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Space Science Events Today
Join in-person Space Science events happening right now
When nothing happens: Bayesian approaches to testing for "no effect"
**When nothing happens: Bayesian approaches to testing for "no effect"**
We are delighted to have Mircea Zloteanu for the first Bayesian Mixer of 2026, please register here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/bayesianmixer/2066946
**Abstract:** Non-significant p-values do not constitute evidence for the absence of an effect, yet researchers often wish to make claims about “no difference.” Often this will lead to publications that make incorrect statements (i.e., claim no difference when the data is just uncertain) or even deter researchers from pursuing specific hypotheses or publish their work.
This talk presents Bayesian alternatives for evaluating null results. First, I demonstrate Bayes Equivalence Tests for interval (composite) hypotheses. Second, I illustrate the default Bayesian t-test method relying on model comparison (using the JZS Bayes factor), showing how routine analyses can quantify evidence for or against a point null. Third, I introduce posterior-based equivalence testing using the Region of Practical Equivalence (ROPE) via bayestestR. Together, these approaches provide principled tools for publishing credible null findings.
**Bio:** Mircea Zloteanu is a Lecturer in Psychology and Criminology at King’s College London, where his focus is on Research Methods and Statistics. He received his PhD in Experimental Psychology from University College London and has previously held posts at UCL, Teesside University, and Kingston University. His recent work focuses on meta-research, statistical methodology, and improving research practice, with particular emphasis on Bayesian methods, equivalence testing, and transparent reporting. Mircea is actively involved in the open science movement as UK Reproducibility Network Local Co-Lead and a member of ReproducibiliTea, promoting reproducible, rigorous, and cumulative psychological science.
GenAI UK #18 Agentic AI & GPU Optimisation - Nearform/Tessl
Hello and welcome to the next GenAI UK Meetup #18.
This event brings together engineers, practitioners, builders, and leaders working across cloud-native platforms, open-source ecosystems, Gen AI, Data and Agentic AI.
Our meetups are friendly, welcoming, and community-driven; everyone is welcome, whether you’re experienced or just curious.
This session will include practitioner talks, demos, Q&A, and time for networking with like-minded peers. Food and refreshments will be provided for in-person events where a host venue is supporting.
We are delighted to host this event in **London** on the **10th of March** with [Nearform ](https://nearform.com/)and [Tessl](https://tessl.io/)
**Speakers and Sessions:**
Speaker: Luke Philips-Sheard, Engineering Manager, Vercel
Session: Luke will break down GPU performance optimisation and AI sandboxing. Drawing on experience in finance and high-growth environments, he’ll explore how to manage GPU resources, isolate workloads, and prevent performance bottlenecks in real systems.
Speaker: Jack Foxabbott, Founding Member of Technical Staff, Stealth Startup
Session: Jack will dive into Neural Kernel Search and the evolution of custom CUDA for non-standard architectures. A practical look at how low-level optimisation unlocks performance gains that frameworks alone can’t deliver.
**Agenda (GMT /UK ):**
* 18:00: Welcome and refreshments
* 18:30: Introduction
* 18:35: Speaker 1
* 19:10: Break
* 19:20: Speaker 2
* 19:55: Close and Networking
**Get Involved:**
We are always keen to hear from:
• Speakers — case studies, engineering deep dives, lessons learned, open-source talks
• Hosts — organisations able to provide space for future meetups
• Sponsors — support with refreshments, marketing, or accessibility
If you would like to speak, sponsor, or host a future event, please get in touch with **[Ethan Sumner](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethansumner404/)**[ ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethansumner404/)via LinkedIn.
You can find our YouTube Channel **[here](https://www.youtube.com/@CommunityStackHQ)[.](https://www.youtube.com/@CommunityStackHQ)**
This community forms part of the **[Community Stack ecosystem](https://www.meetup.com/pro/generative-ai-uk-community/)**[ ](https://www.meetup.com/pro/generative-ai-uk-community/)and follows the Community Stack [Code of Conduct](https://www.communitystack.io/code-of-conduct) and[ Privacy Policy](https://www.communitystack.io/privacy-policy) to ensure a respectful, inclusive, and welcoming environment for all attendees. By registering for this event, you agree to these terms.
