Tech Talk Night by WiDS + PuPPy
Join us for an evening of tech talks co-hosted with PuPPy (Puget Sound Programming Python). The event will feature networking and technical talks. The audience includes Python developers, data scientists, analysts, engineers, and students — a mix of professionals across the Puget Sound tech community.
Speaker list and topics will be updated closer to the event
Schedule (TBD):
5:30-6pm: Doors open/networking
6-6:05pm: Opening remarks
6:05-6:30pm: Talk #1
6:30-6:40pm: Intermission
6:40-7:05pm: Talk #2
7:05-7:15pm: Intermission
7:15-7:40pm: Talk #3
7:40pm-8pm: Networking
After party to follow at Lucky Strike Bellevue (700 Bellevue Way NE Suite #250, Bellevue, WA 98004)
Talk Titles and Speaker info:
Talk #1: Making a Match: How Open Source Maintainers and Contributors Can Find Each Other Better.
Speaker: Charlotte Mays
Description: Tips for open source maintainers to make their projects more approachable, and tips for folks interested in contributing to find projects they'll enjoy contributing to
Talk #2: The Human Skills Behind GenAI Impact: A Day in the Life of a Forward-Deployed Engineer / Solutions Architect.
Speaker: Keerthi Sreenivas
Description: Many students and early-career professionals are unfamiliar with the role of a Solutions Architect, recently also called a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE). This role sits at the intersection of business, technology, and people, translating complex AI problems into actionable solutions while guiding teams and stakeholders. While, technical expertise opens doors but in AI and data-driven roles, soft skills define influence.
In this session, I'll share how FDEs/GenAI Solutions Architects combine technical depth with communication, collaboration, and storytelling to deliver real-world impact. Using examples from real life, I'll show how we influence decisions, navigate organizational change, and ensure AI solutions are responsible, scalable, and aligned with business goals.
Talk #3: To Vibe or Not To Vibe: Lessons from Vibe-Coding Small, Imperfect AI Projects
Speaker: Booma S Balasubramani, Jingyi Du, Alisha Gala
Description: This session offers a practical, experience-driven look at vibe-coding, grounded in a series of small-scale projects ranging from light-weight web apps to creative prototypes, built through AI-assisted iteration, where speed and momentum matter than correctness or long-term maintenance. This is where vibe-coding shines: ideas become artifacts quickly, experimentation inexpensive, and you can move without the cognitive overhead of full systems design.
Attendees will gain practical strategies to use vibe-coding intentionally: harnessing its speed while avoiding pitfalls, managing fast-changing AI-generated code in git, and defending "no agent, no vibes†designs when they are the safer, faster, or more maintainable choice.
Building Access: The elevators lock at 6pm. GitHub is willing to let people in until 6:30pm. If you arrive after 6:30pm we unfortunately cannot guarantee you will be able to access the event.
Parking: There is paid parking in the Skyline garage underneath the building, accessible via 110th Ave NE between 4th and 6th going southbound only
Public Transit: GitHub is near the Bellevue Downtown link station and the Bellevue transit center which provide attendees with a number of options for getting to tonight's event.