Tech Events in Sheffield

Hi all,

Sorry for the long break, unfortunately I've had issues finding a new venue and sponsorship since our last fell through. However, our new lovely sponsors at Nimble have stepped in and given us a new venue!

This time we will have talks from Chris Sherlock and Brad Reaney on a few topics of AI within testing.

Please remember if topics start discussion we're happy to go into that but please follow the Code Of Conduct so we can have a inclusive space.

Pizza will be provided (Again thanks to our lovely sponsors at Nimble!) but please message me if you have any dietary requirements we need to account for. Thanks everyone! Look forward to seeing some of you there!

Agenda
17:30 - 18:00: Guest Arrival, Pizza & Beverages 18:00 - 20:00: Presentation & Networking

New venue alert: Room 942, Owen Building, Sheffield, S1 1WB

Head towards the big lifts, ask for #9 on the touchscreens then look for the FES signs when you leave the lift on the 9th floor.

This month: Courtney Kyle & TBA

Our event is free and inclusive; we welcome people of all backgrounds and experience levels to join. We will be checking in people at the door so be sure to sign up online.

Before you attend, please read our code of conduct: http://bit.ly/fes-coc

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Courtney Kyle - Designing Inside the System: How AI Is Moving Design Into the Frontend

AI has quietly rewired the line between design and engineering. At Pendo, we've moved from static Figma handoffs to a two-track workflow — fast, vibe-coded exploration on one side, real branches and pull requests in our frontend repo on the other — with a deliberate translation step in between.
Courtney will share what's working, what isn't, and why design systems have become more critical (and more machine-readable) than ever as AI joins the team. Expect honest stories from a workflow still very much in flight, plus practical patterns for bringing AI into the place where design and front-end code actually meet.

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2nd talk TBA

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Post-meetup social
After the talks we'll head to socialise at the nearby [] - One of our volunteers will show you the way.

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Running order
6:15pm - Doors open (please tick yourself off on our sign-in sheet as you enter the room)
6:30pm - Welcome
6:40pm - Talks begin
7:30pm – Open mic
7:40pm – Social

Practical applications of AI tools to innovate and solve real-world problems.

This practical AI workshop focuses on how Artificial Intelligence tools can be used to improve productivity, innovation, problem-solving, business development, and digital transformation.

Participants will explore real-world AI applications and gain practical insight into how AI can support individuals, organisations, and future opportunities.

What You’ll Learn:

Practical AI tools and use cases

AI for productivity and workflow

AI in business and innovation

Real-world applications of AI

Automation and efficiency

Future trends and opportunities

Includes:

Networking opportunities

Learning resources

Light refreshments

This event will be a single talk on Power up your Entity Framework testing with Testcontainers with Sara Gowen

⚠️ This will be an in-person event, the venue is Sheffield Hallam Uni, Owen Building, Floor 9, Room 942.

• 🗺️ Hallam University Map: https://www.shu.ac.uk/visit-us/how-to-find-us/city-campus-map
• 📌 Google Maps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/kMU7RCsj3hdhWzXp9
• 🚗 Parking: The APCOA car park on Eyre Street is a five-minute walk from City Campus. You can park there for just £5. Just scan your blue chip at Owen Building Level 5, Charles Street, or Cantor to claim the discount.

Agenda:

• 🍕 Pizza/Drinks (18:15 - 18:30)
• 🗣 Introduction (18:30)
• 👉 Encryption in a Post Quantum World
• 🍻 Social @ Pub (after the talk)

👉 Power up your Entity Framework testing with Testcontainers
We'll explore how to use xUnit with Testcontainers to make fast "unit-ish" tests to check that the nooks and crannies of your EF model actually hold up against a real database.

Sheffield's quarterly AI meetup is back! Tuesday 14th July, Hideaway, 18:00.

First up: Jeff Watkins, travelling down to talk about how we're building our lives around AI systems and what a healthy human-machine relationship might actually look like. Jeff runs the Compromising Positions podcast and has been thinking about this stuff for longer than most.

Then Tyler Langan (Spotify) will be talking about how Spotify uses AI to detect and prevent fake streams.

Doors open at 18:00, first talk at 18:30. Free to attend, just grab a ticket so we know how many to sort.

Sheffield AI is a quarterly community meetup for people building with, thinking about, or just curious about AI. All welcome. Recorded and posted to YouTube afterwards.
See you there.

Code of conduct: sheffield.ai/code-of-conduct

! RESCHEDULED DATE TO THUR 16TH JULY !

Join us for a relaxed monthly creative coding meetup

This is a meetup for people interested in creative coding and adjacent things: generative art, live coding, robotics/hardware, simulations, AI, 3D, interactive tools, weird experiments, and more.

You do not need to present anything to come along. You can just watch, chat, meet people, and see what others are up to. Beginners, hobbyists, professionals, and curious newcomers are all welcome.

If you do want to share something, bring it along: polished projects, rough experiments, works in progress, even half-formed ideas. We have access to a TV if you want to share your laptop screen (via HDMI or USB-C). We will be in the upstairs room of the Fat Cat and have the room to ourselves. Feel free to reach out with any questions.

Rough format:

• arrive, chat, and settle in
• 3-5 show-and-tell demos/informal presentations
• hang around and chat afterwards

Presentations will be limited to a max of 20 minutes if there is a lot of demand to present. Shorter presentations are more than welcome.

Past sessions have included demos of:

• a live-coded jungle set in TidalCycles
• breathing life into an ancient plotter
• generating 3D terrain of the UK from open data
• exploring the maths of infectious diseases through a card game
• turning photographs into a 3D Gaussian splat scene
• projection-mapping experiments
• deterministic game character generation
• cellular automata experiments!
• an introduction to VJing with TouchDesigner
• ... and more!

Latecomers are welcome; it’s fine to drop in or leave early.

Looking forward to seeing you!