The Detroit, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and Toledo Google Developer Groups (GDG) are teaming up once again to bring you the 10th Michigan DevFest on Oct 26, 2024 at the Little Caesar's Global Resource Center. We aim to put together a great day of networking and knowledge sharing for all involved.
Here are our current confirmed talks:
AI Talks
The Rise of AI Agents: From Concept to Reality by Nilesh Patel, Google
Supercharging developer workflow with Amazon Q Developer by Vikash Agrawal, Amazon Web Services
Evaluating the Evaluators - Navigating the complexities of GenAI metrics by Vikram Tiwari, Cloud & ML Google Developer Expert
Security Implications of AI in Code Generation and (S)SDLC by Kavitha Bangalore, Cleveland Clinic
Introduction to RAG with LangChain and Gemini by Godfrey Nolan, RIIS LLC
GenAI - Agents here, Agents there, and soon, Agents everywhere by John Thompson, EY
In-App AI Automation: Building Software that Uses Itself by Nathan Labenz, Waymark
Responsible AI - Auditing Models for Algorithmic Fairness by Ali El-Sharif, Ph.D., St. Clair College
Controlling App Screens Remotely with RFW and Gemini AI by Scott Stoll
Workshop: Building and Evaluating a Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) Pipeline to Land a Job! by Keith Bourne, Johnson & Johnson
Workshop: Application of Machine Learning Models to Predict Heart Disease by Ankita Guha, Freudenberg e-Power System
Fullstack Talks
Old to Gold: How to Modernize Your Legacy ASP.NET Apps Gradually by Jonathan "J." Tower, Trailhead Technology & Microsoft MVP
Bye WebSockets and WebRTC! Boost Web Comms with Rust, QUIC, WebTransport and HTTP3! by Dario A Lencina Talarico, May Mobility
Close Encounters of the Data Kind: Exploring UFO Sightings with MongoDB and NextJS by Chris DeMars, DigitalOcean
Mastering Data Flow in Modern Angular by Ankita Sood, Secureworks & Google Developer Expert
Workshop: How to Train Your Robot!” by Blaine Oania, Ford
Test-driven development and functional programming: Scala and JUnit by Alonso del Arte,
Mobile Talks
Getting Started with SwiftCharts by Nicholas Gordon, Apple Developer Academy
Controlling App Screens Remotely with RFW and Gemini AI by Scott Stoll
The Holy Grail: How Flutter Helped Us Hit 100% Test Coverage by Ben Jacques, SpinDance
Workshop: One Code Base to Rule Them All. A Hands on Introduction to Flutter by Ben Jacques, SpinDance
Mastering Fragments & Compose Interoperability: Bridging the Gap by Nav Singh, Manulife & Google Developer Expert
Misc Talks
Beyond Code: The Hidden Skills Every Software Engineer Needs by Don Ward, Google
So you wanna be a data scientist by Sage Murakishi, Little Caesars
Mentoring for Career Growth in IT by Jim Mason, Little Caesars
Womxn in Tech Panel by Jenna Ritten, IBM & Bandhan Kaur, Excelerate America
Government Contracting by Krissie Knight, JOURNi
If you want to make a money making app, don’t start by coding by Saamer Mansoor, BeAware Deaf Assistant
Test-driven development and functional programming: Scala and JUnit by Alonso del Arte, testframe.org
Doors will open at 8am and the event will conclude at 4:30pm. Breakfast and lunch will be provided. Additional event details will be posted soon.
This years sponsors include Google, Little Caesars, Axiom, SpinDance, Akkodis and MongoDB. Contact us if your organization would like to join the list.
Michigan DevFest attendees agree to follow the Code of Conduct.
Tickets are onsite now at http://midevfest2024.eventbrite.com/
See you there!
