Data Architecture

De *veertigste* monthly meetup van [Nimma.codes](https://www.nimma.codes/) alweer! We zijn een cross-language user group voor software developers in de regio Arnhem-Nijmegen en komen elke laatste dinsdag van de maand samen om te praten over alles wat met software development te maken heeft. Wees welkom! (ook als je niet programmeert) *Ditmaal zijn we wederom te gast bij Deftpower [Clean Tech Park Arnhem](https://cleantechparkarnhem.nl/).* **Programma** * **17:30 – 18:00** Inloop + food & drinks * **18:00 – 18:45** Talk 1: [Tim Steenvoorden](https://github.com/timjs) \- De lambda calculus in moderne programmeertalen * **18:45– 19:00** Pauze * **19:00 – 19:45** Talk 2: [Deftpower](https://www.deftpower.com/) - [William van der Vegt](https://vegt.dev/) \- Van thuislaadpaal naar actor: kennismaken met schaalbaar sessiebeheer in \.NET Orleans * **20:00 - 21:00** Netwerken **Talk 1: Tim Steenvoorden (Open Universiteit en Radboud Universiteit) - De lambda calculus in moderne programmeertalen** Eén herschrijfregel, geen types, geen geheugen, geen loops. In 1936 definieerde Alonzo Church een rekenmodel van bijna irritante eenvoud die toch even krachtig is als een Turingmachine: de lambda calculus. Deze sessie is een reis van die wiskundige kern naar de code die je dagelijks schrijft. We beginnen met pen en papier: lambda termen lezen, schrijven en reduceren. We gebruiken niets anders dan functies voor het bouwen van datastructuren. Vervolgens maken we de vertaalslag naar closures, higher-order functions, immutability en pipelines in talen als Java(Script), Python, Kotlin, Haskell en Rust. Het doel is niet om morgen anders te programmeren. Het doel is om te begrijpen waarom moderne talen de afgelopen decennia steeds meer functionele concepten hebben overgenomen en wat de gemeenschappelijke wortel daarvan is. **Talk 2: Deftpower - William van der Vegt - Van thuislaadpaal naar actor: kennismaken met schaalbaar sessiebeheer in .NET Orleans** Ik ben van kleins af aan een echte techfanaat; thuis hobby ik met gadgets, servers en frameworks. Sinds een klein half jaar werk ik bij Deftpower, waar bedrijf, sector én techstack perfect bij me passen. Daarvoor vijf jaar bij Info Support, vooral voor de klanten Air Miles en Moba. Vanuit die liefde voor tech vertel ik wat over .NET Orleans: het framework waarmee we bij Deftpower duizenden thuislaadpalen tegelijk beheren. Duizenden live, stateful verbindingen, elk met hun eigen sessie en toestand. In klassiek .NET loop je dan al snel tegen locks en race conditions aan. In deze talk laat ik zien hoe we elke laadpaal als een actor modelleren met .NET Orleans, en zo schaalbaar bouwen zonder grote concurrency issues. Inclusief een praktische kennismaking met het actor-model, voorkennis van Orleans is niet nodig. **Locatie** [Clean Tech Park Arnhem - Connector gebouw KB - 1ste verdieping.](https://maps.app.goo.gl/VcFWRSbF5fT6J2PB7)

Hi Everyone, This is our weekly open hackerspace evening! Usually from 19:00 :-) Feel free to drop by, come and nerd with us! See this Tuesday! We're in room 126, ring the room number and we'll open the door. We're located on the first floor

