Distributed Systems

\# This meetup is around a third\-party organizer\, Focus Filmtheater\. You can either purchase your ticket online or right before the session\. **Seats are numbered**. # **Title**: The President’s Cake **Language**: Arabic **Subtitles**: English **Length**: 106 min **Director**: Hasan Hadi **More info**: https://www.focusarnhem.nl/agenda/english-subs-the-presidents-cake/ **Ticket link**: https://www.focusarnhem.nl/tickets/144299/ **Synopsis:** In poverty-stricken 1990s Iraq, young Lamia is selected to prepare a cake for the President’s birthday. Because basic ingredients are hard to find, Lamia goes on a journey in search of eggs, flour and sugar. It becomes a tender, tragicomic odyssey, offering a child-eye’s view of life under authoritarianism. Hasan Hadi’s affecting debut feature follows 9-year-old Lamia. She is tasked with bringing a cake to school for the President’s mandatory birthday celebration. Against a backdrop of crippling poverty and food shortages, she journeys from her marshland home to a nearby city in search of ingredients. Coming along with her are her grandmother Bibi, her best friend Saeed and her beloved pet rooster Hindi. Shot on location in Iraq with nonprofessional actors, this tender, tragicomic odyssey offers a poignant child’s-eye view of life under authoritarian rule. The film was inspired by Hasan Hadi’s childhood memories of 1990s Iraq under Saddam Hussein, and was awarded the Caméra d’Or at Cannes for best first feature. **How it works**: I will be at Focus around 18:30, where we can meet before the movie starts. You can message me to find us. Screening starts at 19:00. After the movie, we can have a drink together. Hope to see you soon!