A Sci Fi/Fantasy Writing Session
**DUE TO LIMITED SPACE PLEASE ONLY RSVP IF ATTENDING. IF NO LONGER ATTENDING PLEASE UPDATE YOUR RSVP.**
Join us in the upstairs room of the Grafton Pub in Camden for another writing-focused session.
Bring whatever you’re working on, whether you’re outlining a new idea or deep into your current WIP. This is a space for writers to connect, share ideas, and find inspiration. Whether you’re looking for feedback, want to brainstorm with others, or simply need a quiet place to write, our goal is to build a supportive and collaborative community for sci-fi and fantasy authors at all stages of their journey.
Writing will start at 6:30, but feel free arrive and leave at your own convenience! We will end at 8:30pm, but the pub is open till 11pm so after it ends people can mingle or go home as they please. **While we encourage collaboration and occasional chat we ask everyone be mindful of those focused on writing until 8pm.**
**Also please support the venue by buying food or drink from the pub!**
Fresha Data Meetup: Data Rocks, Latency Drops
Join us on March 10th from **6:00pm** for a Data Streaming meetup hosted by **[Fresha](https://www.fresha.com/)**!
📍**Venue:**
**Fresha**
The Tower, 207 Old Street
London, EC1V 9NR
7th Floor
**PLEASE bring your PHOTO ID and REGISTER with your First and Last Name, Email. Thanks!**
**DOORS CLOSE AT 7PM FOR SECURITY.**
🗓 **Agenda:**
* 6:00pm – 6:30pm: Food/Drinks and Networking
* 6:30pm - 7:00pm: Jesús Gómez-Escalonilla Guijarro, Data Engineer @ Fresha
* 7:00pm - 7:30pm: Pranam Codur, Senior Solutions Engineer @ Confluent
* 7:30pm - 8:00pm: Sreeram Machavaram C, Principal Architect @ Cognizant
* 8:00pm - 9:00pm: Q&A Networking
💡**Speaker One:**
Jesús Gómez-Escalonilla Guijarro, Data Engineer @ Fresha
**Title of Talk:**
Optimizing StarRocks Query Performance: Lost in JSON, Found by Northstar
**Abstract:**
StarRocks is fast, but understanding slow queries at scale is hard when plans are massive JSON. We built Northstar at Fresha to turn plans and execution metrics into a visual view you can reason about quickly. Through production case studies that reflect our real workloads, we'll show the bottlenecks Northstar exposed (scans, joins, skew, modelling) and how it made tuning faster and more systematic.
**Bio:**
Jesús Gómez-Escalonilla Guijarro is a Data Engineer at Fresha, where he focuses on building scalable and performant analytical data systems. He has been part of Fresha’s data team for several years, first as an Analytics Engineer and now in his current role, helping shape how data is modelled, analysed, and optimised across the organisation. Passionate about making complex systems understandable and efficient, Jesús enjoys tackling performance bottlenecks and sharing learnings with the wider data engineering community.
💡**Speaker Two:**
Pranam Codur, Senior Solutions Engineer @ Confluent
**Title of Talk:**
From Data Mess to Data Streaming Platform
**Abstract:**
Most organizations want realtime data but are held back by brittle integrations, batch ETL, and siloed warehouses.
In this session, we’ll walk through the Confluent Data Streaming Platform (DSP), which is built on Apache Kafka® and Apache Flink®, and a reference architecture you can use to ship governed, reusable real-time data products that power applications, analytics, and AI workloads.
Attendees will leave with practical patterns to modernize existing Kafka and batch pipelines while maintaining security, lineage, and compliance.
💡**Speaker Three:**
Sreeram Machavaram C, Principal Architect @ Cognizant
**Title of Talk:**
From "Data Rich and Information Poor" utility To "Event-driven, Real-time intelligent" operations
**Abstract:**
Utilities are massive and complex. Whether it’s water, gas, or rail, they operate treatment works, pumping stations, compressor sites, signalling systems, and vast networks that span cities and regions. Keeping these services running safely and continuously means collecting and interpreting data from highly distributed sites and their connected networks in real time. This machine data — from PLCs, sensors, third-party devices, and operational systems — reflects the physical world: pumps starting, valves opening, pressure fluctuating, trains moving, gas flows changing. But raw telemetry is noisy, inconsistent, and deeply technical. SCADA and other OT systems are often siloed and reactive. Engineering signals are hard for IT to interpret, leaving organisations unable to combine OT data with IT-based analytics and intelligence in real time.