**Welcome to our June UX Beers in Antwerp!** This time, we will host our event on Tuesday the 30th of June at Craftzing in Antwerp. [Ariad](https://www.ariadgroup.com/) and [Creative Skills](https://www.creativeskills.be/) sponsor our events. Follow the event online? We stream live via [Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBqyTDAyQBw) \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- \#\#\# UX TALKS **Talk 1:** **UX with AI: Did we all just get promoted?** By An-Sofie Rombouts, Product designer @ Gorilla Working in a startup often means designing without established UX processes. So with AI emerging, it can feel like a lifeline: faster prototyping, '*deeper*' research, and more concepts to explore. But somewhere between the third AI-generated prototype and losing the thread of your prompted designs, it can become painfully obvious what the impact is of designing with LLMs. We're not executing anymore, we're reviewing, approving, and critiquing, like a manager. This talk gets honest about what that actually means: the speed gains are real, but the cognitive debt is quietly compounding, and your future as a designer depends on understanding why. Explore how designers can protect their cognitive depth, enhance their review capacity, and stay in control when the machine can almost draw anything. **Talk 2:** **Growing UX in organisations that are not there yet.** By Koen Peters, Designer at Namahn More and more organisations are asking us to help build design expertise in-house, even putting together a design team for them. I have learnt that in such cases, you need to set aside your own biases and assumptions first: your neatly mapped-out methodology, your Figma dogmas and all the other things you as a design agency take for granted. The reality in these organisations is often very different: limited resources, no design culture and few or no trained designers on the team. Through a few client case studies, I will show how we have tackled such challenges. Organising a training in UX and design thinking is a good first step, offering a chance to get to know the team and identify which skills are already there and which are missing. I will also demonstrate tools and activities that we have used to help a team get started and become more aware of UX research and design. These include a script for choosing the right UX approach, skills assessment models to identify gaps and first steps towards creating a design playbook. \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- \#\#\# SCHEDULE 18:00 - Doors open. Drinks & snacks 19.00 - 19.15 - Introduction to UX Belgium Meetup, announcements 19.15 - 19:45 - Talk #1 19:45 -20:15 - BREAK 20:15 - 20:45 - Talk #2 20:45 - 21:30 - Socialize \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- \#\#\# SLACK CHANNEL We have our own UX Belgium slack channel. [Come join us and say hi!](https://join.slack.com/t/ux-belgium/shared_invite/zt-1bjpnuiog-T4Di4flXYPWgbT9KrZ53CA) \*\*\* \#\#\# YOUTUBE CHANNEL All our livestreams and talks are recorded and available on our [UX Belgium youtube channel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCno7V18T-EglYXprgrUZQ7A). \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- \#\#\# ABOUT UX BELGIUM UX Belgium is a growing community of User Experience (UX) professionals in and around Belgium. Look for these types of events: UX Beers Periodically, we gather at a different agency or venue to drink beers, network and listen to speakers on various themes in the world of UX and digital design. UX Antwerp: Each last Tuesday of the month UX Brussels: Each second Tuesday of the month, 4x per year UX Workshops Now and then we organize events to dive deeper into specific skills and techniques in UX. These are smaller, hands-on workshops designed to boost your UX toolbox. \*\*\* The UX Belgium Meetup Team

We’ve all had it: going blank mid-sentence, a tight chest before a hard conversation, or that strange emptiness right after finally getting what we wanted. This first gathering is a chance to slow down and actually listen to what your body’s been holding. For this session, we’ll explore the question together: what is your body trying to tell you? Through a short opening round, gentle orientation, and guided somatic practice, you’ll get a real feel for what Somatic Circle is about — not theory, but actual practice. What to expect: 🗣️ A short opening round — a few words on how you’re arriving 🧭 A brief framing of the theme 🌀 Guided somatic practice — breath, presence, and gentle inquiry 💬 Space to reflect and share, if you want to It is a free event!

