Automated Machine Learning

Welcome to our new home at the historic Tivoli Theater! Please check our details for access to the space on [our website](https://www.hacdc.org/visit/). Join the discord for questions / help getting in (use channel #let-me-in) [https://discord.gg/dNjuNhNmeT](https://discord.gg/dNjuNhNmeT)

Join me on a simple linear walk between King Street metro and Crystal City! **Time:** \~6:30pm-8:20pm **Start Location:** King Street Metro, North Entrance **Exit Location:** Crystal City Water Park and/or Metro Station **Map:** [Kamoot](https://www.komoot.com/tour/2949160417?share_token=aytfRtui3EupPqJW29QWpgWqVxhZi5kczcDLr4ULLO32HNZTWg&ref=wtd&t_s=referral&t_cid=route_share&t_ref_username=5208720834658) **Millage:** 4.1 mi **Terrain:** There will mostly be paved and level ground. \-\-\- We try to be punctual with our event times so please be respectful to others and show up a few minutes early. Note, we often limit the RSVPs to keep group sizes manageable. If you are on the waitlist but would really like to join, reach out to the organizer. Our events prioritize metro accessibility by meeting and ending at metro stations. Sometimes we start/stop at the same station, sometimes we do not. Please double check the event description to see if you can manage transportation. If you've enjoyed our walks please consider donating a few bucks to help us keep this group running (meetup is expensive!). [Donation Link](https://venmo.com/code?user_id=2158403661070336114)

Advance ticket sales have ended but plenty of additional tickets remain available at the door. [Profs and Pints DC](https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc) presents: **“Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy,”** on findings, debates and trends in the use of psychedelic substances to treat trauma and other conditions, with Whitney Marris, instructor at the University of Buffalo’s School of Social Work, certified psychedelic-assisted therapy facilitator, and consultant to clinical trials. [Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at [https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/dc-psychedelic-assisted-therapy](https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/dc-psychedelic-assisted-therapy) .] Psychedelics are rapidly moving from the margins into the mainstream, and questions abound as the sociocultural and legal landscapes surrounding them shift. President Trump’s recent executive order expanding access to psychedelic drugs for certain conditions and accelerating research on them has both heightened interest and added to confusion. Learn more about the so-called “Psychedelic Renaissance,” and get help separating the hope from the hype surrounding it, with Whitney Marris, a leading trainer and facilitator of psychedelic therapy who has used it to treat trauma survivors, military veterans, and people with cancer. She’ll present foundational information on what we know about how psychedelics work. You’ll learn how psychedelic-assisted therapy differs from “trip sitting” and about what we know about the effects of “microdosing” versus “macrodosing.” We’ll examine what has been demonstrated to be helpful versus harmful before, during, and after a dosing session intended to support significant, sustainable change. Marris also will discuss the historical and cultural context of the use of psychedelic medicines for healing, and she’ll describe the ethical challenges that arise as such practices move from counterculture to clinic. We’ll look at emerging and evolving findings in the field, as well as at the roles being played by various financial interests and ideologies in determining the direction of psychedelic-assisted therapy and research on its outcomes. Attendees will gain an awareness of the need for new professional standards and regulatory guardrails related to such work, and they’ll leave knowing key questions to ask potential providers of psychedelic-assisted therapy. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.) Image by Canva.

Note: This is an RSVP with Prepay only event. Coaches have the right to deny your participation if you haven't Prepaid for the event. MAKE SURE YOU CAN RECEIVE MESSAGES AND NOTIFICATIONS WITH UPDATES FROM THE LESSONS. Profile->settings->manage notifications. 2.5 – Rally crew Players at this level can sustain consistent rallies at a slower pace and shorter court depth. They can serve with minimal double faults and demonstrate improving control at the net, successfully blocking volleys and handling slower incoming shots with consistency. The lesson will start with rally drills and then play games to emphasize the rally drills. Finally, we will finish up with service games. Players will constantly hit and move with minimal breaks. All lessons are different. 1. RSVP "YES" Then PREPAY if you are coming to secure your spot in the lesson. Update RSVP to "NO" if you are not attending before RSVP deadline. **COACH TO PLAYER RATIO:** 1\. Maximum 1/6 for Coach/Player ratio for a 90\-minute session\. 2\. Make sure you RSVP to the lesson according to your level\. If we notice your level doesn't fit in the lesson you RSVP for\, we will ask you to RSVP for a different session that matches your level\. I hope everyone understands\. **Cancellation Policy:** * If only two or fewer RSVP for a group lesson, the lesson will be canceled. The minimum requirement for a group is three participants. * If the host cancels a session, you get an option for a refund or credit for the next session. * The prepaid fee is non-refundable and cannot be transferred to another session when participants cancel on the same day. **Your contribution:** * Annual group membership of $20 to support our tennis equipment and court expenses. * Four sessions package to use within five weeks: $112 * Single session prepay: $35 **PAYMENTS METHODS:** 1-VENMO APP: joseph_awadalla 2.Zelle:202-746-1094,joseph.awadalla@gmail.com 3.Paypal: joseph.awadalla@gmail.com Thank you for your support.

