BioInformatics

Hello everyone and welcome to 2026! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year.. Assuming your New Year resolutions will be to attend more Data & AI London meet ups? 🫠 Either way we have another year of events that will be filled with insights, content, networking and all things Data & AI! This year we will be kicking things off with a biggie as always... a talk from Anthropic and Snyk. **Adriaan Engelbrecht \| Member of Technical Staff @ Anthropic** ***Latest Product Updates from Anthropic*** Some currently out there and potentially some unannounced yet 👀 **Sonya Moisset \| Staff AI Security Advocate\, SecRel @ Snyk** ***Securing Vibe Coding: Addressing the Security Challenges of AI-Generated Code.*** As AI coding tools become embedded in daily development, they bring a new wave of productivity, and new security risks. In this session I break down the security implications of Vibe Coding and share actionable strategies to secure AI-generated code at scale. Please aim to arrive at 6pm. The talks will start around 6.30pm (give or take a few mins) and there will be pizza and refreshments as always on arrival :) Look forward to seeing you all soon!

Join London's Bitcoin community at Cyphermunk House to get hands on experience and knowledge about how to use better money. This week we dive into one of the newest Bitcoin wallets: Bull Bitcoin to give you a hands on explainer of its functions and uses. All beginners welcome. https://btcpay.btc.aw/apps/rvvVwGSSSiJ7UgtzjmBdxy1Uq6a/pos Promotional activities related to altcoins are not permitted. No unsolicited photograhy. Peace and love.

It's that time of the year again, Rust Nation UK. We are excited to have Rustaceans who have flown in to meet the London community, forge new friendships, and engage in insightful discussions. Tickets are still available for the conference. Community Promo code: RustLDN2026 [https://www.rustnationuk.com/tickets](https://www.rustnationuk.com/tickets) **Community Showcase** \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- **Iason Paraskevopoulos** **Title: Building an OSS Remote Pair Programming App in Rust** **Abstract:** Hopp is a multi-user remote control and screen sharing app designed for fast, natural collaboration. This talk walks through how the system works end-to-end, from cross-platform screen capture and input handling to low-latency video streaming. It covers why we chose Tauri for cross-platform development early on, the headaches caused by WebKit’s inconsistencies and WebRTC issues, and why we are moving towards a Rust-native UI. **David Wood (Rust Compiler Team Co-Lead)** **Title: Extending Rust’s notions of sizedness** **Abstract:** This talk is based on work I am completing upstream as the co-lead of the compiler team and the lead of Arm’s Rust team. It is based on this RFC - https://github.com/rust-lang/rfcs/pull/3729, which is partially implemented. We hope to stabilise the implemented parts before this talk is presented. More Talks to come......

This **theatre** and **livestream** is available online from Gresham College to Basingstoke Science subscribers. **ADVANCE BOOKING AND PAYMENT IS REQUIRED FOR THIS TALK.** **More details and booking instructions on the Gresham web site:** **[https://www.gresham.ac.uk/whats-on/price-pixels](https://www.gresham.ac.uk/whats-on/price-pixels)** **SUMMARY** #### Part of: [From Battlefields to Bytes: The Environmental Scars of Modernity](https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/series/battlefields-bytes) Our digital world's convenience masks a heavy environmental cost. This lecture explores the destructive rare earth mineral mining powering our devices, the vast energy consumption of data centres fuelling climate change, and the toxic e-waste contaminating our environment and harming human health. From resource extraction to digital consumption, we'll uncover the environmental trade-offs of our tech-dependent lives and discuss pathways towards a sustainable digital future that minimizes degradation, protects health, and mitigates climate change. **LIVESTREAM TIMING** **The livestream will go live at 5.55pm, and the introduction will begin at 6.00pm. If you register but miss the livestream, the video will be available to you via the same link for two weeks after the event date.** For more information on livestreams, see the information below, or [visit our FAQs page](https://www.rigb.org/whats/faqs-ri-livestreams). Please use the event link you have been provided with. Gresham College has offered an outstanding education to the public free of charge for over 400 years. Today, Gresham College plays an important role in fostering a love of learning and a greater understanding of ourselves and the world around us. Please consider making a donation on their web site to support the work of Gresham College.

