Computer Science

The Data Science Speakers Club is a Toastmasters International club enabling the current and next generation of Data Scientists to improve their Public Speaking Skills. This is a HYBRID Meeting! So join us Online via ZOOM or In-Person. Joining the Data Science Speakers Club means joining a supportive environment to build your confidence in public speaking and to practice speaking in front of an audience. You will also gain the opportunity to receive feedback on your speeches in a friendly environment, including what you have done well and guidance on the areas you can improve upon. We also run a mentorship program where an experienced mentor supports you on your public speaking journey. Meeting Theme: **TBC** Tentative Schedule: 18:30 - President's welcome 18:40 - Prepared Speeches (3 prepared speeches with evaluation) 19:25 - Guest introduction 19:30 - Break 19:40 - Table Topic 20:30 - Wrap up, awards, announcements End of Meeting The theme is to do with exploring various aspects of power, including how it is distributed, challenged, and transformed in different contexts. In the first part, there will be speeches. In the second half, we will have impromptu speeches preparation in groups called Table topics where guests can participate. We meet on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Mondays of each month from 6:30 pm online. Each meeting is a mixture of prepared speeches by our members, speaking roles, and impromptu speaking challenges by members and guests. Our meetings are free to attend and you only have to speak if you want to. For in-person attendance, snacks will be provided. Entrepreneurs, Innovators, and Mathematical and Logical Thinkers aiming to focus on their communication and leadership development are always welcome to attend our meetings, to increase their self-confidence, become better speakers, and become better leaders. TEAMS LINK: [https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/381175383292654?p=jofxsWfPNxnUvqQ9as](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/381175383292654?p%3DjofxsWfPNxnUvqQ9as&sa=D&source=calendar&usd=2&usg=AOvVaw0hqs-5F6o63VU1Sd4Lr5Jo) FACEBOOK: [https://www.facebook.com/datasciencespk/](https://www.facebook.com/datasciencespk/) LINKEDIN: [https://www.linkedin.com/company/data-science-speakers-club](https://www.linkedin.com/company/data-science-speakers-club) TWITTER: [https://twitter.com/datasciencespk](https://twitter.com/datasciencespk) INSTAGRAM: [https://www.instagram.com/datasciencespk/](https://www.instagram.com/datasciencespk/)

This is a **theatre** and **livestream** talk from the **Royal Institution of Great Britain.** Particle physicist **Prof. Kirsty Duffy** uncovers the mysteries of neutrinos, and the experiments searching for the answers. **ADVANCE BOOKING AND PAYMENT IS REQUIRED FOR THIS TALK.** **More details and booking instructions on the RI web site:** **[https://www.rigb.org/whats-on/neutrinos-universe-and-everything](https://www.rigb.org/whats-on/neutrinos-universe-and-everything)** **SUMMARY** Why does the Universe exist? We believe that the Big Bang created matter and its opposite – antimatter – in equal amounts, and we know experimentally that when matter and antimatter come together, they destroy each other in a burst of energy. So why hasn’t that happened? This is one of the most fundamental questions we have about nature, and answers might be found in an unexpected place: subatomic particles called neutrinos. Neutrinos are the most important particle you were never taught about. They are created in radioactive decays in the sun, the centre of the Earth, supernovae, and even beer. Around 100 billion pass through your thumbnail every second, but you’ve probably never noticed. In this talk, particle physicist **Kirsty Duffy** will explain what neutrinos are, why they are so interesting to particle physicists, how they might explain why the universe exists, and the mega-science experiments being built to find out. Kirsty will draw on her work on DUNE, The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, a next-generation experiment using leading-edge multi-kiloton liquid argon detectors, which is due to turn on towards the end of the decade. It will make measurements of neutrinos with unprecedented precision, and may hold the key to answering some of the most fundamental questions in physics. This is a theatre and livestream event for an adult audience, where the speakers and audience in our Theatre are joined by our audience online. **The livestream will go live around 6.50pm, and the talk will begin at 7.00pm. 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. By booking to attend events at the Royal Institution, you confirm that you have read and accept the Ri's [event terms and conditions](https://www.rigb.org/terms-and-conditions). You also agree to abide by [our code of conduct](https://www.rigb.org/about-us/how-were-run/our-code-conduct-ri-visitors), and help to create a great experience for yourself and your fellow participants.