Let's go deeper! More than just a fun aerobic exercise, immerse yourself in the cultural roots of Brazilian movements and stir in the contemporary expression of dance Flavia Nascimento is top trained Brazilian dancer helping others explore the Afro Diaspora of Brazil through movement and music. Join the class to lift your heart rate and elevate your spirit. $20

📚 Do you love reading, but wish you had a structure and a community to share your insights with? Join our small circle of curious minds (just 4 members per gathering) as we come together for an hour of focused reading—in the calm setting of a library or the cozy atmosphere of a café. Here’s how it works: First part: Quiet reading on your own—bring a book you’re exploring, whether it’s philosophy, history, psychology, literature, or anything meaningful to you. Second part: We regroup and each person shares key takeaways, insights, or questions sparked by their reading. This sparks a structured yet free-flowing conversation around ideas, perspectives, and personal reflections. Why join? Add structure to your reading habit. Discover new books, authors, and ideas through others’ choices. Build real connections by sharing and listening deeply. Socialize around something meaningful instead of small talk.

A small team of AWS Solutions Architects not traditional software engineers, built AIRE Traffic Control (ATC), a production agentic AI platform now serving thousands of builders. We used AI at every stage: spec-driven development, AI-generated code, automated testing, and agentic workflows. In this talk, we'll share the real story, the architecture, the failures, the breakthroughs, and what we learned about driving adoption from 32% to 92% in 10 weeks. You'll walk away with practical patterns for building multi-agent systems, using AI-DLC methodology, and empowering non-traditional dev teams to ship production-grade applications.

Hola! Bonjour! こんにちは！你好！Mabuhay! We are restarting this group again! If you are a language learner and want to share your tips about language learning with others or learn from their experiences, this is the place for you. We will have selected The Spot Food Hall located one block from the Branch Avenue Metro Station in Camp Springs, MD in southern PG county. This location offers free parking, and is very convenient to the Beltway, Branch Avenue (Rt. 5), Joint Base Andrews, as well as quick access to DC via the Metro Green Line. Since this is our first meetup, we can discuss how we want to move forward. There is no obligation to eat or drink anything, but there are many food and drink option choices if you wish.

RVSP on Luma!: https://luma.com/thq3hut1 ​Join us for an evening of data science side projects and networking! Come hear lightning talks about what people are building, meet other people working on cool stuff, and hang out. ​ Whether you're deep into a side project, just getting started on one, or curious about what other people are working on, this is a good place to be. Side projects are how a lot of us learn new tools, explore ideas, and connect with people—and they're a lot more fun when you have other people to talk to about them. ​The speakers tonight are folks who have been participating in our side project mentorship program since March. They submitted side projects they wanted to work on, got matched with mentors, and spent 12 weeks working on them. They'll be talking to you about some aspect of what they did or learned. **Schedule** * ​6:00 - 6:30PM: Mingling & food & drinks * Lightning Talks! * **Bryan Johns** — "Floodlines: The Geography of Institutional Memory" **Karen Zhu** — "Historic Recipe Explorer: Bringing Historic Cookbooks to Life with AI" **Aaron Schumacher** — "Pave the Planet: A new data visualization technique" * We'll add more as they come in. ​Speakers! TBA, but I'll add them as they come in!

Venez apprécier l'ambiance chaleureuse d'une conversation en français autour d'un verre de vin et d'apéritifs. C'est ouvert à tous quelque soit votre niveau, que vous soyez intermédiaire/avancé ou bien que le Français soit votre langue maternelle. ***GRAB A DRINK AND YOU WILL BE ALL SET TO FLEX YOUR LANGUAGE CAPACITY. YOU NEED TO GET AT LEAST A DRINK OR FOOD :) To get the event going and show support. We know that you like our events. P.S. : We have non-alcoholic drinks as well.*** We have a tiny venue and we hit capacity often and early arrival is suggested. We have the discretion to decide entry. It is irresistible, to enjoy French convo with a glass of wine, appetizers and drinks. The Event is open to all levels of French language, from intermediate to native fluency. This is mainly a social for Intermediate/Advanced/Native Speakers. It is not as such to learn a language. Beginners, if you want to learn a language, reach out to us ([info@merevents.com](http://info@merevents.com/)). We have a school and will arrange you a class. ***AFTER THE HAPPY HOUR, WE HIT THE DANCE FLOOR! BRING YOUR DANCING*** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Vv1wxZAR1k](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Vv1wxZAR1k)

Venez apprécier l'ambiance chaleureuse d'une conversation en français autour d'un verre de vin et d'apéritifs. C'est ouvert à tous quelque soit votre niveau, que vous soyez intermédiaire/avancé ou bien que le Français soit votre langue maternelle. ***GRAB A DRINK AND YOU WILL BE ALL SET TO FLEX YOUR LANGUAGE CAPACITY. YOU NEED TO GET AT LEAST A DRINK OR FOOD :) To get the event going and show support. We know that you like our events. P.S. : We have non-alcoholic drinks as well.*** We have a tiny venue and we hit capacity often and early arrival is suggested. We have the discretion to decide entry. It is irresistible, to enjoy French convo with a glass of wine, appetizers and drinks. The Event is open to all levels of French language, from intermediate to native fluency. This is mainly a social for Intermediate/Advanced/Native Speakers. It is not as such to learn a language. Beginners, if you want to learn a language, reach out to us ([info@merevents.com](http://info@merevents.com/)). We have a school and will arrange you a class. ***AFTER THE HAPPY HOUR, WE HIT THE DANCE FLOOR! BRING YOUR DANCING*** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Vv1wxZAR1k](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Vv1wxZAR1k)

A beginner-friendly workshop on advanced AI, government policy, and how this new technology is evolving and impacting society. ​​​​**Free and open to the public — no technical background required** ​​​​In previous workshops, we've seen how AI is a transformative technology like no other, for better or for worse. Beyond the technology itself, however, government regulations and societal norms will inform the impact AI has on our world. ​In this workshop, we will explore what policies have been proposed, which have been implemented and why, and what the impact has been so far. How can we use these lessons to maximize the promise and minimize the peril of AI? ​​​​**Over the course of the workshop, we’ll explore:** * ​**Concepts and Goals:** What problems should AI policies be trying to solve? * ​​​​**Different Kinds of AI Policies:** What policies have been proposed so far? What are the pros and cons? * ​​​​**Political Landscape:** How are financial incentives and conflicting ideologies influencing AI policy? * ​​​​**Case Studies:** What can we learn from what's been passed so far? ​​​​**What you’ll get:** * ​​​​A clear, non-technical introduction to core ideas from AI safety, AI governance, and existential risk research. * ​​​​Small-group discussions and thought experiments that connect AI risks to everyday life, institutions, and incentives. * ​​​​A better mental model for evaluating headlines, hype, and claims about AI progress. ​​​​**Format & vibe:** ​​​​This is not a lecture it is an interactive workshop designed to help people think clearly about a topic that is increasingly important and moving very quickly. ​​​​Whether you’re new to AI, casually interested, or deeply unsure what to believe, you’ll leave with a clearer picture of *why* many researchers take AI seriously—and *what’s actually at stake* if we get it wrong.

Join the Columbus AI community for a special event. **Battle of the Personal Agents** is your chance to see what people are actually building with AI agents and personal automation systems. Whether you’re running OpenClaw, Hermes, or a completely custom solution, bring your agent and show the community how it works. We’re interested in real-world implementations: the problems your agent solves, how you use it day-to-day, how it’s hosted and managed, how you built it, and why you’ve chosen to keep using it. Live demonstrations are encouraged, so be prepared to show your code, architecture, workflows, and your agent performing real tasks. This is less about polished presentations and more about sharing practical experience, comparing approaches, and learning from one another. If you’d like to present, please contact Chris Slee (via meetup) before the event so we can allocate enough time for everyone’s demonstrations. Come ready to show what you’ve built, discover what others are doing, and maybe find a few ideas worth taking home. 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)

Most people still use AI like a search box: type one question, get one answer, repeat. But the next step is AI agents: systems that can take a goal, break it into steps, use tools, remember context, and produce useful work for a human to review. In this beginner-friendly session, we’ll demystify what AI agents actually are — without hype or jargon. We’ll walk through practical examples of how agents can help with research, planning, writing, coding, operations, and personal productivity. We’ll cover: * What makes an AI “agent” instead of just a chatbot * How agents break tasks into steps * Where agents are genuinely useful today * Where they fail, hallucinate, or need human review * How to design simple AI workflows for your own work * A live demo of an AI agent-style workflow from start to finish No coding experience required. This is for anyone who wants to understand where AI tools are going and how to use them more effectively right now. LOGISTICS AND PARKING: The talk starts at 7:00 PM. The first half hour is reserved for everyone to get set up and mingle. Free pizza and drinks! The cheapest parking option is to find street parking, which will only cost you a few bucks. Otherwise, park in the nearby veteran's museum lot for $8. It's highly recommended you avoid the nearby $15 garage parking.

