Robotics

**Braver Angels holds workshops, debates, and public presentations designed to bridge the political divide we are experiencing in our country. We’ll hold our next meeting March 10th at the McLean Government Center (1437 Balls Hill Road, McLean) starting at 7 PM, with doors opening at 6:30 PM.** Our topic this month is Artificial Intelligence, aka “AI”. Are you excited? Are you using some form of AI now? Are you worried about it’s effect on the labor force or the environment, or do you look forward to harnessing its power? Do you think government should play a role in this arena? And who is responsible for the things that go wrong? Come bring your views and join a dialogue! We’ll send more information but for now take a look at these two articles with graphs from the non-partisan Pew Research Center. * [How the US Public and AI Experts View Artificial Intelligence](https://braverangels.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=eb070968609f8aecc37a46472&id=f67afbe50e&e=718ecb4ed3) * [Republicans and Democrats now equally concerned about AI in daily life, but views on regulation differ](https://braverangels.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=eb070968609f8aecc37a46472&id=38af42b78f&e=718ecb4ed3) [And don’t forget to try out Braver Angel’s new Depolarization Dojo where you can practice your skills, sparring with lifelike AI personas, in the quiet and privacy of your own space.](https://braverangels.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=eb070968609f8aecc37a46472&id=ddf81f6ac4&e=718ecb4ed3) Optional: If you like you can also register on Eventbrite **[here](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/what-do-you-think-about-ai-registration-1984234755568?discount=BRAVER&aff=oddtdtcreator)**. Our primary way of tracking registration is on Eventbrite. Our future is shaped by imagining what can be and putting aside our presumptions of each other. We look forward to seeing you! \*\*\***PLEASE NOTE**, Jennifer Ibarra is the main organizer for this Meetup Group. Please do not direct questions to Marc, but to Jennifer instead.\*\*\*

DC iOS returns to the Capital One campus for another meetup! Come and meet with fellow Apple developers in the DC Area, enjoy some food, networking, and a great tech talk! PLEASE INDICATE IF YOU WILL BE ATTENDING IN PERSON OR OVER ZOOM. **Agenda:** • 5:40 PM - Doors Open (in-person attendees). **Don't forget your ID!** • 6:10 PM - Welcome (in-person and Zoom attendees) • 6:15 PM - **Talk: *Vibe Coding: A Skeptic's Guide to Finding Your Rhythm in AI-Assisted Development*** • 7:05 PM - Community Announcements & Networking • 8:00 PM - Doors close **Talk Description:** **Vibe Coding: A Skeptic's Guide to Finding Your Rhythm in AI-Assisted Development** Leo Dion I didn't trust AI hype. But building thousands lines of production Swift taught me: AI can get you 70% there but expertise is still required. From skeptic to pragmatic builder, I'll share when AI shines, where it fails, and how to thrive in the AI era. No hype, no doomerism—just reality. Zoom Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83088929804?pwd=NinZzqyxxo8Cw1KSU1rMrPey8cxr2M.1 **Location:** Capital One, C2 Building 1680 Capital One Drive, Mclean VA, 22102 100A Visitor parking is either in the garage attached to 1680 Capital One Drive, or the open lot next to 1600 Capital One Drive. After that you will walk over to the main entrance of 1680 Capital One drive, and then walk around the right to the corner to room 100A For the metro, take the Silver Line to the McLean metro stop, then walk into main campus (about a 5 minute walk). From there, walk to the main entrance of 1680 and then go to room 100A **What you need to bring:** ID **When to arrive:** Doors open at 5:50pm ET Event will start at 6:10 pm ET **Will food and drinks be provided?** Yep! **Will there be rapid testing provided?** No **Will masks be required?** No

We’re excited to continue building AI in Practice with our monthly social! 🎉 Each month, we’ll host an informal happy hour and dinner at Upside on Moore in Rosslyn. Come join fellow AI builders, professionals, and curious minds for a relaxed evening of conversation, connection, and community. Whether you’re working on AI systems, advising on responsible adoption, or just interested in how AI is shaping law, compliance, finance, healthcare, defense, software, mission-driven organizations, or public service — this is a chance to meet like-minded people and help shape what this community becomes. 🍸 Drinks and food are available for purchase at the venue. 🤝 No formal agenda — just introductions, networking, and sharing what excites us about AI in practice. We’re so grateful for the early enthusiasm, and we look forward to seeing you each month as this community grows! **Date, Time & Location** 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM Thursday 23 October 2025 Upside on Moore 1831 Moore Street Arlington, VA 22209