We are back again – the last meetup before the summer holidays! **Azure Heroes @ Betabit Rotterdam** A massive thank you to Betabit for stepping in last minute to save this event. This is what community is all about: in just two days we found a new venue and a new speaker. AMAZING. Session 1 – Turbocharge your pipelines: Practical tips and tricks for Azure DevOps and GitHub Actions **Speaker:** Maarten van Diemen Want to make your CI/CD pipelines faster, cleaner, and more efficient—starting tomorrow? Maarten will kick off with the basics, then dive into actionable tips and tricks for Azure DevOps Pipelines and GitHub Actions, focusing on three key areas: * **Templating** – Build reusable, modular, and maintainable pipelines * **Speed optimization** – Reduce execution time on hosted agents * **Software provisioning** – Install and manage tools on your agents without slowing down your pipeline He’ll also cover powerful but often underused features in both Azure DevOps and GitHub Actions. Whether you're a DevOps engineer or developer, you'll walk away with practical insights you can apply the next day. Session 2 – Getting started with Ethical Hacking **Speaker:** Christian Peeters **Abstract:** Hacks, data breaches, ransomware… you keep hearing about it in the news. To effectively protect your business and/or software, you need to know where the vulnerabilities are. And what better way to find out than by attempting to hack yourself? In this session, we will explore how hackers operate and which tools you can use to hack (your own) applications. Additionally, we will examine the most common types of vulnerabilities, how to practice exploiting them, and what measures can be taken to prevent them. With the rise of AI a whole new attack surface has emerged – how is it being used to hack? Last but not least, Christian will share tips on keeping your colleagues alert by applying social engineering. 📅 **Date:** Tuesday, June 30th, 2026 Join us for an evening packed with top-notch Azure sessions! 📍 **Location:** Betabit HQ Lichtenauerlaan 152 3062 ME Rotterdam Maps: [https://maps.app.goo.gl/ezoayKiEkkxspL1t7](https://maps.app.goo.gl/ezoayKiEkkxspL1t7)

**3D Workshop** * **Ontwerpen met Fusion360** * **Scannen in 3D** * **Het gebruik van 3D printers** **Je bent nu welkom in de nieuwe locatie NewTechPark** Je kunt ook online aan deze fysieke bijeenkomst deelnemen. De bijeenkomst is dan op de locatie te volgen. Als je [hier](w.j.put@hccnet.nl) vooraf een mailtje stuurt kun je dinsdagavond tussen 19.00 en 20.00 uur inloggen met Jitsi voor vragen, of ter kennismaking met hcc!3D. Online neem je deel aan de bijeenkomst met [https://wij.hcc.nl/3D](https://wij.hcc.nl/3D) [(Alleen toegang als je zichtbaar bent met voor- en achternaam. )](https://wij.hcc.nl/3d)

Heb je zin om andere facilitators te ontmoeten, ervaringen uit te wisselen en samen te bouwen aan ons vak? Op dinsdag 30 juni organiseren we een nieuwe Meetup voor LSP facilitators. De locatie volgt nog, maar we streven naar een plek centraal in het land. Deze editie staat in het teken van de vraag: Wat maakt iemand een goede facilitator? Welke competenties zet jij als facilitator vanzelfsprekend in? Waar liggen jouw kwaliteiten? En welke vaardigheden zou je verder willen ontwikkelen? Tijdens deze Meetup gaan we samen reflecteren, ervaringen delen en uiteraard ook bouwen rondom dit thema. Een interactieve bijeenkomst waarin we van én met elkaar leren. Verwacht inspiratie, verdieping, herkenning en leuke ontmoetingen met collega-facilitators die net als jij geloven in de kracht van bouwen, luisteren en betekenisvolle gesprekken. 📅 Dinsdag 30 juni 17:00-21:30 📍 Locatie volgt (midden van het land) 🧱 Voor LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® facilitators ;-) 💶We bestellen een hapje. Vooraf ontvang je een tikkie voor deze kosten. Ergens tussen de 14-18 euro. Doe je mee? Meld je aan en we zien je graag!

