Machine Learning

**Agenda :** * 4.45 to 5.00 PM ET: Food and Networking * 5.00 to 5.50 PM ET: "Build Intelligent Agents with Work IQ, Foundry IQ, Fabric IQ, and Copilot Studio" Hello Everyone! Please join us for our May 12th edition of the AI-ML MeetUp. **Please note this is an in-person meeting and light refreshments/food will be provided. You will need a government-issued ID to enter the facility.** **Title:** Build Intelligent Agents with Work IQ, Foundry IQ, Fabric IQ, and Copilot Studio **Description:** What if your AI agents truly understood how your business works, had instant access to trusted enterprise data, and could take meaningful action from end to end? In this session, we’ll cover how to build enterprise-ready AI agents that understand business context, use trusted data, and take real action. In this fast-paced session, we’ll bring Work IQ, Foundry IQ, and Fabric IQ together with Copilot Studio through best practices and live demos. Key Takeaways: \*Work IQ: Ground agents in real work, roles, and business processes \*Foundry IQ: Design and orchestrate intelligent agent behavior \*Fabric IQ: Power agents with secure, enterprise-grade data \*Copilot Studio: Bring it all together into an end-to-end intelligent agent **Location:** The meeting will be hosted in the Applied Information Sciences ( AIS ) office in Reston, at 11440 Commerce Park Dr # 600 · Reston, VA. The location is also right off the Silver Line metro's Wiehle-Reston Metro Station. **Parking:** Parking is paid and can be validated at the AIS office reception. We will meet in Room Lake Anne. We hope to see you all there!!!!

**Agenda :** * 4.45 to 5.00 PM ET: Food and Networking * 5.00 to 5.50 PM ET: "Build Intelligent Agents with Work IQ, Foundry IQ, Fabric IQ, and Copilot Studio" Hello Everyone! Please join us for our May 12th edition of the AI-ML MeetUp. **Please note this is an in-person meeting and light refreshments/food will be provided. You will need a government-issued ID to enter the facility.** **Title:** Build Intelligent Agents with Work IQ, Foundry IQ, Fabric IQ, and Copilot Studio **Description:** What if your AI agents truly understood how your business works, had instant access to trusted enterprise data, and could take meaningful action from end to end? In this session, we’ll cover how to build enterprise-ready AI agents that understand business context, use trusted data, and take real action. In this fast-paced session, we’ll bring Work IQ, Foundry IQ, and Fabric IQ together with Copilot Studio through best practices and live demos. Key Takeaways: \*Work IQ: Ground agents in real work, roles, and business processes \*Foundry IQ: Design and orchestrate intelligent agent behavior \*Fabric IQ: Power agents with secure, enterprise-grade data \*Copilot Studio: Bring it all together into an end-to-end intelligent agent **Location:** The meeting will be hosted in the Applied Information Sciences ( AIS ) office in Reston, at 11440 Commerce Park Dr # 600 · Reston, VA. The location is also right off the Silver Line metro's Wiehle-Reston Metro Station. **Parking:** Parking is paid and can be validated at the AIS office reception. We will meet in Room Lake Anne. We hope to see you all there!!!!

A low cost, 6-week intermediate-level **中文** (Mandarin Chinese) course with the non-profit organization, the Global Language Network. \#\# Chinese \(Mandarin\) Frequent Flyer Language Class **Details:** \#\#\#\# Chinese \(Mandarin\) Frequent Flyer with Alex Tuesdays from 6:00pm - 8:00pm ET Apr 7th to May 12th In-person, Farragut Square DC * GLN classes are open to everyone over 18 years of age. * Have a credit or stipend to apply to your payment? Learn more about our credit, stipend, and refund policy on the [Pricing & Course Levels page.](http://%5B%5Bhttps://thegln.org/pricing-%26-course-levels%5D%5D(https://thegln.org/pricing-%26-course-levels%5D)(%5Bhttps://thegln.org/pricing-%26-course-levels%5D(https://thegln.org/pricing-%26-course-levels))) Ready to learn? **Register [HERE](http://%5B%5Bhttps://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSem9IdJEYqsE91SvfEEjIe8FuvoAjOusgE2ab_qkvm3apyjzg/viewform%5D%5D(https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSem9IdJEYqsE91SvfEEjIe8FuvoAjOusgE2ab_qkvm3apyjzg/viewform%5D)(%5Bhttps://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSem9IdJEYqsE91SvfEEjIe8FuvoAjOusgE2ab_qkvm3apyjzg/viewform%5D(https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSem9IdJEYqsE91SvfEEjIe8FuvoAjOusgE2ab_qkvm3apyjzg/viewform))).** **About GLN** We are a Washington, DC-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with a mission to "Use Language as a Tool to Help Fix Our World." Since 2015 we have been rated #1 Best Language Classes in Washington, DC by Yelp! We are so happy and grateful to have you join our network and we appreciate your support of our mission.