Agenda
9:00 AM: Check-In & Breakfast
9:00 AM: MiDevFest Welcome
9:30 AM: Sessions 1 - AI/ML
In-App AI Automation: Building Software that Uses AI to Do It for You
w Nathan Labenz
9:30 AM: Sessions 1 - Mobile
Accessibility Matters - Getting Started with SwiftCharts
w Nicholas Gordon
9:30 AM: Sessions 1 - Miscellaneous
So you wanna be a data scientist
w Sage Murakishi
9:30 AM: Sessions 1 - Miscellaneous
If you want to make a money making app, don’t start by coding
w Saamer Mansoor
9:30 AM: Sessions 1 - Workshop
Building and Evaluating a Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) Pipeline to Land a Job!
w Keith Bourne
10:30 AM: Sessions 2 - AI/ML
The Rise of AI Agents: From Concept to Reality
w Nilesh Patel
10:30 AM: Sessions 2 - AI/ML
Responsible AI - Auditing Models for Algorithmic Fairness
w Ali El-Sharif, Ph.D.
10:30 AM: Sessions 2 - Fullstack
The Holy Grail: How Flutter Helped Us Hit 100% Test Coverage
w Ben Jacques
10:30 AM: Sessions 2 - Miscellaneous
Mentoring for Career Growth in IT
w Jim Mason
11:30 AM: Sessions 3 - AI/ML
GenAI - Agents here, Agents there, and soon, Agents everywhere
w John Thompson
11:30 AM: Sessions 3 - Mobile
Mastering Fragments & Compose Interoperability: Bridging the Gap
w Nav Singh
11:30 AM: Sessions 3 - Google WTM
Womxn in Tech Panel w Google Women Techmakers
followed by WiT Lunch & Networking
11:30 AM: Sessions 3 - Workshop
How to train your robot!
w Blaine Oania
12:30 PM: Lunch Break & Networking
1:30 PM: Sessions 4 - AI/ML
Security Implications of AI in Code Generation and (S)SDLC
w Kavitha Bangalore
1:30 PM: Sessions 4 - AI/ML
Supercharging Developer Workflow with Amazon Q
w Vikash Agrawal
1:30 PM: Sessions 4 - Fullstack
Old to Gold: How to Modernize Your Legacy ASP.NET Apps Gradually
w Jonathan "J." Tower
1:30 PM: Sessions 4 - Miscellaneous
Government Contracting
w Krissie Knight
2:30 PM: Sessions 5 - AI/ML
Introduction to RAG with LangChain and Gemini
w Godfrey Nolan
2:30 PM: Sessions 5 - AI/ML
Test-driven development and functional programming: Scala and JUnit
w Alonso del Arte
2:30 PM: Sessions 5 - Fullstack
Bye WebSockets and WebRTC! Boost Web Comms with WebTransport
w Dario Lencina Talarico
2:30 PM: Sessions 5 - Miscellaneous
Beyond Code: The Hidden Skills Every Software Engineer Needs
w Don Ward
2:30 PM: Sessions 5 - Workshop
Workshop: Application of Machine Learning Models to Predict Heart Disease
w Ankita Guha
3:30 PM: Sessions 6 - AI/ML
Evaluating the Evaluators - Navigating the complexities of GenAI metrics
w Vikram Tiwari
3:30 PM: Sessions 6 - AI/ML
Controlling App Screens Remotely with RFW and Gemini AI
w Scott Stoll
3:30 PM: Sessions 5 - Fullstack
Close Encounters of the Data Kind: Exploring UX in AI Systems
w Chris DeMars
3:30 PM: Sessions 5 - Fullstack
Mastering Data Flow in Modern Angular
w Ankita Sood
4:30 PM: Closing Remarks & Prizes
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Speakers
Vikash Agrawal - Amazon Web Services (Senior Engineer)
Vikash Agrawal is a Senior Engineer at Amazon Web Services, where he works on Amazon Q Developer, a Generative AI product for developers. With a strong background in leadership roles, he has previously led teams at Housing.com and Dream11. Vikash is a passionate advocate for open-source software, having contributed through the Google Summer of Code…
Kavitha Bangalore - Cleveland Clinic (CyberSecurity Analyst)
Kavitha Bangalore is a seasoned professional with over 20 years of expertise in developing, integrating, and managing IT, Cloud, and Cybersecurity projects across India, Singapore, and the US. Currently serving as a Cybersecurity Analyst at a leading healthcare organization. She has earned numerous industry certifications in IT, Agile, Cybersecurity, ITIL Process, and Six Sigma (Black Belt). H…
Keith Bourne - Johnson & Johnson (Generative AI Data Scientist)
Keith Bourne is a senior generative AI data scientist at Johnson & Johnson, a global leader in the pharmaceutical industry at the forefront of AI innovation. With over a decade of experience in data analytics, machine learning, and generative AI, Keith has worked on diverse projects across companies ranging from startups to Fortune 50 organizations.