**REGISTER AT THE LUMA EVENT PAGE!!! https://luma.com/msj956oc** Join us for an evening of data science side projects and networking! Come hear lightning talks about what people are building, meet other people working on cool stuff, and hang out. ​ Whether you're deep into a side project, just getting started on one, or curious about what other people are working on, this is a good place to be. Side projects are how a lot of us learn new tools, explore ideas, and connect with people—and they're a lot more fun when you have other people to talk to about them. **Schedule (this might change!!!)** * ​6:00 - 6:30PM: Mingling & food & drinks * ​6:30 - 7:15PM: Lightning talks * ​7:15 - 8:00PM: Networking & social hour Speakers! * **Travis Hoppe** (speaking in personal capacity): "Girls, Interrupted" — using face detection and embedding models to analyze screen time across 175 movies * **Elliott Miller**: "Binding at the Speed of AI: LoRA Training Meets Autonomous Agents" * **William Zhu**: [MoltComics](https://moltcomics.com) — Comics for the Agent Internet * **Mystery speaker** (speaking in personal capacity): Congressional side projects you can do.

This meetup is for people that want to play table games: board games, strategy games, episodic RPGs, eurogames, card games and co-operative games. NOT A GAMER BUT WANT TO LEARN? We teach them all... We are open minded on all games. Games we plan to teach and play include Ascension, Azul, Azul Summer Pavillion, Splendor, Magic The Gathering, Melee/Wizard, Backgammon, Castallan, Chess Variants, Compounded, Dead of Winters: Crossroads, Dixit, Dominion, Exploding Kittens, Flux, GravWell, Ghost Stories, Hanabi, Heroquest RPG, Hive, House Divided, House on the Hill, Illuminati, Ingenious, King of Tokyo, Lost Cities, Machi Koro, Munchkin, Pandemic, Pirate Dice, Ogre/GEV, Qwirkle, Race for the Galaxy, Roll Through The Ages, Ricochet Robot, RoboRally, Settlers of Catan, Sagrada, Sentinels of the Multiverse, Splendor, Spot-It, Sushi-To-Go, Takenoko, Ticket to Ride, Tsuro, Up Front, Yahtzee, Advanced Wizards Card Game, etc.

Hello everyone! Who doesn't love Pizza! We'll be meeting at Andy's Pizza in Tyson's Galleria and doing some old-fashioned networking, beer-drinking, and pizza-eating. I guarantee a fun time, or else your pizza is free :) **Location:** Andy's Pizza, Tyson's Galleria, 2001 International Dr, McLean, VA 22102 **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.

