Modeling

In this session, we'll share our experience from the Arc Institute Virtual Cell Challenge, where the Turbine Mean Predictors team placed 15th of 337 participating teams overall and 3rd on the newly introduced generalist leaderboard. We'll walk through why a simple linear, biology-informed model trained on pseudo-bulk data was competitive with far more complex deep learning and foundation-model approaches. Beyond results, we'll discuss what the challenge revealed about single-cell vs. pseudo-bulk modeling, feature design, and the pitfalls of metric-driven optimization. Finally, we'll reflect on what these lessons mean for building robust, scalable virtual cell models at Turbine - and for future benchmarking challenges. === ENTRY DETAILS === \- QR code with entry information is available\, in the "Photos" section of this event page\. \- Gate closes at 18:15 \- no late entries\.

Haladó argentin tangó óra heti rendszerességgel januártól! Várunk szeretettel! **Időpont**: Szerda, 20:15 - 21:30 (első alkalom 2026-ban: **január 6.)** **Helyszín**: Shift Stúdió, Andrássy út 35., 2. em., 12-es kapucsengő **Oktatók** Serbán Andrea és Szeghalmi Endre Órarend: [https://tangolibre.hu/orarend/](https://tangolibre.hu/orarend/) ✦✦✦ Advanced Argentine tango class held on a **weekly basis**. **🕒 Time** Wednesday, 8:15–9:30 PM **📍 Location** Shift Studio, Andrássy út 35., 2nd floor **Teachers** Andrea Serban & Endre Szeghalmi Prices: [https://tangolibre.hu/en/prices/](https://tangolibre.hu/en/prices/)

We'll kick off the 2026 season of DevBP meetup with a 360° view of the **open-source software development** landscape. We’ll explore it all: from the contributor's first steps and the maintainer's gatekeeping, to the point where diverging roadmaps force companies to build their own solutions. This English-language event will be held at the **Shapr3D office**, where we'll provide snacks and drinks to fuel conversations. Arrival is from 17:30, the presentations start at 18:00. \-\-\- \-\-\- \-\-\- \-\-\- \-\-\- \-\-\- \-\-\- \-\-\- \-\-\- **Working with open source software** with **[Levente Koncz- Shapr3D](https://www.linkedin.com/in/levente-koncz-b454b68a/)** Using open source can accelerate time-to-market, but what happens when your roadmap diverges from the maintainer's vision? I'll discuss Shapr3D's experience with Google Filament, covering the benefits of early adoption, the pain of maintaining a permanent fork, and our future plans of building an in-house PBR renderer. **Contributors, Maintainers, and Everything in Between** with **[Timur Kristóf](https://www.linkedin.com/in/timurkristof/) and [Márk Sági-Kazár](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sagikazarmark/)** It’s often hard to separate the contributor from the maintainer, so we’ll tackle both perspectives in this joint session. Through real-life case studies and a situational roleplay, we will expose the common frustrations and joys of the open-source ecosystem. We’ll also dive into the underrated power of non-code contributions and share personal stories on how this world can shape your career. \-\-\- \-\-\- \-\-\- \-\-\- \-\-\- \-\-\- \-\-\- \-\-\- \-\-\- Come learn and connect with other tech enthusiasts. See you there! You can also find the recordings of previous events on the [@DevBPMeetup YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/@DevBPMeetup).

Középhaladó argentin tangó óra heti rendszerességgel januártól! Várunk szeretettel! **Időpont**: Szerda, 19.00 - 20.15 (első alkalom 2026-ban: **január 6.)** **Helyszín**: Shift Stúdió, Andrássy út 35., 2. em., 12-es kapucsengő **Oktatók** Serbán Andrea és Szeghalmi Endre [További részletek és órarend](www.tangolibre.hu) ✦✦✦ Intermediate Argentine tango class held on a **weekly basis**. **🕒 Time** Wednesday, 7:00–8:15 PM **📍 Location** Shift Studio, Andrássy út 35., 2nd floor **Teachers** Andrea Serban & Endre Szeghalmi Prices: [https://tangolibre.hu/en/prices/](https://tangolibre.hu/en/prices/)