Keith recently authored a book for…
Chris Demars - DigitalOcean (Senior Developer Advocate)
Chris DeMars is a Senior Developer Advocate at DigitalOcean. He has over 20 years of technical experience and speaks globally on various frontend topics and has received accolades for his community contributions, including the prestigious Microsoft MVP and Progress Champion awards. Chris is passionate about enhancing web development and helping developers achieve their goals. In his free time,…
Alonso del Arte - testframe.org (Original Expert Consultant)
I’m the author of the Java unit testing framework testframe.org, which will eventually be easier for artificial intelligence to understand than either JUnit or TestNG. In my spare time, I’m a photographer and a composer of orchestral music.
Ali El-Sharif - St. Clair College (Professor)
Ali El-Sharif works as a professor at St. Clair College in Windsor, where he teaches Data Analytics and Cybersecurity. Ali is currently co-authoring a book with Serg Masís and Nick Schmidt. The book title is “Building Responsible AI with Python - Identify, explain, and mitigate bias with hands-on code examples.” Ali enjoys volunteering for GDG Windsor and encourages everyone to stay connected …
Nicholas Gordon - Apple Developer Academy (Coding Mentor)
Born and raised in Detroit MI, Nick attended College for Mechanical Engineering. Nick pivoted into the iOS development through the Apple Developer Academy where he currently works there as a coding mentor. On his spare time, Nick makes coding videos “Swift Sessions” where he explains a coding topic in under 2 minutes on LinkedIn. Nick loves taking pictures of sunsets and his favorite spot to d…
Ankita Guha - Freudenberg Group (Data Analyst Programmer)
Ankita is working as a Data Analyst Programmer at Freudenberg Group. She works mainly on automating business processes, designing ETL pipelines, developing dashboards, statistical analysis & testing along with developing Machine Learning Models to predict & classify battery signals telemetry data. Earlier this year she was invited to speak at Women in Data Science (WiDS) Conference wor…
Ben Jacques - SpinDance (Director of Engineering)
With a dynamic professional journey spanning over 15 years, Ben Jacques is currently the Director of Engineering at SpinDance, a cutting-edge software development firm renowned for its innovation in connected digital products and IoT solutions. Ben’s diverse technical background encompasses a broad spectrum of software development, including embedded systems, cloud technology, web, desktop, an…
Bandhan Kaur - Excelerate America (Software Engineer)
Bandhan is a back-end software engineer at Excelerate America, Google Women Tech Makers Ambassador, Change Collective's inaugural cohort member, diversity advocate with DEI Committee for her university's college of engineering, and an ex-volunteer AP computer science teacher for Microsoft TEALS. Growing up as a woman of color studying computer science, her aim is to break barriers on women in …
Krissie Knight - JOURNi (Design Instructor)
Krissie is a dynamic speaker and tech professional based in Detroit, MI. With a background in fashion design, she has seamlessly transitioned into UX/UI design and front-end development. As an instructor at Journi and Wayne State University, she empowers the next generation by teaching app design and development. A graduate of the Apple Developer Academy and MSU, she has been recognized for he…
Nathan Labenz - Waymark (Founder)
Nathan Labenz, founder and former CEO of Waymark, is a technology entrepreneur and distinguished artificial intelligence analyst. With a background in science and a keen eye for innovation, Nathan led Waymark from its inception to its status as a trailblazer in generative AI-powered content creation.
