Computer Science

TOG Watch Night: The Secret Life of Components (Tim Hunkin) We’re kicking off a new bi-weekly Monday Watch Night at TOG. We’ll watch an episode of Tim Hunkin’s “The Secret Life of Components” together, then have a relaxed Q&A and discussion afterwards. This is a friendly, low-pressure way to learn the kind of practical tips you normally only pick up through years of making, fixing, and building. Perfect for beginners, makers, repair folks, and engineers who enjoy the practical side of components and mechanisms. How it works \- Watch together \(one episode per night\) \- Q&A and chat after: questions\, examples\, tangents\, and “how would we do this at TOG?” \- If you miss a week\, no stress\. Watch it at home and come along to the next one First session \- Monday 26 January \- Episode 1: Chain \- Free and open to all \- TOG Hackerspace \(Dublin 12\, D12 CF6V\) Full details: https://www.tog.ie/2026/01/tog-watch-night-the-secret-life-of-components-tim-hunkin/

Join us for an ultimate Frisbee session, and meet some lovely people. This is a relaxed evening of Ultimate Frisbee in Merrion square Park. No experience? No problem. Just bring yourself and whatever makes you comfy outdoors. But dress to run! NB: Ultimate Frisbee is a non-contact sport. Do your utmost to avoid collisions with other players. *** 🗓 **What’s Happening** * Gentle warm-up + Frisbee basics * Friendly, low-pressure Ultimate Frisbee games * Optional: sideline cheering, lounging * Cool down & post-game hang *** 📍 **Where** **Merrion square park**, Dublin 💶 **Contribution** If you’d like to help cover the meetup costs and gear (cones, bibs, frisbees, etc), a **€2 contribution** is suggested. Revolut ref tag: [https://revolut.me/marise3](https://revolut.me/marise3) No pressure — you can join us either way. *** 🧺 **What to Bring** * Your fave snacks or drink (solo or to share) * A blanket or something comfy to sit on * Sunscreen, water, good energy, and running shoes ☁️ **Weather Watch** If it rains, we’ll update this page **90 minutes beforehand**. (Also: the traditional sun dance is already scheduled 🌞) *** 🔗 **More ways to connect** Looking for more social and creative outdoor & indoor fun? 👉 [https://activesocialconnections.com/](https://activesocialconnections.com/)

There is no workshop happening this bank holiday Monday (4th May), but we will be back next Monday (11th May) for more fun and games.

**Do you like to make things? Would you like to use 3D software, lasercutter and 3D printing to help you make your idea?** TOG has an open evening to learn how CAD software and 3D fabrication tools can help you make your project. All you need to take part is your own laptop and some ideas on what you want to make. This is not a taught class, more like an informal working group of self-directed makers. We will be happy to help you explore how to use our 3D tools in designing and making your project whether you are a crafter, designer, engineer or hobbyist. Come and have a look at the tools in our space and get some ideas on how your project can be made.

Join us to **practise and improve your target language with native speakers on Monday in River Bar**(1 Burgh Quay, Dublin 2) from **6.30pm to 8.30pm**. **Our system:** **• You sit opposite a native speaker of the language you're learning** **• You speak 5mins English, 5mins other language, then change table** This ensures everyone gets an equal opportunity to practise the language they're learning. Our team seats people, controls the time, organises the table changes etc. What to expect: • Relaxed easy going atmosphere • Professional and quality service • Great networking opportunities • All levels welcome from absolute beginner to fully fluent • A big mix of ages with attendees at each event from 18 to 70+ years old • Topic cards on the tables to help start conversations Languages: We usually have **native speakers of English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian, Japanese, Chinese** and more depending on who shows up. **Admission fee €7** (€6 for student card holders). **No pre-registration required, just show up**. Loyalty card system: Come to 5 events and the 6th is free. Over 150,000 people since 2012 have attended our language exchanges to practise and improve their target language - you can too! Everyone is welcome! For more news and info check: Website: [www.languageexchangeireland.com](http://www.languageexchangeireland.com/) FB: [www.facebook.com/languageexchangeireland](http://www.facebook.com/languageexchangeireland) Instagram: [www.instagram.com/languageexchangeireland](http://www.instagram.com/languageexchangeireland) NOTE: The MeetUp attendance does not reflect actual attendance. There are usually around 100 people at each event. We are also in the River Bar every Thursday at 6.30pm

