2013 Talks

2013 Talks

February: Zenoss with Dennis Hopp

Wednesday, February 6, 2013 · 6:00 PM at SRT Solutions now Atomic Object

Zenoss is a popular open source monitoring tool. Zenoss Core is released free of charge but also has a commercial version that in addition to support gives some additional monitoring capabilities. This talk will be a general overview of the Zenoss Core monitoring solution and some of it's capabilities. The following topics will be discussed:

• • Features

  • Methodology

  • Grouping Devices

  • SNMP Monitoring

  • Event Management

  • ZenPacks (Extensibility)

  • Nagios/Cacti plugins

About the Presenter

Dennis Hopp is a Senior Systems Engineer for the Micros-Retail Hosting Services group in the ECommerce Division (formerly Fry, Inc). He has a degree in Computer Science from Central Michigan University and over 12 years experience designing,implementing and managing network and server infrastructures with a focus on Linux and Cisco.

March: Service Orchestration in the Cloud with Ubuntu with Jorge Castro and Steve Moser

Wednesday, March 6, 2013 · 6:00 PM at SRT Solutions now Atomic Object

Introduction to what you can do with Ubuntu, local cloud technologies like OpenStack , and how you can work with Ubuntu at Amazon Web Services.

About the Presenter

Jorge O. Castro currently works on the Community Team as Cloud Community Liaison for Canonical Ltd, sponsors of the Ubuntu project. Jorge has been using Linux since 1998, and his current passion is juju, the new cloud deployment tool. He has spoken at the Ohio Linux Fest, SCaLE, and OSCON as well as various LUGs over the years.

April: Apple’s Approach to Concurrency with Jeff Kelley

Wednesday, April 3, 2013 · 6:00 PM at SRT Solutions now Atomic Object

How would you write code that could run on a device with a single core or a device with 12 cores? Faced with this question, Apple uses an approach to concurrency that divorces the concept of a thread from your code, instead looking at things from a task-based approach. We’ll cover how this works, talking about both iOS and OS X, and speculate how it might affect future Apple technology plans.

About the Presenter

Jeff Kelley is an iOS developer at Detroit Labs and author of Learn Cocoa Touch. He’s been working with iOS since its infancy in 2008, and with OS X before that. When not working on iOS apps, Jeff listens to an inordinate amount of podcasts and seeks out new and interesting races to run.

May: Mobile Web Development with Phil Huhn

Wednesday, May 1, 2013 · 6:00 PM at SRT Solutions now Atomic Object

Mobile devices are here to stay. Is your web-site mobile friendly?

I recently released a new public site and retro fitted the site with some more mobile friendly CSS. I also created a proto-type using a pure mobile solution. I would like to share my experiences and present four options as follows:

• • Media Queries

  • Twitter Bootstrap

  • Kendo UI Mobile

  • jQuery Mobile

About the Presenter

Phil has been a programmer for more than 25 years. In that 25 years, he has been a Programmer Analyst, Data Communication Systems Engineer, DBA, Windows and Unix Sys Admin and Programmer / Consultant / Mentor.

Phil started writing web application in 1996. He worked with the Apache Server prior to the 1.0 version. He is very sad to see that http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/ does not exist. He has written classic Asp and Asp.Net 1.1, 2.0, 3.5 and 4.0 web forms applications. Phil is currently a Programmer/Analyst and Technologist creating Asp.Net 4.0 web forms application in Novi, Michigan.

June: Software Agents and Multi-agent Systems with Margaret Lyell, Ph.D.

Wednesday, June 5, 2013 · 6:00 PM at SRT Solutions now Atomic Object

Although the focus of this talk is multi-agent systems, this talk first looks at software agents and how they are situated within the landscape of software paradigms. Characteristics of agents within a multi-agent system and standards that pertain to agents are presented. A walk through of multi-agent system exemplars illustrates how software agent technology has been applied. These exemplars include multi-agent systems in simulations and agents developed for autonomous robot team activity. The talk will conclude with a look at some of the features of the JADE agent platform (an open source tool), and will include a view of code snippets and demonstrations.

About the Presenter

Margaret Lyell is most recently a Visiting Researcher at The Samraksh Corporation, a small company specializing in wireless sensor networks. Previously, she was with Intelligent Automation Inc for over seven years, most recently as a Principal Scientist. There, she focused on development of agent-based systems across a range of application areas. This work utilized various artificial intelligence techniques, as appropriate. She has previously been a Principal Engineer, Networks and Distributed Systems at The MITRE Corporation and an Assoc. Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at WVU, where her work focused on fluid/thermal sciences. Her formal educational background includes Aerospace Engineering, Computer Science and Mathematics.

August: Home Automation and “the Internet of Things” with Mark Pittman

Wednesday, August 7, 2013 · 6:00 PM at SRT Solutions now Atomic Object

The focus of this talk is a practical identification and approach to Home Automation. Additional discussion, more than likely, will take a “hard left-turn” down the path of more unconventional implementations for those that like to explore more unique applications. We will discuss a “little” of the history of home automation, how it has evolved and the impact, over the past 5 to 10 years, with the development of internet connected technologies and devices. We will discuss the rapid development cycles of “the internet of things” and how our lives have become more connected. We will explore the future of a “connected lifestyle” with lively discussion on the benefits and potential obstacles of the future of integrated daily living. Mark will show real world examples and will have numerous devices on-hand for discussion and display.