Follow the appeal of Roman Sterlingov, convicted of the victimless "crime" of providing everyday Bitcoiners privacy. The next stage of the case is oral arguments in DC Court of Appeals, come to support Roman and the future of Bitcoin ownership in US. Roman has been convicted by of allegedly operating BitcoinFog, a mixing service accused of anonymizing Bitcoin transactions, a small portion of which is thought to be attributable to illicit usage. The charges identify no victims or financial loss and instead attribute to him any potential crimes of anybody on the internet who was using this privacy tool. Learn more and help Roman's defense at [freeroman.org](https://freeroman.org)

Join us for a special session of our study group. Instead of continuing our coverage and discussion of the book "Domain-Specific Small Language Models", in this session, members of the group will present AI projects they have been working on, relating to the recent discussions of the group including the utilization of Large and Small Language Models. Please find the agenda for our upcoming session below: \- 7:00 \- 7:05: Introductions \- 7:05 \- 7:20: Project 1: The Model Context Protocol \(MCP\) – Venky will discuss the protocol's functionality and demonstrate an MCP server he developed\. \- 7:25 \- 7:40: Project 2: Page \- A Virginia Legislative Session Chatbot – Ron will describe a RAG system he developed\, covering various implementation approaches and lessons learned\. \- 7:45 \- 8:00: Project 3: Menta \- A Small Language Model for Mental Health – Odysseas will present an SLM designed to assess mental health conditions using message text\. \- 8:05 \- 8:20: Project 4: Open Brain – Richard will discuss an open\-source\, distributed\, personal AI solution based on an idea by Nate B\. Jones\. \- 8:20 \- 8:30: Closing comments and conversation

A low cost, 6-week tourist-level አማርኛ (Amharic) course with the non-profit organization, the Global Language Network. \#\# Amharic Tourist Language Class ሀሎ ! Ready to dive into the world of Amharic? Join our fun and interactive class designed especially for those new to the language. **Details:** \#\#\#\# Amharic Tourist with Shambel Tuesdays from 6:30pm - 8:30pm ET Apr 12th to May 17th In-person, Farragut Square DC * GLN classes are open to everyone over 18 years of age. * Have a credit or stipend to apply to your payment? Learn more about our credit, stipend, and refund policy on the [Pricing & Course Levels page.](http://%5Bhttps://thegln.org/pricing-%26-course-levels%5D(https://thegln.org/pricing-%26-course-levels) "\[https://thegln.org/pricing-%26-course-levels\](https://thegln.org/pricing-%26-course-levels)") Ready to learn? **Register [HERE](http://%5Bhttps://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSem9IdJEYqsE91SvfEEjIe8FuvoAjOusgE2ab_qkvm3apyjzg/viewform%5D(https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSem9IdJEYqsE91SvfEEjIe8FuvoAjOusgE2ab_qkvm3apyjzg/viewform) "\[https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSem9IdJEYqsE91SvfEEjIe8FuvoAjOusgE2ab_qkvm3apyjzg/viewform\](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSem9IdJEYqsE91SvfEEjIe8FuvoAjOusgE2ab_qkvm3apyjzg/viewform)").** **About GLN** We are a Washington, DC-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with a mission to "Use Language as a Tool to Help Fix Our World." Since 2015 we have been rated #1 Best Language Classes in Washington, DC by Yelp! We are so happy and grateful to have you join our network and we appreciate your support of our mission.