The result: fragmented visibility, alarm fatigue, and reactive decision-making. A Unified Namespace (UNS) and event-driven stream processing provides a solution. Using MQTT to publish operational events, Kafka as the enterprise backbone, and Flink for scalable stream processing, raw telemetry is filtered, contextualized, and transformed into meaningful, business-ready events. The outcome is IT-OT convergence in action — turning reactive, siloed systems into event-driven, real-time intelligent operations Intended to give a high-level approach and architecture around IO-OT convergence using UNS, Event Driven and Stream processing in modern intelligent utilities.
**Bio:**
Sreeram Machavaram C is hands-on practitioner specialising in utility solutions across IT-OT convergence, real-time data architectures, and stream processing. He works in a team that designs and builds event-driven systems that bridge operational technology (OT) and enterprise IT, enabling utilities to transform raw telemetry into actionable intelligence.
\*\*\*
If you are interested in hosting/speaking at a meetup, please email community@confluent.io
FRENCH CONVERSATION (for Intermediate & above) with a native tutor
***WARNING***
*If you are new to our Meet Up or haven't attended any class for months, please, BEFORE signing up to a conversation class, send an email in French to Christian at frenchlondonexperience at gmail dot com ; Anyone -* aforementioned - *signing up to a class before getting an agreement will be removed from the list. Thanks for your cooperation.*
You want to improve your fluency, your pronunciation and your French skills? You want to get more vocabulary, knowledge and understanding of French, the French and France? You want to speak on various topics with the support of a French native tutor?
Each week, we come up to a different theme. It pushes your conversation skills up. It helps you to speak about many topics and to interact in French in multiple contexts.
Regular attendees learn a lot, make improvements and are able to have a chat about numerous topic!
The bonus, you will be able to ask questions to an authentic French native!
**THE CLASS:**
This is a face-to-face conversation class lasting 90 minutes run by a French native & professional tutor (in London since 2016).
The whole class happens in French and is dedicated to French speakers with an Intermediate level (if not sure, send a message in French to the organiser). The tutor helps you to structure and improve your phrasing, and to develop your understanding.
During the class, first, we dedicate some time for a little introductory chat. Then, we approach the theme, read a text (you get a copy for the session), speak, learn vocabulary and things about French culture. The theme is always linked to French, the French and France. At the end, we wrap up and keep a few minutes for some miscellaneous questions.
After the class, you will get an email with a list of vocabulary (some words / expressions seen along the class).
**IMPORTANT**
If you are new to our Meet Up, please send ASAP an email in French at frenchlondonexperience at gmail dot com to introduce yourself, to check your level, to confirm your space and to get the Bank details for payment.
**PRICING:**
You can pay each time or by block (then you save money)
\- £15 per session \(to be paid when signing up by bank transfer \- Bank details on request\)
\- £60 for 6 sessions \(to be used within 3 months \- to be paid in advance by bank transfer \- Bank details on request\)
People who sign up without paying will be removed from the list.
If, after your first attendance, you decide to subscribe to the offer of £60 for 6 classes, you add £45 and then you incorporate your first class in the subscription.
The pricing is made to encourage you to attend more regularly as improvements will come with regularity.
**TERMS & CONDITIONS**
If you are to join, you are more than welcome to sign up.
But, please, if you have an unforeseen hitch, up date your status as soon as possible. As spaces are limited, if you don't turn up or if you cancel at the last minute, a space is wasted. Thanks for helping.
\- Fees are payable at the booking
\- No refund \(exchange for cancellation more than 12 hours before the start of the event\)
\- No refund\, no exchange for late cancellation \(less than 12 hours\) or non\-attendance
\- People who don't turn may be banned\.
If the session is fully booked, please put your name on the waiting list but ONLY if you are sure to be able to attend the session. As soon a space becomes available, even at the very last minute, you will be on the attendance list. Then you will be expected to attend the session and it will be due, even if you don't actually attend.
Thanks for your cooperation and thanks for understanding.