## 🤝 Host Information A co-hosted event by ProductTank Columbus & Women in Product Columbus 💡 About the Workshop AI adoption is stalling across organizations — not because of a lack of motivation or tools, but because it's fundamentally a behavior design challenge. This hands-on workshop applies proven Behavior Design models and methods to help you move from a vague organizational wish to boost AI adoption to 3-5 concrete, testable interventions you can act on starting tomorrow. Whether you're a product manager, on a product team, or just someone trying to get AI to actually stick at work, you'll leave with a clear picture of what's worth focusing on, what to ignore, and how to drive real, sustained adoption — no guesswork required. 🛠️ What to Bring Laptop: Fully charged and ready to go. AI Assistant: Have your favorite AI assistant pulled up. (Dom will be using Claude, but feel free to use whichever assistant you prefer!) 🍕 Logistics & Perks Food & Drink: Pizza and drinks provided! Parking: Plenty of free spaces available on-site. ###

QA or the Highway is a one-day, affordable, regional, professional conference featuring real-world experience and thought leadership in the QA and testing industry. This is a ticketed event please register here: https://www.qaorthehwy.com/ Featured Keynote Speakers: **Matthew-Hope Eland** **(Wizard at Leading EDJE)** \- An AI Specialist and Wizard at Leading EDJE who is known to teach software engineering\, AI\, and data science concepts in the most ridiculous ways possible\. Matt has used machine learning to settle debates over whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie\, reinforcement learning to drive the behavior of digital squirrels\, data analytics to suggest improvements to his favorite TV show\, and AI agents to play board games and create an AI agent with the personality of a dog\. Matt is the author of "Data Science in \.NET with Polyglot Notebooks" and "Refactoring with C\#" as well as several LinkedIn Learning courses\. Matt helps organize the Central Ohio \.NET Developer Group\, runs several blogs and a YouTube channel\, has a Master’s of Science in Data Analytics\, and is a current Microsoft MVP in AI and \.NET\. **Tatyana Arbouzova** **(CEO at Innovate QA)** \- Tatyana Arbouzova is an engineering and business leader with a strong background in Quality Engineering across multiple industries\, including Big Tech\, Healthcare\, and Entertainment\. She has held leadership roles at world\-class companies such as Microsoft\, VMware\, Disney\, and The Pokémon Company International\, where she focused on building quality\-driven cultures and scaling teams to deliver high\-impact products\. With decades of experience\, Tatyana has helped organizations transform their quality practices so teams can deliver software efficiently\, confidently\, and with measurable business outcomes\. Today\, Tatyana advises software companies on adopting AI to optimize quality practices and improve how software is delivered at scale\. She is also a passionate community builder and the founder of Innovate QA\, a thriving Seattle\-based community and conference for quality professionals\.

**The Behavior Gap: Where Products Win or Lose** Teams today have more data than ever, and yet many still struggle to understand why customers adopt, engage with, or abandon their products. Teams sprint, ship faster, and chase more signals… all while metrics stall and confidence drops. The missing piece isn’t more data. It’s often the behavioral insight between the metrics, explaining why the numbers move in the first place. Dashboards can tell you what customers did, but understanding why they did it (and how to influence what they do next) requires a deeper blend of insights. This session is about closing that gap. Drawing from real-world experience designing and scaling products as [ZoCo Design](https://zocodesign.com/)’s CEO, [Lacey](https://www.linkedin.com/in/laceypicazo/) will share how to cut through the noise and identify the insights that actually change behavior—moving people, and moving metrics. You’ll learn: * Why understanding customer behavior is a quant and qual challenge * How to spot the signals that actually predict behavior change * Where AI accelerates insight, and where it creates distraction * How to get meaningfully closer to customers, without adding more tools This talk reframes how to evaluate performance and identify what levers actually improve it, helping your team to make smarter bets with greater confidence. Every meaningful outcome is driven by behavior change. And when you know how to design for behavior, you stop guessing, and start building things that work. **About Our Speaker** [Lacey Picazo](https://www.linkedin.com/in/laceypicazo/) is the Founder and CEO of ZoCo, a healthcare product studio that turns complex, high-stakes ideas into products that drive real-world adoption. She partners with healthcare organizations to uncover critical care delivery insights, focus product strategy through behavior design, and build solutions that patients and providers actually use. Thanks to our 2026 sponsors: [Clarivoy](https://www.clarivoy.com), [What Box Consulting Group](https://www.whatboxconsultinggroup.com), [Conductrics](https://www.conductrics.com), and [Piwik PRO](https://piwik.pro) More info at [cbusdaw.com](https://cbusdaw.com)