Spots are limited: [https://tickets.voxxeddays.com/event/workshop-victor-rentea](https://tickets.voxxeddays.com/event/workshop-victor-rentea) **Build faster, smarter software with AI.** Join an exclusive, fully catered workshop with Victor Rentea on Agentic Engineering in a small, focused group of engineers. **Upgrade your development workflow to 2026.** A hands-on day on AI Coding Agents: prompt & context engineering, multi-agent orchestration, spec-driven development, and self-improving skills. Learn how engineers reach 2x–10x productivity and what it takes to get there. **For:** all engineers (backend, frontend, QA, data, ops) **Bring:** laptop with Claude Code + subscription (Pro is enough) **The agenda of the day** **Introduction** * LLM Fundamentals: Predictions, Tokens, Context Window, Compaction, System Prompt, Model vs Agent Harness * AI Pitfalls: Sycophancy, Hallucinations, Attention Dilution, Knowledge Cutoff, Premature Fixation * MCP Tools – best-of **Context Engineering** * Evolving a Token-Efficient Project Memory * AI Context Sharing across repos, teams, and company * Skills and Custom Agents that self-improve * Token-Efficiency Tricks: context hygiene, DRY, grep-logs antipattern **Prompt Engineering & Orchestration** * Prompt Engineering – does and dont’s * Brainstorm, plan & generate a non-trivial change with AI * Multi-Agent Orchestration Patterns: handover, reviewer, orchestrator, advisor,… **AI Guardrails & Security** * Functional Guardrails with State-of-the-art Acceptance Tests * ⁠Code Quality Guardrails AI cannot circumvent * ⁠Architecture Guardrails & Exact Summarisation * APIs, C4 Model, sequence diagrams * AI Supply-Chain Attacks Attacks and Agent Isolation Techniques **Date:** Wednesday, July 1st (09:00 - 17:00) **Location**: Utrecht (venue TBA) **Price**: € 395,- (incl. lunch & drinks) Spots are limited: [https://tickets.voxxeddays.com/event/workshop-victor-rentea](https://tickets.voxxeddays.com/event/workshop-victor-rentea)

Codelab and the [Rabobank Tech Community](https://www.meetup.com/rabobank-tech-community/) are organising a Java meetup with Victor Rentea about: Agentic Engineering - Patterns and Anti-Patterns If you would like to join, subscribe quickly here (seats are limited): https://www.meetup.com/rabobank-tech-community/events/315294956 === **Agenda** 17:00 Walk in + Dinner 18:15 Talk 20:00 Drinks 21:00 Ending **Talk description** A compilation of emerging patterns and common pitfalls observed in over 50 companies. From unhealthy context management, naive prompting, unvetted AI slop, and careless supply-chain to self-learning skills, sub-agent orchestration, AI guardrails, and backpressure. Join this talk to cut through the hype, learn from the early adopters of agentic engineering – see what works, what ships better code 3x faster in production, and what fails **Speaker** Victor Rentea is a Java Champion and an Independent Trainer delivering intense webinars for dozens of companies worldwide since 2014. His passion is Simple Design, Refactoring, and Unit Testing, about which he regularly talks at top conferences, but also to the European Software Crafters Community that he founded. On victorrentea.ro you can find his blog, best talks, training curriculum, live masterclasses, and social channels.

**SUSE X I-share:** **Sprekers:** * [Hugo de Vries](https://www.linkedin.com/in/hugo-de-vries/) (Solution Architect) * [Bert Boerland](https://www.linkedin.com/in/bertboerland/) (Account Executive) * [Keown de Koning](https://www.linkedin.com/in/keowndekoning/) (Head of Channel) **Beschrijving** ''Tijdens deze sessie nemen we je mee door het brede SUSE-portfolio. Van de betrouwbare basis van SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) tot multicluster Kubernetes-beheer met Rancher en zero-trust containerbeveiliging met SUSE Security: SUSE biedt een compleet, onafhankelijk open-source ecosysteem van besturingssysteem tot cloudtechnologieën. We starten met de basis van SUSE en kijken terug naar de ontwikkeling van een Duitse open-source pionier in 1992 tot een wereldwijde enterprise speler van vandaag. Daarbij prikken we door de marketingverhalen heen en delen we praktijkvoorbeelden van organisaties die het volledige SUSE-portfolio inzetten om complexe infrastructuuruitdagingen op te lossen. Ook laten we zien hoe klanten de overstap maken van een Amerikaans georiënteerde infrastructuur naar een Europees alternatief. Tot slot geven we een live Rancher-demo, waarin je ziet hoe alle componenten naadloos samenwerken om moderne IT-landschappen te beveiligen, beheren en schaalbaar te maken. Wat kun je verwachten: * **Het volledige SUSE-verhaal** Hoe een Europese open-source pionier een complete technologiestack heeft opgebouwd – van operating system tot Kubernetes. * **Meer dan alleen containers** Inzicht in het bredere portfolio (Linux & Cloud Native) en waarom dit aansluit bij de behoeften van moderne enterprises. Inclusief mogelijkheden om jezelf hierin te laten opleiden tot specialist. * **Praktijkvoorbeelden uit de markt** Hoe organisaties het volledige ecosysteem gebruiken voor stabiliteit, compliance en schaalbaarheid en waarom SUSE steeds vaker de nieuwe standaard wordt. * **Live demo** Zie het portfolio in actie en ontdek hoe SUSE de volledige keten verbindt: van infrastructuur tot en met de applicatielaag. Of je nu infrastructure architect, platform engineer of security specialist bent: sluit aan en ontdek waarom het SUSE-portfolio perfect aansluit op jouw moderne infrastructuurstack!'' *Het programma zal deze avond als volgt zijn:* * Vanaf 17.15 u: inloop * Rond 17.30/18.00 u: eten * 18.30 u: start sessie * 20.00 u: afsluiting We zien jullie graag dan!