⚠️ **Important Note:** *PyData Amsterdam is transitioning to Luma.* ✨ * *Please [subscribe](https://luma.com/pydataamsterdam?k=c) to PyData Amsterdam on Luma:* https://luma.com/pydataamsterdam * *And register at the Luma [link](https://luma.com/j9kvw2dk) for this event:* https://luma.com/j9kvw2dk \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- Join our May’s edition meetup on **Wednesday, May 20, 2026** at **Adyen Amsterdam office**, for an evening dedicated to the engineering of high-scale, real-world AI systems. We will explore how Apache Flink powers resilient, real-time features within Adyen's payment engine and dive into the architecture of building a self-hosted AI stack designed for absolute data sovereignty and cost control. This is a great opportunity for data scientists, ML engineers, and software engineers to network and learn about cutting-edge MLOps practices at a global payments company and within a fully self-hosted AI stack. Note: To ensure a smooth check-in process, please register using your full name and bring a valid ID card to the venue. **Agenda:** 17:30 - 18:25: Walk-in with drinks & food 🍺🍕 18:25 - 18:30: Adyen’s intro 18:30 - 19:15: Talk 1: Accelerating and protecting shoppers payments with Apache Flink at Adyen 19:15 - 19:45: Break 19:45 - 20:30: Talk 2: From Notebook to Living Room: Building a Self-Hosted AI Stack That Replaces SaaS 20:30 - 21:00: Networking / drinks **Talk 1:** *Accelerating and protecting shoppers payments with Apache Flink at Adyen, by Vitalii Zhebrakovskyi and Matteo Tonelli* Data Scientists at Adyen have for a long time developed and constantly improved ML models that are utilised at various stages of payment processing. Would it be fraud detection, payment schemas routing optimization, bot attacks detection or payouts, ML has consistently proven to deliver better results than traditional rule-based manually configured tools and has become a core driver of growth for the business. With growing adoption of ML, the demand for model features has been steadily on the rise. Having these features custom built and refreshed daily stopped being sufficient, easy to build and realtime features that could be used reliably at global scale became a necessity to improve the product. In this session the team behind Adyen Feature Platform will present how Apache Flink is used in the core of Adyen's payment processing engine. On top of Adyen’s Global Managed Flink Platform, to provide resilience in the face of disaster, so that ML models can rely on their features being fresh. Vitalii Zhebrakovskyi is Senior Software Engineer at Adyen working in fraud prevention and MLOps fields. He's the major contributor to Adyen's Feature Platform with primary focus on stream processing with Apache Flink. His career spans over more than 20 years and a wide variety of domains and languages with lately focusing on Java and Payment Processing field. Matteo Tonelli is a Software Engineer at Adyen focusing on streaming. In his journey at Adyen, he has been mostly working on enabling machine learning scientists to train, deploy and monitor their models, providing them with data their model needs, when they need it. **Talk 2:** *From Notebook to Living Room: Building a Self-Hosted AI Stack That Replaces SaaS, by [Calogero Zarbo](https://nl.linkedin.com/in/calogero-zarbo-10467925)* Most data scientists interact with AI through managed notebooks and APIs, but what happens when you want full control over your models, your data sovereignty, and your costs? In this talk, I'll walk through the architecture of a self-hosted local AI stack running on consumer hardware (RTX 5090), accessible securely via Tailscale VPN, and serving multiple concurrent users. We'll cover the core engineering decisions behind ditching Ollama for direct llama.cpp integration to eliminate abstraction taxes, and building a custom FastAPI scheduler for dynamic model switching between heavy reasoning models (DeepSeek-R1 70B) and agile assistants (Qwen3.6). Crucially, we'll dive into architectural pivots born from real bottlenecks: how our initial "always-loaded" CPU-only utility server for tool routing created blocking latency that killed chat responsiveness, forcing a redesign toward async decoupling via Redpanda/Kafka and targeted API offloads. We'll also touch on the broader infrastructure layer—systemd service chaining, Docker networking, and replacing SaaS project management with self-hosted alternatives like Huly, Joplin, and WorkAdventure. This started as a hobby, but quite rapidly grew into an application of advanced engineering principles to personal infrastructure. You'll leave with concrete patterns for local model serving, knowing when to kill components that look good on paper but fail in practice, and how to build resilient AI tooling you actually control. Calogero, in short Cal, is the Head of Advanced Computing at Sandbox Wealth, where he leads AI, ML, and quantum computing strategy for fintech applications. With over 15 years across computational biology, e-learning, and data science consulting, Cal has shipped production systems for clients including Satispay (where he pioneered Italy's first quantum-classical hybrid optimization in fintech using D-Wave) and Artefact. He co-founded Algoritmica.AI - an AI venture for credit risk assessment that was acquired in 2021 - and currently lectures on Quantum Machine Learning at Ca' Foscari Challenge School in Venice. When not building enterprise AI systems, Cal architects his self-hosted home lab to replace every SaaS subscription he can find. **DIRECTIONS** Address: Simon Carmiggeltstraat 6-50, 1011 DJ Amsterdam The event will be held at the Adyen SC office event space, which is just a seven-minute walk from Amsterdam Central Station. Please enter through the main entrance (the revolving doors) and collect your visitor badge at the reception desk. Note: To ensure a smooth check-in process, please register using your full name and bring a valid ID card to the venue. **Note: To ensure a smooth check-in process, please register using your full name and bring a valid ID card to the venue.**

Hi all! 🙂 On Wednesdays we welcome you to practice languages! If you want to practice a specific (uncommon) language, please send us a message so we can find some conversation partners for you on our mailing list! We hope to see you in Café Marktzicht! In the last year we had tables for the following languages: * Dutch * English * French * Italian * Spanish * Turkish\* * German\* * Portuguese\* * Danish\* * Norwegian\* * Russian\* * Arabic\* * Chinese\*\* * Japanese\*\* * Indonesian\*\* * * Most likely, but not every week present. \*\* - Rather rare ;-) If your language is not in this list, please let us know! We have a large database of Language Cafe visitors speaking 56 different languages! We might be able to connect you with a person that does speak the language you want to practice. In case you are not in our database yet, please use this form: http://goo.gl/forms/oSCn9Dn8m8

