ✨ **Q. Do you have a Code of Conduct?** A. Yes, you can find it at [dublin.pyladies.com](https://dublin.pyladies.com/) **Q. I am interested in giving a talk at PyLadies Dublin, where do I submit my interest, workshop, and talk details?** A. You can submit your talk details to the following form: [https://sessionize.com/pyladies-dublin-meetup](https://sessionize.com/pyladies-dublin-meetup) 🤔 Any other enquiries (e.g. getting involved, sponsoring), email [dublin@pyladies.com](http://dublin@pyladies.com%2A%2A/)

How many times have you promised yourself you would finally change… —and then somehow ended up in the **same patterns again**? You know you’re capable of more. You know you deserve more. Yet something invisible keeps pulling you back. It’s **not laziness.** It’s **not lack of intelligence.** And it’s definitely **not a lack of potential.** It’s **self-sabotage.** And once you understand **how it works — and how to break it — everything can change.** ✨ **“When you shift the foundation, your results shift automatically.”** ## **What We’ll Cover** ### This **Free Live Presentation** will show you: ✔ **Why self-sabotage happens** (even when you truly want success) ✔ The hidden mechanisms that quietly **erode self-worth** ✔ How to **stop undermining your own progress** ✔ Practical steps to rebuild **genuine, stable self-confidence** ✔ How to move forward **without fear, guilt, or inner resistance** This is **not surface-level motivation.** This is about **understanding the real cause — and regaining control.** You know you’re capable of more. **Now it’s time to prove it.** ## **The Transformation** ### Imagine what changes when you: ✨ Stop **procrastinating** on the things that matter most ✨ **Speak up** without doubting yourself ✨ Take action **without the inner voice holding you back** ✨ Feel **real self-respect** — not just temporary confidence **Self-worth isn’t something you fake.** **It’s something you restore.** ## **Is This For You?** ### This event is for you if: • You feel **stuck in repeating patterns** • You sabotage **relationships, career moves, or personal goals** • You struggle with **self-doubt despite your abilities** • You’re ready for **real change — not just another motivational talk** ## 📍 **Venue** **Church of Scientology & Community Centre of Dublin** Firhouse Road, Dublin D24 CX39 ## 📅 **Date & Time** **19 May 2026 — 7:00 PM** **Free Admission • Seats Are Limited** **Self-worth isn’t something you fake.** **It’s something you restore.** This is a **free in-person lecture**, and **seats are limited.** If you’ve been waiting for the **“right time”** to finally break the cycle… ✨ **This is it.** **Reserve your spot now** and take the first step toward becoming the person you already know you can be. 👉 **Reserve Your Seat Now**

Hi there, Here are the books for the May 19th meetup. And remember, you don't have to read both books! Enjoy, and see you on the 19th of May! PLEASE NOTE THAT THE LOCATION HAS MOVED FROM THE BLEEDING HORSE TO JIMMY RABBITTE AT 87 LOWER CAMDEN STREET. Note: If these books are difficult to find in bookshops, try online (e.g.: Amazon.co.uk, kennys.ie, easons.com, bookdepository.com to name a few). AS THIS GROUP DOES NOT TAKE ONLINE PAYMENTS, EVERYONE WILL SHOW AS 'UNPAID'. PLEASE IGNORE. **1\. Empire of AI \- Karen Hao** An eye-opening account of the tech arms race shaping out planet, from an award-winning journalist and AI insider to the world of Sam Altman and OpenAI When longtime AI expert and journalist Karen Hao first began covering OpenAI in 2019, she thought they were the good guys. Founded as a nonprofit with safety enshrined as its core mission, it was meant, its leader Sam Altman told us, to act as a check against more purely market forces. But the core truth of this massively disruptive sector is that it requires an unprecedented amount of proprietary resources: the ‘compute’ power of scarce high-end chips, the sheer volume of data that needs to be amassed at scale, the humans on the ground ‘cleaning it up’ for sweatshop wages throughout the Global South, and a truly alarming spike in the need for energy and water underlying everything. We have entered a new, ominous age of empire with OpenAI setting a breakneck pace, as a small group of the most valuable companies in human history try to chase it down. In exhilarating prose and with unparalleled access to those closest to Sam Altman, Hao recounts the meteoric rise of OpenAI and shows us the sinister impact that this industry is having on society. **2\. Leonard and Hungry Paul – Ronan Hession** Leonard and Hungry Paul is the story of two friends who ordinarily would remain uncelebrated. It finds a value and specialness in them that is not immediately apparent and prompts the idea that maybe we could learn from the people that we overlook in life. Leonard and Hungry Paul change the world differently to the rest of us: we try and change it by effort and force; they change it by discovering the small things they can do well and offering them to others. Séamus

An Examined Life - A discussion group to exchange ideas and opinions related to science, economics, psychology and philosophy. The format is that we select a theme and pick a book related to that theme to discuss. The link to the book will be posted and also a talk/podcast related to the book should you not have time to read the full book before the meetup. Pre-reading is not mandatory, however, everyone will get more out of the session if you read the book or listen to the short talk. The aim is to meet in Wetherspoons. Usually we are at a long table near the front window or, if not, a long table downstairs. Ask around and I'm sure you'll find the group! Outliers - Malcom Gladwell Book link https://www.amazon.ie/Outliers-Story-Success-Malcolm-Gladwell/dp/0141036257/ref=asc_df_0141036257?mcid=f14a0c45b0b33d649fd5fbfa274398c7&tag=ieshopgosmp-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=743310902853&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10083558665555011541&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1007858&hvtargid=pla-466623711983&psc=1&language=en_IE&gad_source=1&dplnkId=99f5d2dc-e973-4dd3-8d25-f3a59a1b9c97 YouTube summary link [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snC-vezNCKs ](https://youtu.be/lGnXYgbBLvQ?si=vQIoPfBsuD3UWWV) Hope to see you there

TOG will be open on Tuesday evenings from 19:00 to 21:30 for a general Open House event. Expect to find members and visitors in the space up to all sorts of activities. It's a great time to drop in and see what the space is about. If you're an artist, tinkerer, maker or just plain curious, come in and see what the space is about. Maybe you already have something to work on (or want to), have something to fix, create, design, bodge or tinker... drop in. We're also open for just for plain old social chat and hang out, with plenty of tea, coffee and biscuits. We have lots of free parking right outside our door.

🐠First timers who are interested in doing their first Open Water Scuba dive 🐬course, please RSVP and I will send you the contact information about the scuba dive course and dive master's details. There will be other people on this course besides people from this meetup. There are different course dates, so RSVP and you can choose another date if you wish. The cost of this PADI Scuba Dive course is about 650 euros or so and it is a part time course. The duration is over about a month or so. https://www.padi.com/ https://youtu.be/kvmgy4XsqrU This (PADI) scuba dive course is also a legal qualification requirement for scuba divers. The first dives will be in a large swimming pool 5m deep. If you like you can also do a pool try dive to see how you go before you start your dive course. You will be shown how to use scuba diving equipment. This PADI Open Water Diver course consists of three main phases: * Knowledge Development (online, home study or in a classroom ) to understand basic principles of scuba diving (5 modules) * Confined Water Dives to learn basic scuba skills (5 pool training dives). * Open Water Dives to review your skills and explore (4 open water dives). * Once you become a PADI qualified scuba diver you can do open water boat dives and weekend Atlantic sea boat dives and or Fyords boat scuba dives trips will be avaliable to you around Ireland and overseas. ## **Course Schedule (3-Week Format)** ### **Week One** **7:00 pm – 9:00 pm:** Induction, equipment orientation, safety briefing **9:00 pm – 10:00 pm:** Confined Water Session 1 ### **Week Two** **7:00 pm – 9:00 pm:** Knowledge Development + skills briefing **9:00 pm – 10:00 pm:** Confined Water Session 2 ### **Week Three** **7:00 pm – 9:00 pm:** Knowledge Development + final review **9:00 pm – 10:00 pm:** Confined Water Session 3 ✅ After your pool training, you're ready for your **two open-water dives.** People use Sea swimming for its healing salt properties,it washes viruses, bacteria and cleanse your skin amongst other things due to the sea salt content. There has been a large increase in people going swimming these last years. Scuba diving also refreshes your mind like hiking to start a new fresh day and a new work week. Anyone thinking about doing scuba diving this would be a good starting point for you. As usual this is a sporting event, so when you RSVP and attend this course, every person is directly responsible for their own health and saftey and accept full responsibilty. To find out more, please RSVP and I will send you the Dive Master Contact Details.🐳🐬🐚

Speaker: Neill Sweeney I will look back at a project I worked on a decade ago. I will outline the business problem, how I approached it and how it went live. Stochastic gradient method, discrete choice model, significance testing and purchasing power parity will be mentioned.

Adult Bachata and Salsa dance classes with practice social at Coolock Ardlea Scout Den Coolock Village. This is a mirror studio located upstairs from the hall with nice wooden floors. This is a weekly Thursday event. Come down, learn and have fun! Men and Women are welcome. Free taster for first timers and discount for students, request via dm. Beginners cost 10 euro for all beginner classes and practice.

**Stop overthinking and start performing. We’re discussing W. Timothy Gallwey’s classic on silencing the "inner critic" to unlock peak performance.**

### 🌸 What is Heartfulness Meditation? Heartfulness Meditation is a simple and natural way to relax the mind, reduce stress, and connect with your inner self by bringing awareness to the heart ❤️. No prior experience is needed—just sit comfortably, close your eyes, and tune in to the calm within. *** ### 🌟 Why join us? 🧘‍♀️ Let go of stress & tension 🎯 Improve focus & inner balance 🌿 Experience peace and clarity 💛 Connect with like-minded people ☕ Enjoy tea, coffee, and light snacks after the session 📍 **Venue:** Wisdom Centre 🕊 Sophia Housing Street, 25 Cork Street, Dublin 8 **Eircode:** D08 YD91 📅 **When:** Sundays, ⏰ 9:45 AM – 11:30 AM *** ### 🕰️ Schedule: 🔸 **9:45 AM** – Arrive & settle in silence 🔸 **10:00 AM** – Guided relaxation & Heartfulness meditation 🧘‍♂️ 🔸 **10:35 AM** – Reflection & sharing 💬 🔸 **10:50 AM** – Tea, coffee & light breakfast 🍵🥐 🔸 **11:30 AM** – Close *** ### 🌱 New to meditation? Everyone is welcome—whether you’re completely new or already practice meditation. 😊 Feel free to reach out to **Akarsh** at 📧 **ie.secretary@heartfulness.org** or drop us a message on Meetup if you’d like to let us know you’re coming. We’d love to have you join us! 💛

Want to feel more confident when you speak? Join us for a **free live session** of *The Public Speaking Club* on **May 21**. In this interactive session you will: * Practice speaking in a supportive environment * Get simple tools to reduce pressure and anxiety * Receive real-time feedback * Connect with like minded people * network with industry leaders This session is perfect for: ✔️ Professionals ✔️ Founders ✔️ Anyone who wants to speak with more confidence 🎟️ **Limited spots – free registration required** See you live, Thai

Join us for a series of short talks on possibly one of the oldest and most mysterious philosophical questions? Who am I? We will explore it from 3 perspectives: * Genetics * Neuroscience * Anthropolog **The Gene Delusion** What is a gene, and what it is not. Are we just our genes or are they part of a network of factors that makeup our biological identity? It is often imagined as the fundamental unit of life’s story—the script that writes who we are. But this view, though seductive, is incomplete. A gene is not a destiny coded in molecular ink; it is a participant in a vast, dynamic conversation. **Neuroscience and the Ghost in the Machine** In the long-standing dialogue between mind and brain, neuroscience has made remarkable strides in mapping the physical architecture of thought—tracing emotions, decisions, and memories to vast networks of neural activity. Yet the question remains: is the mind merely what the brain does, or is it something more—a modern echo of the “ghost in the machine”? **Anthropology – Consciousness Gateway to our essence** What is consciousness? Philosophy links it to our essence as human beings. How can we find our essence? It is described as finding our centre, to be within our centre – so it is linked to concentration (con centrum ‘to be within our center’). Mircea Eliade (Historian and Anthropologist) describes this search for, and idea of a centre from which all life emerges, as a very human endeavour. What makes us human? How do we connect with what is essentially human and our life force? *There will be a break with tea, coffee and cakes.*

Our May book will be All Systems Red by Martha Wells, first book in the Murderbots Series. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32758901-all-systems-red

**Let’s kick off our very first CBUS Maker Meetup!** Whether you are looking to carve out dedicated creative time, wanting to get a lingering project across the finish line, or just looking to chat with fellow local makers—this is the space for you. 🧵 **What to Bring** Bring any art or craft project you are currently working on, as long as it is portable and quiet. Think: * **Yarn & Thread:** Knitting, crochet, embroidery, cross-stitch, hand-sewing, mending. * **Paper & Sketching:** Sketchbooks, adult coloring books, watercolors, bullet journaling. * **Digital:** Tablets, iPad drawing, laptop writing/design. * *Please note: Because we are meeting in a shared public space, no power tools, sewing machines, or high-odor materials (like strong solvents or spray glues), please!* **📍 Where to Find Us** * We will be meeting at **Columbus Metropolitan Library - Karl Road Branch** in **Meeting Room 1**. Room is reserved under **CBUS Maker Meetup.** **⏱️ Timeline** * **1:00 PM:** Arrive, grab a seat, get settled, and do a quick round of introductions so we can see what everyone is working on. * **1:15 PM - 3:00 PM:** Open maker time! Chat, craft, relax, and swap creative ideas. **⚠️ A Note on RSVPs** Space for this first meetup is strictly limited to 10 spots. If your plans change and you can no longer attend, please update your RSVP to "Not Going" as soon as possible so someone on the waitlist can grab your spot. We ask that you try to give at least 48 hours' notice if you need to cancel. *** **We can't wait to meet you and see what you're making! All skill levels welcome.**

