Computer Science

**This is a ticketed event. Please register at [this link](https://luma.com/n5d2q50u).** ​The Platonic Representation Hypothesis (Huh et al., 2024) proposes that neural networks are converging toward a shared statistical model of objective reality, offering a Platonic explanation for the growing representational similarity observed across models of different architectures, datasets, and modalities. In this talk, Robert Adragna argues that such convergence is computationally intractable in practice. Truly representing reality would require models to recognize the same real-world concept across all its possible appearances — a form of robustness that theoretical and empirical work suggests is infeasible to achieve at scale. He proposes an alternative account: representational convergence reflects shared structural assumptions embedded in training data, not the discovery of objective reality. ​​​**Event Schedule** 6:00 to 6:30 - Food and introductions 6:30 to 7:30 - Presentation and Q&A 7:30 to 9:00 - Open Discussions ​​​​​​If you can't make it in person, feel free to join the live stream starting at 6:30 pm, via [this link](https://www.youtube.com/@Trajectory-Labs/live).

\*These classes are not a language exchange, but instead are meant to be a step in between so that students feel confident maintaining in depth and grammatically correct oral conversations outside of class\* \***Meetup event numbers only tend to show new students registering and do not include returning students attending class.** **Per class, there is an average of 7 students.** The first 2 classes are free and then only cost between $15 and $35 depending on which type of class you want to continue with\* These French, English (For Spanish and French speakers only), and Spanish classes are primarily meant for adults who are travellers, or who are planning to live in a French, English, or Spanish-speaking country. The classes are primarily oral-based through guided conversations. They will teach you how to handle conversations in situations such as **"Going to the Convenience Store"**, **"Making Plans"**, **"Negotiating Prices"**, and **"Going out for a Drink"**. To ensure that students get used to using the language automatically, students will learn to maintain contextual conversations with timing before moving on to the next lesson. Call (647)787-9953, e-mail us info@monkeylingo.ca, or visit monkeylingo.ca for more information! **Online and private classes are also available!** No other language classes are as conversational as these ones. We guarantee it! Cheap parking can be found using the "Spot Hero" app.

We’re thrilled to invite you to an exciting meetup! We'll have one talk presented by an Elastic employee and one presented by a community member. Bring your questions and come support the community! **Agenda** **5:00 PM** – Doors Open Come in, say hello, grab some food, and settle in for an engaging evening. **5:45 PM** – **"Lessons from evaluating production AI Agents for over a year", presented by** Susan Chang, Principal Data Scientist at Elastic **6:15 PM** – Q&A **6:30 PM** – "**Elasticsearch Journey – Working in Different Industries", presented by** Yasir Zaid, Elastic Certified Engineer **7:00 PM** – Q&A **7:15 PM** – Networking & Event Wrap-Up Stick around to chat, connect, and share insights with fellow attendees. **When:** Thursday, May 14th 5:00 - 7:00 pm **Where:** [Centre for Social Innovation - Spadina](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=43.650017%2C%20-79.397156) 192 Spadina Ave. · Toronto, ON 3rd floor, The Viola Desmond Room **Abstracts** **"Lessons from evaluating production AI Agents for over a year"** This talk covers methods of evaluating AI Agents, with an example of how the speakers built evaluation frameworks for a user-facing AI Agent system which has been in production for over a year. We share tools and frameworks used (as well as tradeoffs and alternatives), and discuss methods such as LLM-as-Judge, rules-based evaluations, ML metrics used, as well as selection tradeoffs. **Bio:** Susan Shu Chang is a Principal Data Scientist at Elastic, where she leads work on production-grade machine learning, including generative AI and agentic workflows. She is also an internationally recognized speaker, O’Reilly author, and keynote presenter at major global technical conferences. **My Elasticsearch Journey – Working in Different Industries** This talk explores Yasir Zaidi’s hands-on experience using Elastic products to deliver strategic solutions across banking, insurance, and telecommunications. Through real-world examples, the session will cover how Elasticsearch and the broader Elastic Stack have been used for search architecture, security, SIEM, and observability, along with some of the newer and more exciting projects now being built with Elastic. The talk will also highlight recent Elasticsearch features and innovations, and how they are opening up new possibilities for modern enterprise use cases. **Bio:** Yasir Zaidi is the Owner of ZD Inc. ([https://zd-inc.net/](https://zd-inc.net/)) and Elasticsearch Experts ([https://elasticsearch.expert/](https://elasticsearch.expert/)), and Co-Founder of 360metrics ([https://www.360metrics.io/](https://www.360metrics.io/)) and Certified Elasticsearch Partner Solution Architect. He has delivered hundreds of Elasticsearch projects for organizations around the world, with experience spanning Observability, SIEM, Enterprise search, Cloud deployments, and AI-powered search solutions, Serverless and much more. His work includes engagements with Ericsson, SAP, Intact Insurance, Videotron, RONA, Geotab and Desjardins Bank, just to name a few. Backed by three master’s degrees and Elastic certifications, Yasir brings deep technical expertise and proven global delivery experience. Linkedin: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasirzaidi/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasirzaidi/) Spots are limited, so don't miss out!