So, you have experienced what improv is like? And you want to play and learn more? In this longer course you learn more about the basic techniques and mindset of improvisation, through fun and easy games. You will: • explore playfulness • listen with intent • accept making mistakes, • discover your imagination and creative thinking, • build confidence, • improve your communication skills, with and without speaking • and mostly: have fun! ### Course details course Wednesdays 20 May – 8 July 2026 lessons 19:30-21:30 . Location ZIMIHC Wittevrouwen. bouwstraat 55 Utrecht. Teacher Burgert Kirsten Show in june. 10 lessons including a show €245 incl BTW ### ### About the tickets Improv Utrecht offers 1 or 2 funded courses with 20% discount for people with less finances. Send a message to Marieke van Laar. **Tickets: improv-utrecht.weticket.io** info: www.improvutrecht.nl/courses

De Test Automation Days 2026 zijn net een maand voorbij, maar wij zijn er nog niet klaar mee. Tijd voor de aftermatch, maar dan op onze eigen manier. Zoals altijd georganiseerd door deTesters, TestCoders en TechChamps, in ons kantoor in de Werkspoorkathedraal in Utrecht. Deze keer halen we twee Test Automation Days talks naar Utrecht die mooi laten zien hoe breed en interessant ons vakgebied inmiddels is. Met Wim Selles van TechChamps en Anaïs van Asselt, oud-collega van deTesters en nog altijd een vriendin van de show, belooft dit weer een avond te worden vol praktijkverhalen, nieuwe inzichten en genoeg om over na te praten. Een leuk detail: ze komen allebei oorspronkelijk uit Kampen, hebben allebei bij deTesters gewerkt en hebben door de jaren heen regelmatig op dezelfde events gestaan, alleen nooit tegelijk op hetzelfde podium. Twee talks, twee totaal verschillende invalshoeken, maar allebei relevant voor iedereen die serieus bezig is met kwaliteit, test automation en hoe we slimmer kunnen werken. **When Mobile Testing Hits Harder Than You Expect** Mobile testen lijkt in eerste instantie veel op web testing. Totdat je te maken krijgt met trage builds, verschillende devices, instabiele testen en feedbackloops die ineens dagen kunnen duren in plaats van seconden. In deze sessie laat Wim zien waarom mobile testing in de praktijk vaak veel complexer is dan teams vooraf verwachten. Aan de hand van herkenbare situaties neemt hij je mee langs de punten waar mobiele projecten vaak vertragen, vertrouwen verliezen of kwaliteit onder druk komen te staan. Daarnaast laat hij zien hoe de juiste combinatie van handmatig testen, automation en inzichten uit de praktijk helpt om betere mobiele releases te maken zonder de controle kwijt te raken. **Wim Selles** Wim is directeur bij TechChamps. Daarvoor werkte hij bij SauceLabs als (Lead) Solutions Architect en Staff Product Manager. Altijd met een focus op Mobile, dus Wim mag met een gerust hart ''mister-mobile'' worden genoemd. Wim deelt graag zijn Mobile test automation ervaring als spreker op diverse conferenties en tijdens trainingen en workshops. **Feedback as Fertiliser: From Sh\*t to Quality Through AI and Knowledge Automation** Veel waardevolle feedback verdwijnt sneller dan we zouden willen. Bugs worden gesloten, incidenten raken vergeten en productvragen verdwijnen in losse tools of gesprekken. Zonde, want juist in al die informatie zit een schat aan kennis die kan helpen om kwaliteit structureel te verbeteren. In deze sessie laat Anaïs zien hoe je met AI, RAG en low code automation van al die losse signalen iets bruikbaars kunt maken. Denk aan een levende kennisbank, slimmere inzichten in risico’s en een betere manier om QA inspanningen te prioriteren. Niet door nóg meer handmatig werk toe te voegen, maar juist door feedback slimmer te organiseren en opnieuw te gebruiken. Een verhaal dat laat zien hoe je van ruis weer richting kunt maken, en hoe een duurzaam QA ecosysteem zichzelf steeds verder kan verbeteren op basis van wat er al gebeurt. **Anaïs van Asselt** Anaïs is Senior QA bij Choco. Voor veel mensen in onze community is zij geen onbekende naam, vooral omdat zij een graag geziene spreker op diverse Test (Automation) conferenties. Ze werkte eerder bij deTesters en is sindsdien eigenlijk nooit echt weggeweest. Anaïs staat bekend om haar praktische blik op kwaliteit en haar talent om technologie, automatisering en teamdynamiek slim bij elkaar te brengen. **Doelgroep** Deze meetup is interessant voor testers, QA engineers, developers en iedereen die bezig is met kwaliteit in moderne software teams. Deze avond is **volledig in het Nederlands (Dutch spoken).** **Programma** 17:30 Ontvangst en eten 18:30 Performance Testing as a Pipeline Essential 19:30 Korte pauze 19:45 Feedback as Fertiliser: From Sh\*t to Quality Through AI and Knowledge Automation 20:30 Q&A en discussie 21:00 Afsluiting met een borrel