DubJUG 265, our live in-person event, presents Professor Ž (aka Željko Kozina!) Hear why Netflix dumped REST in favour of GraphQL and explore how memory management improves performance, the different parts of Java memory and the various garbage collectors. OFFICIAL BOOKING >>>>> https://ti.to/dublin-java-user-group/265-zeljko-kozina ## **Talk 1:** Netflix dropped REST, but should you? Last year, Netflix announced that it was dropping REST completely in favour of GraphQL. It is undoubtedly one of the popular kids on the Development playground right now. GraphQL is a new way to build APIs, one that's easier, faster, better, and more flexible than the old RESTful API system, or at least that's the promise. In this session, a REST developers' Assessment of Spring GraphQL, Željko will cover the basics of Spring GraphQL, explore its strengths and weaknesses, and determine whether it is a better option for your company than a conventional REST API. ## **Talk 2:** Trash Talk - Optimising Java Garbage Collection Understanding how Java organises memory is important for every Java professional, but this particular topic is a common knowledge gap for many software professionals. With the help of Željko, this talk explores how memory management can help you improve performance effectively, helping you understand the different parts of Java memory and the various garbage collectors so you can select your preferred one.

Due to an increase of the meetup app costs, it will be appreciated any donation at this link: revolut.me/manuelo38g Are looking for friends? Do you wanna have fun in Dublin? Do you want to chit chat and relax? ... Here you are, this is where to join on Saturday night. We have not a usual location where to meet, we like to go in all the pubs and clubs in town... So, stay tuned for the location. At the end, we also plan the after meetup location where to enjoy the rest of the night. See you all soon.

Vision Language Models (VLMs) such as LLaVA, Qwen-VL, Nemotron VL and GPT-4o have unlocked a new era in AI where language and sight converge into a single reasoning system. These models can describe images, answer visual questions, read documents, and interpret charts — but their true power emerges when you fine-tune them on domain-specific data, teaching them to see and reason about the visual world that matters to you. In this hands-on session, we walk through the full fine-tuning pipeline for vision-language models. We begin by understanding how these architectures work — how a visual encoder like CLIP or SigLIP is coupled with a large language model through a projection layer, and how the interplay between image tokens and text tokens enables multimodal reasoning. We then move into the practical side: preparing image-text datasets, choosing the right fine-tuning strategy (full fine-tuning vs. LoRA vs. QLoRA), configuring training with frameworks like Hugging Face Transformers and PEFT, and evaluating results on real-world benchmarks. We will also discuss when and why fine-tuning a VLM is the right approach compared to alternatives like prompt engineering or retrieval-augmented generation, and how to avoid common pitfalls such as catastrophic forgetting, overfitting on small visual datasets, and misaligned image-text pairs. Bring your laptop, your curiosity, and — if you have one — a dataset you would like to try. By the end of the session you will have a clear, reproducible workflow for adapting any open-source vision-language model to a custom task. \*\*📅 Open to all levels — no prerequisites, just curiosity.\*\*

Welcome to a vibrant community created for men and women who are ready to connect, explore, and thrive together as friends! This group is all about bringing solo people together in a fun and welcoming space. Where new friendships are formed and fresh experiences await. **Get your ticket here on Eventbrite link:** https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/solo-meets-social-make-new-friends-cocktail-masterclass-at-nyx-tickets-1988123067614?aff=oddtdtcreator **Important information:** Limited spots. Strict ticket event. Tickets will be scanned at check in. **Do not show up without an Eventbrite ticket.** Please bring ID in case the doorman ask you for proof of age. Minimum age to attend is 23. RSVPs are not a true representation of the people attending. You can get a ticket whether you're on the RSVP or Waitlist. 1st come, 1st serve. By joining this event, you accept our T&Cs, check them out on our website: Yinyangevents.ie Follow us on Insta: https://www.instagram.com/yinyangevents.ie/

Hi all, Our first Meetup will be a casual get-together for anyone interested in Time Series Analytics, Forecasting, and Data Analytics. The idea is simple: meet new people, share your background, talk about your work/study experience, exchange ideas, and enjoy a coffee or a beer together in a relaxed atmosphere. We’ll meet at the bar on the ground floor of the Camden Court Hotel Camden Street Lower, Saint Kevin's, Dublin, D02 W086 www.camdencourthotel.com/en/ I’ll be there, so feel free to join! See you soon! Simone

