Category Archives: Events

TEDxDetroit: Making us Laugh, Making us Cry

If you’re not in the know about TED talks, you’re really missing out.  I got hooked on the topics and the high quality of speakers a few years ago.  I listen to the audio on iTunes.

TED stand for Technology, Entertainment, Design.  While the TED talks are national, the TEDx talks are locally, independently, organized around the principles of TED.   Michigan is quite active in TEDx talks, with events held in Lansing, Flint, Grand Rapids, and Ann Arbor (UofM) in addition to Detroit.

But this week TEDx in Michigan totally belonged to Detroit.  Hosted in the beautiful Detroit Institute of Arts, TEDxDetroit attracted 1000 folks to the city for this one-day event. The energy around revitalizing the city was everywhere at TEDx.  From Chazz Miller’s mission to beautify the city one mural at a time through Public Art Workz to the thought-provoking and energetic poet Jessica Care Moore , there was no sign of giving up on this city. Dancing, singing, and poetry were mixed in with a wide variety of talks.  There was definitely something for everyone.

The organizers asked the speakers to connect with the audience’s emotions.  We definitely laughed.  And there were 2 stories that made me cry, for different reasons.  I saw a lot of other people dabbing their eyes too when Steve Kahn talked about his kids in the Math Corps.  He talked about believing in the greatness of all children and how that makes him do crazy things.  Well, he may be crazy but his kids are improving their test scores from 30% to 90%.  When he speaks, his faith in these kids is evident.  He won’t give up on them.  Ever.  And yes, he brought me to tears when he described how one child didn’t want to move away from his family (the Math Corps) to live with his relatives.  Powerful stuff.

The other story that made me cry was Victor Green’s story about completing an Olympic distance triathlon.  Before his mother died, he promised her that he would make some changes to get into shape, and that he would do a triathlon.  He faced incredible diversity including horrific water conditions in the 1 mile swim that saw many people pulled out of the water.  He nearly gave up on the 25 mile bike, until he saw one of his teammates cheering him on.  His description of cramping and wanting to stop on the 6.2 mile run is all too familiar to anyone who has done a distance race.  But with his teammates cheering him on and running the last mile of the race alongside him, from the sidewalk, long after their finish, I was incredibly moved by his determination and strength.  Yes, Victor, you are a triathlete.  And an inspiration to us all.

And that’s what TED and TEDx are all about.  Surprising you.  Moving you.  Inspiring you.

TEDxFlint is on October 23.  TEDxGrandRapids is still in the planning stages.

TEDxUofM was in April.  TEDxLansing was in May.   I suspect they’ll be back in 2011, along with another wonderful TEDxDetroit.

Scala Code Retreat on Saturday, September 25 at SRT

Please join us in Ann Arbor at SRT Solutions, 206 S. Fifth Avenue, Suite 200, for a Scala Code Retreat this Saturday, September 25 from 9 am – 5 pm.  The format is well defined, here: http://coderetreat.com/how-it-works.html.

Basically, we’ll be working together on the same problem.  Novice and advanced Scala developers are welcome.  There will be no IDE wars (we’ll all just use vi … OK, I’m joking).

In any case, SRT is sponsoring a continental breakfast, and lunch is on your own.  There’s no cost to attend.

To register, go to http://coderetreat.ning.com/events/scala-code-retreat-ann-arbor

Scala now or JDK 8 (much) later

If you were waiting for the JDK 7 release in preference to Scala for things like lambdas, parts of Project Coin (small language changes), or Jigsaw (modularized JDK), your wait is over.  That’s over as in not gonna happen til the middle of 2012.

Maybe that’s too long.  Maybe you’re curious about what Scala can do now.  If you are, the Ann Arbor Scala Code Retreat is happening at a good time.  Join us on Saturday, September 25.  We’ll be at SRT Solutions, 206 S. Fifth Ave., Suite 200, from 9-5.  That’s at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Washington in downtown Ann Arbor.  Everyone is welcome: novice to advanced.  This won’t be a tutorial; it will be an active coding session.

Ann Arbor Technical Events

This week and next …

If you wanted to learn about Joomla, you missed your chance.  The Ann Arbor Computer Society met just last night on that topic.  Rumor has it that they have some amazing speakers coming up in the next few months, so stay tuned.