Studenten binnen de zorg opgelet (Geneeskunde, MBO/HBO Verpleegkunde)! Voor het lustrum van de Universiteit Utrecht organiseert het Journal of Trial and Error samen met het UMC Utrecht de **Failure88**. Iedereen maakt fouten, al geven we ze liever niet toe. Wat daarbij niet helpt is dat binnen zorgopleidingen veel sprake is van prestatiedruk. Met de Failure88 helpen we daarom het falen normaliseren. De Failure88 is een variant van de Crazy88, waarbij deelnemers zoveel mogelijk opdrachten volbrengen. Deelnemers sturen foto’s en video’s om te laten zien dat de opdracht is uitgevoerd. Maar bij de Failure88 is er een twist: je krijgt niet alleen punten als de opdrachten zijn gelukt, maar ook al als je een goede poging hebt gedaan. En er valt iets te winnen! Voor de winnende groepjes is het volgende prijzengeld: * 1e plaats: €400,- 2e plaats: €200,- 3e plaats: €100,- De aftrap van de Failure88 is op 6 mei, en de inzendingen sluiten na 17 mei. De prijsuitreiking is op 20 mei vanaf 17:30 in het Louis Hartlooper. Deze avond is een samenwerking met Blik op de Zorg (UMC Utrecht). Na de prijsuitreiking volgt een gratis vertoning van de film Whiplash. Aan de hand van deze film voeren we een gesprek over prestatiedruk in de zorg. Alleen meedoen aan de Failure88 is ook mogelijk. Schrijf je hier in: https://trialanderror.org/lustrum-failure-88-2026

Join in for a some drinks (and food, if you want) after work at **The 5th \| Utrecht**. Bring your own project and payment for drinks. As evenings tend to be a bit busier, we'll reserve a table. This means: **Only sign up if you are sure you will come!** And if there's no space left on the event, please don't join spontaneously. \-\-\-\-\- As always, we talk about our projects, exchange tipps, but also just get to know each other and enjoy a drink after a long day in good company. Whether it's knitting, crocheting, stitching, origami, or something more unique, we're looking forward to seeing you!

Discover Utrecht on foot with our friendly tour guides! This tour will take place at 10:00 AM on Friday, the 22nd of May, and will take one and a half hours (until 11:30 AM). There are 35 spots available. The tour is free of charge for RustWeek attendees. The tour starts at Kinepolis (the conference venue). Feel free to join our Discord at https://discord.gg/FSwaWZdk6k if you have questions! Our Discord and the RustWeek website, https://2026.rustweek.org/events/social-activities/, offer more activities.