[Profs and Pints DC](https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc) presents: **“Nightmares and Creativity,”** on the relationship between frightening dreams and real creative achievements, with Bernard Welt, emeritus professor of arts and humanities at George Washington University, former member of the board of the International Association for the Study of Dreams, and contributing editor of *DreamTime*. [Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at[ https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/dc-nightmares-and-creativity]( https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/dc-nightmares-and-creativity).] Nightmares are associated with creativity—but how, exactly? Why do so many famous accounts of genius in the arts and sciences originate with a frightening dream? Explore such questions with the help of Bernard Welt, who has taught courses on recalling dreams and dream journaling and written extensively on the relationship between dreaming and the arts. Using excerpts from texts, illustrations of artworks, and clips from classic films derived from nightmares, Professor Welt will look at the relationship between bad dreams and celebrated innovations and creative accomplishments. You’ll learn why psychologists consider the nightmare to be a key to understanding the creative power of the unconscious mind. We’ll consider sleep scientists’ definitions of the nightmare, asking why it still remains controversial, and explore contemporary theories about the relationship between nightmares and creativity from psychoanalysis, Jungian archetypal theory, evolutionary psychology, and other sources. Though dreams have special authority in many cultures, in the western world it’s only among the nineteenth-century Romantics that we began to see personal accounts of creativity inspired by dreams—curiously, preponderantly bad ones. We’ll look at how *Frankenstein* arose from Mary Shelley’s famous dream of a scientist confronted by his own fearful creation, and how art’s Surrealist movement taught us to value our nightmares. You’ll learn how dreams of all kinds can result in sudden inspiration because they relax inhibitions, transcend habitual trains of thought, and permit ideas that would be rejected by the thought processes of waking life. You’ll even come to see why we may welcome our nightmares as opportunities to expand our vision and our understanding. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.) Image: From Francisco Goya’s 1799 etching “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters” (public domain).

Hello everyone! Who doesn't love discussing AI over mini-golf! We'll be meeting at Starr Hill Tysons Biergarten at the top of the Capital One Building. There's mini-golf, corn-hole, and beer on tap. Come have some fun! Guaranteed fun time, or else your first putt is free :) **Location:** Starr Hill Tysons Biergarten, 1805 Capital One Dr S Suite 1100, Tysons, VA 22102 **\*\* We're on the Roof! \*\*** **Overview:** Join us at AI Innovators Network for our upcoming meetup in Tysons dedicated to exploring the latest trends in Artificial Intelligence. Whether you're an AI enthusiast, a professional, or someone curious about the intersection of technology and AI, this event is perfect for networking, learning, and sharing insights. Connect with like-minded individuals from DC, Northern Virginia, and Maryland as we dive deep into the opportunities and challenges of integrating AI. Don't miss this opportunity to be part of the conversation driving innovation and progress in Artificial Intelligence.

🗒️ **Details** Grafana 13 just dropped at GrafanaCON 2026 and we're not wasting any time. Join us at Clare & Don's Beach Shack in Falls Church, VA for a free meetup where we dig into what's actually new, what it means for your stack, and where observability is heading. If you work in DevOps, SRE, or platform engineering in the DMV, this is your people. Whether you've been running Grafana for years or you're just getting started, you'll leave with something useful. 📋 **Agenda** 🎉 **5:30 – 6:00 — Kick-Off & Check-In** Grab a plate of food, meet the people around you, and get settled in. We're at Clare & Don's so the vibes are already taken care of! 🎙️ **6:00 – 6:30 — Rob Santos: Grafana 13 & AI in Observability** Grafana Assistant is now baked into the platform and it changes a lot. Rob breaks down what's new in Grafana 13, how AI is reshaping the way teams monitor and troubleshoot, and what it actually looks like in practice. No sales pitch, just real talk. [Rob Santos, Senior Solutions Engineer @ Grafana Labs](https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-j-santos/) 🎙️ **6:30 – 7:00 — Christopher Field: Building ML-Powered Apps with Grafana** Christopher shares how Theia Scientific built a custom application platform that combines Grafana, machine learning, and Jupyter notebooks to power materials research and non-destructive testing workflows. A cool real-world example of Grafana being used way outside the typical use case. *[Christopher Field, Co-Founder, President & Principal Investigator @ Theia Scientific](https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisrfield/)* 💬 **7:00 – 7:45 — Networking & Open Q&A** Bring your questions, your war stories, and your opinions. This is where the good conversations happen. 🔚 **7:45 – 8:00 — Wrap Up** *** **Spots are free but limited — grab yours before they're gone.** We look forward to seeing you there! *** 📌 **P.S.** Stick around until the end — we're raffling off two things: 🎁 A Grafana swag bundle 🔧 A $100 gift card to Craftsman Autoshop in Vienna, VA with a goodie basket