Join the Columbus AI community for our quarterly gathering — a casual, community-focused evening where everyone has a chance to share, learn, and connect. These open mic–style events give anyone in the community up to **5 minutes** to present a project, share a tool, pose a question, or offer a perspective on the evolving AI space. No slides required — just a welcoming space to exchange ideas and keep the local AI conversation moving. If you’d like to take the stage, message \*\*Chris (the organizer)\*\*with a **title and short description** of what you’d like to share. Whether you’re deep in the field or just getting curious, come connect with others building and exploring AI in Columbus. Sponsored by [Transform Labs](https://www.linkedin.com/company/transformlabs/) Sign up also accessible via [Transform Labs Luma](https://luma.com/transformlabshq)

Customer identity resolution becomes increasingly complex as organizations scale across multiple systems, regions, and data formats. Traditional rule-based approaches often fail to keep up with data variability, require constant manual tuning, and struggle with real-time processing needs. This session presents a practical approach to building a scalable identity resolution pipeline using AWS services and modern AI techniques. The architecture combines data ingestion through Amazon S3 and AWS Glue, transformation pipelines using Spark on EMR, and machine learning models deployed via SageMaker for entity matching and standardization. Graph-based relationship modeling is implemented using Amazon Neptune to improve resolution accuracy by incorporating household and shared attribute context. We will walk through how machine learning models can be used for name and address normalization, how intelligent blocking strategies improve matching efficiency, and how feedback loops can be introduced to continuously improve accuracy. The session also highlights how serverless components such as AWS Lambda can be used for orchestration and real-time processing. **SPEAKER BIO** Mosaic Syed is a Senior Data Engineering and Cloud Solutions Architect with over 20 years of experience designing and delivering scalable, secure, and high-performance data solutions across global enterprise environments. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mosaic-basha-syed-92300856 **CALL FOR SPEAKERS** Learn more: [https://www.awscolumbus.com/get-involved/](https://www.awscolumbus.com/get-involved/) **THANK YOU** *VEEAM* for hosting our meetup! To learn more about *Veeam*, please visit their website: [https://www.veeam.com/](https://www.veeam.com/) **DIRECTIONS** 8800 Lyra Dr #450 · Columbus, OH go to 4th floor. **Want to sponsor the pizza and/or bar tab?** Please contact me if you would like to sponsor this meetup's pizza and/or bar tab: angelo@mandato.com

NFT's are here to stay folks! This is a group for like minded people interested in understanding, leveraging, using, creating for, profiting from, trading too i suppose, NFT's.. everything around them, complexity, fear and exploits, best practices and more. **PLUS** This group will talk AI ART tools, techniques, artists, video, audio, prototypes and more in the AI assisted production space- ART specifically, but we can get into any aspect of some of the cooler things happening in AI in general.

**Welcome to Drunken Philosophy** a casual, curious social discussion **Optional topic for this meetup: What's up with all the AI hate?** A recent survey found that 74% of Americans have a negative view of AI, and I want to know why. Come out and debate whether AI is good or bad. My hot take: a labor-saving tool that could potentially help cure cancer gets called dangerous because it might raise unemployment or cause a speculative investment bubble, that tells you a lot more about capitalism and the economic system we live under than it does about the tool itself. As a computer programmer, I think AI is a wonderful tool that has increased my productivity by at least an order of magnitude. I'd go so far as to say Claude Code is the best tool I have ever used. Debate me and name a better one. Is AI potentially dangerous? Yes, but so are a lot of tools. Chainsaws. Steam engines (early ones would occasionally explode and kill everyone in the room). Do you think cavemen sat around debating whether fire could be used as a weapon or for self-harm, and decided not to discover it? I have two friends who hate AI for opposite reasons: one thinks it's a fad and not useful, and the other thinks it's going to take over everything and cause human extinction. Come out tonight, have a friendly debate, and make some friends. No lectures. Friendly crowd. Drop in for one drink and stay if it's fun.

**Important time note:** Please plan on arriving between 5:30 and 6:00 as the elevators lock after 6 and you'll need to message us and we'll need to come get you. The building address is 4450 Bridge Park The entrance is 6620 Mooney St, Suite 400 You will need to scan your ID at the door to get a visitor badge. **Abstract** TBD **YouTube Link** TBD

We will show how to build custom agents with Microsoft Agent Framework. Attendees will learn how to build and custom host agents when Microsoft Foundry is not a viable option.