Hello everyone! AITX Team here with more updates this week.
If you’re new here, welcome! 👋 At AITX, we aim to:
Connect you with like-minded peers passionate about AI.
Provide a space for sharing ideas and receiving feedback on AI projects you’re building.
Share helpful tools and invaluable resources.
Be sure to follow us on X (Twitter), LinkedIn, and Instagram.
Before we jump into the regular news, a few housekeeping items:
Upcoming AITX Events:
Tech Week Hack Fair: Sunday, Oct 26 | 12:00 PM - 4:00 PM CST | sign up here!
Austin AITX Monthly Meetup: Tuesday, Oct 28, 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM CST | sign up here!
To stay in the loop on all our monthly meetups and other community organized events, subscribe to our AITX calendar here.
Check out our Community Directory:
Where you can fill out your profile and find other members of the AITX community. If you haven’t filled out your profile yet, please follow the link HERE and submit your information.
State of Texas AI Report Interest
Texas is one of the most proactive states in AI policy and regulation.
We want YOU to join the conversation.
AITX Community is collaborating with UT School of Law for the State of AI Report (STAR) for Texas—a first-of-its-kind look at how Texas engineers, entrepreneurs, and businesses are building with AI.
This report will be shared with state policymakers and business leaders to help shape the future of AI in Texas.
If you want your voice included, register your interest below. We’ll follow up with next steps on how you can contribute feedback or insights.
Episode 9 is Live
This episode features Scott Wilcox, an Austin OG who spent nearly 20 years leading technology and innovation at SXSW. Scott helped shape SXSW into a global platform that drives a Super Bowl’s worth of economic activity into Austin each year. He led the organization’s digital transformation, built their platform from scratch, and guided their technology strategy through eras of massive change in both culture and tech.
Austin Tech Week AI Hackathon by NVIDIA & AITX Community
When: Friday, October 24 5:00 PM - Oct 25, 8:00 PM CST
Where: Location provided upon approval
Join AITX Community for a weekend of heads down building and collaboration with some of the top developers in Austin's growing engineering community.
NVIDIA is a global leader in accelerated computing, known for pioneering the development of high-performance GPUs that drive advances in AI, graphics, and data science. We'll be spotlighting NVIDIA’s Nemotron family of open models throughout the weekend. Hackers get quickstarts, office hours, and a dedicated Nemotron Track, with prizes for the best use of Nemotron.
It all culminates in Hack Fair - a science fair-style showcase where participants will demo their submission to the community, including local investors, operators, and potential collaborators, for a chance to win the Community Choice Prize.
👇 Register Here 👇
A message from NVIDIA:
NVIDIA is thrilled to partner with the AITX Developer Community during Austin Tech Week! We're bringing updates about our latest Nemotron models and some awesome prizes for the most creative and novel submissions in the competition. Dive into the challenge by building with our portfolio of models, and you are included in a prize track for best use of Nemotron Nano 2 9B, a powerful small language model with reasoning capabilities built on the hybrid Mamba-Transformer architecture.
To give your project a head start, we'll have NVIDIA Launchables and Blueprints ready for you to use so you can focus on building something truly innovative. NVIDIA team members will be there to support the builders. Show off your skills and you could even get your project featured on NVIDIA social media and Developer Showcase. We can’t wait to see what you build!
In this week’s edition you’re getting:
5 Upcoming Events
3 AI Community Stories
So let’s jump in!
UPCOMING EVENTS
When: Wednesday, November 5 | 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM CST
Where: ACC - RGC 3000 1218 West Avenue · Austin, TX
What: The AI Middleware Users Group believes in “Learning in the Open.” Together we explore LangChain, LangGraph, LangSmith, and the wider AI stack—sharing demos, pitfalls, and wins so everyone levels up.
When: Thursday, October 30 | 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM CST
Where: HICAM 6201 Quinn Luke Trail · Austin, TX
What: In this talk, we introduce Model Context Protocol in accessible terms and then walk through Robot MCP, an open-source server that applies this standard to robotics. Demonstrated on ROS (the most prevalent robotics middleware) Robot MCP enables new classes of tasks that neither AI models nor traditional deterministic robotics could accomplish independently.
When: Thursday, November 20 | 5:30 PM - 8:30 PM CST
Where: Capital Factory 701 Brazos St · Austin, TX
What: Deep dive tech talks on AI, GenAI, LLMs and Agents, hands-on experiences on code labs, workshops, and networking with speakers and fellow developers.
When: Tuesday, November 4 | 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM CST
Where: Capital Factory, Voltron Room (1st floor) 701 Brazos Street · Austin, TX
What: Austin Deep Learning Journal Club is group for committed machine learning practitioners and researchers alike. The group typically meets every first Tuesday of each month to discuss research publications.
When: Tuesday, October 28 | 8:30 AM - 5:30 PM CST
Where: Domain Palm way and rose rock · Austin, TX
What: The Agents of Impact Summit, hosted by AWS and Meta, provides an in-depth exploration of AI agent implementation in production environments. You'll learn directly from customers who use AI agents in production, participate in technical workshops, and discover architectural approaches that work at scale.
COMMUNITY STORIES
President Trump nominated Texas Sen. Brian Birdwell (R-Granbury) to serve as Assistant Secretary of Defense. The longtime lawmaker and Army veteran previously announced he won’t seek reelection to the Texas Senate.
Why it matters: Texas leadership continues to play a growing role in national security — an area increasingly intertwined with AI-driven defense innovation.
Need-to-know:
Birdwell is a six-term state senator and former Army officer.
Survived the 9/11 Pentagon attack, where he was serving at the time.
Oversees a Texas legislative committee on border and homeland security.
Learn more here.
Researchers at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) are using AI and digital twin technology (virtual models of real homes) to test renovation strategies that reduce heat in some of San Antonio’s hottest neighborhoods.
Why it matters: It’s a powerful example of AI being used for real-world resilience. Bringing tech, sustainability, and community health together in Texas.
Need-to-know:
Project targets 10 homes in San Antonio’s West Side “heat islands.”
Funded by a National Science Foundation grant.
Uses sensors + AI modeling to guide cooling upgrades and lower utility bills.
Learn more here.
More Texas trial lawyers are using AI tools (Harvey, ChatGPT/Claude, Verdict Hub) to rehearse openings, stress-test cross, and spot blind spots. Skeptics warn AI can’t model real juries.
Why it matters: Legal is a major Texas industry; faster, cheaper trial prep with AI could shift billable models, client expectations, and demand for AI-skilled talent.
Need-to-know:
Dallas & Houston firms report time cuts (e.g., 15→5 hrs for closings).
Verdict Hub: virtual focus groups; $3K vs. ~$75K traditional; 100 firms/23 states.
Skeptics: AI misses body language, emotion; post-2021 juries seen as less predictable.
Learn more here.
That’s all for now, folks!
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