**###PLEASE NOTE: Even if you RSVP on Meetup, you will need to grab a ticket here https://www.skipthesmalltalk.com/store/skip-the-small-talk-night-at-metrobar-dc-friday-march-13-2026 in order to attend###** This event is cross-posted so Meetup RSVPs won't accurately reflect the actual number of attendees; typically there are around 30-40 people in attendance. **What's It Like?** Do you wish you could have more of the kinds of conversations you have late at night where for some reason, you feel safe talking about the things you actually care about? Bring your friends (or come by yourself- most people do!) and spend your Friday night at an event where you know everyone else is there for the same reason. We'll be offering 'big talk' conversational prompts on them to get you started, and we'll have lots of structure to make sure that you actually talk to people and that it's not awkward. There will be drinks and snacks available for sale! **There is a 1 drink/food item minimum purchase for this event,** so please keep that in mind. **Check-in** for this event will begin around **6:45 pm**. Please do your best to arrive before 7:00 pm so we can begin as close to on time as possible. Skip the Small Talk is dedicated to providing an inclusive, welcoming environment for everyone. Check out our safety policy here: tinyurl.com/ststSafety Please see our event [page](https://www.skipthesmalltalk.com/store/skip-the-small-talk-night-at-metrobar-dc-friday-march-13-2026) for more accessibility info. **Ready to Skip the Small Talk With Us?** **[Grab a ticket](https://www.skipthesmalltalk.com/store/skip-the-small-talk-night-at-metrobar-dc-friday-march-13-2026)** since entry is on a first come first serve basis and we tend to sell out in advance for these-- once we are out of tickets, we will NOT be able to accommodate folks at the door. metrobar has lots of other fun events going on, too. Feel free to check them out **[here](https://metrobardc.com)**! If you want to be the first to hear about our events before we sell out, feel free to join our mailing list at [Skip the Small Talk Mailing List Sign-Up](https://sendfox.com/skipthesmalltalk) **###PLEASE NOTE: Even if you RSVP on Meetup, you will need to grab a ticket here https://www.skipthesmalltalk.com/store/skip-the-small-talk-night-at-metrobar-dc-friday-march-13-2026 in order to attend###** This event is cross-posted so Meetup RSVPs won't accurately reflect the actual number of attendees; typically there are around 30-40 people in attendance.

🗓️ **Date:** Saturday, March 14th ⏰ **Time:** Noon 📍 **Location:** 100 Maryland Ave SW, Washington, DC 20001 Celebrate the start of spring with a relaxed Saturday walk at the United States Botanic Garden. The highlight will be the **Orchid Exhibit: The More Than Meets the Eye: The Flower’s Connective Power**, featuring vibrant and intricate orchid displays. It’s a perfect way to soak up the season, appreciate nature, and enjoy some casual conversation along the way. The meeting point will be shared with confirmed attendees! Your RSVP helps us plan a smooth and enjoyable day! This event is public, so feel free to bring a friend (20s and 30s only). If they are not a member yet, no worries! We’ll share how to join Strawberry Matcha when you arrive. **Deadline to RSVP:** March 12th Follow us on IG: **@strawberrymatcha_sm**

Every year MoCo Makers is proud to partner with the DMV Petri Dish to celebrate Pi Day, 3/14, which is a celebration of the mathematical "transcendental number" pi - 3.14159.... Pi day is also a great excuse to be social and eat Pie! This event is open to all backgrounds, even if this is your first event! We are meeting at the 7 Locks Brewery, and they kindly let us bring our own food. No worries if you don't drink alcoholic drinks, all are welcome. Bringing your own food is encouraged but not required. If you are planning to bring something, please enter your name, item name, and quantity in the spreadsheet below: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ldQxYBECyxwTeX_woLhbQZlj0EkAyB5qrc-Q16hBOn0/edit?usp=drivesdk There will be a countdown leading up to 1:59 pm, complete with disco ball drop. 🪩 Dr. Cheryl Lohman is sponsoring an assortment of chef-crafted savory-style pies, and they come well reviewed (just ask past attendees). Join us for some good times, and tasty eats!

Want to mess with some electronics? Or perhaps contribute to HacDC's main group project? HacDC's latest event brings hardware projects to the community. We will focus primarily on the main project (Space Blimp!) but please feel free to bring some of your own projects to show off and work on!