We'll start into the weekend with some Sport and what is better than having a bike tour on Friday 22nd May? If you'd like to bike along, sign up here! We expect this to take about 4 to 5 hours. On the route, we will see at least two beautiful castles, and we’ll have a pause in Breukelen where we will get a snack! **This tour is for everyone. You don't have to prepare anything, it's enough to be at the bike rental at the time.** The following information is for the curious: You can see the [tour](https://www.komoot.com/de-de/tour/2884792439?share_token=aCVbZHeYrkmmS52GP5uwrR7Q3EweCrOv65hA2MpYgtf4nSaL8V&ref=wtd) on the app [Komoot](https://www.komoot.com/). It's approx. 46km, **we may adapt it as a group on the day. As last year we’re very flexible and adaptive!** The bike rental is payed by Stichting Rust Nederland. Many thanks to Erik Jonkers for the sponsoring and to Jana Dönszelman for helping with the meetup page and organization. **Agenda** 1. We'll meet at the bike [rental place](https://willemstraatbike.nl/contact/) it is near to the conference venue. (5 Minutes by bike) 2. Everyone receives their bike. 3. We’ll go over “Hogeweidebrücke” 4. We’ll see Kasteel Nijenrode and get a snack at the marketplace of Breukelen 5. We’ll see Schloss Zuylen 6. We ride back to Utrecht and return the bikes! Looking for more fun things to do during RustWeek? Take a look at our activities page: [https://2026.rustweek.org/events/social-activities/](https://2026.rustweek.org/events/social-activities/)

We’re excited to welcome everyone attending RustWeek 2026 for another collaborative day of coding! This year, we’re partnering up with [Zed](https://zed.dev/) and [Kiesraad](https://www.kiesraad.nl/) (Dutch Electoral Council) to bring you some fun challenges to hack on. Your friendly hackathon organizers are still pulling together details but we'll open the Discord channel soon with more details including hackathon tracks, prizes, and schedule for the day. And you will not be alone! * **From Kiesraad**, the Electoral Council’s Abacus engineers will be on-site to collaborate with you on software for election results and seat allocation, with several good first issues and challenges, and they would love your input and proof-of-concept ideas! * **From Zed**, we will have no less than seven devs from the Zed team ready to pair with you. This will be a great chance to get started with Zed (if you don't use it already), and work on some cool issues and projects together. You do **not** need a ticket to the RustWeek conference to attend the hackathon. The hackathon is free of charge; we will provide coffee, tea, lunch and refreshments. The hackathon will be held at Kinepolis, the same venue as the conference. Schedule Doors open: 9:00 Opening: 9.30 Hacking Begins: 10.00 Demos and wrap up: 6.00 We will keep you supplied with food and drinks during and after the hackathon. Looking for more fun things to do during RustWeek? Take a look at our activities page: https://2026.rustweek.org/events/social-activities/.

Donderdag 21 mei 2026 is het weer tijd voor onze Techday: hét vaste moment waarop we kennis delen, elkaar inspireren en nieuwe ideeën direct in de praktijk brengen. Deze editie pakken we het aan als een conferentie in het klein. Drie sprekers, drie verhalen, één middag – drie verhalen voor de prijs van één. Wat kun je verwachten? **Dirk neemt een kijkje onder de motorkap van AI** AI voelt voor veel mensen als magie. In deze talk probeer ik de magie weg te nemen door een kijkje te nemen onder de motorkap. Een essentieel bouwblok van moderne AI is een neuraal netwerk. Als je begrijpt hoe een neuraal netwerk werkt, is het een stuk makkelijker om te begrijpen hoe en waarom een LLM werkt. De beste manier om iets te begrijpen is door het te bouwen, vanaf scratch. Dus dat gaan we in deze talk doen. Door dat te doen leren we over artificial neurons, activation functions, backpropagation en meer. **George vertelt hoe AI Cyberaanvallen verandert** George Schizas (extern), voormalig IT Manager, nu werkzaam als CISO, vertelt over zijn ervaringen in de Cloud Cyber Security en hoe hackers met behulp van AI nieuwe aanvalsmethoden kunnen gebruiken om kwetsbaarheden op te sporen en te exploiteren. Hij geeft voorbeelden van manieren om in Kubernetes omgevingen in te breken en noemt manieren om dit tegen te gaan. **Roland duikt in de wereld van de fraude fabriek** Als ontwikkelaar kom je dagelijks in contact met technologie en de laatste jaren natuurlijk ook vaak met AI. JIJ snapt heel goed wat de voordelen en de gevaren zijn, maar hoe leg je complexe onderwerpen als AI gegenereerde afbeeldingen, Voice Phishing en Hallucinaties uit aan je ouders, de buurvrouw, of je kinderen? Ik neem jullie mee in een realistische situatie waarin Anna en haar familie opgelicht wordt met behulp van verschillende technieken en hoe dit oplichters-landschap met behulp van AI verandert. **Wanneer:** Donderdag 21 mei 2026 **Wat:** Techday – conferentie-editie “AI kansen en valkuilen” **Voor wie:** Iedereen (!) die nieuwsgierig is en wil leren **Agenda** 14:45 - 15:00 - Inloop 15:00 - 16:00 - Neurale netwerken 16:15 - 17:15 - AI risico’s en kansen 17:15 - 18:00 - Eten 18:00 - 18:45 - Fraude fabriek We zien je graag op de Techday!