Follow French London Experience
[http://www.facebook.com/frenchlondonexperience/](http://www.facebook.com/frenchlondonexperience/)
[https://www.instagram.com/frenchlondonexperience/](https://www.instagram.com/frenchlondonexperience/)
[https://twitter.com/FLE_Christian](https://twitter.com/FLE_Christian)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0ZB8-AhXTeqNF9MwEySmeg
Website: [www.frenchlondonexperience.com](http://www.frenchlondonexperience.com/)
London Clojure Dojo at uSwitch
uSwitch is located on the first floor of the ZPG building at 5 Copper Row, London, SE1 2LH, London (Click on the map for directions)
What 3 words location: [https://what3words.com/puts.sudden.else](https://what3words.com/puts.sudden.else)
The Clojure dojo is a collaborative way to learn Clojure/ClojureScript through practice. The aim is to learn a little more than before you started. This event is for those new to coding through to more experienced developers.
We organise into small groups (2-4) people and write code to solve challenges great and small, chosen by those at the event.
We aim to ensure someone in your group has some Clojure experience, so you shouldn't feel lost (well no more than all developers do when Stack Overflow is broken).
Example challenges for the coding dojo are listed on this website: http://www.londonclojurians.org/code-dojo/
Various past exercises have been loaded to
[https://github.com/ldnclj](https://github.com/ldnclj/lisp1.5/blob/master/src/lisp1/5.clj)
# Approximate schedule:
18:40 Doors open and start collecting suggestions
18.45 Pizza should have arrived
19:00 Quick intros and vote on suggestions
19:15 Break out into groups and start practising
20:45 Gather together for a quick show and tell
# What should I bring?
We organise into small groups, so if you have a laptop with a working Clojure environment please bring it along (there are lots of online Clojure environments, so you can just use your browser too).
# How do I get in to the building?
At the glass doors press the buzzer to inform the security guard you are here. Say you are here for the event on the first floor.
Is there way to talk with the Clojure community?
Why yes. The Clojurians Slack channel is full of friendly people who love to try and help. People based in London are often in the #clojure-uk channel. Sign up for a free account to the Clojurians Slack community via http://clojurians.net/
What is Clojure?
Clojure is a JVM language that has syntactically similarities to Lisp, full integration with Java and its libraries and focuses on providing a solution to the issue of single machine concurrency.
Its small core makes it surprisingly easy for Java developers to pick up and it provides a powerful set of concurrency strategies and data structures designed to make immutable data easy to work with. If you went to Rich Hickey’s LJC talk about creating Clojure you’ll already know this, if not it’s well worth watching the Rich Hickey “Clojure for Java Programmers” video or Stuart Halloway “Radical Simplicity” video .
Inside the AI stack: Vercel agents & GPU optimisation
This edition of Future Form explores two parts of the modern AI stack. Vercel’s agent infrastructure, including the new Sandbox and what’s on the roadmap. And how to optimise code to run more efficiently on custom CUDA kernels.
**Luke Philips-Sheard**, **Engineering Manager,** **Vercel**
Luke will break down Vercel’s new Sandbox and how it enables secure, isolated environments for running AI workloads and agent-driven tasks. Drawing on experience in finance and high-growth environments, he’ll explore how sandboxing helps manage untrusted code, contain risk, and safely run agents against real systems.
**Jack Foxabbott, Founding Member of Technical Staff, Stealth Startup**
Jack will dive into Neural Kernel Search and the evolution of custom CUDA for non-standard architectures. A practical look at how low-level optimisation unlocks performance gains that frameworks alone can’t deliver.
If you’re building AI systems that need to run fast, reliably, and at scale, this one’s for you.
**Bonus:** pizza, drinks, and practical peer-to-peer AI insights.
Space Science Events This Week
Discover what is happening in the next few days
SREday: Site Reliability, DevOps and Cloud | LONDON 2026
**SREday: In-Person Event on SRE, DevOps & Cloud in LONDON**
Conference focused on Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), DevOps, and cloud infrastructure, bringing together engineers, platform teams, and leaders to share real-world experience building, scaling, and operating reliable production systems.
[Speakers & Topics](https://sreday.com/2026-london-q1/)
🎟 [Tickets](https://luma.com/sreday-2026-london-q1?from=embed)
The Spawn London (Beginner Friendly Game) - Social Deduction on a Cosmic Scale
"Humanity's insatiable appetite to colonise reached far into the stars, but they learned the hard way that some stones should remain unturned. Whilst aggressively terraforming Spawn home worlds, humanity stirred the ancient species out of their slumber and incurred their rage in a cataclysmic event.