Do you want to date differently? Join us for boardgame speed-dating! Gamefun guaranteed, with a chance to meet your match. Let’s play! You will play carefully selected games in groups of 4 players. Players will rotate each round so you will play 2 games with everybody. After the rounds you are welcome to stick around for games, free snacks and mingling ♥️. Time: 13:30-16:00 Fee: 20,- (Including 1 drink and snacks) You can register via this link: [Date & Dice](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScX-gDcGDOUEwqyMQbMpkW_hPV9eZB4KIdvBCeA05NhEt4ORg/viewform) This will be our pilot event and we look forward to hosting more after. We have already gotten feedback on this event being targeted to a heteroromantic audience. We have heard you and are already planning events for every target audience interested. https://www.the5th.nl/utrecht#fun-events

'THE SYMPATHIZER' by Viet Thanh Nguyen 'The winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, as well as seven other awards, The Sympathizer is the breakthrough novel of the year. With the pace and suspense of a thriller and prose that has been compared to Graham Greene and Saul Bellow, The Sympathizer is a sweeping epic of love and betrayal. The narrator, a communist double agent, is a man of two minds, a half-French, half-Vietnamese army captain who arranges to come to America after the Fall of Saigon, and while building a new life with other Vietnamese refugees in Los Angeles is secretly reporting back to his communist superiors in Vietnam. The Sympathizer is a blistering exploration of identity and America, a gripping espionage novel, and a powerful story of love and friendship.' ***Please read the book and join us for a lively discussion (in English) about the contents during our afternoon book club meeting.*** \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- **PLEASE NOTE:** This is an IN-PERSON event in Amersfoort, The Netherlands. Please cancel your attendance in advance if you are unable to join, so that those on the waitlist can participate. Looking forward to seeing you all IN REAL LIFE then! Best regards, Sandra

I'm excited to host the 25st edition of *Strangers to Friends*! Every event so far has been warm, fun and full of great connections. So we’re doing it again! Curious about our previous events? Check out our photo albums (only visible on the laptop version of Meetup). **What to expect** * A safe, relaxed environment to meet both locals and expats, whether you want to meet new people, experience an international atmosphere or talk about business, it’s all possible. * Start the evening with a few rounds of conversation cards: pair up with someone you don’t know, answer meaningful questions and rotate every 10 minutes. Within just one hour, you’ll get to know several people really well and enjoy meaningful conversations. * Everyone comes on their own, so it’s easy to connect. **Practical details** * Doors open at 20:00, after 30 minutes we start with conversation cards * Venue: Boekencafé Libertas, Klarendalseweg 477-1, Arnhem * 20 min walk from Arnhem Central * 7 min walk from Arnhem Velperpoort * You’ll receive 1 drink token for (beer/wine/soft drinks) and snacks all night! * Find us on the right side of the café at the bar, by the window and garden Bring a smile and join us for an evening where friendships grow, business ideas spark and real-life connections happen. Back to basics, away from screens, meeting face-to-face. Warm regards, Julia

Iedereen is welkom op onze open Freedom Friday Bitcoin Turnhout Meetup @ het super gezellige café Sint Pieter - Grote Markt 60, 2300 Turnhout Geen presentaties. Geen workshops. Gewoon 1 onderwerp: bitcoin. **Connect with Like-Minded Minds** Engage with the Bitcoin community and mingle with fellow enthusiasts. This meetup is your chance to discuss the future, share ideas, and network with pioneers in the decentralized money world. 🏢 **Central Location**: café Sint Pieter ligt perfect centraal, een ruim cafe op de grote markt van Turnhout. Mark your calendars and spread the word!