(english/german below) **Bitcoin Pizza Dag!** Op 22 mei 2010 betaalde programmeur Laszlo Hanyecz 10.000 BTC voor twee pizza's — de eerste gedocumenteerde aankoop met bitcoin. Hij plaatste een bericht op een forum waarin hij BTC aanbood voor pizza; een andere gebruiker ging akkoord, bestelde de pizza's en leverde ze af. Die transactie werd later bekend als "Bitcoin Pizza Day". Laszlo bewees dat Bitcoin als ruilmiddel gebruikt kan worden. **Sluit je bij ons aan voor pizza-avond bij De Pizzabakkers! (vanaf 18:00)** RSVP zo snel mogelijk; we moeten reserveren bij De Pizzabakkers en er is beperkte plek. Zorg dat je je geladen Lightning-wallet meeneemt! *** **English: Bitcoin Pizza Day!** On May 22, 2010, programmer Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 BTC for two pizzas — the first documented purchase using bitcoin. He posted on a forum offering BTC for pizza; another user accepted, ordering pizzas and delivering them. That trade later became famous as "Bitcoin Pizza Day," Laszlo proved that Bitcoin can be used as a medium of exchange. **Join us for pizza diner at De Pizzabakkers! (from 18:00)** Please RSVP as quick as possible as we need to make a reservation at De Pizzabakkers and there is only limited space. Be sure to bring your loaded lighting wallet along with you! *** **Deutsch: Bitcoin Pizza Tag!** Am 22. Mai 2010 zahlte Programmierer Laszlo Hanyecz 10.000 BTC für zwei Pizzen — der erste dokumentierte Kauf mit Bitcoin. Er postete in einem Forum und bot BTC für Pizza an; ein anderer Nutzer akzeptierte, bestellte die Pizzen und lieferte sie aus. Dieser Tausch wurde später als "Bitcoin Pizza Day" bekannt. Laszlo bewies, dass Bitcoin als Tauschmittel verwendet werden kann. **Begleite uns zum Pizza-Abend bei De Pizzabakkers! (ab 18:00)** Bitte antworte so schnell wie möglich; wir müssen bei De Pizzabakkers reservieren und es gibt nur begrenzten Platz. Nimm unbedingt deine geladene Lightning-Wallet mit!

**RSVP here via EventBrite [here](https://www.eventbrite.nl/e/you-and-your-brand-a-casual-networking-hour-tickets-1984283125243).** Expand your visibility. Join a casual online time to share about you, your brand and business, and learn more about other business owners, locally and globally. Share upcoming events and workshops, too. After each business owner gets the spotlight to share, we then move into a topic-oriented discussion. This month, the topic is begin chosen by [Isabella Maria Noguera, MSc](https://www.linkedin.com/in/isabellamarianoguera/) over of Be Your Brand Consulting. Every session closes with gratitude and a creative activity, so have a pen and paper, tablet, or something available in case we write/create/draw. **RSVP here via EventBrite [here](https://www.eventbrite.nl/e/you-and-your-brand-a-casual-networking-hour-tickets-1984283125243).** *-* *\*\*\*The only requirements are a minimum age of 18 years old, be a business owner or preparing to launch,* *and **at least three attendees** register to make it a worthwhile hour for everyone.\*\*\**

