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Meta's Llama Hackathon countdown & San Antonio Meetup's Demos
AITX Team
November 15, 2024
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.
Before we jump into the regular news, a few housekeeping items:
November AITX Meetups:
Our upcoming meetups:
Austin Meetup: Tuesday, November 22 | sign up here!
San Antonio Meetup: December 10 | 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:
We recently started a 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.
🦙 ATX Llama Hackathon Kickoff & Registration!
Only 9 days left until the hackathon!
Venue: Capital Factory in Downtown Austin
Save the Date: Hackathon is November 23rd - 24th
✍️ Austin Llama Hackathon Kickoff Reception
When: Friday, Nov 22 | 5:00 PM-7:30 PM
Where: Meta Office. 607 West 3rd Street , Austin, Texas.
What: Meta and AITX are hosting a reception Nov 22 at Meta's downtown Austin office to celebrate the Austin Llama Hackathon (which starts the following day)
Join us for appetizers, drinks, demos, and a panel discussion about the value of open-source AI. Connect with other innovators and developers who are shaping the future of technology.
👉️ RSVP for the Reception here
📞 Call For Llama Impact Grants Application!
When: Apply before 11:59 pm PST on November 22, 2024.
Where: Learn more here
What:
Llama Impact Grants - Up to $500K for Hackathon Projects
• Open call for proposals
• Llama ATX hackathon participants eligible
• Grants support continued project development
👉Learn more: Llama Impact Grants Website
Last minute call for mentors & judges: HACKACAT NANO
Texas State University is hosting a 7-hour interdisciplinary AI hackathon this Saturday (Nov 16) where developers and designers work together to build AI solutions. They're seeking industry professionals to:
Mentor students with technical challenges
Help scope projects
Judge final presentations
If you're an AI/software professional interested in supporting the next generation of builders, contact Mason Melead at [email protected].
In this week’s edition you’re getting:
🤠 Meetup Recap
5 Upcoming Events
3 AI Community Stories
1 Community Highlight
So let’s jump in!
San Antonio Meetup Recap
We had two demos this month:
1. Spooky App by Eddy Bautista
Eddy's spooky app (winner of ACM San Antonio Chapter's Halloween dev contest) brings family-friendly frights with a creative twist.
Users can upload an image or provide text to generate a short, spooky story based on the scene's elements.
Using GPT-4o mini for story generation and ChatGPT's text-to-speech, the app delivers each eerie tale with immersive narration and MP3 playback - creating a fun, interactive experience for all ages!
2. Sales Assistant by Richard Grower
Features:
RAG-powered knowledge retrieval
Vector database for efficient data storage
Chainlit frontend for clean user interface
AI agents for automated web search
Smart deal analysis and insights
Perfect for: Streamlining sales workflows and deal evaluation
UPCOMING EVENTS
When: Wednesday, November 20 | 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM CST
Where: Kinda Tropical 3501 E. 7Th · Austin, TX
What: Prepare for Thanksgiving break with creativity, collaboration, and community! Our Hacky Hour is the perfect opportunity to experiment, brainstorm, and work on fun projects with fellow LangChain and AI enthusiasts.
When: Wednesday, December 4 | 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM CST
Where: Capital Factory 701 Brazos St · Austin, TX
What: Join Fernando Labastida, experienced content marketer, speaker, and author, for an eye-opening workshop on harnessing the power of AI to create high-impact virtual summits.
When: Thursday, December 5 | 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM CST
Where: The Brewtorium Brewery & Kitchen 6015 Dillard Cir A · Austin, TX
What: Red Hat® OpenShift® AI is a flexible, scalable artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) platform that enables enterprises to create and deliver AI-enabled applications at scale across hybrid cloud environments. Built using open source technologies, OpenShift AI provides trusted, operationally consistent capabilities for teams to experiment, serve models, and deliver innovative apps.
When: Wednesday, December 18 | 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM CST
Where: Kinda Tropical 3501 E. 7Th · Austin, TX
What: Wrap up the year with creativity, collaboration, community, and a bit of holiday magic! Our Hacky Hour is the perfect opportunity to experiment, brainstorm, and work on fun projects with fellow LangChain and AI enthusiasts.
When: Thursday, December 5 | 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM CST
Where: Capital Factory 701 Brazos St, 16th Floor · Austin, TX
What: mini-hack session for developers all over the Austin area to build cool stuff related to AI.
COMMUNITY STORIES
Texas A&M's Innovation Forward conference brought together industry leaders and academics to address a pressing challenge: powering the AI revolution. Venture capitalist Ray Rothrock highlighted how AI is dramatically increasing power demands on an already strained grid.
Why it matters: As the state positions itself to become an AI and data center hub, innovative energy solutions will be crucial for supporting this growth.
Need-to-know:
Former Texas Governor Rick Perry predicts Texas will become the epicenter of AI data center growth due to its robust power infrastructure
Texas A&M is developing portable microreactors that could power everything from homes to off-grid data centers
The conference emphasized public-private partnerships as key to bringing energy innovations to market for supporting AI infrastructure
Learn more here.
The City of Austin is organizing its first-ever AI Summit for employees following an AI-generated call incident during a recent council meeting. Led by Councilwoman Vanessa Fuentes, the initiative aims to establish clear guidelines for the city's AI use.
Why it matters: As local governments grapple with AI integration, Austin is taking proactive steps to ensure responsible AI use in public spaces while protecting First Amendment rights.
Need-to-know:
Free summit scheduled for November 20th will cover digital transformation, security services, and public sector innovation
City employees will receive training on responsible AI implementation
Initiative follows February resolution requiring clear guidelines for municipal AI use
Comes in response to concerns about AI-generated content in public forums
Learn more here.
Wytec has proposed an AI-powered security system to the North Texas Council of Governments that would protect over 1,200 Texas school districts with gunshot detection and drug sensing technology.
Why it matters: This represents one of the largest potential deployments of AI security technology in Texas educational institutions, addressing critical safety concerns with local innovation.
Need-to-know:
System boasts 90% accuracy in detecting gunshots across 500,000+ test scenarios
Technology also includes sensors for detecting dangerous substances like fentanyl
Proposal backed by $7 million in funding and partnership with Lemko Corporation
If approved, could set precedent for AI security implementation in schools nationwide
Learn more here.
COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHT
This week, we're spotlighting Aria Attar, founder of TensorStax, who's transforming data engineering with autonomous AI agents.
Here’s a bit about him and what he’s doing:
Started his ML journey in 2018 straight out of high school, Aria has turned his vision of autonomous data engineering into reality, eliminating the need for complex manual setups and dedicated data teams.
At TensorStax, Aria's team has built AI agents that autonomously handle complex data engineering tasks - from ETL pipelines to database migrations - all within your existing cloud infrastructure.
Their platform works seamlessly with popular tools like Airflow and DBT, helping teams accelerate data processing by 30x and ETL jobs by 12x.
Ready to see autonomous data engineering in action?
That’s all for now, folks!
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