Guest Session – A Data Science evening with Ian Ozsvald & Chris Brown

May 4, 2017

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May 11th, you are invited to a new RABS Guest Session!

Relevant for anyone interested in data science, machine learning algorithms and their usage in different industries.

Abstract:

NHS ventilator

Mechanical ventilators are widely used in intensive care. Even two decades ago they were primarily mechanical devices whose “only” task was to inflate the patient’s lung. Recently, however, they have become equipped with powerful computers that provide sophisticated ventilator modes. Data provided by the ventilators are almost never downloaded, stored or analysed. The data is complex, high frequency and requires time-intensive scrutiny to review. Doctors do not have time to analyse these traces in a neonatal unit.

We are providing a simple and easy-to-interpret summary of 100Hz dual-channel ventilator data to improve the quality of care of young infants by time-poor staff. This involves signal processing, visualisation, building a gold standard and machine learning to segment breaths and summarise a baby’s behaviour.

Anyone interested in time series data, automated labelling, scikit-learn, Bokeh and medical applications will find this talk of interest. Both the highs and lows of our current approaches will be discussed.

Flight Data Anomaly Detection

Flight Data analysis platforms provide aircraft operators with valuable safety insight that is easy to use while delivering detailed reporting, statistics and visualization directly to the safety departments of the operators.

Maintenance and safety events can be identified and addressed without delay, minimizing risk and Aircraft on Ground (AOG) time while ensuring operators meet aviation regulatory requirements.

We will present the predictive anomaly detection service, part of a larger flight data analysis platform.

Ian Ozsvald is a Data Scientist and Artificial Intelligence researcher, author of O’Reilly’s High Performance Python. His skills and interests include machine learning, natural language processing, and recommendation systems in Python.
Chris Brown is doing Requirements capture and Solutions Architecture for data platforms. His current research areas are: big data architectures on cloud provisioned environments and agile approaches to data science problems.

Time & date:May 11th 2017; 17:30-20:30

Place: Urania Palace, Horea street, no. 4

Details and registration

Guest Session – Tales from the SRE trenches, with Martín Ferrari

October 8, 2015

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We invite you to a new RABS Guest Session, with Martín Ferrari, Debian Developer, Free Software promoter and a Google ex-employee.

Title: Tales from the Site Reliability Engineering trenches

Abstract:
In recent years, a new concept started to show up in job hires for operations positions: Site Reliability Engineering (SRE).

Spearheaded by Google, the idea is spreading to other big companies that face themselves with the challenge of supporting very complex systems with growth rates that can not be matched by linearly increasing the workforce of the operations team.

In this talk I would like to briefly introduce the core ideas of what is SRE, and what makes it successful; with an emphasis on a few aspects that can be applied to organisations of any size and pedigree:

  • Shared responsibility between developers and SREs for the availability of the service, and other tools to transform the traditional tension between operations and development into an asset.
  • Emphasis on automation, and quotas on operational work, that allow for growing the service faster than the workforce, while making workers happier.
  • Modern monitoring techniques, their usage as tools to measure availability, predict problems, perform forensics, and enforce failure budgets.
  • Designing systems for scale and failure, post-mortems as learning tools, ubiquitous code reviews, rigorous design documents, data-driven decisions, and other concepts that can be applied everywhere at a low cost with excellent results.

Martín Ferrari has been in the industry for over 18 years, some times as a programmer, some times as a systems administrator, and most of the time as both.

Two years after landing the dream job as an SRE for Google, he decided to quit the office life and become a digital nomad, consulting for companies around the globe while on the road.

He is a Debian Developer and a Free Software activist and promoter. He is also on a quest to visit all the pubs in the world.

Time & date: October 19th, 2015, 17:30 – 20.30

Place: Hotel City Plaza, Sindicatelor 9-11, Cluj-Napoca

Details and registration

Expert Session – Risk Management with Peter Leeson

May 17, 2015

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We’re thrilled to have Peter Leeson at RABS again with a workshop on Risk Management.

On May 25th, we invite you to a workshop on: “Risk Management”. Both RABS & IASA Romania as co-organisers would be happy to see you there.

Title: Risk Management

Abstract: This workshop will briefly introduce to some of the key principles of risk management: how much time and money are you willing to invest on a problem which might never happen?

The workshop is a practical approach to identifying risks, assigning them a value based on their probability and the cost of the issue, should the risk turn into a problem and how to decide what is the best approach to reduce the impact of the risk.

The workshop is interactive, and you will be encouraged to apply the principles to your real risks, those that impact your work, your project, your company. You will be assisted in identifying practical approaches to mitigating the risks as well as deciding whether contingency management would be more effective.

Peter Leeson is an old friend of our association and Cluj. He has a 40 year long career in software development and is currently a visiting scientist la Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania, USA). He is also an internationally recognised speaker, consultant and process appraiser. Presently, he is not only a certified CMMI lead appraiser, but also does quality assurance and development work in improving and rewriting the various courses of the CMMI Institute.