Currently, he hosts 'The Cognitive Revolution' podcast (cognitiverevolution.ai), where…
Dario Lencina Talarico - May Mobility (Staff Software Engineer)
YouTube PartnerI talk mainly about Rust, Networking, and the Software Industry: @dario.lencina
May MobilitySoftware & Infrastructure: A key player in developing the core software and infrastructure that powers May Mobility’s cutting-edge autonomous vehicles.Security: Architected the Public Key Infrastructure and User Authentication systems that secure both ve…
Saamer Mansoor - BeAware Deaf Assistant (Founder)
Saamer Mansoor is the founder of BeAware, building AI powered tools for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing, & for the institutions that serve them
Since 2021, Saamer has developed several groundbreaking tools for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community. One of his most notable creations is the “Deaf Assistant”, iOS & Android apps focused on improving safety and communication for Deaf …
Jim Mason - Little Caesars (VP, Customer and IT Systems Support)
Jim Mason serves as the Vice President Quality Engineering, Customer and IT Systems Support for Little Caesars Enterprises. He started as the Director of Software Engineering and was promoted to VP of that group in 2021. In 2023 he was selected to lead the Customer and IT Systems Support Group we he has been for the last 11 months.
Jim Mason retired as a 20 Year Air Force Veteran and s…
Mariam Mohamed Mohamed - DTE (Director of Digital Experience)
Mariam is the Director of Digital Experience at DTE, where she began her career 13 years ago as a student programmer. She oversees the full product lifecycle of self-service platforms—ideation, design, development, delivery, and monitoring—across web, mobile, and IVR, ensuring customer satisfaction. Passionate about using technology and analytics to optimize business processes, she’s also a st…
Sage Murakishi - Little Caesars (Director,)
Sage Murakishi is the Director, Data Scientist at Little Caesars Enterprises where he leads and optimizes reporting, analytics, and data science projects. As a data storyteller, Sage utilizes everything from basic statistics to automated machine learning to explain why it happened, what will happen, and even how to make it happen. He has experience using analytics in QSR, insurance, finance, h…
Godfrey Nolan - RIIS LLC (President)
Godfrey Nolan is the President or RIIS LLC, a mobile and web development firm based in Troy MI. He’s also the author of Agile Swift, Agile Android, Bulletproof Android, Android Best Practices, Decompiling Android and Decompiling Java. He is also an adjunct professor at Kettering University teaching LLM development.
Blaine Oania - Ford (Software Controls Research Engineer)
Blaine holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Wayne State and currently work as a Software Controls Research Engineer at Ford, where he blend his love for technology with real-world applications. Due to his love for Detroit and great experiences at WSU, he returned to his Alma Mater where he is currently completing his Masters in Robotics and Intelligent Control.
Outside of work and studi…
Nilesh Patel - Google (Customer Engineer Specialist)
Nilesh Patel is a Generative AI Specialist at Google, building conversational AI experiences and helping customers transform their businesses with AI technologies. With 24+ years in tech, he empowers businesses to achieve their goals through innovative solutions. He's passionate about solving challenges with cutting-edge technology and sharing his knowledge with fellow developers.
Jenna Ritten - IBM (Chief Architect & Chief Developer Advocate)
Jenna is Lead Architect for InnerSource@IBM and the Chief Developer Advocate for IBM Developer Advocacy. She also serves as COMPES Chair for COMPES Detroit. She works on expanding the reach of open source technologies to global developer communities. Her areas of interest include hackathons, design-thinking workshops, NLU/NLP, gamified learning, Blockchain, and Serverless. Jenna is an advocate…
Nav Singh - Manulife (Sr Mobile Software Engineer)
Google Developer Expert for Android, Organizer at GDG-Montreal, and writes articles about Android and Kotlin.