Tonight, the Michigan Python User Group meets at SRT Solutions, 206 S. Fifth, Suite 200.  The meeting starts at 7, and is free and open to the public. 

With the Ann Arbor .NET Developer Group meeting next Wednesday (August 11) and the Cocoaheads User Group meeting on Thursday (August 12), the SRT space will be the place to be in the evenings over the nextweek, regardless of your language affiliations and preferences! 

If you’re planning ahead for next week, here’s a brief preview:

Jamie Wright will be speaking on "Getting Real with Software Consulting" at the Ann Arbor .NET Developer Group.   

Chris Adamson, author of several books including "Swing Hacks" and "iPhone SDK Development",  will be in town for the Cocoaheads meeting.  He will talk about AV Foundation in iOS4.  Chris has had a history of interest in media, and he has an upcoming book entitled "Core Audio".  

Weeks like these make me appreciate our area for its rich tech talent as well as its ability to attract well-known speakers.

Ignite Ann Arbor videos posted!

Ignite talks have been presented all over the country, and I was thrilled to hear that Ryan Burns was organizing them in Ann Arbor.  About 200 people packed into the Neutral Zone on Washington on Tuesday, June 30, for Ignite Ann Arbor. If you missed the event, you can check out the videos posted on the Ignite YouTube channel.  I suspect that the videos will encourage you to attend in person when Ignite talks return to Ann Arbor in the fall!

The Ignite format is …. 5 minutes total, with 20 slides, slides advancing AUTOMATICALLY every 15 seconds.  I've attended and participated in a lot of 5 minute lightning talks, but the auto advancing of slides adds a new twist! Your timing had better be ON or the slide will go on without you (or linger as you wait, uncomfortably).  But, I found that I liked the format.  The energy level remained really high and the slides were engaging and interesting.   The speakers all did a fantastic job of staying on message and keeping with their slides.  I was quite impressed.

Here's a quick summary of what you will find on the You Tube channel:

Eli Neiburger of the Ann Arbor District Library kicked things off in amazing style with "Hack your Library".  His energy and excitement really set the pace for the remainder of the evening!

Matt Orishi is a Neutral Zone teen, and he did an amazing job of composing an electronic lullaby.  Not to mention, he's a TEEN! Good job, Matt. 

I spoke on the Under-representation of Women in Computer Science.  I was shocked to learn that the number of women in this field that I truly enjoy has been declining since I graduated in 1986, and felt the need to talk about this.  I hope that other computer scientists, male and female, will talk more about what we do.  I'll write more about this in an upcoming blog post.

Aydin Akcasu scaled his Wii Will Wii Will Rock You talk down to the Ignite format, and it was quite well received.

James Deakins talked about making your own weather balloon (and sending chocolate into near space!).

Stephanie Murray talked about the past and future of the news in this town.

Zach Steindler thrilled the crowd with a discussion of inexpensive, do it yourself camping gear.  My personal favorite?  The pop can stove.

Brad Boegler talked about receiving real time NOAA weather satellite imagery in your home (pretty sure that when my husband sees this, we will be hacking along with him).

Laura Fisher talked about classic visual ratios.  I didn't know that ratios were so fascinating, but she's right: they are!

Bob Stack talked about his experience with a fabulous group of people, coworking at the Mech Lab.

Kyle Mulka talked about the Many Uses of Twitter.

Eric Jankowski promoted the game Go (he sure makes it sound easy!).

Dave Askins talked about the history of the Ann Arbor Chronicle and the TeeterTalk.

John Barrie wrapped up the night with a discussion about how to end poverty using clean green technology.

Ignite talks will return to Ann Arbor in the fall.  I'm already looking forward to them.

3 Days, 3 Events before the Holiday

Holiday week? Lots to do before fireworks on the weekend.

Tomorrow night is Ignite Ann Arbor.  If you haven't attending Ignite talks before, check them out! If you have, I'm sure that you'll be there. Format is 5 minutes per speaker, 20 slides that autoscroll every 15 seconds. No time to get off track. No opportunity to go over. People stay on track, on message, and then they're off the stage.  Talks can be on anything, as long as it's something that the speaker is passionate about.  I'll be talking about the Under-representation of Women in Computer Science (the number of women getting CS degrees peaked the year I graduated from college in 1986, and has been in a steady decline since).  