PUT AN END TO AUTO! Would you like to learn to use your camera properly and get the shots you want by choice and not by accident? Attending this small group workshop will give you a strong understanding of the essentials needed to get the results you're looking for. This session will include theory and practical exercises to apply what you have learned. By the end of this session you forget about only getting great results by accident, and feel confident that you understand how to get your camera to do what you want! This is the end of Auto! \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- WHAT YOU WILL LEARN: * The important dials and buttons on your camera * Exposure triangle: Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO * Focusing * Histogram * Depth of Field * Metering * White balance * And much more... EXPERIENCE Beginners / Refreshers EQUIPMENT * Any camera * Any lens OTHER ESSENTIALS * A fun and experimental attitude! TRAVEL As usual check TFL website for any issues that may delay your journey. \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- CONTACT Alex 07956 264049 **UPCOMING EVENTS** [https://www.meetup.com/londonphotographiclcp](https://www.meetup.com/londonphotographiclcp)

Our first 2026 London Evening D365 and Power Platform User Group event will take place on Tuesday 17th Feb 2026 at 6 PM. **Agenda:** * 6.00pm - Registration and Networking * 6.30pm - Welcome and Introduction * 6.40pm - AI Context is King: Using Business Central's MCP Server with your Copilot Agents - Andrew Wingate (Microsoft MVP) * 7.20pm - Break, Networking and Pizza * 7:50pm - Building Better PCF Controls with AI - Jason Du Plessis (Microsoft - FAST Track Architect) * 8:30pm - Interactive Session - Dynamics 365 & Power Platform Careers - A Rollercoaster of Experiences - London UG Team (Erfan, Atif, Tammy, Pritesh and Faheem) * 9:00pm - Close **Want to present in next event?** If you are interested in presenting, then drop us a line at london@d365ppug.com. First-timers and our tech women are especially welcome :) **The event will be at:** Dotdigital Offices 9th Floor, 1 London Bridge, London SE1 9BG A member of the user group will be at the entrance to greet and direct you to the conference room.

Elixir London Meetup; February 2026 edition. All are welcome. **Session 1: Bryan Hunt - Faria Data Platform: Building a data platform in Elixir** How to build an ETL pipeline using Amazon Athena, and Elixir: techniques, tools, UX, lessons learned. **Session 2: Christoph Beck** **\- Structured Generation and Logits Processing with Elixir** Ever tried to get a poem from an LLM doesn't contain the letter \`e\`? Large Language Models are kind of amazing and surprisingly unreliable at the same time. Using Elixir's Bumblebee and open source LLMs, you can get much better control over the generation. We introduce you to logits processing, and how it can be used to achieve what ChatGPT can not accomplish. *The event is kindly sponsored by* [Verna](https://verna.earth). **Time** Doors open at 18, start at 18.30. **Venue** Geovation F4, Sutton Yard, 65 Goswell Rd., London EC1V 7EN **Refreshments** Food and drinks will be provisioned on the day. **IMPORTANT**: **If you wish to take photos and post online during the event, please notify organisers first, so that attendees can opt-out from being in photos.**

Join us for our chilled Sunday afternoon Meetup, for connection and sanctuary amongst others who get you. We don't have a theme for this Meetup but please bring any topics you'd like to discuss and we'll also have the conversation cards with us. We'll meet at the Southbank Balcony Bar on the 5th Floor of Royal Festival Hall. The easiest way to find us is to enter through the main entrance and take the lift to the fifth floor - we'll try to sit at that end on a big table & will have a Meetup sign on display. We'll also comment on the day. There is an entrance to Royal Festival Hall that is quite close to the Nelson Mandela (INFJ) statue and there is also an entrance to the ground floor around the corner. Lifts are at either end of the building. You can buy either alcoholic or soft drinks, or tea/coffee at the bar. This venue is usually quieter than Picturehouse and there appears to be no concerts that day. Please note you don't have to be well-versed on Myers-Briggs Type Indicator to attend; we are merely looking to build a community of like-minded people for fun, support and connection. There are always some people who don't come on the day, so if you're top of the waitlist, it's very likely you'll be bumped up, so please come anyway and equally if you would really like to come, please do. We're not going to turn you away! If there's a lot of attendees, we'll split into 2 groups.

​Join **Orchestra**, **Tracer** and **Lightdash** for an in-person evening with London’s data engineering community. ​This event is built for **data engineers, analytics engineers, and platform teams** who enjoy going deep on real technical topics — from modern data stack architecture to reliability, observability, orchestration, and the practical lessons learned from running pipelines in production. ​Expect a relaxed atmosphere, good people, and plenty of time for conversation (with free 🍕 & 🍻). IMPORTANT: MEETUP IS TRYING TO BLEED US ALL DRY SO PLEASE [SIGNUP ON LUMA](https://luma.com/ml500u2m) AND SUBSCRIBE TO THE CALENDAR THERE. IF YOU DONT SIGN UP WE CANT GUARANTEE YOUR SPOT! [https://luma.com/ml500u2m](https://luma.com/ml500u2m) ​**Agenda** ​**6:00 – 6:30pm:** Arrivals, drinks, networking **6:30 – 7:30pm:** Technical talks + Q&A **7:30pm onwards:** Networking **Technical Speakers** * ​Data @ The Economist - **[Luca de Michele](https://www.linkedin.com/in/luca-de-michele-232432148)** * Data @ Lawhive - **[Pablo Fernandez](https://www.linkedin.com/in/pablofergui/) (Head of Data)** * ​**TBA** ​**Who should attend** * ​Data Engineers & Analytics Engineers * ​Platform Infrastructure Data Ops teams * ​Anyone building, scaling, or maintaining production data pipelines

**📅 Book your time here:** [www.betheband.org/book-online](http://www.betheband.org/book-online) 📍 **Exact location sent after booking** 🎸 **BetheBand Meet & Greet – Come Play & Say Hi** 🎤 Curious what it’s like to be in a band again? BetheBand is a London-based music programme for amateur to intermediate musicians who want to rehearse regularly, improve as players, and perform live — **without the hassle of organising bands, rehearsal rooms, or gigs yourself**. 🤝 **What’s the meet & greet?** This is a relaxed introduction — **not an audition**. You’ll play **one song** with a backing track alongside one of our band directors 🎶 You can **play whatever you like**, or choose from a **short song list** if you want some inspiration 📃 It’s friendly and low-pressure — just a chance for us to get to know your level, taste, and goals, and for you to see if BetheBand feels right for you. 🚀 **What happens if you join?** 🎯 Matched with musicians at your level 🏙️ Weekly rehearsals in a central London studio 🎼 Guided by a professional musician as your band director 🎤 Perform a full live set for friends & family at the end of an 8-week term 🎶 **Who it’s for** 🎸 Guitarists • 🎸 Bassists • 🎤 Vocalists • 🥁 Drummers • 🎹 Keyboard players ℹ️ **Practical details** 📍 Central London (address sent after sign-up) 💷 £15 meet & greet slot (non-refundable) ⏳ Limited slots — book a time that works for you If you’ve been playing on your own and miss making music *with* people, this is an easy, no-pressure way to take the first step 🎶✨

## Details Welcome to the DevSecOps London Gathering February Event on Wednesday 19 Feb in collaboration with London DevOps! We bring you two amazing talks, as well as the usual conversations, pizza and beer! 📍 **Hosted at Autogen AI, Pentonville Road, London** 📅 **Wednesday, 19 February** 🕕 **6:00–8:00 PM** ## Talk 1 **Abstract:** Concrete CMS, a popular open-source content management system, contains a critical flaw in its file upload functionality that can be exploited in two distinct ways. This talk demonstrates how a single upload can lead to a Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF), allowing access to internal cloud resources, and a double race condition that enables Remote Code Execution (RCE) via a malicious backdoor. We’ll walk through the exploitation process, show how existing protections can be bypassed, and highlight practical steps to secure file upload mechanisms in real-world applications. ## Talk 2 **Abstract** Treat authentication as a production-critical system with its own failure modes and operational risks. In this talk, I break down real-world auth incidents involving JWKS rotation errors, refresh token storms, clock drift, and session store outages. I show how to define SLIs and SLOs that measure user impact and how to build monitoring and alerting that expose real reliability problems. I demonstrate practical guardrails such as token caching, exponential backoff with jitter, circuit breakers, and feature-flagged degraded modes. Finally, I walk through an incident runbook that helps teams diagnose, mitigate, and recover from authentication failures safely and quickly.

NOTE: Access to this hackathon is limited. Please ensure you register on [Luma](https://luma.com/2lkuky4i). AI Impact Summit Fringe Event Hackathon – Opening India’s AI Future with Bharat AI Mission 19 Feb 2026, 10:00 – 16:00 IST IIT Delhi, Research and Innovation Park, Auditorium New Delhi, India