[Profs and Pints Northern Virginia](https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc) presents: **“How AI Alters Thinking,”** on dealing with artificial intelligence’s capacity to change and undermine our thought processes, with Eli Alshanetsky, assistant professor of philosophy at Temple University, principal investigator at its Cognitive Integrity Lab, and author of an upcoming book on AI and freedom of thought. [Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at [https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/nv-how-ai-alters](https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/nv-how-ai-alters) .] Doctors who give bad advice can be sued for malpractice. Teachers belong to a profession with set standards. When artificial intelligence guides you, however, that guidance comes with a disclaimer: Use at your own risk. Every day millions of people take that risk, and usually AI seems genuinely helpful. But even if AI gives us good answers, might its use over time do bad things to how we think? Explore the relationship between AI and our own minds with Eli Alshanetsky, whose Cognitive Integrity Lab studies how artificial intelligence changes how we think, learn, and build trust. Author of *Articulating a Thought* and the upcoming book F*reedom of Thought in the Age of AI*, he’s on the cutting edge of efforts to answer AI-related questions such as: How can we tell when work is truly our own? How can technology support rather than replace authorship and reflection? What does trust mean when AI mediates our relationships with others and with our own thoughts? To set up his discussion of potential consequences of AI, he’ll describe how social media’s impact on society serves as a preview. Social media didn’t just give people what they wanted to click on, it actually changed what they regarded as click-worthy. It broke attention spans and fueled radicalization across millions of very different people. It left us with people who doom-scroll for hours, who can’t focus, who don’t know what to trust anymore. If you’d shown people this version of themselves ten years ago, would they have chosen it? Artificial intelligence is making a similar deal with us, but the stakes are higher. It isn’t chasing clicks. It’s optimized for giving you the most satisfying response to whatever is on your mind right now. The risk over time isn’t just that you’ll get lazy. More profoundly, even when you think hard, your sense of what counts as good thinking—as well as what sounds like you—will shift to match what AI has been feeding you. We’ll consider what kind of person this produces and whether this is someone we want to be or want children to become. Professor Alshanetsky will lay out a practical framework, which he calls “the interaction layer,” for using AI without letting it replace the thinking it’s supposed to support. He’ll also talk about what AI-related concerns should be the focus of parents and educators. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.) Image: Illustration by David S. Soriano / Creative Commons.

A low cost, 6-week beginner-level **中文** (Mandarin Chinese) course with the non-profit organization, the Global Language Network. \#\# Chinese \(Mandarin\) Foreigner Language Class **Details:** \#\#\#\# Chinese \(Mandarin\) Foreigner with Jiayu Sundays from 3:00pm - 5:00pm ET Apr 12th to May 17th In-person, Farragut Square DC * GLN classes are open to everyone over 18 years of age. * Have a credit or stipend to apply to your payment? Learn more about our credit, stipend, and refund policy on the [Pricing & Course Levels page.](http://%5Bhttps://thegln.org/pricing-%26-course-levels%5D(https://thegln.org/pricing-%26-course-levels)) Ready to learn? **Register [HERE](http://%5Bhttps://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSem9IdJEYqsE91SvfEEjIe8FuvoAjOusgE2ab_qkvm3apyjzg/viewform%5D(https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSem9IdJEYqsE91SvfEEjIe8FuvoAjOusgE2ab_qkvm3apyjzg/viewform)).** **About GLN** We are a Washington, DC-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with a mission to "Use Language as a Tool to Help Fix Our World." Since 2015 we have been rated #1 Best Language Classes in Washington, DC by Yelp! We are so happy and grateful to have you join our network and we appreciate your support of our mission.

