Affinity groups meeting regularly in the Research Park make the Champaign-Urbana tech community feel smaller. The Data Science User Group, AI User Group, and Champaign Blockchain Meetup convene for a monthly lunch at EnterpriseWorks to bond over the intersection between personal and professional interests.
For a detailed event schedule, visit the Research Park Calendar.
Starting in August 2024, the AI and Data Science User Groups began hosting joint meetings. Topics have since included:
Data Science User Group
The Data Science User Group in Champaign-Urbana aims to build a community of interest around data science to foster learning, collaboration, and networking. The group serves students and professionals, bridging the gap between the analytical sciences and practical applications of industry. Watch previous Data Science User Group meetings on the Research Park YouTube Channel. Topics and speakers from past events have included:
- Data Science Hiring with Robert Brunner, Ryan Herr, and Jason Bowles
- GPU Technology Conference and Wolfram Analytics with Reza Farivar and Jeff Todd
- Yahoo Technologies that Enable Large-Scale Data Management and Analytics with Nilam Sharma, Jon Eagles, Kuhu Shukla, and Dan Fike
- Sample Size Estimation & Gene Network Reconstruction with Ryan Muraglia and Ed Bukham
- Supporting Open Data Science in the Era of PyData with Taeyoung Kim, Chris Reisinger, and Vincent Reverdy
- Data Storytelling with Neelan Coleman
- Detecting Out of Distribution Images in Neural Nets with Professor R. Srikant and Todd Hart
- Data Science Year in Review (2017)
- Reinforcement Learning with Jed Chou and Jamie Morales
- Named Entity Recognition for Brand Extraction with Ryan Muraglia and Denise Sakosky
- How Automated AI is Transforming Data Science with Rajiv Shah
- Data Storytelling with Wade Fagen-Ulmschneider
- Community Data Science at Gies and Trends in Fintech with Vishal Sachdev & Jose Luis Rodriguez
- The Social Media Macroscope with Joseph T. Yun and Rajiv Shah
- The Path to Becoming a Professional Data Scientist with William Biscarri and Mithilesh Nanj
- Reinforcement Learning and Rubik’s Cube Solving with Dillon Tracy
- Natural Language Processing Delivers Business Value with Lina El Farouk
- Data Visualizations and Analytics for COVID-19 with Wade Fagen-Ulmschneider and Joseph T. Yun
- Applications of the Effective Use of Data with Guilherme Maia and Shubanshu Mishra
- Preventing Gas Leaks with Machine Learning and Information Extraction with Guilherme Maia and Shubanshu Mishra
- Responsible Computing with William Sullivan and Motahare Eslami
- Anomalies, Breaks, and Outlier Detection in Time Series with Anton Antonov
- Fostering Learning and the Effects of Exposure to Information Sources with Chieh-Li “Julian” Chin and Rezvaneh (Shadi) Rezapour
- Bayer’s Big Data Patent Analytics Platform with Kirsten Skogerson
- Data in the Context of Emergencies with John Dwyer and Collin Rector
- Machine Learning and Deep Learning to Solve Ag Problems with Srinivas Sridharan
- Data Science in the Digital World: Advertising and Media with Eva Miszoglad, Jacob Fisher, and Harsh Taneja
- Data Science in Farming with Foteini Zampati
- Data Science Year in Review (2021)
- Data Science Panel with Sneha Agarwal, Kinyetta Nance, Henry Gabb, and Saumil Shah
- Data-Centric AI and Programmatic Labeling with Rajiv Shah
- Data Visualization Accesibilities and Data in Astrophysics with JooYoung Seo and Jill Naiman
- Student Presentations in Data Science
- Data Science in Precision Medicine with Dillon Tracy
- Process Mining and Misalignment Between AI and Humans’s Perceptions of Data with Renee Hendricks and Haohan Wang
- Using ML for Customer Segmentation with Dylan Sager
- Generative AI with Rajiv Shah
- Data Science in Healthcare with Stephanie Besser
- Student Presentations in Data Science
- Federated Learning with Xiaoyang Wang
- Automatic Jailbreaking Large Language Models via Role-Playing with Haohan Wang
- Contextual Language Models with Shubhanshu Mishra
- Diffusion-Based Generative Modeling with Ali Taghibakshi
- Technology in Agriculture with Mark Moran
This user group generally meets on the first Friday of the month from 12 to 1 p.m. at EnterpriseWorks. For more information and to RSVP, visit the group’s Meetup page or stay up-to-date on the Research Park calendar.
Note that the Data Science User Group in Champaign-Urbana will be on hiatus for the summer and will not meet in June, July, or August 2024.
AI User Group
“Working with AI” is a meetup group for those in the Champaign-Urbana area who are interested in exploring the exciting field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its real-world applications. Led by Brad Miller, the group provides a platform for learning, networking, and collaboration among individuals and organizations working with AI or looking to get started in this field. The AI User Group is open to anyone interested in learning more about AI, regardless of their level of experience in the field. Topics and speakers from past events have included:
- AI Individual Project Showcase
- Prompt Engineering with LangChain with Brad Miller
- Artificial Intelligence and Law with Alan Singleton
- Illuminating the Black Box: Generative AI with Jacob Love
- Prompt Construction with Sam Walker
- Creating a Small Language Model with Jacob Love
- Real-World Applications of LLMs with Lori Moon
- Applications of AI in Academia and Consulting with Vishal Sachdev and Jacob Kinsey
- Using AI to Fight Deepfake-Powered Identity Fraud
- Artificial Intelligence and Women’s Health
This user group for those interested in AI in Champaign-Urbana generally meets on the second Friday of the month from 12:00 to 1:00 PM at EnterpriseWorks. For more information and to RSVP, visit the group’s Meetup page or stay up-to-date on the Research Park calendar.
Champaign Blockchain Meetup
The Champaign Blockchain Meetup group is catered to those interested in distributed ledger technology, including blockchains, cryptocurrency, cryptography, smart contracts, DApps, and more.
This user group generally meets on the third Friday of the month from 12:00 to 1:00 PM at EnterpriseWorks. For more information and to RSVP, visit the group’s Meetup page or stay up-to-date on the Research Park calendar.
Please note that tech meetups are subject to cancellations and schedule changes. Please check our calendar for updates.