**Important:** Register on the [event website ](https://www.aicamp.ai/event/eventdetails/W2026031207)is required for admission.(RSVP is turned off on meetup) **Description:** Join Google Cloud for the 2-days agentic AI bootcamp to learn how to build production-ready AI and multimodal agents. **Day 1: The ‘Now’ – Solving for Scale** Start building tools. Day 1 is dedicated to bridging the "Proof-of-Concept Gap"—the difficult space between a successful demo and a live, enterprise-grade application. We are moving beyond the novelty of "cool prompts" to focus on the engineering rigor required for the real world. **Day 1: What to Expect:** * \- Architecture for Scale: Learn how to design robust AI systems that don't just work once\, but work every time\. * \- Data\-Driven Evaluation: Replace subjective "vibe checks" with rigorous\, programmatic assessment\. Implement adaptive rubrics and tool\-use metrics to ensure reliability\. * \- Security: Deep dive into enterprise\-grade protection for AI workloads\. * **Day 2: The ‘Next’ – Capturing Innovation** The era of the text-only chatbot is evolving. Focus on the bleeding edge of AI: Multimodality. We’ll explore how to build intelligent agents that can see, hear, and respond to the world in real-time, creating immersive experiences that feel more human than ever before. **Day 2: What to Expect:** * \- Multimodal Gemini Agents: Coordinate agents to analyze video and audio while maintaining character consistency across multi\-turn image generation\. * \- Intelligence Beyond RAG: Move past simple retrieval with hybrid search\, context engineering\, and multi\-agent pipelines\. * \- Real\-Time Live Interaction: Build low\-latency\, interruptible agents that "see" and "hear" using the Gemini Live API and bidirectional streaming\. **Who Should Attend?** This hands-on workshop is designed for software developers, data scientists, and AI practitioners who have some experience building applications or working with models, and are looking to productionize them. To get the most out of the labs, you should have foundational knowledge of a programming language like Python and be comfortable using the command-line interface. While expertise is not required, a basic understanding of Cloud computing concepts, web APIs, and containerization technology like Docker will be highly beneficial. To participate, you must bring your own laptop and power cable. The activities are intended for laptops and cannot be completed on a tablet or phone.

Come join us for informal discussions about AI, and meet others who are passionate about the subject!

Discover Kiro, AWS’s innovative development environment that adapts to your workflow. Whether you prefer specification-driven development or a more intuitive, vibe-based approach, Kiro empowers you to build applications your way. In this session, speakers will explore Kiro’s core functionality and its evolution through re:Invent 2025, along with demonstrations of prompts used to create APIs, hooks, and steering documents. In the latter part of the session, watch as we build a complete example from scratch, showcasing Kiro’s agentic AI workflow in action for spec-driven development and vibe coding. What You'll Learn - Core Kiro concepts and development philosophy Feature evolution: pre and post re:Invent 2025 Practical examples: API creation, hooks, and steering docs Live coding demonstration with real-time problem solving Who Should Attend - Developers, solutions architects, and technical leaders interested in modern AWS development tools and AI-assisted coding workflows. **Speakers Bio:** Matthew Jorat: Matthew Jorat is a Customer Solutions Manager at AWS with nearly three decades of expertise in AI, cloud transformation, migration, modernization, IT, technology, and business. His career spans infrastructure engineer, solutions architect, security auditor, customer success director, support and services director, and operations officer. He was an early adopter of AWS services as a customer, and his current role at AWS uniquely blends his technical and business skills as he partners with executive teams to translate strategic priorities into measurable business outcomes through cloud adoption, AI implementation, and operational excellence. Matt leads end-to-end AI initiatives for enterprise customers, identifying high-impact use cases and maintaining relentless focus on measurable ROI. He holds eight AWS certifications and serves as Adjunct Professor at Franklin University teaching cloud computing and AWS architecture. His expertise encompasses GenAI, agentic AI systems, migration, modernization, and optimization strategies that drive transformation at scale. [https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattjorat/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattjorat/) Girish Bhatia: Girish Bhatia is a seasoned technology delivery leader with deep expertise in cross-domain program management. He holds multiple AWS certifications, including AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate, AWS Certified Developer – Associate, and AWS Generative AI Practitioner, and is also an AWS Community Builder. Girish brings over two decades of experience in the information technology industry. Throughout his career, Girish has led major technology-driven business transformation from modernizing on-premises applications to driving large-scale cloud migrations. His work includes API-based integration platforms, data-center and mainframe modernization, and enterprise cloud adoption initiatives. Based in Columbus, Ohio, Girish works at a tech-forward fintech company. He is passionate about AWS serverless architectures, Generative AI and emerging cloud technologies. An avid learner and builder, he continues to explore and apply the latest innovations in AWS to help organizations accelerate their digital transformation. https://www.linkedin.com/in/girishbhatia/[https://www.linkedin.com/in/girishbhatia/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/girishbhatia/) **THANK YOU** *Franklin University* for hosting our meetup! To learn more about *Franklin University*, please visit their website: https://www.franklin.edu/ **DIRECTIONS** Franklin University Fisher Hall 300 E. Main St, Columbus, OH 43215 Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/jxjBA2hUmS5qrvhq8 Parking is FREE! Please park in Lot C in front of Fisher Hall. See attached map. NOTE: Map the address only. When mapping with Google Maps it may use the Fisher Hall at OSU, which is NOT correct. **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