Now conflict dances across the cosmos as the Spawn seek violent retribution by assimilating themselves among humanity and destroying them from within. Humanity’s only hope of survival is to detect the Spawn among them and destroy the threat."
The Spawn is a large-scale elimination-based social deduction game where humanity must root out the Spawn which have infiltrated their ranks or be overpowered by them. Strategic gameplay, social subterfuge and gripping sci-fi all in one immersive experience.
How to play here:
[https://youtu.be/N9C65GQGohA?si=OlwcCbcAIGoQSsIf](https://youtu.be/N9C65GQGohA?si=OlwcCbcAIGoQSsIf)
Find the rules and role sheet here: [https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1IWk9RN97Dt0lm7dfnsvL2G5Ne4L1VFNV?usp=sharing](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1IWk9RN97Dt0lm7dfnsvL2G5Ne4L1VFNV?usp=sharing)
We always have more players than RSVP and are happy to teach newer members how to play in a friendly inclusive environment. Every player has a hidden role and every game has a moderator who can help guide beginners.
Toxic, harmful or anti-social behaviour is not tolerated at these events. Moderators will ensure that games remain friendly and will not tolerate any personal attacks made to them or other players in games. If you experience or witness any behaviour like this at an event the quickest way to get it resolved is by reporting it to a moderator or you can also send a message to [[thespawnsocialdeduction@gmail.com](mailto:thespawnsocialdeduction@gmail.com)]([mailto:thespawnsocialdeduction@gmail.com](http://mailto:thespawnsocialdeduction@gmail.com/)) with your name and details of what happened where we will get back to you as soon as we can.
If you ever feel uncomfortable, targeted or harassed at an event always feel free to reach us via the methods above. We always strive to make our events a fun and safe place for all our members.
Follow The Spawn on socials!
The Spawn Facebook: [facebook.com/profile.php?id=61559668577588](http://facebook.com/profile.php?id=61559668577588)
The Spawn Instagram: [instagram.com/thespawnofficial](http://instagram.com/thespawnofficial)
The Spawn Twitter: [x.com/The_Spawn_Game](x.com/The_Spawn_Game)
The Spawn YouTube: [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZgWcuXoir0BX8TrjV_NM5A](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZgWcuXoir0BX8TrjV_NM5A)
The Spawn Twitch: [twitch.tv/the_spawn_official](http://twitch.tv/the_spawn_official)
The Spawn TikTok: [tiktok.com/@thespawnofficial](http://tiktok.com/@thespawnofficial)
DevOps Not Dead: DevOps, Cloud, Rock & Roll | LONDON 2026
**DevOps Not Dead: In-Person Event on DevOps, Platform & Cloud in LONDON**
Conference focused on modern DevOps, platform engineering, and cloud infrastructure. It brings together engineers, SREs, and platform teams to share practical experience in CI/CD, Kubernetes, automation, cloud architecture, reliability, and operating production systems at scale.
**🎤 [Speakers & Topics](https://devopsnotdead.com/2026-london-q1/)**
**🎟 [Tickets](https://luma.com/devopsnotdead-2026-london-q1?from=embed)**
Get your ticket — 50% OFF with promo code: MEETUP50
IN PERSON STUDY & CONVERSATION GROUP - OCCULT SCIENCE
IN PERSON STUDY & CONVERSATION GROUP - OCCULT SCIENCE
WITH DAGMAR STEFFELBAUER
**Occult Science is not a collection of lectures but a written book by Rudolf Steiner. It is meant for studying the content. It is composed of VII Chapters and the study group has almost reached the end of chapter lV (Human and World Evolution). Soon the study group is going to enter chapter V in which Rudolf Steiner is focusing on our present time and tasks in which each individual Human Being is called to participate. We are using the translation by George and Mary SAdams.**
**All are welcome!**
**Further information: d.steffelbauer@gmail.com**
This group is run under the auspices of the Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain and small donations towards expenses are welcome.
£ 3 / £2 .
Agentic AI & Platform Engineering Leadership in Financial Services - LBG
Hello and welcome to our joint **Cloud Platform Engineering London x Platform Engineering Leaders x Data & AI Leaders** meetup.
This special crossover event brings together platform engineers, data and AI leaders, architects, SREs, and technology executives exploring how agentic AI systems intersect with modern platform engineering in regulated financial services environments.
We are delighted to host this event at Lloyd's Banking Group in London.