***BITCOIN: From Pizza to Protocol ***🍕 **Sign up to attend via our Luma page [here](https://luma.com/qhe1km0l).** 🍕 Bitcoin Pizza Day marks the moment Bitcoin moved from theory to reality - from code to culture. ​Every year, CryptoMondays London goes big on Bitcoin. ​This is that night. ​From the first 10,000 BTC pizza to a global monetary network, Bitcoin has evolved far beyond what anyone imagined. And today, it’s no longer just an asset or ideology. ​**It’s infrastructure.** **It’s energy.** **It’s culture.** **It’s IRL.** ​This special edition brings together some of the UK’s most active builders, operators, and thinkers to explore what Bitcoin actually looks like in the real world - and where it’s going next. *** ## ​**⚡ What We’ll Cover** ​A high-signal evening exploring: * ​Bitcoin’s evolution from experiment to global system * ​The intersection of Bitcoin with AI, energy, and infrastructure * ​Real-world adoption across payments, culture, and communities * ​The state of Bitcoin in the UK — and what comes next ​​​**​📅 Monday 18 May** **📍 Location revealed upon registration** **⏰ 6:00–9:30pm** **\*\* PLEASE NOTE! \*\*** **CML primarily uses Luma now and we suggest you subscribe to our [calendar there](https://lu.ma/cml). All attendees must be registered via Luma for our events, WE NO LONGER ACCEPT RSVP'S VIA MEETUP.** CryptoMondays London is the city's largest and longest-running web3 meet-up. We are dedicated to community, education, and networking. Please subscribe to our Luma calendar to stay up to date on events [https://lu.ma/cml](https://lu.ma/cml)

**The Night Before Current Summit** ​Welcome to **The Night Before Current Summit**, hosted by Aiven. ​We’re kicking things off the evening before Day 1 of Current Summit with a relaxed gathering of friends and community—the perfect way to beat the crowds, connect with peers, and hear the latest insights from the industry before the main event begins. **Drinks are on us!** ​**⚡ On the Agenda** ​We have a round of casual **lightning talks** featuring standout Aiven customers and industry legends: * ​\*\*[Stanislav Kozlovski](https://www.linkedin.com/in/stanislavkozlovski/?utm_source=luma):\*\* Known as “the Kafka guy,” Stanislav is an Apache Kafka committer and software engineer. Currently, he is consulting for companies and writing **“2 Minute Streaming”** \- a newsletter with over 7\,000 subscribers focused on real\-time event streaming and data engineering\. Across social media\, he has over 50k followers reading his insights on the space\. * ​\*\*[Nahidul Kibria](https://www.linkedin.com/in/nahidupa/?utm_source=luma):\*\* Engineering Lead at **HelloFresh**, sharing insights on scaling real-time data for the world's leading meal-kit provider. * ​\*\*[Mark Davidson](https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidsonmark/?utm_source=luma):\*\* Principal Architect at **Funding Circle**, the UK's largest SME lending platform, discussing the architecture powering the future of business finance. ​**🤝 Meet Your Hosts** ​The event is hosted by **Aiven** and supported by **OSO** & **Conduktor**. * ​**Aiven:** Aiven provides the managed open-source data platform that developers love, helping you scale Apache Kafka, PostgreSQL, and more without the operational headache. * ​**Conduktor:** The all-in-one interface for Apache Kafka, making data streaming accessible, secure, and governed. * ​**OSO:** The Apache Kafka experts helping teams unlock real-time data and drive meaningful innovation. ​ **🎟️ Join Us** ​Space capacity is limited. Apply now to secure your spot!

​Current London kicks off Tuesday. Come have a drink with us Monday night at Bokan 39 in Canary Wharf. ​Factor House, NetApp Instaclustr, and StreamNative are hosting a rooftop happy hour in Canary Wharf the evening before the conference. No talks, no agenda, just drinks, food, and good conversation with people from across the Kafka and Flink ecosystem. ​It's a good way to put faces to names before the conference week gets busy. Food and drinks are on us. Space is limited so grab a spot early. [Register](https://luma.com/48be5cgu) to join us!

Please join us for an evening of all things Umbraco - the latest news, community chat, and a talk or two! For 2026, we will be running both in-person and virtual meetups, alternating every month. For those who can't join in person, virtual attendance is available too, so you can join us no matter where you are! This month, we have **Owain Jones** talking about building friendly content editing experiences and **Markus Johansson** talking about building packages for Umbraco. **Owain Jones - Unlocking the Full Potential of Umbraco: Building Friendly Content Editor Experiences** Umbraco is often called "The Friendly CMS", and it absolutely can be when we, as developers, make the most of what it offers. In this talk, I’ll show how we can utilise Umbraco’s built-in features and community packages to build intuitive, efficient, and friendly experiences for content editors. **Markus Johansson - Extending Umbraco like a Swede** In this talk, Markus will share his learnings from over 15 years of extending Umbraco. We’ll get a brief overview of the possibilities introduced with the new backoffice “Bellissima”. He’ll also give us tips and tricks that is useful both when extending Umbraco for a specific project or publishing a package for the Umbraco Marketplace. There will also be food, drinks and some friendly socialising. What's not to like? 😄 Whether you are an Umbraco novice or a seasoned developer, this is your chance to meet like-minded people to talk about our favourite friendly CMS! No matter what your role is there will be something to learn and your chance to meet other members of the Umbraco community from Kent and the surrounding areas. Venue The meetup will be at Dragon Coworking in Rochester (7-8 New Road Avenue, St George's Hotel, Rochester, ME4 6BB), a short walk from Chatham train station and with free on-site parking. If you wish to use the car park, please access via Gundulph Road, Rochester, ME4 4ED. You can then use the steps between buildings to access the entrance. If the car park is full there is on road parking available, but please check the parking restrictions. On arrival, please make your way to St George's Hotel reception (where you access Dragon Coworking) and one of the organisers will come and collect you. **Please note: Do not bring bananas, nuts or pineapple into the coworking space as there are members with allergies.**