This is our weekly training session. NOVA Jujutsu is a self-defense focused system incorporating Geri (Kicking), Atemi (Striking), Uke (Blocking), Tai Sabakai (Body Movement), Tai Hodoki (Escapes), Kansetsu Waza (Joint Locks), Nage Waza (Throwing), Shime Waza (Choking), Katame Waza (Grappling), Tantojutsu (Knife), Bojutsu (Bo), Kenjutsu (Sword), and Kata (Forms). Come on down to a class and see for yourself what this group has to offer. You will get a great workout! You will have an awesome learning experience! You will meet some good people! We look forward to meeting you. See you there. TAGS: japanese, martial arts, self-defense, jujutsu, jujitsu, juijitsu, bujutsu, defense, karate, koppo, kenjutsu, bojutsu, tantojutsu

**ProductTank NoVA is back!** After a brief hiatus, we are relaunching the chapter with a format that cuts out the fluff and gets straight to the reality of building. Every product feed is flooded with AI hype right now, but what does it actually look like on the ground? Instead of a polished keynote, we are hosting **0 to 1 with AI: Real Product Talks**—a "Show & Tell" featuring 3–4 lightning talks focused on the intersection of AI and product. The framing for the talks is simple: *"Here is what I'm building, and here is what I'm stuck on."* We want to look at the messy, 0-to-1 reality of integrating AI into your workflows and products. *(Want to share what you are working on? Reach out! The bar is low-pressure, just 10–12 minutes to talk about a real AI problem you are trying to solve.)* **Agenda:** * **5:30 PM - 6:00 PM:** Doors open, networking, & name tags * **6:00 PM - 6:10 PM:** Welcome + Chapter Relaunch Intro * **6:10 PM - 7:30 PM:** Lightning Talks (Three 12-min talks + 5 mins Q&A each, with a 5-min stretch break) * **7:30 PM - 8:00 PM:** Open networking * **8:00 PM:** Soft close **Location & Logistics:** Herndon Fortnightly Library (Extended Hours Meeting Room) 768 Center St, Herndon, VA 20170 * **Parking:** We'll meet at the library, located just behind the Herndon Municipal Center. There is plenty of free public parking available around the municipal center. * **Metro & Bus:** Take the Silver Line to Herndon Metro Station, then connect via Fairfax Connector Route 921 or 950 to Historic Downtown Herndon. * **Driving (via VA-267/Dulles Toll Rd):** Take Exit 10 North (Centreville Rd, which becomes Elden St). Turn left onto Station St or Lynn St. * **Driving (via VA-286/Fairfax Co Pkwy):** Take the Elden St West exit. Turn right onto Lynn St. Looking forward to seeing everyone again and getting back to building!

Have you been thinking about trying self-defense training, but do not want a loud, aggressive, or overly competitive environment? This free intro class is a simple way to get started. Maryland Systema offers practical self-defense training for adults in Rockville with a focus on movement, awareness, breathing, posture, and calm under pressure. This class is designed for beginners and first-timers who want real-world self-defense training in a welcoming setting. You do not need experience. You do not need to be in top shape. You do not need a martial arts background. You just need to show up ready to learn. This is not a sport-based class built around winning points, memorizing routines, or trying to look impressive. It is a more practical approach to adult self-defense training that helps you stay balanced, aware, and functional when things feel uncertain. If you have been searching for self-defense classes in Rockville, beginner self-defense near you, or practical self-defense training for adults, this class is a good place to start. **What you will work on** * Breathing and staying calm under pressure * Movement that improves balance and mobility * Awareness and posture * Simple partner drills * Practical self-defense training for beginners **Who this class is for** * Adults new to self-defense training * Beginners looking for a low-pressure class * People who want practical self-defense instead of sport martial arts * Adults in Takoma Park, Silver Spring, Rockville, and nearby areas looking for realistic self-defense classes **What to wear** Please wear comfortable workout clothes. No uniform is required. **Why start with this class** This free intro class gives you a chance to experience the training, meet the group, and see whether Maryland Systema is the right fit for you before joining regular weekly classes. **RSVP** Reserve your spot and come try a beginner-friendly self-defense class in Rockville.