Ankita Sood - Secureworks (Front-end Engineer)
Ankita is currently adulting in Austin, Texas - where she is also learning how to survive the aggressive heat and increasing rent prices. Depending on the weather, she can be found outdoors hiking, biking, paddle boarding, trying to pet other peoples' dogs OR staying indoors reading a book. She has an avid interest in all things Design and Angular. She's been a frontend engineer all her adult …
Scott Stoll - Good Dog Apps (Founder / Flutter Application Developer)
Scott is a leader in the Flutter Community who has been involved with Flutter since September or 2017. He is based in Cleveland Ohio, where he is a co-organizer of GDG Cleveland.
John Thompson - EY (Global AI Leader)
John is an international technology executive with over 37 years of experience in the fields of data, advanced analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI).
John is responsible for the global AI function at EY. His role is to actively lead the design, development, implementation, and use of innovative AI solutions, including Generative AI, Traditional/Classical AI, and Causal AI, across …
Vikram Tiwari - Assembled (Lead Machine Learning Engineer & ML GDE)
Vikram wrestles with prompts and models to make them coherent. He is a Cloud and Machine Learning Google Developer Expert
Jonathan "J." Tower - Trailhead Technology Partners (Partner & Principal Consultant)
Jonathan, or J as he's known to friends, is a husband, a father, and the owner of Trailhead Technology Partners, a custom software consulting company with employees all around the world. He is also a 10-time Microsoft MVP in .NET and frequently speaks at software meetups and conferences. He doesn't mind too much because he loves sharing what he’s learned, and it also gives him an excuse to vis…
Don Ward - Google (Customer Engineer Specialist)
Hosted By
Dave Koziol, GDG Organizer
Dave is a Director, Software Engineering at Little Caesars.Dave believes strongly in trying to foster and grow the tech community in Michigan and is a meetup organizer for GDG Ann Arbor, GDG Detroit, CocoaHeads Ann Arbor, and the Korean / English Language Exchange.
Jenna Ritten, Lead Architect & Chief Developer Advocate
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Partners
Little Caesars (https://littlecaesars.com)
Headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, Little Caesars was founded by Mike and Marian Ilitch in 1959 as a single, family-owned restaurant. Today Little Caesars is the third largest pizza chain in the world with stores in each of the 50 U.S. states and 27 countries and territories.
Axiom (https://axiom.co)
Axiom reinvents log management for high-scale engineering. Handle massive data volumes with ease while significantly reducing costs, leveraging cloud-native architecture and a thoughtful approach to data management.
RIIS LLC (https://www.riis.com)
RIIS LLC is a mobile and web development company that specializes in creating drone applications
SpinDance (https://spindance.com)
SpinDance, trusted leaders in tech, looking to simplify the complex and connect the physical to the invisible. Every day, we partner with many kinds of organizations to build and manage the software that powers today’s smart devices.
Our services guide you to discover a value-driven IoT project that aligns with your company’s vision and goals. And our end-to-end approach and tech stack help you develop a state-of-the-art IoT solution, one that offers data-driven innovation at its finest.
Akkodis (https://www.akkodis.com/)
As part of the Adecco Group, the worldwide leader in talent advisory and solutions, Akkodis is a dynamic company poised to lead in the rapidly evolving fields of technology and engineering. With a strong international presence, Akkodis tailors its services to meet local needs while fostering innovation through collaboration in the areas of Talent, Academy, Consulting and Solutions. Committed to sustainability and talent development, Akkodis integrates IT and engineering expertise, delivering com
MongoDB (https://www.mongodb.com)
Build applications on the industry's first developer data platform. From AI-powered and event-driven apps to edge use cases and search, build fast and at the scale users demand.
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Complete your event RSVP here: https://gdg.community.dev/events/details/google-gdg-detroit-presents-michigan-devfest-2024/.