Exactly thirty years ago, Alan Sokal published his famous hoax, intensifying the “Science Wars” and criticising postmodern thinkers such as Bruno Latour and Jaques Derrida for their interpretations of science. The Science Wars represent an attempt, perhaps an unsuccessful but nonetheless meaningful one, at establishing a dialogue between philosophy and the natural sciences. In this iteration of the Philosophy of Life Sciences Reading Group we’ll revisit this moment by returning to one of Latour’s early engagements with science: his essay “Give me a laboratory and I will raise the world”. Here, Latour views the lab not as an isolated, “sacred” space, but as a powerful site which transforms the invisible into visible, not a passive observer but something that actively reshapes reality. Are scientific facts constructed? What is a scientific truth? Anyone from any background is welcome! If you’d like the pdf or to ask any question feel free to drop me a message. Please don’t worry too much about the RSVP list: we usually have 5-10 people attending already.

Join us on May 21st to learn, share, and network with some of the most experienced professionals who are passionate about AI/ML. This time, we’re excited to have **Revolut** as a special partner. Topics: \- Anton Repushko\, Lead Researcher\, Revolut: "Build Next-Generation Foundation Models in Finance" \- Nicolas Atienza\, Researcher\, Neuralk AI: "Gradient Boosting to Tabular Foundation Models: What Changed, What Didn't" \- Ivan Dolgov\, JetBrains: "Pre\-training at JetBrains: fast MoE perfectly fit for H100/200 GPUs" \- Kir Zharov\, Spinner AI: "Building the unified knowledge layer for self\-improving agents" More talks will be added soon You can submit your talk here: [https://forms.gle/wiWyD5sBqzZtCfpMA](https://forms.gle/wiWyD5sBqzZtCfpMA) If you’d like to become a partner for this or one of the upcoming meetups, message [https://www.linkedin.com/in/fedorshabashev/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/fedorshabashev/) or [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirzharov/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirzharov/) In the meantime, you can watch the previously recorded talks: [https://youtube.com/@londonpytorchmeetup](https://youtube.com/@londonpytorchmeetup) Please subscribe to our channel! ❤️

This **in-person theatre** and **livestream** talk 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/speakers/professor-robin-may](https://www.gresham.ac.uk/speakers/professor-robin-may)** **SUMMARY** #### Part of: **[Notes from a Large Planet: a citizen’s guide to the Earth](https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/series/large-planet)** The polar regions are still some of the most inaccessible and least touched by humans, but they are deeply linked to the rest of Earth. We will cover the history of exploring them, the challenges of measuring this environment, and the current state of knowledge about the ice at both poles. We will also cover the likely future for the polar regions – the incentives driving different actions, what science suggests about the consequences, and coming events to look out for. **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.

There are many resources available for guidance on how to write code that is efficient and results in more sustainable software applications, but applying these at scale can be challenging, and often isn’t a priority for busy teams. GitHub have recently released Agentic Workflows, a way of specifying automation tasks in human-readable format to be performed by an AI agent as part of a GitHub Actions workflow. In this talk, Max Mizzi from GitHub's Sustainability team gives an overview of Agentic Workflows, and will demonstrate how they can be used to improve software efficiency through both structured green software rules and autonomous performance engineering. He'll finish by walking through a real-world use-case showing how the technology helped to dramatically reduce the energy consumption - and carbon footprint - of a major website. Come along if you want to learn more about using AI to improve the energy efficiency of your software. Check out the Green Software Brighton [website](https://greensoftwarebrighton.co.uk/) for links to previous talks. Arrive from 18:00 for pizza and drinks. Event will start at 18:30. We always head for a drink and a chat locally afterwards too. --- ***Thank you to Runway East for use of their space to host our events and to Silicon Brighton and the Green Software Foundation for supporting us.***