Peter’s name is already familiar for those of us who attended his presentations at ITCamp 2013 & 2014 (and soon 2015) and RABS Guest Sessions in 2012 & 2013 in Cluj. This time, we dedicate this session to Managers, Architects, Team Leads and all interested in what Risk Management is about.

Time & date: May 25th, 2015; 17:30-21:00

Place: Hotel City Plaza, Sindicatelor 9-11, Cluj-Napoca

Details and registration

Guest Session – The Essence of DevOps with Richard Campbell

October 9, 2013

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October 17th, you are invited to a new RABS Guest Session!

Relevant for everybody working in software development from kickoff to delivery.

Extremely relevant, if you have ever experienced the real “tension” of working together.

Abstract:
DevOps is about making software better – by bringing everyone involved in software closer together, including (but not limited to): domain experts, architects, developers, designers, testers, security and operations. This session takes you through the DevOps culture, focusing on people, process and tools (in that order).

You’ll learn how to get the conversation started between the teams, how to bring the teams closer together, and how to ultimately become one team (we’re all in this together)! Understanding DevOps is about focusing on what’s important: building and delivering the best software you can.

Richard Campbell has been involved with microcomputers and software since 1977. His career has spanned the industry both on the hardware and software sides, from manufacturing to sales, service, game development, line-of-business software and large scale systems. Today Richard is on the board of directors for Telerik, a leading vendor of development, team productivity, automated testing tools, UI components and content management solutions in the Microsoft space.

He’s a partner in PWOP Productions, creating a variety of multimedia programs including ‘.NET Rocks!, the Internet Audio Talk Show for .NET Developers‘, a podcast produced twice a week for more than 250,000 listeners in 150 countries. In addition he’s the host of ‘RunAs Radio‘, a podcast for the IT Professional using Microsoft technologies.

In the fall of 2011, he helped launch a third podcast called ‘The Tablet Show‘, focused on the emerging tablet and mobile market. Richard is also a Microsoft Regional Director, MVP and speaks at conferences around the world.

Richard is at his second visit in Cluj, this year, and we challenge you to help us show him that we are a community worth revisiting!

Time & date: October 17th 2013; 18:00-20:30

Place: Hotel City Plaza (Ballroom Conference room)

Fee: 50 RON (25RON for RABS members)

Further details and registration

Partners:
RONUA  ITSpark  CODECAMP
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Guest Session – Intelligent Evolution – Part 2: Darwinian Management, with Peter Leeson

September 10, 2013

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This autumn starts at RABS with Peter Leeson.

On September 24th, we invite you to a public talk and Q&A session titled: “Intelligent Evolution – Part 2: Darwinian Management”.

Title: Intelligent Evolution – Part 2: Darwinian Management

Abstract: Within an organization, the concept of revolution rarely works. The idea of throwing out everything that was done previously and replacing it with some new management theory or work practice does not necessarily lead to the expected results. Instead, it leads to demotivation of the skilled staff and the rapid departure of the most skilled, experienced and valuable staff members.

Progress within an organization needs to be based on the concept of improvement rather than innovation whenever possible, taking the good things, the experience of the successful people, who have been doing their work successfully for many years and using that as a seed for growing the new practices and work environment.

Peter Leeson is an old friend of our association and we are honoured by his openness in response to our invitation to dialogue on the topics above. He has a 40 year long career in software development and is currently a visiting scientist la Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania, USA). He is also an internationally recognised speaker, consultant and process appraiser. Presently, he is not only a certified CMMI lead appraiser, but also does quality assurance and development work in improving and rewriting the various courses of the CMMI Institute.

Peter’s name is already familiar for those of us who attended his presentation at ITCamp 2013 and RABS Guest Session in 2012 in Cluj. He promises to deliver his newest thoughts in the same engaging manner we are used to see.

Time & date: September 24th, 2013; 17:30-21:00

Place: Hotel City Plaza, Sindicatelor 9-11, Cluj-Napoca

Details and registration

Guest Session – Can Process Make You Happy?

July 9, 2012

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We are extremely happy to announce the presence of an international expert among us.

Peter Leeson is an international process improvement and management consultant with global experience. He is a visiting scientist with the Carnegie Mellon University, a CMMI certified lead appraiser and instructor. He visited Romania and Cluj several times in the recent years and knows our culture and characteristics of local software companies.
We’ll be able to tap into his vast knowledge on improvement, quality and processes.
He is open to discuss based on our questions, so please bring your deepest troubles related to work practices, quality assurance, review or any other software development topics (which are not about coding).

Date & time: August 2nd, 2012
Location: Hotel City Plaza, Cluj-Napoca

Convinced? Reserve your seat, here!

[Update: 2012-08-13]
Screencast (recorded live) Printable slides
Slides: