Performance Engineering

**Welcome to 'GENESIS' - The Generative AI Filmmaking Networking Event!** ***THIS MAY BE A LIMITED EVENT - PLEASE MAKE SURE TO RSVP.*** This group is for individuals interested in exploring the intersection of generative AI technology and movie making. Whether you're a filmmaker eager to discuss movie production, a technician looking to collaborate, or simply wishing to learn more and discuss AI in film, this group is for you! Join us at the Emporium food court (located behind Grill’d Burger Restaurant in the CBD, not near Melbourne Station) to discuss AI technologies, workflows, productions, AI ethics, government responsibility and more. After 7pm, we continue the evening with Happy Hour drinks at a nearby bar and a chance to grab dinner together. Feel free to bring friends interested in AI filmmaking; it’s a great way to introduce new faces to our expanding network. RSVP to help us gauge attendance and become part of a growing network of film professionals and enthusiasts. Though the event begins in the afternoon, the relationships you build here can last well into the night and beyond. At 7 PM, we move to The Carlton Club, a five-minute walk away, where we continue networking in a more formal rooftop setting over drinks and food. This change of venue offers an ideal environment to keep conversations flowing. We want to foster a supportive network for creativity, film and television production, and collaboration between the world of cinema and AI. Connect with like-minded individuals and explore the exciting world of generative AI filmmaking together at GENESIS.

We are excited to host Pavel for our next Melb.NET event where we discuss PR Reviews and how we can reduce the bottleneck effect they have on our development velocity! **Agenda:** * 5:30pm arrival - Food and drinks provided in-person * 6pm kickoff - Welcome & Introduction and few words from our Sponsors - 10 min * 6:10pm - Session 1 * 6.45pm - Session 2 **Session 1:** Breaking the PR Review Bottleneck by [Pavel Oborin](https://www.linkedin.com/in/poborin/) Pull request reviews are often the biggest bottleneck in software delivery, especially for distributed teams. What takes minutes to write can sit for days waiting for review, killing development velocity. The open source world has solved this at scale. Major projects like Kubernetes, Rust, and React coordinate thousands of contributors with sophisticated review strategies that go far beyond traditional approaches. This session explores proven techniques from leading OSS projects and how to adapt them for your teams: early design alignment, automated reviewer assignment, merge automation, cultural process shifts, velocity metrics, and modern workflow patterns. You'll leave with practical strategies to eliminate review bottlenecks and measurably improve your team's delivery speed. **Session 2:** How to achieve PR Flow in Messy Legacy Codebases by [Alex Phomphoukhao](https://www.linkedin.com/in/aphomphoukhao/) Exploring how we improved PR flow in a complex legacy .NET codebases. Covering metrics, workshop-driven changes, and how AI tools like GitHub Copilot and CodeRabbit helped reduce review load and speed up delivery. **Hosts:** * [William Liebenberg](https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-liebenberg/) \- Microsoft \.NET MVP \| Consultant at Arinco * [Bron Thulke](https://www.linkedin.com/in/bronthulke/) \- Microsoft \.NET MVP \| CTO / Co\-Founder at YouLi * [Bill Chesnut](https://www.linkedin.com/in/billchesnut/) \- Microsoft Azure MVP \| Consultant at SixPivot * [Tama Waddell](https://www.linkedin.com/in/tama-waddell/) \- Consultant at Arinco **Sponsors:** We have some amazing sponsors that help make this event possible: * [Arinco](https://arinco.com.au/) \- Venue\, Food and Drinks **Location:** In-Person at Arinco Melbourne. Level 6 / 440 Collins Street, Melbourne CBD 🗣 Apply to speak now: [https://bit.ly/melb-dotnet-cfp](https://bit.ly/melb-dotnet-cfp)

Speaking in public is not easy for most people, nor is running a workshop, writing a speech, thinking on your feet, or even speaking up amongst friends. At POWERtalk you will learn how to gain the confidence to step up to speak up. We've seen it many times over. We help you with simple techniques to look confident as a speaker even when you feel like crumbling. **You'll be giving presentations before you know it and loving it!!!** **\>\>\>** We believe there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to growing as a person and can tailor a plan to help you grow as an individual. **<<<** **Join us at a meeting soon to learn how to build your confidence as a speaker, effectively communicate, get creative, and have lots of fun doing so.** \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- POWERtalk Australia is a not-for-profit organisation training in public speaking and leadership skills. Guests are free of charge for the first 3 meetings. Full membership is surprisingly very affordable. Please ask if you would like more information or become a member. We look forward to meeting you for a night of POWERtalk (1st and 3rd Wednesday of every month) *PS. If you have symptoms of cough, runny nose, fever or are unwell, we wish you a speedy recovery and please ask that you stay away until you are well again. Thanks :)* We meet every 1st & 3rd Tuesday. Address: Power Neighbourhood House - 54 Power Avenue Ashwood Vic 7.45 pm start. 2-hour duration. Come along and enjoy the fun. We look forward to meeting you.

**🎲Board Game Morning: Games, Friends & English Practice!** Join us for a relaxed and fun-filled morning of tabletop gaming! Whether you're a grandmaster or have never picked up a dice, this is a fantastic opportunity to meet new people, build friendships, and practice your English skills in a friendly, casual environment. **🍱What to Bring** To keep the energy high for all those winning moves, please **bring your own lunch** to enjoy during the event. Date: 23 May 2026 Saturday Time : 10am - 1pm Venue : 552 City Road, South Melbourne

We are a multi-disciplinary group of PhDs and academic staff who write together regularly and help one another to achieve our writing goals through supportive community, focus and a structure that works. We welcome anyone who wants to get some writing done in a collegial, supportive, encouraging environment. You don’t have to be from University of Melbourne (you don’t have to be from university at all!). We use the Pomodoro method, which means we write in timed intervals of silence, then chat and catch up for 5 mins and repeat the cycle. Arrive when you like, leave when you like. The goal is to keep our writing projects progressing and reduce the isolation that can be part of the academic and/or writing life. **Session Outline:** Welcome: 9.00-9.05 (5 mins) Pomodoro 1: 9.05-9.30 (25 mins). Break: 9.30-9.35 (5 mins) Pomodoro 2: 9.35-10.00 (25 mins) Break: 10.00-10.05 (25 mins) Pomodoro 3: 10.05-10.55 (50 mins) Break: 10.55-11.05 (10 mins) Pomodoro 4: 11.05-11.30 (25 mins) **A note about the format** We don’t host critiques or readings. These events are a safe space for writers of all skill levels and genres to work on their craft, so no one will read or critique your writing. For our full event schedule, visit [https://shutupwrite.com](https://www.shutupwrite.com). **Other Important Details:** WiFi name/password: There is free public wifi available at the Melbourne Connect Superfloor (speak to the concierge for details). University of Melbourne staff and students can connect to the university wifi; staff and students from other universities can join Eduroam using their home institution's log in credentials. Travel / Parking info: Public bike parking along Swanston and Grattan Streets. Tram routes 1, 3, 3a, 5, 16. 16, 64, 67, 72 along Swanston Street (Stop 1) and 19 along Royal Parade (Stop 10). The nearest train station is Parkville Metro Station. Bus routes include 200, 207, 250, 251, 401, 402, 403, 505, 546. There is no public parking available at Melbourne Connect, however the area is well serviced by nearby public carparks, including Cardigan House Parking at 96 Grattan Street and the University of Melbourne Eastern Precinct Car Park at 375 Grattan Street. A taxi rank is located on Grattan Street.

​Connect with other local podcasters and creators to help grow and monetize your show as part of the Podfest Tour! The official registration page is [here](https://luma.com/vghh7ee8). ​Welcome to the Melbourne Podcasters Meetup! ​This event will be held at Natural Velocity - Level 1, 9 Star Crescent, Docklands VIC 3008. ​Come connect with fellow podcast enthusiasts, exchange ideas, and maybe even find your next collaboration partner. Don't miss out on this exciting opportunity to be part of the Podfest Podtour in Melbourne. ​You are also welcome to join if you create content on other mediums (i.e. video or blogging), are new to content creation, or are curious about how to become a creator. ​ **Agenda:** 5:30 PM - Doors open for networking and intros. ​6:15 PM - We'll start our presentation about what Podfest is and why we've come here. We'll also give you our top 10 expert tips for how to be successful with your podcast in 2026, as well as a bonus presentation to pierce through the noise of AI by building a community for your audience. We'll also have a Q&A session with the hosts. ​6:45 PM - We'll end the night with casual networking. ​ See you there!

We’re excited to announce our next **Melbourne MLOps Community Meetup** of the year! This one is right out of a sci-fi blockbuster. We are going to explore the AI landscape from **humanoid robotics** in Aged Care, something the team at Andromeda is actively trying to achieve, to the rise of agentic AI **as a teammate** in Software Delivery. DO NOT miss this chance to see how the world is changing right before your eyes. **🎤 Speakers** We’re thrilled to introduce: **\- Jason Chan**, Head of Machine Learning *at* Andromeda. Jason is a jack of all trades in the ML/Software engineering domain. He’s a rare talent who seamlessly pivots from leading elite defense autonomy teams at BAE Systems to architecting **enterprise MLOps** and teaching Deep Generative Models for **Stanford Online**. In his talk, *Making a Machine Feel Like a Character, and Other Hard Problems at Andromeda Robotics* Jason will explain how they are building a companion robot for aged care. A character that a resident is happy to see. **\- Farzad Khodadadi**, Principal Engineer *at* Catapult Sports. Farzad is a seasoned engineer with over 15 years of experience delivering enterprise-scale, cloud-native technology solutions. Specialising in the design and architecture of enterprise IoT platforms, he leads high-performing engineering teams while shaping long-term technical strategy. He will share his wisdom on utilising **Agentic AI** in Software Delivery in his talk: *From Tool to Teammate: Agentic AI in Software Delivery*. **Networking** The Melbourne MLOps Community is committed to fostering a space where AI/ML engineers and practitioners can connect, exchange ideas, and build meaningful relationships. Come ready to discuss: * The tools you’re experimenting with * Trends you’re seeing in ML and MLOps * Challenges you’re tackling * Ways to find peer support We’ll have food, drinks, and the perfect space for great conversations — so feel free to bring along anyone interested in ML, MLOps, or AI more broadly. **Agenda** 🍕 **5:30pm** – Networking, drinks & food 🙋 **6:00pm** – Welcome 🎤 **6:10pm** – Presentation by Jason ❓ **6:30pm** – Questions for Jason 🎤 **6:40pm** – Presentation by Farzad ❓ **7:00pm** – Questions for Farzad 🍻 **7:10pm onwards** – Networking, drinks & food We’re looking forward to seeing you there! **P.S.** If you can’t make it in person, we’ll be streaming the event via Google Meet. Google Meet link: [https://meet.google.com/fxh-hpsg-ryt](https://meet.google.com/fxh-hpsg-ryt)

**English for Beginners (A1–B2): Casual Speaking Meetup** （※Mainly for people in their late teens to 20s） • You understand English… but can’t reply? • You studied for years… but still can’t speak? • You feel nervous speaking English? You’re not alone You just need a place to try This meetup is for beginners who want to actually SPEAK. ✨ Small group (4–10 people) ✨ Friendly & relaxed atmosphere ⸻ **✨ What makes this different?** We don’t just chat randomly. Everyone gets a chance to speak! • Level-based groups (A1–B2) • Pair conversations (10 min each) • New partner every round • Simple question sheets No one is left out :) ⸻ **No pressure, no judgement** Mistakes are OK ‍♂️ Speak slowly, use gestures or a translator You WILL speak — even a little! And you might actually enjoy it ⸻ **How it works (1 hour)** • Short intro • 3 rounds of pair conversations • Free chat at the end Speak a little or a lot — both are okay! ⸻ **Who is it for?** • English learners (A1–B2) • International students / working holiday • Anyone who feels shy speaking English • Young adults (around 18–30) ⸻ **About the host** Hi, I’m Yuki I also struggled to speak English before. So I created this space where beginners can feel safe and try. ⸻ **When & Where** Saturday 11:00–12:00 — Meeting Room 1 - Library at The Dock **Free (just buy a drink)** ⸻ ✨ Just come, try, and enjoy! See you there :)

🚀 **Build Your Own CNCF Observability Stack: Hands-On Workshop** Join us for a practical, end-to-end workshop where you’ll build a modern observability stack from the ground up using industry-standard CNCF tooling. In this session, you will learn to set up metrics with Prometheus, visualize and analyze data with Grafana, instrument your application using OpenTelemetry, and implement distributed tracing with Jaeger. You’ll also apply best practices for collecting, managing, and interpreting telemetry data. This is a fully hands-on session, so come ready to build, break, and learn. By the end, you’ll have a working observability stack and a clear understanding of how to instrument and monitor your own applications in real-world environments. 🛠️ No prior observability experience required, but basic familiarity with containers or cloud-native concepts will help. **A laptop is required to participate.**

We invite you to join us for face-face English lessons at Upper Intermediate level each Monday and Wednesday evening, starting Wed 8th April. **Where:** Level 7, 628 Bourke Street, Melbourne CBD **Time:** 5:15pm - 7:30pm. Please come on time, as the doors are shut at 5:30pm. **What to expect:** You will be greeted by friendly tutors and trainee teachers. We are training English teachers and they work hard to prepare lessons for you. You will meet other speakers of other languages and engage in activities, and lots of practice speaking English.

Welcome to Elixir Melbourne's monthly meetup. Where we go over Elixir ecosystem news, listen to great talks, and socialise with other Elixir developers of all levels. We’re rebooting the meetup after a hiatus with new (and old) organisers, a new venue and emphasis on more time to socialise. There are still speaking spots open. If you want to talk about anything Elixir related, get in touch. **Agenda** * 6:00pm - Arrive, socialise * 6:30pm - Welcome; introduction; “who’s hiring” pitches. * 6:45pm - Talk 1 (speaking spot open!) * 7:15pm - Food, socialise * 7:45pm - Maybe another talk (speaking spot open!) * 8:15pm - Finish up and head to Saint & Rogue (down the street from SuperAPI at 582 Little Collins St, Melbourne) **Sponsor** Huge thanks to [SuperAPI](https://superapi.com.au/) for catering and venue.

**Register now to attend! =>** [https://konfhub.com/ksug-au-2026-05-06](https://konfhub.com/ksug-au-2026-05-06) **<=** **Latest promotions** discovered by our community! * **40%** OFF **[Linux Foundation](https://mf1.ksug.ai)** bundles Code: **FOURTH26AI** * **25%** OFF **[FinOps X Day](https://ksug.ai/discount/?tab=events&ref=meetup)** Code: **KSAIX26899** * Missed **75%** off [LF / CNCF](https://lf.ksug.ai/)? [Get Notified](https://ksug.ai/?notify&ref=meetup) for next BIG drop! We're excited to welcome you to the upcoming **KSUG.AI Australia Meetup** — happening both in-person at at Amazon and online via [Zoom](https://linktr.ee/ksug.ai)! 🎉 We're actively seeking more awesome K8s and AI topic speakers! 👉 [https://speaker.ksug.ai](https://speaker.ksug.ai) **Agenda and topics preview:** * Food, drinks and Socializing * Welcome / Introductions by the Organizers @**[KSUG.AI](https://ksug.ai/?ref=meet)** * **Topic 1:** Unlock GenAI inference anywhere with Amazon EKS Hybrid Nodes and Nvidia DGX by **[Frank Fan](https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankfan7/)**, Principal Container Specialist SA @**[AWS](https://aws.amazon.com/)** * **Topic 2:** I Came for the Kubernetes. The AI Did the Kubernetes by **[Olga Mirensky](https://www.linkedin.com/in/olgamirensky/),** Sr. SRE @**Ping** Identify * **Lighting Talk:** From Zero to Episode 1: Building a Content Pipeline With Claude Code by **[Eva Ng](https://www.linkedin.com/in/evang2/)**, Founder @**GMIG** * **Quiz time:** nice swags giveaways Food and drinks will be provided between **5.30 and 6 pm** on a first-come, first-served basis. This is a great opportunity to learn and network with our peers. Thanks to our sponsors @**[Amazon](https://aws.com/)**! **[Register here](https://konfhub.com/ksug-au-2026-05-06) to secure your spot!** See you all there! **Location:** Amazon MEL12, Level 13.304 [555 Collins St, Melbourne VIC 3000](https://maps.app.goo.gl/Kbi13GZqj2zDqDz2A) 👉 Join our [Discord](https://discord.com/invite/Rp9WzYyKua) and [WhatsApp](https://chat.whatsapp.com/D9a9IDiCS7U4cqQ0Sh60cz?mode=gi_t) for latest update! 🔖 𝐎𝐧𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐬: ☸ 30% OFF **[Kubernetes](https://lf.ksug.ai/)** Certs - Code: **30K8SUG** ☸ 20% OFF **[FinOps](https://ksug.ai/finops)** Certs - Code: **KSAI_20** 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐖𝐞 𝐃𝐨 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬: ✅ Learn 𝐅𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑 ⚡ ✅ Certify 𝐒𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐑 💰 ✅ Grow 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑 💪 𝟐𝟎𝟎,𝟎𝟎𝟎+ follow **[KSUG.AI](https://ksug.ai/?ref=meet)** 🔥 [linktr.ee/ksug.ai](https://linktr.ee/ksug.ai) *By registering, you consent to the management of your personal information in accordance with KSUG.AI Meetup's [Privacy Policy](https://k8sug.ai/privacy). Additionally, you agree that our sponsors may contact you.* **[KSUG.AI](https://ksug.ai/?ref=meet)** is an independent community and not affiliated with or endorsed by CNCF. Kubernetes, K8s, Kubestronaut are registered trademarks of The Linux Foundation.

Hear 4 expert talks, take the mic for an AI / hardware demo or announcement, and connect over pizza & drinks. **Important: Please grab your** **[FREE Eventbrite ticket](https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/physical-ai-meetup-tickets-1988533123101?aff=oddtdtcreator) here** **to attend. Registration is required, and tickets will be checked at the door.** A special thanks to the **University of Melbourne** for hosting us, in collaboration with the **Melbourne University Electrical Engineering Club (MUEEC)** — a student-run club enriching the student experience through social events, professional development, and industry networking that connects engineering students with peers and professionals. Pizza and drinks for this session are kindly provided by **Advantech** — a global leader in IoT intelligent systems and embedded platforms, with the corporate vision of **“Enabling an Intelligent Planet.”** Take the mic at our **Community Open Mic**! Bring your demo, prototype, or announcement — whether it is AI, hardware, robotics, embedded systems, sensing, or edge computing. All welcome. *** ## Agenda ### 5:30 – 6:00 pm \| Check\-in\, Welcome & Introduction Hear a short welcome from the event hosts and an introduction to the Physical AI Meetup community. *** ### 6:00 – 6:20 pm \| Talk 1 –Integrating External Conditioning into Large Pretrained Deep Learning Models **Overview:** Off-the-shelf AI models are impressively capable — until they are used in highly specific real-world domains. A model trained on broad internet-scale data may struggle with cancer biopsy analysis, flood prediction, recognising unfamiliar objects, or following complex multi-step instructions. In this talk, Dr Sachith Seneviratne argues that the answer is not simply to retrain models from scratch or add more data. Instead, he introduces the idea of **external conditioning**: injecting domain knowledge into large pretrained models at the right point, with minimal engineering overhead. Drawing on recent work across medicine, climate, safety-critical AI, and creative tools, Sachith will show how external knowledge can help pretrained models become more reliable, efficient, and useful in real applications. Attendees will leave with practical strategies for making large AI models work in their own engineering and applied AI contexts.world systems. **Speaker:** **Dr Sachith Seneviratne, University of Melbourne** **Bio:** Dr Sachith Seneviratne is a Research Fellow in AI at the University of Melbourne. He brings over a decade of AI research experience alongside four years of applied consulting work for organisations including NASA and Harvard University. His research centres on representation learning, applied AI, and the efficiency of deep learning systems. His work asks how large AI models can be made to operate reliably in specific real-world domains — from clinical pathology and flood emergency response to cybersecurity and urban design — without sacrificing the generality that makes them powerful. His research has appeared at leading venues including CVPR, ICCV, and AAAI. Sachith has developed AI tools for earthquake prediction, malware detection, wearable health monitoring, and automated urban design generation. His PhD from Monash University investigated the automation of machine learning itself, including generating parallelised inference algorithms directly from model specifications. As a consultant, he has advised global organisations on deploying machine learning in production, with a focus on building systems that are efficient, robust, and grounded in domain knowledge. *** ### 6:20 – 6:40 pm \| Talk 2 – Harnessing Intelligence from the Source: Living Biological Neurons as a Material for Physical AI **Overview:** What happens when intelligence is no longer built only in silicon? In this talk, Dr Brett J. Kagan will explore the frontier of biological computing and synthetic biological intelligence, where living neural systems are integrated with hardware and software to create new forms of adaptive computation. Drawing on Cortical Labs’ work with neurons on a chip, closed-loop learning systems, and the CL-1 platform, Brett will discuss how biological neural systems can learn, adapt, and interact with their environment — and what this could mean for the future of AI, robotics, embodied intelligence, and physical AI. **Speaker:** **Dr Brett J. Kagan, Chief Scientific Officer / Chief Operations Officer, Cortical Labs** **Bio:** Dr Brett J. Kagan is the Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Operations Officer at Cortical Labs, a multidisciplinary deep-tech startup integrating hardware, software, and synthetic biology to explore how intelligence can be harnessed from neurons on a chip. Dr Kagan has a PhD in neuroscience focusing on stem cell therapy and completed post-doctoral work in bioinformatics and regenerative medicine. His recent work includes developing the first real-time closed-loop demonstration of in-vitro intelligence in a simplified Pong-game environment, along with work to better test and understand these systems. He has led the scientific development of the first commercialisable device for harnessing the information processing capabilities of biological neurons, called the CL-1. He also explores the neurocomputational, philosophical, and ethical implications of this emerging technology. ### 6:40 – 7:00 pm \| Pizza & Networking Enjoy pizza, drinks, and time to connect with other attendees. *** ### 7:00 – 7:20 pm \| Talk 3 – Physical AI in Practice: Connecting Edge Intelligence to Industrial Outcomes **Overview:** Physical AI becomes truly valuable when intelligence can be deployed close to machines, sensors, factories, and real industrial operations. In this talk, Susie Chen will share how edge AI, industrial IoT, and data-driven decision-making are being applied in real manufacturing and industrial environments. She will discuss how organisations can connect intelligent edge systems to practical outcomes, including operational efficiency, automation, smarter monitoring, and improved decision-making. The session will provide an industry perspective on how Physical AI moves from concept to deployment — and how edge intelligence can help bridge the gap between AI innovation and measurable business value. **Speaker:** **Chen Susie** **Bio:** Susie Chen is the EIoT Head of Sales at Advantech Australia, specialising in edge AI and smart manufacturing. With global experience across Taiwan, Brazil, and Australia, she helps organisations transform industrial operations through AI-driven IoT and data-powered decision-making. ### 7:20 – 7:40 pm \| Talk 4 – Why AGI Needs a Body: The Case for Proprioceptive Data in Embodied Intelligence **Overview:** Vision-based AI has transformed perception, but real-world intelligence requires more than seeing. For robots and embodied systems to operate reliably in the physical world, they need access to ground-truth data about movement, force, position, and physical interaction. In this talk, Anantyash Dixit will argue that proprioceptive data — the body’s sense of movement and position — is a missing ingredient in the path toward embodied intelligence. He will discuss why specialised sensing hardware is needed to capture this data, how human movement datasets can support robotic deployment, and why physical AI may require a deeper connection between hardware, biomechanics, and intelligence. Drawing from Melbourne Bionics’ work across wearable sensing, athlete performance analytics, and robotics datasets, this talk will explore how real-world proprioceptive data could shape the next generation of embodied AI systems. **Speaker:** **Anantyash Dixit, Founding Engineer, Melbourne Bionics** **Bio:** Anantyash Dixit is a Founding Engineer at Melbourne Bionics, a medtech startup where he leads the full hardware pipeline, including electronics design, embedded systems, and sensor integration. Melbourne Bionics is developing three connected products: **Ares**, a calf sensor sleeve that captures real-time proprioceptive data from elite athletes; **Athena**, an analytics platform that turns that data into actionable insights for coaches and medical staff; and **Richter**, a robotics platform that uses the same dataset as a proprietary benchmark for humanoid robot locomotion. Anantyash’s background spans FPGA and RTL design, embedded firmware, PCB layout, EMI/EMC verification, wearable biosignals, and medical device development. He holds a degree in Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering from Monash University, where he was awarded the International Excellence Scholarship and served as President of the Society of Monash Electrical Engineers. Beyond hardware, he thinks deeply about the ethics of AI, the implications of physical intelligence, and what embodied systems mean for humanity’s long-term trajectory. *** ### 7:40 – 8:00 pm \| Community Open Mic Take the mic and share with the group — from hardware demos and embedded prototypes to quick AI-at-the-edge announcements, project showcases, calls for collaboration, and more. *** ### Wrap-up & Social Any further Q&As and chats will happen here. **Last reminder:** Please make sure to register on Eventbrite for your free ticket — it is required for entry.