**Speakers & Sessions:**
Panel: Agentic AI in the Enterprise
Speakers:
* Joseph Reeve, Growth, ElevenLabs
* Chris Parsonson, CEO, Solve Intelligence
* Joanna Crown, Director of Data, Moonpig
* Sultan AI Awar, Solutions Architect (Digital Natives) at Databricks
* Moderator: Ethan Sumner, Co-Founder & CEO at Community Stack
Session: Agentic AI in Practice: How LBG is delivering scalable business value through AI
Description: This session highlights LBG’s enterprise approach to scale Agentic AI, showing how the Group has built a scalable and safe foundation for Agentic AI through investments in data & AI platforms, governance frameworks, reusable agentic patterns, and AI upskilling for colleagues.
Speakers:
* Astitva Karunesh - AI Business Lead, AI CoE, Lloyds Banking Group
* Lara Vomfell - Senior Data & AI Scientist, AI CoE, Lloyds Banking Group
**Agenda:**
18:00 — Arrival and refreshments
18:30 — Welcome and introduction — Ethan Sumner
18:35 — Agentic AI in Practice - LBG
19:10 — Break
19:20 — Agentic AI in the Enterprise
20:00 — Close and networking
We are always keen to hear from:
• Speakers
• Hosts
• Sponsors
If you would like to speak, sponsor, or host a future event, please reach out to [Ethan Sumner](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethansumner404/) via LinkedIn.
These communities form part of the [Community Stack](https://www.meetup.com/pro/generative-ai-uk-community/) ecosystem and follow the [Community Stack Code of Conduct](https://www.communitystack.io/code-of-conduct) and [Privacy Policy,](https://www.communitystack.io/privacy-policy) ensuring a respectful, inclusive, and welcoming environment for all attendees.
ClickHouse Observability Meetup at SRE Days London
It's a ClickHouse Observability Meetup at SRE Days London!
We've joined forces with the SRE Days team to host an evening meetup at their stunning venue.
Join us for a few deep-dive talks, some food, and beverages.
In fact, we are so excited that we have a discount if you want to attend the entirety of the event. Just head on over to https://luma.com/sreday-2026-london-q1 and use the code CLICK80 for a massive discount.
Looking forward to seeing you there!
Agenda:
5:30 - Arrival
6:00 - Uncovered: The Hard Truth About OpenTelemetry's Vendor Neutrality - Adriana Villela
6:30 - Observability Updates in ClickHouse - Dale McDiarmid
7:00 - How we built an SRE Agent with Clickhouse and eBPF - Chris Battarbee
7:30 - Running Grafana at Scale - Rory Crispin
AWS User Group UK Meetup #76
Welcome to our March event.
We're delighted to welcome [Matt Johnson](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mhjwork/), CEO, Rayo, and [Dan Keely](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-keeley/), Principal Data Engineer, Rebura.
**Matt** talks about hard-won AWS lessons on keeping cloud costs under control - plus a real “oops” story of how one small mistake can blow up your bill (and how to stop it happening again).
**Dan** talks shares how hardware-style production thinking makes your data platforms more reliable, maintainable, and cheaper to run
A big thank you to our sponsors [The Scale Factory](https://rebrand.ly/scalefactory) and [Cloudscaler](https://rebrand.ly/cloudscaler)!
**Programme:**
**18:00:** Arrival, registration
**18:15:** Talks start
**20:00:** Networking with food and a drink provided by the generosity of our sponsors.
**Talk 1:**
***When things go wrong: Managing cost in the cloud with Matt Johnson.***
There are lots of sessions that talk about the theory of cost management and tooling available on AWS, but far less look at the real world challenges of using them in production, as well as the rough edges they have - not to mention what happens when things go wrong!
In this session Matt will cover some of the hard lessons learned from working with AWS over the last 14 years, with a real-world example of how a simple mistake can cause problems, and how to avoid them in future.
The presentation is aimed at both those new to AWS and to veterans of the platform, and also includes practical guidance on how to improve your cost management on AWS.
Matt has been using AWS since 2011, including 8.5 years at AWS in the public sector tech org. He has presented at 6 separate re:Invents and dozens of other events, covering a wide range of topics. Now as CEO of Rayo, Matt continues to help customers deliver mission outcomes using cloud technology.