\*These classes are not a language exchange, but instead are meant to be a step in between so that students feel confident maintaining in depth and grammatically correct oral conversations outside of class\* \***Meetup event numbers only tend to show new students registering and do not include returning students attending class.** **Per class, there is an average of 7 students.** The first 2 classes are free and then only cost between $18 and $35 depending on which type of class you want to continue with\* These French, English (For Spanish and French speakers only), and Spanish classes are primarily meant for adults who are travellers, or who are planning to live in a French, English, or Spanish-speaking country. The classes are primarily oral-based through guided conversations. They will teach you how to handle conversations in situations such as **"Going to the Convenience Store"**, **"Making Plans"**, **"Negotiating Prices"**, and **"Going out for a Drink"**. To ensure that students get used to using the language automatically, students will learn to maintain contextual conversations with timing before moving on to the next lesson. Call (647)787-9953, e-mail us info@monkeylingo.ca, or visit monkeylingo.ca for more information! **Online and private classes are also available!** No other language classes are as conversational as these ones. We guarantee it! Cheap parking can be found using the "Spot Hero" app.

**NO PHILOSOPHY EXPERTISE REQUIRED!** **🏛️ WHAT'S PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY ABOUT?** Practical Philosophy is a weekly meet-up that brings critical thinkers together for an opportunity to dive deep on a topic, practice communicating, and building a community. All with no ‘official’ philosophy knowledge required! 😎 Practical Philosophy is based on the idea that philosophy should be accessible to all, and not something reserved only for academics. Each week we choose a topic, and the goal is to use the conversation to develop our critical thinking and communication as we explore that topic. The goal is to help develop our Critical Thinking, Communication, and Community 🙌 **📓 HOW DOES IT WORK?** Each week, we pick one topic and discuss it. The topic for the week is shared, generally in the [Whatsapp group](https://chat.whatsapp.com/B7LyJIeBlaH5VtXkMJTTph?mode=gi_t), along with jump-off points to get the conversation going. When groups get bigger than 7-8 people, it’s important that we break into smaller groups. This way we are able to maintain a conversational flow as opposed to having our meetups feel like a discourse or lecture. **General Meeting Agenda** Each Practical Philosophy meet-up follows this general timeline: * 19:30-19:45 - People arrive and chat, get to know each other before the official start. * 19:45-19:55 - Meeting introduction, explanation of Practical Philosophy and the topic for the week, read the guidelines and the overview so attendees know what to expect in terms of timelines. * 19:55-21:15 - Break into small groups - introduce yourselves and general thoughts on the topic, open discussion afterwards. At this point the group can review the ‘jump-off’ questions as needed, but they are just there to help guide the conversation. It’s not obligatory to answer them. * 21:15-21:30 - Bring everyone back together to discuss conclusions of the topic - each group gives a short 1-minute summary. Organizer concludes the meeting and everyone takes a group photo. * 21:30 - The official meeting is over but it’s a great opportunity to get to know people in a non-structured environment, so we often stick around, chat, and get to know each other. **🧧PRICING?** Practical Philosophy is operated entirely on voluntary donations! If we are meeting in a café, buy a beverage! Donations are 100% voluntary, but they help us to bring the gift of deep conversation to people around the world. If you'd like to support, you can [donate here](https://www.zeffy.com/en-CA/donation-form/donate-to-practical-philosophy)! (Practical Philosophy is a registered Canadian charity) **💛 WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY** **🗣** “I feel like Philosophy Club helps someone build their own belief system through a series of perspectives while not promoting what’s right and wrong” - Ekam 🗣 “I got hooked from day 1 and felt it was the right place for me. I feel it is a place where people can go to learn and discuss new perspectives and increase critical thinking and community by interacting with people who might challenge your point of views but at the same time encourage you to have openness and mind flexibility.” - Daniel **🤓 FAQ** * **​What will we talk about? What's the topic?