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

**Building a great product is one thing—building momentum behind it is another.** Join **Senior Product Manager Adam Solaiman** and **User Experience Manager Tyson Smith** for a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to turn complex ideas into scalable products inside large organizations. In this session, they’ll share how teams move from ambiguity to execution—navigating organizational complexity, aligning stakeholders, and continuously evolving products after launch. You’ll walk away with insights on how to: * Build and sustain momentum across teams * Adapt to changing priorities without losing direction * Scale products thoughtfully in complex environments Whether you're driving a new initiative or growing an existing product, this conversation will give you practical strategies to keep things moving forward. Come connect, learn, and swap stories with fellow product professionals. \-\-\- Food and drinks will be provided by Switchbox, our generous host. Free parking will be available at the front and back sides of the Switchbox Office.

Whether you've never done improv before, or you've done it for so long you knew Del Close on a personal level, or anywhere in between, come join us! Swing by *Gresso's* for the **Columbus Improv Comedy Meetup** for some fun and games! The idea behind improv is to create entire scenes from scratch based on a suggestion from the audience. This can be done in game form, like *Whose Line Is It Anyway*, *ComedySportz*, or *Wild 'n Out*; it could also be done to tell stories, like *Middleditch and Schwartz*. Our meetup, which is central Ohio's longest running (and free!) weekly comedy event, brings the games (and occasionally different forms) for you to play in a safe, supportive, and compassionate environment. Not only is it a lot of fun, but you get to work on thinking faster on your feet, plus it's an excellent way to meet new people and make friendships that'll last a lifetime! **AND TODAY IS OUR THIRTEENTH ANNIVERSARY!!!** So be ready for a celebration of everything that's made Improv Meetup wonderful: you, the amazing performers! Ask yourself if you want to join the **Columbus Improv Comedy Meetup**, and say "Yes, And" that you'll have fun!

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.

The topic for May is "Ink" Speak Easy: true stories, told live. The idea is simple: an audience, an open microphone, and great stories. Hilarious, gripping, poignant- it's up to you. Audiences are invited to come to listen or come to tell as folks from all corners of Columbus offer their stories live on stage! Held at Wild Goose Creative's warm, intimate space, this night of tales occurs on the 3rd Thursday of every month. Doors open at 6:30 pm, show starts at 7:00 pm. Please arrive early if you want to tell, as we generally only have room for a limited number of tellers, and the sign-up sheet has a tendency to fill up fast. Formed around the idea that people need stories--they're what hold and draw us together--SpeakEasy celebrates the strangeness and commonness of being human. And in a world of smartphones, Facebook, Twitter, and more . . . it gives people a real, breathing, in-person way to connect. The night is geared for true stories of all kinds, taking the best tales told around kitchen tables, in darkened pubs, on the street corner, and at late-night parties and giving them an audience. Speak Easy is also a great outlet for performers, writers, and artists looking to share their favorite stories and perfect their skills. We strongly encourage tellers to please tell the story rather than read it so we keep within the spirit of good storytelling and stay engaged with the audience. All are welcome. Hang around after the show for a drink and build community!

We will show how to build custom agents with Microsoft Agent Framework. Attendees will learn how to build and custom host agents when Microsoft Foundry is not a viable option.