Future collaborations … with AI and workshops

We know we’ve been quiet for a bit while things were busy with us but there’s quite a few things going on so we thought it best to start sharing the news .. we’ll just try and keep it brief.

BDSML (Bristol Data Science and Machine Learning)

… Message from John Neville

This is a message going out to all the members of Bristol Data Science and Machine Learning to let you know of a few changes that have happened over the past couple of months, and let you know how the group will be operating going forward.

Shake up among the organisers

Firstly, Chew-Yean has had to step back from month-to-month running of the group for family reasons. I know we all owe a huge debt of gratitude to CY for all the hard work she has put into the group for the past few years, and I personally would like to thank her for bringing me on as co-organiser and helping me find my feet running sessions 💖

She will continue to be a member of the group, but won’t be attending sessions regularly unless time and circumstances permit.

Secondly, Sam Drew has stepped up as one of the co-organisers to help run sessions going forward.  Sam’s got some great ideas for demos and code-alongs that we can bring to the Wednesday evening sessions in the coming months. Please come along to meetings and give Sam the same support you’ve given me in this role.

Me (John)

Thirdly, I will need to take half a step back from helping run the group because of other commitments.  The main commitment that affects BDSML is that I have hived off a daughter group that will specifically focus on AI Automations:

AI Automations

https://www.meetup.com/bristol-ai-automations

Chew-Yean and I were running sessions teaching prompt-engineering as far back as 2023, a mere few months after ChatGPT took the world by storm.  Since then generative AI has gone stratospheric, and become a distinct enough path in the AI world that it warrants a meetup group specifically for people wanting to get up to speed in this new tech 🤖

So the rough split between the two groups will be:

BDSML = high code, laptops out, code along, library/package focussed

AI Automations = low code, demos, watch-along, solutions focussed

Both groups will continue to meet on Wednesdays at Desklodge House… but for every other session (roughly) there will also be a separate AI Automations group meeting in a different room.  The dates for each session for each group will be posted on their respective meetup groups, and we continue to encourage people to RSVP for the sessions they want to attend so that we get an idea of numbers 🙌🏻

AI Ethics

And finally, in addition to the changes to BDSML I have also co-founded another daughter group to BDSML specifically to concentrate on AI Ethics:

https://www.meetup.com/bristol-ai-ethics

This group meets monthly on alternate Tuesdays and Thursdays (because not everyone can make both, not even the organisers 😅).  If you work in or around AI then we strongly encourage you to check out this group because the ethical considerations of the work we do will only grow in importance as the technology becomes ever more capable.

Feel free to sign up to any and all of the groups that interest you, and if you feel that this work is important then please support these in-person meetup groups and help continue to grow a thriving tech community here in Bristol! We couldn’t do this without you 🫵

Warmest regards from the frontiers of nerdery 🤓

Girlgeekdinners

…. is back in May – our apologies as we have not have enough time to run this – thankfully Torchbox are stepping up to run one for us.

Keep an eye out as we will step back in and start running more events and for anyone wanting to kindly host us then we are grateful. The direct meetup link is https://www.meetup.com/bristol-girl-geek-dinners/

More details on who we are are on our page here

Women’s Tech Hub

As ever we shall continue to run our regular bi-weekly drop in for Women’s Tech hub. Hopefully once we get our mojo back we may start running some dedicated sessions to support women navigating the confusing world of getting into tech. For now we would suggest attending the AI automations group mentioned above as the tech world is mid shake up right now and the future is AI driven, so worth having at least some understanding. We will be there at the event so you can drop out and come chat if its not your thing.

Details on our page here – just feel free to pop your head in and say hi if you want to check us out.