**Talk 2:**
***Predictable Designs in Data Engineering on AWS with Dan Keeley.***
What if we treated data engineering systems the way world-class hardware teams treat products headed for mass production?
John Teel (Texas Instruments) has spent years taking complex hardware from prototype to dependable, high-quality production at scale. In this talk, Dan borrows those “production-grade” principles - predictability, repeatability, and ruthless attention to failure modes, and translates them into practical patterns for building data platforms on AWS.
This is less about any single AWS service and more about building data systems that behave consistently, even as requirements, volumes, and teams change.
**What you’ll learn:**
Attendees will leave with practical, reusable approaches they can apply immediately:
* How to make systems maintainable
* How to keep costs efficient without heroics
* How to borrow best practices across engineering disciplines
Dan is a community driven data engineer and now c-level team builder working with a wide range of Data technologies in the cloud. He is on the steering group for the biggest tech conference in London - BigDataLDN. He has won a number of awards, including being named in the top 50 data leaders and influencers in the UK.
\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-
If you are interested in speaking at one of our events please check out our [call for papers here](https://awsuguk.org/call-for-papers/).
We are advocates for greater inclusion & diversity in UK Tech and are especially keen to receive talk submissions from people in underrepresented groups. If you are interested in speaking at a future meetup but would like to discuss what to expect or need assistance please contact our Inclusion & Diversity Lead Natalie Gray - graynataliej@gmail.com or DM her [@natjgray](https://twitter.com/natjgray)
Check out our [website](https://awsuguk.org) for more information about our community. Remember to follow us [@AWSUserGroupUK](https://twitter.com/AWSUserGroupUK) and on [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/aws-ug-uk) for the latest updates and you can find videos of our past meetups on [YouTube](http://bit.ly/2dZnvEE). If you want to chat with other members, join our [Community Discord Server](https://discord.gg/yMa8Rvtsmy).
Space Science Events Near You
Connect with your local Space Science community
From Idea to Working App in Minutes: The Agentic Development with Amazon Kiro
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
The Science of Aliens
This meeting will be a discussion of the book "the Science of Aliens" by Mark Brake
Dinner & a Movie: PROJECT HAIL MARY at Marcus Pickerington!
Join us as we get together to see Ryan Gosling and Sandra Huller in the highly anticipated sci-fi adventure, PROJECT HAIL MARY! The film is based on the best-selling novel of The Martian and follows a man who awakens on a spacecraft before realizing his mission to save Earth. Here’s a description, trailer and plan for this event:
DESCRIPTION: A science teacher wakes up on a spaceship, light years from home with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. As his memory returns, he begins to uncover his mission to save the Earth. The film is directed by the filmmaking due Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (21 and 22 Jump Street, Into and Across the Spider-Verse) and is based on the 2021 novel by Andy Weir (The Martian). The film stars Ryan Gosling, Sandra Huller (Anatomy of a Fall, The Zone of Interest), Lionel Boyce, Milana Vayntrub and Ken Leung.
TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VYsnngkS_U
MOVIE PLAN: Please purchase your ticket for the 2:30pm SuperScreen DLX showing and meet in the lobby area between 2:05 and 2:15pm! Tickets already on sale and will likely move fast for this hot ticket / opening weekend showing so advance ticket purchase as soon as possible is advised! Once you have yours, please list your seat number in the Comments section of this event. As a head’s up, this is a longer movie at 2hrs 36mins.
DINNER PLAN: Dinner immediately following the movie at 5:30pm at group favorite, FUGU SUSHI, located just next door! Separate RSVP required for the Dinner / Movie portions of this event. An RSVP here means you're signed up for the MOVIE! This portion will be open as long as seats remain. If you also plan to join for dinner, please also RSVP in the separate event listing for the dinner portion of this event.
Should be a good one, Dan
Conversacion en español (en persona)
While some are still meeting online, this is an in person event. Please note that we have attendees of all levels of speaking, including some native speakers. All are welcome!
Also, as we meet at the same time and place each week, many don’t RSVP on the app, so we will likely have more attendees than noted here.
Note: if you are asked to pay and upgrade the Meetup app, this is not necessary. You can ignore this and still attend our meetings.
Prototype, Play, and Build Workshops (In-Person @GameArena)!!!
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)!
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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!/)
Code Anywhere by Talking to your Phone
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.

