Ignite Ann Arbor starts at 7 pm, and will be held at the Neutral Zone, 310 E. Washington (yes, that's just down the street from SRT's office!).  Register at http://www.igniteannarbor.eventbright.com.

Wednesday, July 1 is the monthly Ann Arbor Computer Society meeting.  I'm not sure about the topic, but it's election month, so it's really important that members attend.  Meeting starts at 6 pm, at SRT Solutions, 206 S. Fifth Avenue, Suite 200, Ann Arbor.  Pizza will be served.

Thursday, July 2 is the monthly Michigan Python User Group meeting.  The group is still deciding on a topic, but it never disappoints.  Meeting starts at 7 pm at SRT Solutions, 206 S. Fifth Ave, Suite 200, Ann Arbor.

And on Friday, it will be time to rest.

AADND, Software Stimulus Lab, Agile Groupies: oh my!

Tomorrow is the 2nd Wedneday of the month, which means that the Ann Arbor .NET Developer group is meeting at SRT.  If, like me, you're still bummed that you missed last month's meeting with Michael Wood on PLINQ, you probably will want to make an extra effort tomorrow night, when Steve Smith is in town and speaking on ASP.NET MVC.  Steve will be presenting Robert Martin’s SOLID principles of Object Oriented Programming, with examples of violations of these principles in a simple ASP.NET MVC application. The principles are then applied, resulting in a much more elegant and maintainable application.  This is a free meeting, open to the public.

SRT Solutions is inviting all developers to join them at Automation Alley in Troy for a day of software development at the SRT Stimulus Lab. This is a jam format, not a lecture format (which means that it's very hands-on).  We'll start off with some fundamentals: version control (bazaar), continuous integration, unit testing and functional testing. The format is open; you can work on your problems (with encouragement, advice, and help from others) or on our examples, if you just want a flavor of some new languages.  This is a low cost event ($75 for the full day), and it's free for unemployed software developers (limited seats available).  Sign up at http://srtstimulus.eventbrite.com.  If you use the discount code SRTUSER, you can still get the early bird price of $50 for a few more days. 

The Agile Groupies in Ann Arbor will meet at SRT Solutions on June 16, from 6-7:30 or so.  Cost: $10 for food.  Joe Hershey will be pairing and speaking, and the talk is entitled, "TDD is Nonsense".

The Detroit Java User Group will meet on June 17 at Compuware, during the Eclipse DemoCamp and IT Exchange Forum, from 5-8 pm. 

The next Ann Arbor Java User Group meeting is scheduled for June 24.  I'm still waiting to hear what the topic is.

SRT’s software stimulus lab at Automation Alley on June 15

 

SRT Solutions decided that we wanted to join in and provide a little stimulus ourselves, for software developers in our area.  So, we're hosting an event at Automation Alley, geared toward developers. Next Monday, on June 15, our "Software Stimulus Lab" will provide an opportunity for developers to get together and learn from one another.  Software experts from SRT will be on hand to help out with languages and technologies, as well as giving some real-world experience in subversion and bazaar, unit testing and continuous integration.  This low-cost event ($75) is all day long and should be both informative and fun.  So far, registrants have indicated interest in Java, C#, Scala, F#, Python, and GWT.  We'll bring some lab exercises for people to  work on, and of course, you're free to bring your own projects as well.

Oh, and the stimulus part: it's free for unemployed developers. 

Registration is at: http://srtstimulus.eventbrite.com/

I hope that you will join us.

JavaFX, Microsoft Surface, and TDD talks this week

The Ann Arbor area is ripe with events this week (apologies to our spouses).

Join up with fellow coders tonight at NSCoderNight, at Sweetwaters in Kerrytown.

