MUG Lisbon x JUG Lisbon NOV 2026 - Java & MongoDB: Before and After the AI Hype
MUG Lisbon × JUG Lisbon at Critical Software 🚀
Join us at Critical Software for a joint evening of MongoDB User Group Lisbon and Java User Group Lisbon. Two communities, three talks, real-world engineering stories, and plenty of time to connect over food and drinks.
Agenda 📆
18:00 – 18:45 · Arrival, welcome drinks & networking
18:45 – 19:00 · Welcome from MUG Lisbon, JUG Lisbon and Critical Software
19:00 – 19:30 · Java vs. The Agent Engine — João Galego (Critical Software)
19:30 – 19:40 · Q&A & speaker switch
19:40 – 20:10 · Before the AI Hype: Building a Wildfire Early-Warning System with IoT, Big Data and Stubbornness — Bruno Inácio & Eduardo Henriques
20:10 – 20:30 · Food & drinks break
20:30 – 21:00 · Meaningful Mentorship: How to Match the Right People and Improve Participant UX — Inês Calçôa (TRATON, Volkswagen Group)
21:00 – 22:00 · Networking
Session Details 📝
1. Java vs. The Agent Engine
Speaker: João Galego – Head of AI at Critical Software · LinkedIn: jgalego
What happens when Java decides it wants into the MongoDB Atlas Agent Engine? We'll take you behind the scenes of bringing Java unofficially to an AI agent platform, and what happens when you try to make an emerging platform work with a language it wasn't originally built around. It's part engineering story, part AI experiment, and part exploration of what happens when you start throwing real-life but increasingly weird data at an agent.
2. Before the AI Hype: Building a Wildfire Early-Warning System with IoT, Big Data and Stubbornness
Speakers: Bruno Inácio – Head of IT at Marinha Portuguesa (inaciobruno) and Eduardo Henriques – Senior Consultant at Milestone (eduardoh3nriqu3s)
In 2017, a small team set out to tackle a problem that kept making headlines: wildfires that spread faster than anyone could react. The result was SmartForest, a solution combining IoT sensors, Big Data processing, Java and MongoDB, which went on to win several national innovation awards and came within reach of becoming a real startup.
This talk is not about the latest model or the newest buzzword. It is about how an idea goes from "this should be possible" to a working system, and what happens in between: the architecture decisions we got right, the ones we got wrong, the moment the prizes started arriving, and why the company never quite took off.
You will leave with a realistic picture of how a technical project becomes a venture, what judges and investors actually look for, and why good engineering is necessary but never sufficient.
3. Meaningful Mentorship: How to Match the Right People and Improve Participant UX
Speaker: Inês Calçôa – Product Owner, Message Based Communication at TRATON (Volkswagen Group Services) · LinkedIn: inescalcoa
Have you ever seen a mentorship pairing thrive long after the program ended? Or felt your own mentoring sessions turning into just another box to tick? Finding the right matches in an organization isn't always easy, yet mentoring remains one of the most rewarding experiences for everyone involved.
In this session, we'll explore how to build and sustain a simple, effective mentoring framework, from smart pairing to practical, ready-to-use tools. Are you ready to open up to human connection?
Good to know 🍕
Food & drinks provided.
JUG Lisbon: https://www.meetup.com/lisbon-jug/
MUG Lisbon on LinkedIn: mongodb-user-group-lisbon