Join our new group’s third meeting. Meet fellow tech enthusiasts west of the beltway. ​Because our group is new, we have a poll for the direction we want to take this new group. ​[https://submatrix.net/article/Meetups/e9ym4fr8Ca](https://submatrix.net/article/Meetups/e9ym4fr8Ca) ​For this event, we will be running a working meetup. ​Our meetings are a great place to work on and show off what you do. We are always welcoming. ​Our format is great for people who have started on but not finished one or several side projects. ​We will start off with basic introductions and what we are working on and what our goals are. We’ll break the rest of the meeting into two working sessions. In between, we’ll do a quick check-in to see how folks are going. If the RSVP is full, come anyway. We'll likely have space.

On the first Sunday of each month, we invite all Sangha members to come early to help clean the Temple before the weekly service. No contribution is too small, and every task helps to beautify and maintain our home away from home! No RSVP is necessary, and assignments are listed at the Temple entrance. We hope to see you there!

NOVA Code and Coffee is an inclusive, informal, co-working session. People of all skill levels are invited. The concept is simple, bring a laptop and ideas, we'll provide the coffee and donuts! Here's how it works: 1. At 10:15 everyone introduces themselves and briefly describes what brought them to Code & Coffee today (project, homework, networking, etc) 2. For the rest of the day, folks work in the communal space on their projects providing one another help and conversation as needed. Oh and they usually drink coffee and tea too! That's it! Hope to see you there! **Location** Our hosts are the Fairfax City Economic Development Building: [10300 Eaton Pl, Fairfax, VA 22030](https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=d7298231ca2df594df822003f9a93517c788fceefe1fcbb79c8976696e341bc6JmltdHM9MTc1MzIyODgwMA&ptn=3&ver=2&hsh=4&fclid=180d0745-3b7f-69a1-23a2-11433a7868e5&u=a1L21hcHM_Jm1lcGk9MTA5fn5Ub3BPZlBhZ2V-QWRkcmVzc19MaW5rJnR5PTE4JnE9RmFpcmZheCUyMENpdHklMjBFY29ub21pYyUyMERldmVsb3BtZW50JnNzPXlwaWQuWU44NzN4ODI4MTk2Mjg0NTk5MDM4MTU0MiZwcG9pcz0zOC44NjE0NDYzODA2MTUyMzRfLTc3LjMwMjE3NzQyOTE5OTIyX0ZhaXJmYXglMjBDaXR5JTIwRWNvbm9taWMlMjBEZXZlbG9wbWVudF9ZTjg3M3g4MjgxOTYyODQ1OTkwMzgxNTQyfiZjcD0zOC44NjE0NDZ-LTc3LjMwMjE3NyZ2PTImc1Y9MSZGT1JNPU1QU1JQTA&ntb=1) Conference Room A- Large, Floor 1 This is a new venue for us, so give us some time to get more details about it. Driving is the best option. There is plenty of free on-site parking. Otherwise, we are a 22 minute bus from the Vienna Metro Station. Bicycling from Vienna is possible but difficult, though once you are here, there's a bike rack in the garage behind the building, and there's also a Capital Bikeshare dock 15 min walk away. **Sponsored by:** Thank you [Fairfax City Economic Development](https://gofairfaxcity.com/) and [Mason Enterprise Center](https://enterprise.gmu.edu/) for making this event possible! **Thank you so much to our wonderful sponsors!** Organized by [DMV Petri Dish](https://www.dmvpetridish.com/) **[Code of Conduct](https://github.com/NoVACodeCoffee/admin/blob/master/code-of-conduct.md):** We value the participation of each member of the community and want all attendees to have an enjoyable and fulfilling experience. To make clear what is expected, all delegates/attendees, organizers, and volunteers at any Nova Code & Coffee events are required to conform to our [Code of Conduct](https://github.com/NoVACodeCoffee/admin/blob/master/code-of-conduct.md).