**Important:** Register on the [event website](https://www.aicamp.ai/event/eventdetails/W2026021910)[ ](https://www.aicamp.ai/event/eventdetails/W2025110510)is required for admission. We are excited to partner with Coder for a special edition of our AI Meetup in February, focusing on AI governance and compliance for developers. AI is already part of how developers work: Coding assistants. Autonomous agents. Background tasks. PR reviews. But in most companies, AI usage is either completely ungoverned or quietly blocked. This meetup is for developers who want to understand what AI governance actually means in practice, without turning their workflow into a compliance nightmare. We’ll focus on how teams are introducing guardrails that protect source code, credentials, and infrastructure while still letting developers move fast. No policy decks. No buzzwords. Just real examples of how AI agents are being used safely inside modern dev environments. **You’ll walk away with:** * \- A clear understanding of what AI governance actually means for developers\, not just security teams * \- Insight into why AI agents need different permissions than humans and where most teams get this wrong * \- Practical examples of how guardrails can speed teams up instead of slowing them down * \- A simple mental model you can apply whether you’re experimenting with AI locally or rolling it out across a team **Who this is for:** \- Beginner → intermediate software developers \- Platform engineers and DevOps folks supporting dev teams \- Anyone using \(or wanting to use\) AI tools beyond simple autocomplete **Agenda:** \* 6:00pm\~6:30pm: Checkin, Food and Networking \* 6:30pm\~6:45pm: Welcome/community update \* 6:45pm\~8:30pm: Tech talks and Q&A \* 8:30pm\~9:30pm: Open discussion & Mixer **Tech Talk: AI Governance for Developers** **Speaker:** Eric Paulsen, Field CTO, Coder **Abstract:** In this session, we will deep dive into AI governance for developers. We will explores the often-unseen risks developers face when using AI tools—from unintended data exposure to tool lock-in—and how teams can implement lightweight, developer-friendly governance. Learn how to build secure, standardized AI workflows that provide guardrails without slowing innovation, so you can ship with confidence. **Speakers/Topics:** Check the [event website](https://www.aicamp.ai/event/eventdetails/W2026021910) for speakers and topics. If you have a keen interest in speaking to our community, we invite you to submit topics for consideration: [Submit Topics](https://forms.gle/JkMt91CZRtoJBSFUA) **Sponsors:** We are actively seeking sponsors to support AI developers community. Whether it is by offering venue spaces, providing food, or cash sponsorship. Sponsors will not only speak at the meetups, receive prominent recognition, but also gain exposure to our extensive membership base of 20,000+ AI developers in London and 500K+ worldwide.

**New Dojo Location!** **Draft Day Columbus** 1130 Dublin Road Columbus, OH 43215 We're going to try a new dojo location for a few weeks and see how it works Dojos are informal Python group study sessions where everyone interested in Python gathers to learn about Python, help others with Python, or just hang out. Everyone is welcome from Python beginners to experts. Bringing a laptop is encouraged (we'll have extension cords and power strips). If there's something you want to learn leave a comment on this invite so we can plan ahead. We're looking for topic suggestions and people interested in presenting at our monthly meetings. To this end we've set up a survey form at [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/15eBKF1nQQ2XS5gzD4rvhVRHMBEj7lJtHuA9wXupS3Uc](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/15eBKF1nQQ2XS5gzD4rvhVRHMBEj7lJtHuA9wXupS3Uc)

**NEW LOCATION: Improving Office in Franklinton** Physical location: Improving Office 330 Rush Alley Suite #150 Columbus, OH 43215 Schedule: * 6:00 p.m.: Socialize, eat, and drink. Improving will be providing pizza and beverages. * 6:30 to 8:00 pm. Main meeting and presentation(s). See the handy Parking Map - we recommend street parking. [Street Parking Map](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1u2A4fLNlxwLJn0KA_hKc8bnFlFHLvsHBDh-_8wzX_tk/edit?usp=sharing) We meet on the last Monday of each Month. Presentations are given by members and friends of this group. If you would like to do a presentation (small or large) on a python topic, please contact centralohpython@gmail.com

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.transformlabs.com/services)

Join Neurospicy Columbus at the Stauff's for coffee and then a stroll through the Book Loft nearby! This will be a friendly chat for like minded individuals with Autism and/or ADHD (or somewhere on the Neurodiverse Spectra).

**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** *Spec-Driven Development with GitHub Spec-Kit: From Intent to Implementation* Spec-driven development flips the traditional workflow on its head: instead of code being the source of truth, the specification becomes the backbone of design, collaboration, and delivery. In this session, we’ll explore how GitHub Spec-Kit enables teams to treat specifications as first-class artifacts—living documents that drive architecture, implementation, and verification. You’ll learn how Spec-Kit helps teams clearly express intent using structured, version-controlled specs that live alongside code. We’ll walk through a practical workflow that starts with defining system behavior and constraints, then progressively refines those specs into testable, automatable outcomes. Along the way, we’ll show how specs can reduce ambiguity, improve cross-functional collaboration, and make design decisions explicit before a single line of production code is written. This talk will cover: --What spec-driven development is (and what it isn’t) --How GitHub Spec-Kit fits into modern developer workflows --Using specs to align product, engineering, and AI-assisted development --Real-world examples of turning specs into implementations with confidence Whether you’re building greenfield systems, integrating AI into your stack, or trying to reduce costly rework, spec-driven development offers a scalable way to move faster without sacrificing clarity. Attendees will leave with concrete patterns and a clear mental model for adopting GitHub Spec-Kit in their own projects. **YouTube Link** TBA

Want to be a speaker? submit your talk to our Call for Presenters!!! https://sessionize.com/cbus-hug-2026/

Meeting @ Improving's office in Downtown Columbus, near Cosi. Parking is paid, food & drink are free! This time we're hanging out after the long winter break. We are going to look at a group-member's project used to help learn the fundamentals of Go, and if time allows, we can take a look at how we like to build Go projects using AI.