About the Presenter

Our presenter is Mark Pittman owner of Avanic Technologies LLC. Mark has spent the past 30 years in computer technology, network technical support and software development. His previous positions include Founder/President of Advanced Systems and Designs, Inc., Corporate Manager of Computer Technology and Network Support for The Budd Company, as well as, consultant to numerous Fortune 500 companies. Most recently, Mark has researched and implemented numerous energy savings technologies in the building of his home in Howell, Michigan. His home has been 2010 National Five Star Energy rated. Over the past 3 years, he has been focused on Home Automation and “the Internet of things”.

Another area of interest Mark is working on, in conjunction with other interested professionals and businesses, is in the area of Elder Care Assisted Living Automation for our growing elderly population.

September: Playing Trivia with a Bot with Dr. Jose Nazario

Wednesday, September 4, 2013 · 6:00 PM at SRT Solutions now Atomic Object

Several years ago I started a trivia channel on an IRC server I frequent, partly as a gift to my wife. About a year ago I started to explore natural language processing (NLP) and decided a fun project to use to learn this was to build a bot to play trivia. Nothing on the order of IBM's Watson, "watson.py" is built on Python's Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK) and uses search engines to discover candidate answers. After a second iteration, "watson.py" is able to routinely win games against human opponents, using about 300 lines of code. This talk will explore how this project came to be, challenges and pitfalls, and ongoing work into a third generation "watson.py".

About the Presenter

Dr Jose Nazario is currently a research director at a DC area cybersecurity startup. Previous to this he was at Arbor Networks where he lead a team of researchers. His research interests include malware, botnets, big data, and Internet scale attacks.

October: Test-Driven Development in iOS with Chris Trevarthen

Wednesday, October 2, 2013 · 6:00 PM at Atomic Object

After sipping the Agile Kool-Aid, I realized how important test-driven development and continuous integration builds are to a successful software project. Developing without these methods seemed unnatural. For web applications, there are many tools to help with unit testing, integration testing, interface testing, and continuous integration. However, the selection of tools for mobile testing are fewer and can be trickier to set up. In this session, we’ll talk about test-driven development for iOS and continuous integration builds using Kiwi, Calabash and Jenkins.

About the Presenter

An accomplished author of over a dozen tweets, Chris has been interested in programming ever since obsessively fixing typos in TI-82 games. Chris developed e-commerce and education web applications for 12 years. He now develops iOS apps at Detroit Labs.

November: IFC, the HTML of the Construction Industry with Steve Holzer

Wednesday, November 6, 2013 · 6:00 PM at Atomic Object

There is a relatively new technology that is touching all sectors of the capital facility and construction industry, and may be the catalyst and enabler this industry needs to change. Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a digital representation of the physical and functional characteristics of a facility as well as the process for creating the same. The vision for a facility BIM is that of an open and shared database created, used and reused collaboratively by many industry sectors throughout the facility’s lifecycle(s).

Nearly every industry sector sees potential in BIM and is working towards capturing its value. However these implementations are inconsistent and many times disconnected from one another. Each sector is facing its own set of challenges. Yet each sector’s progress depends on another’s for success.

The National BIM Standard-United States™ (NBIM-US) exists to support industry-wide progress towards a future of improved efficiency, productivity and creativity. Its development and the capital facility industry’s BIM progress are mutually connected. Within NBIMS-US exists a data model standard to facilitate the necessary interoperability. Industry Foundation Classes, ISO 16739 (IFC) is the buildingSMART data model; the HTML code of the built environment.

About the Presenter

Steve Holzer possesses a unique ability to draw together the macro and the micro of a concept. That is, being a visionary while at the same time understanding the detail required to bring those visions to reality.

Steve is a member of the National Institute of Building Science (NIBS) buildingSMARTalliance (bSa). He participates in the development of the National Building Information Modeling Standards – United States (NBIMS-US) as a member of the NBIMS-US Project Committee. In that role, he serves as Vice Chair of the Market Education Subcommittee for NBIMS-US v3 and is a member of the 2014 BIM Vision Task Force serving on the Industry Sector and Development teams.

Steve is a member of the National Association of Home Builders. Steve is a member of the Business Management and Information Technology (BMIT) committee. He is immediate past Chair of the BMIT Information Technology Integration Subcommittee of BMIT. He has contributed BIM articles to their BizTools and Business of Building e/Source. He is also a speaker on BIM at their National Green Building Conference & Expo.

Steve developed the web-based HomeM8™ homebuilding system by ēM8s™ that he implements for Homebuilding companies as well as guide implementations of other best business practice Homebuilding company technology systems. He helps companies all over the nation realize their potential with successful technology systems. Much of the work is done remotely, regardless of the company location from his base outside of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Steve has led technology implementations in the Homebuilding industry since 1981. Many of those years his role started out as VP of Purchasing and Estimating for production homebuilders building 100 to 700 units per year. Typically, his role evolved into enterprise wide business process development and documentation combined with technology system implementations as the Vice President of Internal Operations.

In the 1990s, Steve was employed for a time by FAST Management Group assisting production building companies throughout the nation implement their FAST systems.

Steve attended Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI) in Architectural and Construction Technology during 1975 - 1976. In 2003 and 2004 he attended Eastern University in Management of Information Systems and Organizational Management.

December: Hitting the Ground Running with Angular with Christopher Smith

Wednesday, December 4, 2013 · 6:00 PM at Atomic Object

An intro to what Angular.js is and the problem it tries to solve, followed by an overview of it's features. Starting with the simplest app the building on practical examples to create a single page app. The presentation will cover controllers, services, views, templates, filters, and more. Each section will have code examples that will be available after the presentation.

About the Presenter

Christopher Smith has a Software Engineering degree from the University of Michigan, Dearborn. He has worked though the development stack. From an image processing start up in Ann Arbor to a data supplier in the Renaissance Center, Detroit. Currently he is working in Ann Arbor developing a front end dashboard application using JavaScript and C#.