This week we'll discuss the first chapter of [The Science of Can and Can't](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Science-Can-Cant-Physicists-Counterfactuals/dp/0241310946/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1YFBGHPLNB4NO&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.YoSj1NdZXBPKK81RKKOjBA.ga2ZS1YEzf0cR13hyK4BpEHaXtvmjSfEhGZemtNXrLU&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+science+of+can+and+can%27t&qid=1779107463&sprefix=the+science+of+can+and+can%27t%2Caps%2C136&sr=8-1), by Chiara Marletto, co-developer of Constructor Theory alongside David Deutsch. A big theme of the book is counterfactuals - statements about what *could* happen, not just what *does* happen. Chiara argues that science has historically struggled to incorporate these rigorously, even though they’re central to explanations, computation, biology, knowledge, and agency. If this is your first time attending we meet in the William Morris pub in Hammersmith - look for people with copies of the book. Please read the chapter before attending.

## Details Welcome to the DevSecOps London Gathering March Event on Wednesday 20 May. Along with our amazing talks we bring you the usual conversations, pizza and beer! **Location:** * 📍 **Venue:** Veracode, 36 Queen Street London, EC4R 1BN * 📅 **Date**: Wednesday, 20 May 2026 * 🕕 **Time**: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM ## Talk 1 - James Bevan **Abstract:** DevSecOps teams scan everything except the system governing their processes: Jira itself. When Jira configuration drifts, controls fail silently - workflows skip security gates, permissions grant unintended access, required fields disappear. This session demonstrates how configuration drift creates security gaps and shows live detection across workflows, permissions, and automation. With agentic AI now modifying Jira configs, continuous monitoring of your control plane isn't optional. **Speaker Bio**: James is co-founder and CRO at Solcoro, building a platform that gives Enterprises and Atlassian Solution Partners real visibility into Jira Cloud environments. Alongside Solcoro, he also runs CROquet - a UK-based GTM consulting business. He takes on a small number of advisory and project engagements, focused on incentive design and revenue architecture. This combination lets him apply GTM theory in practice, both inside a SaaS business and across client environments. ## Talk 2 - Derrisa Tuscano **Abstract** The widespread deployment of Generative AI has introduced novel security incidents ranging from prompt injection and data exfiltration to misinformation cascades that traditional incident response frameworks are ill equipped to handle. This talk introduces a Practical Incident Response Framework for Generative AI Systems designed to bridge established cybersecurity standards with emerging AI assurance principles. I will discuss a response centric taxonomy that identifies six recurrent incident archetypes and presents a structured playbook aligned with NIST SP 800 61r3, NIST AI 600 1, MITRE ATLAS, and the OWASP LLM Top 10. Attendees will learn how to reduce the cognitive load on security teams during non deterministic AI failures by using tailored runbooks, RACI matrices, and Swimlane diagrams. Ultimately, the session will demonstrate how organizations can adapt traditional response models to operationalize AI incident response effectively. **Speaker Bio:** Derrisa Tuscano is a Cybersecurity postgraduate from the University of Warwick and a published researcher in Generative AI incident response. Her professional background includes leading numerous end to end project life cycles for Applied AI solutions at Quantiphi Analytics Solutions, where she specialized in architecting virtual agents within Google Cloud environments. Derrisa has been recognized with the WMG Excellence Scholarship and the Warwick Award for her commitment to skills development. Her work focuses on bridging the gap between enterprise cloud delivery and robust cyber risk management to ensure secure and compliant AI implementation. ##

This **in-person theatre** and **livestream** talk 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/speakers/professor-robin-may](https://www.gresham.ac.uk/speakers/professor-robin-may)** **SUMMARY** #### Part of: **[Why do we have emotions?](https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/series/why-emotions)** We think of emotions as being central to our characters and our sense of self. But emotions are the product of brain chemistry and, like most biological processes, are malleable. Thus far, our ability to artificially manipulate emotions has been extremely rudimentary, but we are on the cusp of a revolution in neuroscience that will open the door to powerful emotional manipulation. How can we navigate the ethical minefield that this will uncover, and what will it mean for our understanding of who we really are? **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.

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

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.

**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

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)

We connect you with up to 30 Men or Women tennis partners close to your PLAYING REGION and skill level. This program is less competitive, no champions crowned, no league standings just dedicated tennis partners who want to meet up with you on the courts. Players will meet up to play a tennis match or just to hit around. Just go through the [Join Page](https://www.tenniscolumbus.com/partner-program) to enter this program. [https://www.tenniscolumbus.com/partner-program](https://www.tenniscolumbus.com/partner-program)

**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.

Bring your work or your hobby, hang out, and code with us. Follow @buckeyecocoa for more information.