Join us for a fun evening of beer tasting and networking with fellow Budapest ex-pats at our next meetup event! Whether you're new in town or a long-time resident, this is the perfect opportunity to connect. Our event will feature a variety of local and international brews for you to sample and discuss, while enjoying great conversations. Don't miss out on the chance to make new friends and discover new favorite beers at Beer People at Lázár utca 7. Come raise a glass with us at the Ex-Pat & English Language Meetup!

**Note:** *We receive bookings from many different platforms, so you can expect a lively group with people joining from all over the world. When you join this tour, you’ll be part of a fun, social crowd ready to explore the city together.* **The Original Budapest Alternative Street Art & Jewish Tour 🎨✡️** Step off the beaten path and uncover Budapest’s vibrant street art culture and rich Jewish heritage on this immersive walking tour. Led by passionate local guides, this experience dives deep into the creative soul of Budapest’s 7th District—the historic Jewish Quarter—where history, art, and urban culture collide. Stroll through colorful streets filled with murals, hidden galleries, and cultural hubs, while learning how the city’s Jewish roots and post-communist era inspired a wave of artistic freedom. From synagogues and memorials to alternative bars, design studios, and community spaces, every stop tells a unique story about resilience, identity, and creativity. Whether you’re an art lover, a history buff, or a curious traveler, this tour offers a new perspective on Budapest’s most dynamic neighborhood. **🌟 Highlights** * Discover Budapest’s underground art scene and creative community * Explore the Jewish Quarter, its landmarks, and living heritage * See murals, installations, and street art masterpieces * Visit local galleries, ruin bars, and design spaces * Learn how Budapest’s history shaped its modern identity **✅ What’s Included** * Professional local guide * Walking tour through the Jewish Quarter & alternative neighborhoods * Insights into art, history, and local culture * Small-group experience for an authentic connection

#### **Upcoming Book Club Meetings at KözkincsKönyvtár** We will be starting the new year with two exciting reads — one from a Hungarian literary giant and Nobel Prize winner and one from a contemporary American novelist. Whether you’ve been with us from the beginning or are joining for the first time, you’re warmly invited to dive into these richly layered, discussion-worthy books with us. As always, everyone is welcome, whether you’ve finished the book, are halfway through, or simply want to listen and participate. ##### **January Book Club Meeting** **Book:** *The Melancholy of Resistance* — László Krasznahorkai **Date:** January 28 **Time:** 7:00 PM **Location:** Közkincs Könyvtár We’ll open the year with Krasznahorkai’s haunting and visionary novel — a dense, hypnotic, and darkly comic exploration of chaos, authority, and the strange currents that move through small communities. One of Hungary’s most acclaimed literary works, and the basis for Béla Tarr’s film *Werckmeister Harmonies*, it offers plenty to discuss in terms of style, structure, philosophy, and atmosphere. ##### **February Book Club Meeting** **Book:** *The Nix* — Nathan Hill **Date:** February 25 **Time:** 7:00 PM **Location:** Közkincs Könyvtár In February, we’ll switch gears with *The Nix*, a sprawling, funny, sharp, and surprisingly emotional novel about politics, media, family history, and the stories we tell about ourselves. It moves between time periods and perspectives with enormous energy — giving us a contrast to January’s slow-building, immersive style.

**🚀 Join our free Budapest Data Science Meetup!** In the first talk, **Domokos Miklós Kelen from Mastercard** will dive into SHAP in practice, showing how **Shapley-based explanation methods are actually used in production systems**, from theory and architectural choices to real-world trade-offs when explaining black-box models. Next, **Gergely Daróczi, PhD** will present insights from benchmarking **2,500+ cloud server types across six providers**, sharing performance results from hundreds of DS/ML/AI workloads — including LLM serving — and revealing what really matters when choosing infrastructure for scalable, efficient inference. **📅 Date & venue:** * **29 January 2026, Thursday, from 6 pm** * **Mastercard Office 1132 Budapest, Váci út 26. · Budapest** **Please note that the event's official language is English!** **Schedule** **17:45 gates open** **17:45-18:15 Warmup and chit-chat** **18:15-19:30 Talks** **19:30 - 21:00 Drinks, snacks, networking** **Explaining Production Models: SHAP in Practice** Abstract: Since its publication, SHAP and other Shapley value-based explanation methods have become an industry standard for gaining insight into black-box models. However, there are many variants of SHAP, each with its own trade-offs. In this talk, we’ll discuss how explanation methods are used in our production system, covering the theory behind them, the system architecture, and practical considerations. **[Domokos Kelen](https://www.linkedin.com/in/domokos-kelen-08412371/)**, Lead Data Scientist at Ekata, a Mastercard company. Having completed his PhD in Machine Learning recently, he joined Mastercard in 2025 to work on building, improving, and explaining fraud detection models. **\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-** **Benchmarking 2000+ Cloud Servers for DS/ML/AI Workloads** Abstract: Spare Cores is a Python-based open-source ecosystem collecting, generating, and standardizing comprehensive data on cloud server pricing and performance. We have evaluated over 2,500 server types across six cloud vendors to measure performance across \~500 workloads, including suitability for serving Large Language Models from 135M to 70B parameters. We tested how efficiently models can be loaded into the memory or VRAM, then measured inference speed across varying token lengths for prompt processing and text generation. The published data can help you find the optimal instance type for your LLM serving needs, and we will also share our experiences and challenges with the data collection, and lastly some insights into general performance patterns. **[Gergely Daroczi, PhD](https://www.linkedin.com/in/daroczig/),** is a passionate R/Python user and package developer for two decades. With over 15 years in the industry, he has expertise in data science, engineering, cloud infrastructure, and data operations across SaaS, fintech, adtech, and healthtech startups in California and Hungary, focusing on building scalable data platforms. Gergely maintains a dozen open-source R and Python projects and organizes a tech meetup with 1,800 members in Hungary – along with other open-source and data conferences. **Sponsors and partners** * **Ekata, a Mastercard company** * **Budapest Data Science Meetup**

Découvrez l’un des passages les plus charmants et secrets de Budapest ! Rejoignez-nous pour une visite guidée gratuite du Paloma Artspace – un espace créatif unique installé dans un bâtiment historique du centre-ville. Au cours de cette visite d’environ 60 minutes, vous pourrez : – Découvrir l’architecture néorenaissance du bâtiment datant du XIXe siècle – Entrer dans quelques-unes des 13 boutiques de créateurs (céramique, bijoux, textiles, accessoires, etc.) – Vous imprégner de l’univers inspirant de la scène design indépendante de Budapest Deux créneaux disponibles : 15h30 – Première visite (max. 20 participants) 17h00 – Deuxième visite (max. 20 participants) Lieu : Paloma Artspace, 1053 Budapest, Kossuth Lajos u. 14–16 Gratuit, inscription obligatoire via ce formulaire : [https://forms.gle/7Tpoj4Hdi7PAVr7F7](https://forms.gle/7Tpoj4Hdi7PAVr7F7?fbclid=IwYnJpZBExc29sT3NwN0NVSXhjV3FnQnNydGMGYXBwX2lkEDIyMjAzOTE3ODgyMDA4OTIAAR6-Tyntm_cB4yKWOS4ExwfBPWXc9I2tVLjQr9SH7_yrgO52UmIyEOQE1QEblA&brid=bbdKjgkGeTFvoqXSgXCupQ) Ne manquez pas cette occasion spéciale de découvrir un joyau caché du design au cœur de la ville.

A 2026-os év első Power BI és Fabric meetupjára különösen érdekes programmal várjuk a résztvevőket. Visszanézünk a meglehetősen mozgalmas tavalyi eseményeire, bemutatjuk az aktuális újdonságokat, és a Dashboard Baristák projekt kapcsán az AI alkalmazhatóságával is foglalkozunk. **Előadások** * **Power BI 2025 Recap** *A tavalyi év rengeteg változást hozott a Power BI ökoszisztémában, az új árazási modelltől kezdve a kódalapú formátumokon át az egyre többet tudó AI funkciókig. Az előadásban a legfontosabb* *eseményeket és változásokat foglaljuk össze.* * **Power BI és Fabric januári újdonságok** *Új funkciók, GA bejelentések, Data Visualization Championship* * **Dashboard Baristák 2025 beszámoló** *A 2025-ös BI Fórum egyik színfoltja volt a Dashboard Baristák projekt, ahol a résztvevők AI eszközök segítségével tervezhettek és generálhattak adatvizualizációkat és dashboardokat.* **Előadóink** * [Arató Bence](https://www.linkedin.com/in/bencearato/) \- Managing Director * [Lovas Yvette](https://www.linkedin.com/in/yvette-lovas-316b95ba/) \- Senior Business Intelligence Consultant * [Katona Kristóf](https://www.linkedin.com/in/katonakri/) \- Senior Business Intelligence Consultant 📅 **Időpont:** 2026\. január 29\. csütörtök 18:00\-20:00 📍 **Helyszín:** Budapest - Bókay János utca 44. - EPAM Rendezvénytér 🗣 **Nyelv:** Magyar **📝 Napirend** * 17:30 Ajtónyitás * 18:00 Előadások * 19:30 Kötetlen beszélgetés * 20:00 Meetup vége 🎉 A cateringet és a helyszínt ez alkalommal is az [EPAM](https://www.facebook.com/Epam.Hungary) biztosítja. 🔗 Csatlakozz hozzánk [LinkedIn oldalunkon](https://www.linkedin.com/company/budapest-power-bi-user-group) is. 🎥Felvétel nem készül az eseményről, csak személyes részvételre van lehetőség. *Information for international members:* *\- This is a Hungarian speaking event\.* *\- There will be no streaming or recording\.*

El objetivo de este encuentro es romper el hielo, hablar de las historias que nos gusta escribir, de por qué escribimos, de los libros que nos gusta leer, de qué dificultades encontramos al enfrentarnos al folio en blanco y de qué esperamos del grupo. En definitiva, se trata de conocernos como personas para entendernos como escritores. No importa si has escrito diez novelas, cuatro cuentos o el precioso título de un poema sin versos. Aquí todo aspirante a juntaletras es bienvenido.

Our next gathering is for professionals who value sharp minds and meaningful conversation. If you work in law, finance, business, or medicine—and enjoy exchanging ideas with educated, inspiring people—this one’s for you. We’ll keep it relaxed and welcoming, with great coffee and space for real discussion rather than forced networking. Join us again at EcoCafe, Andrássy út.

### **Event Description** Modern dating can feel confusing, frustrating, and emotionally draining—and many people struggle silently, wondering if they’re the only ones experiencing it. This online talk is a supportive, judgment-free space to explore the **most common dating struggles people face today**, such as: * Mixed signals and inconsistency * Overthinking texts and communication * Emotional availability and distance * Chemistry vs. compatibility * Knowing when to stay or walk away I’ll begin with a short talk highlighting the patterns I see most often in dating, followed by an open conversation where participants are invited (but never required) to share what they’re currently struggling with. There’s no pressure to speak—listening is always welcome. This event is ideal if you want clarity, perspective, and reassurance that you’re not alone in your dating experience. *** ### **What to Expect** * A relaxed, respectful online environment * Insight into common dating patterns * Thoughtful discussion and reflection * No selling, no pressure—just real conversation ### **Who This Is For** Anyone navigating dating who wants more understanding, emotional clarity, and grounded perspective.

Every Saturday at 8:00 PM, we gather in the city to share languages, cultures, and conversations. [[Click this whatsapp groupchat link to join]](https://chat.whatsapp.com/EPBjVl3S2WD15XIYvVUHKF) Our group is made up of friendly 20s–30s people — locals, expats, and travelers alike — who come together to meet new people and explore different ways of thinking. Whether you’re new to Budapest or call it home, this meetup is your chance to connect in a relaxed, open-minded space. Join us to swap stories, practice new languages, and build genuine friendships across cultures.

Confidence can be cultivated in many ways—through reflection, conversation, creativity, and practice. In this Confidence Lab session, we’ll explore one powerful pathway: **building confidence from the inside out through physical expression and movement**. This experience is designed to help you reconnect with your body as a source of insight, self-trust, and presence. We’ll begin by grounding into what’s bringing you here, creating space to notice how your body is showing up and what it’s holding. From there, you’ll be guided through accessible movement exercises that invite awareness and choice—isolating different parts of the body, experimenting with movement, and practicing what it feels like to take up space intentionally. Next, you’ll participate in a small-group dance lesson led in a supportive, low-pressure environment. No dance experience is needed. The focus is not on performance or perfection, but on expression, curiosity, and allowing yourself to move with confidence as you are. We’ll close with a reflective group discussion, exploring what emerged during the experience and how these insights can be applied beyond the studio—how you inhabit your body, how you carry yourself, and how you show up in everyday life. **What to know:** * Wear comfortable clothes and shoes that you feel good moving in * No dance experience required * Light snacks and beverages will be provided This session is for anyone interested in deepening their relationship with confidence by listening to their body, expanding their capacity for self-expression, and practicing self-love as an embodied experience. **Featured Speaker: Mary Grace** Mary Grace, the dynamic force behind MG Choreography & Boutique, has been transforming special occasions with her unique blend of artistry and passion for over seven years. As a proud Latina, with Venezuelan and Mexican heritage, Mary brings a rich cultural perspective to every choreography she creates. Her dedication to dance is matched only by her commitment to empowering others through the joy and elegance of movement. Mary’s journey began with a simple passion for dancing, which quickly grew into a thriving business. She specializes in crafting personalized choreography for weddings, quinceañeras, and sweet sixteens, ensuring each event is unforgettable. Determined to make a significant impact in Ohio, Mary established the first-of-its-kind brick-and-mortar location that not only offers a space to practice these beautiful dances but also provides a boutique experience for purchasing or renting exquisite dresses and tuxedos for these special moments. Mary Grace is more than just a business owner; she is a trailblazer for Latina women in the community, dedicated to bringing elegance, joy, and a touch of her vibrant heritage to every event she touches. **What is Confidence Lab?** Confidence Lab is a monthly community experience for bold, thoughtful leaders building confidence from the inside out. Whether you’re launching a business, leading a team, navigating change, or simply striving to show up more fully—you belong here. Our work demands clarity, courage, and conviction—but the pace of daily life can erode our sense of self. Confidence Lab creates space to reflect, reconnect, and grow with others doing purpose-driven work. It’s designed for entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders, creatives, corporate professionals, activists, and anyone ready to lead with authenticity and impact. ***Please note:*** *All are welcome! If cost is a concern, please use promo code PUBLIC to access a free ticket—we want you to join us.*

Columbus Code & Coffee is an inclusive, informal co-working session. People of all skill levels attend, and we love it that way. Many people (optionally) bring projects to work on, and many other people (optionally) socialize the entire time. It's entirely up to you! **What to Expect at the Intro Circle** \~\~\~\~\~\~\~\~\~\~\~\~\~ Near the beginning of the event (1:30 pm), we do a standup: * Organizer announcements, updates, and logistics Round 1 - (7 secs max): * Your name * What you're working on * What you can help others with Round 2: * Community events you wanna plug. If none, that's cool too. Round 3: * Job opportunities you're hiring for OR announce that you are looking for one. If none, that's cool. After the introduction circle, everything is self-organized! Feel free to work alone, pair up, attend one of our workshops/presentations, or mingle!

Join us for a special afternoon celebrating books, conversation, and community. **Who:** Jessica Strawser in conversation with Thirti Umrigar **When:** Sunday\, February 1 \| **2:00 p.m.** **Where:** Auditorium, Main Library 96 S. Grant Ave. **Event Schedule** **1:00 p.m.** – Library doors open & book sale begins (hosted by Prologue Bookshop) **2:00 p.m.** – Jessica Strawser in conversation with Thirti Umrigar **2:45 p.m.** – Audience Q&A **3:00 p.m.** – Book sale & author signing Come early to check out the books, settle in for the author talk, and enjoy a laid-back afternoon with fellow book lovers. We’d love to see you there!

### Tools in your AI's Toolbox : An introduction to MCP Servers The generative AI revolution has unlocked unprecedented capabilities, but the next frontier is agency: empowering models to interact with, query, and act upon the world. The current challenge is the “N x M integration problem,” where every AI model requires a custom, brittle integration for each external tool or data source. This approach simply doesn’t scale. How can we give an AI access to our sales leads, code repositories, or IoT devices in a standardized, secure, and reusable way? This session introduces Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol (MCP), the open-source framework designed to solve this challenge and become the universal connector—the USB-C port—for AI. MCP standardizes how AI models discover and use external tools, moving beyond simple function-calling to a robust, client-server architecture. We will dive into how this open protocol is creating a new ecosystem for building powerful, context-aware AI agents. Join this session for a developer-focused introduction where you will learn how to: Understand the core concepts of the open-source Model Context Protocol and its architecture. Utilize pre-built, open-source MCP servers to instantly connect AI to tools like Git, Slack, and databases. Build a custom MCP server to securely expose your own proprietary data and APIs as tools for any compliant AI. Move beyond bespoke integrations and contribute to a standardized, collaborative, and open ecosystem. Stop building one-off connectors and start building intelligent agents. This session will give you the practical knowledge to leverage MCP and create the next generation of AI that doesn’t just talk, but does. Want to be a speaker? submit your talk to our Call for Presenters!!! [https://sessionize.com/azure-cbus-2026/](https://sessionize.com/azure-cbus-2026/)

## Details \#\# Learn Infrastructure\-as\-Code \(the FUN Way\) — Through Minecraft 🎮☁️ **Joint Meetup: DevOps Columbus - Azure CBUS - Columbus HashiCorp User Group** What if learning Terraform and Infrastructure-as-Code didn’t feel like a whitepaper… but more like a game? Join us for a joint DevOps Columbus, Azure CBUS and Columbus HashiCorp User Group meetup where **Mark Tinderholt** \(Principal Architect\, Microsoft Azure \| HashiCorp Ambassador \| “The Azure Terraformer”\) shows how **Minecraft** can be used as a surprisingly powerful way to understand real-world Infrastructure-as-Code concepts. In this session, Mark will demonstrate how Terraform and Azure can be used to provision, configure, and manage Minecraft servers—while teaching the same patterns you’d use for production cloud infrastructure. \#\#\# What we’ll cover * Infrastructure-as-Code fundamentals using **Terraform** * Provisioning real infrastructure on **Azure** * Applying **IaC best practices** (immutability, repeatability, versioning) * How playful environments like Minecraft make complex concepts *click* * Why learning through experimentation beats click-ops every time \#\#\# Who should attend * Developers, platform engineers, and cloud engineers * Terraform users (new or experienced) * Anyone curious about Infrastructure-as-Code but tired of boring examples * Minecraft fans who want to see it used in a totally unexpected way No prior Minecraft experience required—just curiosity and a willingness to learn infrastructure the fun way. Come for the blocks, stay for the Terraform. 🧱➡️📐