**Hands in the Soil: Community Growing, Learning & Craic** This first gathering will be a relaxed mix of **hands-on garden work, shared learning, and good conversation**. It’s about getting together in a real space, doing something practical, and seeing what ideas and connections might grow from there. On the day, we’ll: * Get our **hands dirty** with some light garden work and soil prep * Do some **seed sowing** and talk about what grows well locally * **Make kombucha together** and chat about fermentation, food, and simple home practices * Share knowledge, questions, and experiences around growing food * Enjoy some **fellowship, chats, and a bit of craic** along the way.Alongside the practical side, we’ll also have an open, informal discussion about a bigger idea: * The possibility of **small community “park farms” or gardens** in underused green spaces around Dublin * What that might look like, what’s realistic, and whether others feel drawn to exploring it further There’s no pressure, no expertise required, and no expectation beyond showing up with curiosity and a willingness to pitch in. Whether you’re experienced with gardening or completely new, you’re very welcome. Bring clothes you don’t mind getting muddy, and if you have them, gloves. Everything else will be very low-key. This is just a **first step** — a chance to meet, work, talk, and see if there’s a shared appetite to keep growing something together.

**IMPORTANT UPDATE:** Due to a fire incident at Kyodai Izakaya, It's been **temporarily closed**. Let's meet at J.R Mahon's on 1-2, Burgh Quay, Dublin 2 (across the river from Izakaya Kyodai). We still need a venue for presentations. If anyone can help, please get in touch (e.g. via Discord). The minimum requirement is a room with a screen, or projector. We have a Discord server, which you're welcome to join: https://discord.gg/nCBrCXB6 Clojure Ireland is sponsored by [Taxamo - a Vertex Company](https://twitter.com/taxamo).

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.

**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). Topic: This month John Lairson will share a notebook describing the Alpaca (Paper) Trading API and discuss different algorithms for evaluating stock trades. 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 Central OH Python at centralohpython@gmail.com

Practical AI for Power BI Developers A year ago, “agentic AI” was mostly hype for Power BI teams. Today, it deserves your undivided attention. For Power BI pros, there is now a real opportunity to reduce repetitive development work, accelerate delivery, and help developers do more, but only when strong DataOps practices are in place to make AI workflows effective. This session is a no-nonsense introduction to effective AI patterns for Power BI and Fabric development. Along the way, we will make sense of the growing pile of terminology, including skills, plugins, hooks, and MCP. You will see examples of how modern AI tooling can help with development tasks across Power BI and Fabric, along with the prerequisites, guardrails, and DataOps principles needed to use it responsibly. Whether you're burned out on AI hype or already using Copilot CLI daily, this session will show you the foundations that are finally making AI-assisted development genuinely useful.

Bienvenue! Columbus French Conversation group invites you to our Saturday morning French conversation club. Expect a casual and welcoming atmosphere in which to learn french! I will bring my laptop so we can look up new vocabulary as needed! The venue is a beautiful French restaurant so you can really get into the zone :)

Come out and test our games. Our CSE 5912: Game Design and Development class is showing off their latest games. Come and play test and mingle. Where: Game Arena, Date: Monday, May 4, 2026 Time: 6:00-8:00pm Here are two of their video trailers: [https://youtu.be/t_kZYI5zMQc](https://youtu.be/t_kZYI5zMQc) [https://youtu.be/iO_27fD1lj0](https://youtu.be/iO_27fD1lj0)

FREE event [https://www.ccad.edu/chroma](https://www.ccad.edu/chroma) Friday, May 15, 3–7 p.m. CCAD campus, 60 Cleveland Ave, Columbus, OH Join Columbus College of Art & Design for *2025* *Chroma: Best of CCAD*, our annual campuswide exhibition showcasing outstanding student work from across the college’s academic programs. This faculty-juried show features select work from CCAD students of all class years, and is a can’t-miss end-of-year campus celebration recognizing their tremendous achievements. It’ll be a night of fun and entertainment, with interactive games, animation and film screenings, art symposiums, poetry and prose readings, and more (along with some of the best local food trucks). *Chroma* is free and open to all. Many exhibitions including... **Game Art & Design:** **DSB, first floor, Welcome Center lobby and Room 115**