** ​The topic for the week is shared every Sunday in the Whatsapp group. We try to add the topic to the comment section on this event page as well but if you don’t see it, the topic and the jump-off points will be in our [Whatsapp](https://chat.whatsapp.com/B7LyJIeBlaH5VtXkMJTTph?mode=gi_t). * **Do I need to study or read anything to attend?** No preparation is necessary. This isn’t a study of other thinkers. We want to know what you think about the topic, not what an old philosopher thought. If you have a perspective from a religion or a school of thought to share, throw it on the table and we’ll discuss it. * **Is there a specific philosophy that Practical Philosophy is focused on?** The goal of our meet-ups is to not have dogmatic discussions, and flex our critical thinking muscles. Because of this, we want to hear from every realm of thought, and don't study a particular school. * **Is it mostly men that attend?** Surprisingly, no! Although often, philosophy is seen as a Candelabra affair in a dark room with a bunch of guys, our Practical Philosophy meetups are generally 50/50 between genders, and we don’t meet in any dark rooms. * **Can I come alone?** Of course you can, we encourage it :) * **Can I be late?** Please don't be! We do have a 15 minute grace period where we allow people to funnel in while we hang out, but after that if you arrive too late, it disrupts the flow of the conversation. * **Where do you meet?** The location is posted in Meetup and our [Whatsapp](https://chat.whatsapp.com/B7LyJIeBlaH5VtXkMJTTph?mode=gi_t) group for this location. It is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that you join the Whatsapp group! If you want to know what other cities have a Practical Philosophy Club, you can see our chapters on our [website](https://www.practicalphilosophy.club/practical-philosophy-locations/). 🤝**POLICY** To respect our members privacy, we ask that no one privately message a member without first getting explicit consent. (This looks like speaking in person and being asked to message privately.) Contacting or texting other participants without prior consent is not permitted and may result in removal from the group. Practical Philosophy reserves the right to enforce this policy at its discretion to maintain a safe and respectful environment. **PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY CLUB - Philosophy, everywhere. ✨** We started in Practical Philosophy back in 2021 and there are now 50+ chapters in over 25 countries, including Canada, Spain, Japan, Mexico and many more! 🗺️ **\*\*\*** **Join our Toronto [Whatsapp Group](https://chat.whatsapp.com/B7LyJIeBlaH5VtXkMJTTph?mode=gi_t) 👈** **Follow us on [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/practicalphilosophyclub/) 👈** **Our [website](https://www.practicalphilosophy.club/) 👈**

\*These classes are not a language exchange, but instead are meant to be a step in between so that students feel confident maintaining in depth and grammatically correct oral conversations outside of class\* \***Meetup event numbers only tend to show new students registering and do not include returning students attending class.** **Per class, there is an average of 7 students.** The first 2 classes are free and then only cost between $18 and $35 depending on which type of class you want to continue with\* These French, English (For Spanish and French speakers only), and Spanish classes are primarily meant for adults who are travellers, or who are planning to live in a French, English, or Spanish-speaking country. The classes are primarily oral-based through guided conversations. They will teach you how to handle conversations in situations such as **"Going to the Convenience Store"**, **"Making Plans"**, **"Negotiating Prices"**, and **"Going out for a Drink"**. To ensure that students get used to using the language automatically, students will learn to maintain contextual conversations with timing before moving on to the next lesson. Call (647)787-9953, e-mail us info@monkeylingo.ca, or visit monkeylingo.ca for more information! **Online and private classes are also available!** No other language classes are as conversational as these ones. We guarantee it! Cheap parking can be found using the "Spot Hero" app.

*To join this event, you must be able to speak full sentences in Mandarin. This event is for those wanting to practice Mandarin and/or English. Here, you can chat with others and play board games in either language to improve your linguistic skills. Feel free to join our WeChat group during the event, as it is the best way to stay connected with us. If you have any questions, leave a comment on this event page. ＜中文版＞ 此活动是以聊天和玩桌游练习中文或英文，等级不限，平时有6-10位参加者。此活动微信群可在活动中加入，互相学习，天天向上。 如果您有任何疑问，请随时在活动页上留言或联系主持人

Whether you're a seasoned tech veteran or just starting out, let's create the ideal afterwork place to meet and chill with other workers in tech - find that new job, expand your network, share ideas, and stay up-to-date on the latest trends in the industry. Let's inspire, innovate, and shape the future of technology in Toronto! Tech, AI, Data, IT, and more \~ ​ \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- ### Event Details 💰 Cost: Free 🍺🥃 Afterwork drinks and social 📍 The Goodman Pub and Kitchen (Inside, or ask for Tech Social) - 207 Queens Quay W 🕕 6:00pm onwards every Friday ​ **Or RSVP on the website for our Discord / WhatsApp communities, and to see who else is going and what their backgrounds/seniority/interests are:** 🔗 [Link to Website](https://techsocialtoronto.com/event/meetup) ​ If you cannot find us, ask staff about Tech Social, or ask in the WhatsApp community above. ​ \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- ### Who Should Attend? Perfect for **Toronto tech professionals** including: * **Software Developers & Engineers** (Python, JavaScript, Java, C++, React, Node.js) * **Data Scientists & Analysts** (Machine Learning, AI, Data Visualization, SQL) * **Cybersecurity Professionals** (InfoSec, Ethical Hacking, Cloud Security) * **Product Managers & Tech Entrepreneurs** * **Students & Tech Graduates** looking to break into tech * **Career Changers** entering tech industry * **Remote Workers & Digital Nomads** in Toronto * **Startup Employees & Entrepreneurs** * **Digital Marketing & Product Professionals** * **Senior Engineers** looking to mentor and network \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- ### What You'll Experience * 🤝 **Network with Toronto tech community** * 💼 **Job opportunities** and referrals from peers * 🚀 **Career acceleration** through peer networking * 🎯 **Skill sharing** and tech discussions * 🧠 **Knowledge sharing** on latest tech trends * 🎉 **Social activities** and games * 🧠 **Learn from peers** about real-world challenges * 🚀 **Collaborate** on projects and ideas * 🎯 **Mentorship connections** (both ways!) * 🍻 **Fun, casual atmosphere** \- no matter your seniority level \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- ### Event Guidelines * Support the venue by purchasing drinks/food (no outside items allowed) * Maintain appropriate behavior and respect for all attendees * Bring physical ID if required by venue (call ahead to confirm) \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- ​ ​ *Toronto Canada tech social mixer afterwork drinks AI connect network data IT programming cybersecurity digital nomad blockchain crypto big data science computer networking community jobs entrepreneur industry product design startup software development machine learning python javascript professional networking career development it professionals developers mentorship ai sql analytics data engineering business intelligence deep learning tensorflow pytorch data visualization data analysts ml engineers Toronto Canada tech social mixer afterwork drinks AI connect network data IT programming cybersecurity digital nomad blockchain crypto big data science computer networking community jobs entrepreneur industry product design startup software development machine learning python javascript professional networking career development it professionals developers mentorship ai sql analytics data engineering business intelligence deep learning tensorflow pytorch data visualization data analysts ml engineers*

Struggling with motivation and focus as you hammer away on your manuscript at home? Want to join a community of writers as we embrace the joys and pains (mostly pains) of writing together? Bring your laptop, pen & paper, old-school typewriter, or futuristic writing gadget, and join an enthusiastic community of science fiction and fantasy writers as we work on our current projects in the same space. The format will be similar to our online writing sprints: 30-minute blocks of focused, quiet writing time (the sprints), interspersed with breaks where we can chat, ask questions, and share our writing experiences.

Let’s do some coding together at a cafe! No more working alone in the weekend. Here, we write code together. And I mean together together. Not occupying-the-same-space-but-separate together. Here’s how it works: Jennifer brings her mobile app project, tells everyone that it is like Pinterest for recipes and she’d like to work on the nav bar. Paul and Chloe think Jennifer's project is fascinating, and they join the group. They gather around Jennifer’s laptop and work on the nav bar for 2 hours. Jennifer is the one typing out the code while Paul and Chloe research, brainstorm, and offer suggestions. If you’re feeling stuck on your own project or need a motivation boost, bring it to mob programming! Want to learn by watching how others code and solve problems? Join someone else’s project at this event! Oh and we love your half-done projects that you are a bit embarrassed to share. Absolutely bring those to the event! **Discord**: We use Discord to share screen & code snippets during the event. Also feel free to share your projects here before the event! https://discord.gg/xwjDdVSw3E **Event policy**: * We have 0 tolerance for harassment. * We don’t allow the projects that are not meant to be shared in public such as school assignments, interview tasks, or trade secrets. * The goal is to write code. We discourage you from pitching business ideas here, doing code reviews, or spending the whole event on planning what to do. * Please buy a drink, and tip the barista well.

### Thursday Evening Discussion Group **In\-Person \| Starts at 8:00 PM \(Doors open at 7:30 PM\) \| Drop\-In** **Starting material:** *[Network of Thought](https://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Network-of-Thought-Krishnamurti-ebook.pdf)* by **Jiddu Krishnamurti** This weekly discussion group offers a reflective and open space to explore themes of **mysticism, spirituality, and inner transformation** through selected writings and talks by Jiddu Krishnamurti, Annie Besant, Alice Bailey, and other thinkers whose work invites deep **inquiry into consciousness, freedom, truth,** and **the nature of self-understanding**. Rather than promoting a particular belief system, the group emphasizes **shared reading, thoughtful reflection, and respectful dialogue**. Participants are welcome to engage at their own pace—whether through listening, contemplation, or open discussion. While there is **no requirement to commit before attending**, *the intention is to gradually build a group of participants who are interested in returning regularly and engaging sincerely with the material* and the group process. Newcomers are very welcome, and those who feel drawn to ongoing study are warmly encouraged to continue attending. This is a **drop-in group**, and no prior background or preparation is required. **All are welcome.** Come as you are, reflect together, and take part in a spirit of openness and mutual respect.

[Summary] This meetup is for those who are interested in code, web development, design, cloud, or AI. All levels are welcome, so feel free to bring your laptop and discuss what you are working on or what you are learning. You can share your projects and ideas with other participants freely. There are outlets and WiFi, drinks are about $5 for tea, they take card only. [Price] Attendance is FREE. But you need to buy something from the venue. [Policies] \- We do not tolerate harassment of our members \- We remind users that that this meetup is intended for networking and hobby development\, and any attempts at using this meetup event as a dating platform will not be not be tolerated Further information: https://torontostack.exchange/

join us the Rockpile for Police Tribute Band. Cost ix 23$ at the door or at the following link . https://www.ticketweb.ca/event/message-in-a-bottle-rockpile-rock-bar-tickets/14773133

Meet other Day Traders, Swing Traders, Investors, and More! We're leveling up the meetup experience with a brand new venue! We've got the upstairs space at the newly opened **MooMoo Yorkville** all to ourselves. **95a Bloor St W, Toronto, ON M5S 1M1** 🕓 **4:00 PM – 6:00 PM** 👥 **25 spots only — RSVP required** Here's how the afternoon runs: MooMoo will kick things off with a quick presentation on their platform, then the rest of the time is ours. Talk markets, share what you're watching, ask questions, compare strategies, or just connect with like-minded people in the city. Whether you're a seasoned day trader or just getting started, you belong here. All levels welcome. **Bring your laptop, a notepad, whatever helps you think.** This is your time to learn, share, and connect. Join our Free Telegram to stay updated: [https://t.me/+m8BMRABGX74xNmZh](https://t.me/+m8BMRABGX74xNmZh) ⚠️ *Spots are limited to 25 people. Please only RSVP if you plan to attend — this is a small intimate setting and every spot counts. If your plans change, please release your spot so someone on the waitlist can join.* See you there! 📈 Disclaimer: This meetup is for educational and networking purposes only. Nothing discussed at this event constitutes financial advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions. This event is not affiliated with or sponsored by MooMoo unless otherwise stated.