You can sleep in on the Sesquicentennial (observed), we’re shifting to the following Friday. But join the local UX community for a chat and some biscuits to catch up. If you were in CA for Figma Config, tell us all the lines and you can tell me how I can animate an SVG without coding it by hand, and why I’d even want to. Thanks to the team at Nationwide of supporting the group.

**Practical Curiosity: Learning from Everyday Data** How do we actually get better at utilizing our day-to-day data? Fancy dashboards and complex models might look nice and draw attention, but that’s not where most of us spend our time. In fact those shiny outputs frequently sit unused, while the real insights are drawn from the analyst’s daily practice. Sometimes it’s as simple and as powerful as noticing that a segment is shrinking, a channel is underused, or certain links keep getting all the clicks. There’s many different places that the spark of insight can come from, but you have to keep your head in the data and know where to look. In this session, we’ll explore real-world examples of how segmentation, testing, and click behavior can uncover practical digital marketing opportunities. You’ll leave with inspiration for your own use cases, along with a few simple ways to ask better questions, spot meaningful patterns, and make smarter decisions without overcomplicating it. **About Our Speaker:** [Elaine Armbruster](https://www.linkedin.com/in/elainearmbruster/) is a Director of Digital Experience at the [American Diabetes Association](https://diabetes.org/), where she focuses on using data and insights to create smarter, more effective digital experiences. A lifelong Columbus resident, she has built her career in email marketing and the broader digital user journey, and is finding she most enjoys working in the messy middle where systems, data, and big ideas don’t quite line up yet. 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)

Topic to be announced. **CALL FOR SPEAKERS** Learn more: 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/ **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

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

We're planning a hands-on technical session focused on building AI solutions in ServiceNow - think skills, agents, and real-world use cases. If you’re curious about AI on the platform, RSVP now and stay tuned for more details. Let's build together!

**Talk Description** How do you build a card game in Python without the logic turning into spaghetti? We'll use a working Euchre app to walk through a practical pattern: creating card and game state data structures, using a pure Python rules engine, and finally creating a pygame UI. Includes a live demo. Come learn a little about Euchre and pick up some skills and tricks to build your next game or app. No Euchre or pygame experience needed. All skill levels welcome. Laptops optional. **Agenda:** 7:00pm - Opening announcements 7:10pm - Main Topic - Building a Card Game with pygame 7:50pm - Q&A

Most people use LLMs by feel: ask a question, read the answer, decide whether it “seems good,” and move on. That works for casual use. It does not work when you are building software, automating workflows, writing important documents, or relying on AI for anything that needs to be repeatable. In this talk, we’ll look at how to improve and evaluate the inputs and outputs of LLMs using practical measurement techniques. We’ll cover how prompt changes affect results, how to compare outputs, how to build simple evaluation sets, and how math-based methods like similarity scoring can help you move beyond guesswork. This will be beginner-friendly, so even if you don't know anything about AI, you should get something out of it. However, this will be a little more technical than our intro talks. You do not need to be an AI researcher, but programmers and technically curious attendees will get a lot out of it. We’ll cover: * Why “it looks good” is not enough * How to improve prompts by changing the input, context, and constraints * How to compare LLM outputs more systematically * Basic evaluation techniques for accuracy, consistency, and usefulness * How embeddings, cosine similarity, and scoring can help evaluate results * Where automated evaluation works — and where humans still need to stay in the loop By the end, you’ll have a practical mental model for treating LLMs less like magic and more like systems you can test, measure, and improve. 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.