Bring your Raspberry Pi, Arduino, microcontroller, or any other electronic project and join fellow electronics makers for a night of creativity and collaboration! This session is open forum to share your current projects—whether complete or in progress, it’s all interesting! Whether you’re deep into embedded systems, exploring new ideas, or just getting started, you’ll find a welcoming space to collaborate, share, and get inspired. **New to electronics or curious about tinkering?** You’re absolutely welcome. If you’re a beginner and want to experiment, I’ll have a couple of starter kits available so you can try things out—whether that’s blinking your first LED, putting something on a display, or experimenting with simple sensors. No pressure and no experience required—just an interest in learning and building. While we continue to pursue a more permanent venue for this Meetup, we’ll be using public library facilities based on availability. This session will be at the Worthington Park Library in the Olentangy Meeting Room.

We will show a variety of methods for building agents that run in Microsoft Foundry. This covers the different types of agents: Prompt, Multi, and Hosted, as well as the development lifecycle using evals and traces.

Drake Lundstrom is presenting: Code Anywhere by Talking to your Phone Abstract: Have you heard the trend of people deploying code anywhere from checkout lines to doctors' offices? In this talk, you will learn how to talk to your phone and have an app on Azure to show your friend 5 minutes later. The basic DevOps tools you already know, plus a little bit of AI magic, are all you need! If you want to follow along, the demo will be in Azure with GitHub Actions and GitHub Copilot, and you can have it set up on your phone by the end of the session. Just come in with an Azure account and a GitHub repo. Join us for pizza, drinks, and networking @ Improving's office. Doors open at 5:45.

NFT's are here to stay folks! This is a group for like minded people interested in understanding, leveraging, using, creating for, profiting from, trading too i suppose, NFT's.. everything around them, complexity, fear and exploits, best practices and more. **PLUS** This group will talk AI ART tools, techniques, artists, video, audio, prototypes and more in the AI assisted production space- ART specifically, but we can get into any aspect of some of the cooler things happening in AI in general.

**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 **Abstract** TBD **YouTube Link** TBA

This month, we are in-person at GameArena!!! We will also be joined by students and their games from [Shawnee State](https://www.shawnee.edu/game-design-programs)! \-\-\- Join us for our our monthly COGG Prototype and Play event @GameArena! Come to play and showcase your games. We're back in the upper levels of the catwalk mezzanine area. It'll be packed with lots of camaraderie playing your game(s) and other's games on the 2nd floor as well as the 1st floor in the gaming room below the mezzanine. Light snacks and water provided but you can buy food and drinks at the bar (alcoholic drink ID required). [https://www.game-arena.co/menu](https://www.game-arena.co/menu) **Attendees:** Don't have a game to show? Not a problem! All are welcomed and invited from all ages and backgrounds. The more we can have to play test our games the better! **Developers:** Do you have a game that you would like to get critical feedback on? Would you like an excuse to work on a game with other talented artists, programmers, musicians, designers, and writers? Digital, table-top, non-experienced developers, and the like are welcomed! We'll provide signage for your game to help others learn more about your work. Wifi, outlets, tables, and seats (though standing tables also) are available. Come to the Prototype and Play workshop to collaborate and meet local game developers for an evening of epic and raw game play fun! Play works-in-progress, show off your own game, work with others to add polish to a game, or even lend your talents to other fellow developers. Can use South Garage at the Gateway with a $5 voucher on your way out. 75 E 11th Ave, Columbus, OH 43201 [https://maps.app.goo.gl/UwgveUYG37Jy7RtS9](https://maps.app.goo.gl/UwgveUYG37Jy7RtS9) If you have any questions or comments, as always, feel free to reach out to us at [info@thecogg.com!](http://info@thecogg.com!/)