Most AI meetups end up as just networking. **We’re different.** At **AI Tool Explorers Night \| Connect & Make New Friends**, you’ll: ✨ Walk away with a *real learning nugget* (a tool, workflow, or strategy you can use immediately) ✨ Connect with people who share your curiosity for AI, productivity, and automation ✨ Enjoy a fun, casual setting where new ideas and friendships spark naturally 👉 **Our promise:** every session delivers structure, substance, and takeaways you can use when you get home. ### 📅 Event Flow * **6:00–6:15 PM** → Arrivals & intros * **6:15–6:45 PM** → AI demo / learning nugget * **6:45–7:00 PM** → Q&A and group discussion * **7:00–8:00 PM** → Networking & contact sharing ⚡ Please hold networking until after the presentation so we can all learn together. Plenty of time at the end to connect and exchange cards! **Let's explore AI Tools that actually *work* in our day-to-day life!** *** #ChatGPT #Claude #Grok #Gemini #Perplexity #DeepSeek #NotebookLM #Cursor #GitHubCopilot #Replit #Windsurf #v0dev #Lovable #Zapier #Makecom #n8n #Descript #OpusClip #Synthesia #Runway #Sora #Kling #Veo #PikaLabs #LTXStudio #AdobeFirefly #Vidu #Hailuo #LumaDreamMachine #Wisecut #Elaiio #Capsule #Filmora #Gling #Magisto #AdobePremierePro #ElevenLabs #Suno #Udio #Soundraw #Riffusion #Mubert #BeatovenAI #AIVA #Loudly #SplashPro #Soundful #MagentaStudio #WavTool #MakeBestMusic #BandLabSongStarter #TadAI #EcrettMusic #Midjourney #DALLE3 #CanvaMagicStudio #NotionAI #Gamma #Fathom #FirefliesAI #MLX

Join us for another session of our study group as we continue our coverage of the book Domain-Specific Small Language Models. In this session, we will attempt to cover Chapters 13 on "Creating end-to-end applications", which explores RAG and Agents and Chapter 14, on "Advanced Components for LLM Applications", which explores GraphRAG. This isn't just a lecture! Come ready to ask questions, share insights, and code along. Whether you're a beginner or have some experience, this is the perfect opportunity to continue to learn together. If you plan to work with the code on your own laptop during the session, try and download the code from here https://github.com/virtualramblas/Domain-Specific-Small-Language-Models ahead of time.

We will be meeting at Starbucks to learn together. Come with an online class you're already going through or an interest and we will try to connect you with a course where you can learn it. Already have a skill you want to contribute to a Kaggle Datascience competition? We will work on these too! Laptop required :)

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.

**REGISTER AT THE LUMA EVENT PAGE!!!** https://luma.com/27ja5gwl Join us for an exciting talk by Mary Gibbs, Senior Applied Scientist at Relativity. ​ ​**​Agenda:** ​​6:00 - 6:30 PM - Welcome and mingle 6:30- 6:45 PM - Introductions 6:45 - 7:30 PM - Talk 7:30 - 8:00 PM - Wrap up **​​Description:** ​If you have ever shipped a model, watched your metrics improve, and later learned from your users that something was wrong, the metrics were always wrong. You just didn’t know it yet. An evaluation consists of three components, a benchmark, a scorer, and a claim about what a score represents. Each component has its own weaknesses. Benchmarks can suffer from narrow coverage, contamination, or saturation. Scorers are often chosen for ease of automation or computation rather than for their alignment with user outcomes. And the claim connecting a score to reality is rarely made explicit. These gaps compound across the model development lifecycle. When metrics improve, teams treat that as a signal and optimize directly against it, which is how a measurement problem becomes a model problem. This talk maps where evaluations can go wrong, considers counterarguments, and ends with practical advice for building better ones. **​Speaker Bio:** ​Mary is a Senior Applied Scientist at Relativity, tackling data science challenges in the e-discovery and legal tech space. She is also an organizer for Women and Gender eXpansive Coders DC (formerly Women Who Code DC), fostering a community dedicated to empowering women and nonbinary individuals to excel in their careers. Mary's experience spans various domains. She has developed data science solutions related to job search and career progression at Teal, cybersecurity challenges at LiveAction Software, and commercial and government consulting at Mosaic Data Science. Before venturing into the field of data science, Mary conducted and published research pertaining to the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying neurodevelopment at the National Institutes of Health. In other words, she has dissected and imaged a lot of fruit fly brains. She holds a M.S. in Data Science from The George Washington University and a B.A. in Biological Sciences from Cornell University

We will be meeting at Starbucks to learn together. Come with an online class you're already going through or an interest and we will try to connect you with a course where you can learn it. Already have a skill you want to contribute to a Kaggle Datascience competition? We will work on these too! Laptop required :)