Tomorrow night (Wednesday April 15), you will have to choose between attending a JavaFX talk at the Detroit JUG and a Microsoft Surface talk at GANG (Great Lakes Area .NET User Group).  Jim Weaver has solidly embraced JavaFX, and is working on his second book.  I'm thrilled that he's returning to the area, since I missed his talk at the Ann Arbor JUG late last year.  The meeting will be held at ePrize, 1 ePrize Drive, Pleasant Ridge, MI.  I had a hard time finding the location the first time I went there, so definitely check out the directions. The meeting starts at 6:30.

The Microsoft Surface is also pretty exciting.  VectorForm is a Michigan company that has been doing Surface development perhaps as long as the device has been available.  My first view of the Surface was in the James Bond movie (Quantum of Solace), and then I was also lucky enough to see one at CodeMash.  So if you haven't seen the Surface, definitely head out to the Microsoft office in Southfield (1000 Town Center Drive, Suite 1930, Southfield, MI 48075) tomorrow night.  Joe Engalan and Jennifer Marsman will co-present.  The meeting starts at 6:30.

And after the meeting (around 9 pm), join up with CoffeeHouse Coders in person at Mujo's in the Duderstadt Center on North Campus or on their IRC channel.

On Thursday 4/16 for lunch, choose between the monthly A2 Nerd Lunch or the weekly A2B3.  They're about a block apart, so perhaps you can hit both.

On Thursday evening, you have several choices in Ann Arbor: Ann Arbor Startup Drinks at Grizzly Peak, and the Washtenaw Linux Users Group at WCC.

Also on Thursday, but a little further from home, Dennis Burton is speaking at the Greater Lansing .NET User Group with his talk on "Test Driven Development is Driving me Insane".  Dennis will discuss patterns and techniques for writing tests that are more robust and provide better information, including techniques that you can apply to your design when writing new code to make testing easier, as well as tools for working with existing applications that do not have good test coverage.  If you miss his talk on Thursday, catch this talk again the following week 4/21 in Toledo, at Northwest Ohio .NET User Group.

On Friday, you can learn how (and why) to join a non-profit board in the Ann Arbor area.  A2Geeks is helping to sponsor training at the NEW Center, for just $35.

This is your last chance (mine too!) for the 2008/2009 academic year to visit the MPowered Entrepreneurship Hour at UM.  The speaker this week is Joshua Pokempner of Entrepreneur Toy Company.  The meeting is held from 3:30-4:30.

AAJUG meeting on Java Expert System Shell (JESS) tonight, March 24

The Ann Arbor Java User Group meeting is tonight, Tuesday, March 24, from 6:39-9:30 pm.  Jason Morris will be speaking on an "Introduction to the Java Expert System Shell (JESS).  The meeting is held at

Washtenaw Community College, WCC BE250

Presentation Title:
Introduction to the Java Expert System Shell (JESS)
 

Summary:
Sandia National Laboratory's Jess is a rule engine implemented in Java and based on the Rete pattern-matching algorithm.  The entire Jess distribution consists of the Jess API, a LISP-like scripting language (also called Jess), and an integrated development environment called the JessDE which is an Eclipse plugin.  Any Java developers who write complex business logic will benefit from this talk.  Business rules will be mentioned, but not glorified as the canonical example of Jess's abilities. 

If you want to learn how to add powerful reasoning capability to your Java applications, then this talk is for you.

Keywords:  artificial intelligence, CLIPS, expert systems, inferencing, knowledge engineering, knowledge-base, LISP, rules, rule engine, rulebases

Speaker Bio:
Jason Morris is the owner of Morris Technical Solutions LLC, specializing in Java web-application development and rule-engine applications.  He has more than 15 years in the software engineering field, spanning many application domains and comprising many different functional roles.  Currently, Jason is involved with the USAF to semantically enable human resources information systems via custom ontologies.  He is also a technical marketing and services consultant for Sandia National Laboratories, where he provides custom training and development services for licensees of Jess, the Java Expert Systems Shell (www.jessrules.com).  His latest joint-development effort with the University of Sydney (Australia) is a rule-based expert system called SINFERS for computation of soil properties from field data.

 

From 2006-2007, Jason was a GAAN Fellow at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts where he was pursuing a PhD in Computer Science and working on Intelligent Tutoring Systems.  He holds a B.S. in Applied Engineering Sciences from Michigan State University, a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Technological University, and a M.S. in Engineering and Technology Management from Portland State University.