# 🤖 **Build With Me #2:** Build Your Personal AI Machine, Live 🗓 Wednesday \| 6–8 PM 📍 Venue: AWS Skills Center You’ve seen it in action… Now you want one for yourself! In this session, we’ll set up your own AI system capable of building and developing anything you can think up. *** ## ⚡ What You’ll See * Setting up your own AI system in real time to think, build, and operate any product or business * Connecting AWS, ChatGPT, OpenClaw, and Telegram into one working system * Using your phone or computer to develop ideas, research questions, discuss specs, and ship real products *** ## 🧠 What You’ll Learn * We’ll create your own personal AI assistant live together * How AI can help you keep building websites, app ideas, business tools, and other projects from anywhere *** ## 🧰 Tools We’ll Explore * OpenClaw * AWS * ChatGPT * Telegram *** ## 🎯 Who This Is For * Beginners to advanced who want a practical AI setup they can use right away for any idea * People with business ideas, app ideas, or side projects they want help moving forward * Anyone who attended Session 1 *** # What to Bring * Your laptop so we can set up the tools. \*You do not need to know AWS or the other tools before coming. \*Anyone can join even if you missed session 1. One setup. The most powerful digital machine ever known, in your pocket..

​Join Data Visualization DC for a meetup to learn about generative UI with Prefect's Jeremiah Lowin! Doors 5:30 Presentation starts 6:15 Please RSVP on luma ([https://luma.com/b4qfsjpl](https://luma.com/b4qfsjpl)) for building security. #=#=#=#=#=#=#=# Got Data Viz? Sign up for a viz and tell and share your work for a few minutes. All are welcome! [https://forms.gle/9a3ssbVbwQFjpWdY8](https://forms.gle/9a3ssbVbwQFjpWdY8) Data Viz DC is a member of Data Community DC, a nonprofit dedicated to data education in the nation's capital. Learn more at [www.dc2.org](http://www.dc2.org/)

Join the Columbus AI community for our quarterly gathering — a casual, community-focused evening where everyone has a chance to share, learn, and connect. These open mic–style events give anyone in the community up to **5 minutes** to present a project, share a tool, pose a question, or offer a perspective on the evolving AI space. No slides required — just a welcoming space to exchange ideas and keep the local AI conversation moving. If you’d like to take the stage, message \*\*Chris (the organizer)\*\*with a **title and short description** of what you’d like to share. Whether you’re deep in the field or just getting curious, come connect with others building and exploring AI in Columbus. Sponsored by [Transform Labs](https://www.linkedin.com/company/transformlabs/) Sign up also accessible via [Transform Labs Luma](https://luma.com/transformlabshq)

Join us for a practical, beginner-friendly guide to choosing the right large language model. We’ll compare major models like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Llama, talk about when to use hosted APIs versus local models, and break down the tradeoffs around cost, speed, quality, privacy, context windows, coding ability, and reliability. You’ll leave with a clearer mental model for picking an LLM based on your actual use case instead of hype, benchmarks, or brand names. No deep AI background required. 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.

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

If you enjoy knitting, crocheting, working with yarn, this is the group for you. Meet new friends, bring your projects, learn from others.
We normally meet a few times a month during the week from 6-8pm. We will occasionally meet on weekends during daytime hours.

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.

5:45-7:45 in Conference Room B, Library lower level. Bring your yarn projects, meet new friends. If you plan to attend, please RSVP yes. If you can’t attend, please change your RSVP to no. This helps anyone who is waitlisted and it allows me to have an accurate count of attendees as our space is quite limited. Plenty of parking in the lot, in the overflow lot across the street, and on the street. See you there!

**Important time note:** Please plan on arriving between 5:30 and 6:00 as the elevators lock after 6 and you'll need to message us and we'll need to come get you. The building address is 4450 Bridge Park The entrance is 6620 Mooney St, Suite 400 You will need to scan your ID at the door to get a visitor badge. **Abstract** TBD **YouTube Link** TBD