Dayton Tech Events

April 25, 2012, 6PM – The Windows 8 platform for Metro style apps - Jennifer Marsman

Location: IDCAST/UDRI, TechTown, 711 East Monument Avenue, Suite 101 in downtown Dayton. Google Map

Description: Windows 8 is Windows re-imagined! Join this session to learn about the new platform for building Metro style applications. Get an understanding of the platform design tenets, the programming language choices, and the integration points with the operating system and across Metro style apps. We will dive into code, showing the new features that you will need to learn, like snapping, contracts and charms, appbars, and tiles. You will walk away with the fundamentals for building a Windows 8 application.

Bio: Jennifer Marsman is a Developer Evangelist in Microsoft’s Developer and Platform Evangelism group, where she educates developers on Microsoft’s new technologies. In this role, Jennifer displays her contagious enthusiasm for technology by speaking on a variety of Microsoft technologies. She is a frequent speaker at software development conferences across the United States. In 2009, Jennifer was chosen as "Techie whose innovation will have the biggest impact" by X-OLOGY for her work with GiveCamps, a weekend-long event where developers code for charity. She has also received many honors from Microsoft, including the Central Region Top Contributor Award, Heartland District Top Contributor Award, DPE Community Evangelist Award, CPE Champion Award, MSUS Diversity & Inclusion Award, and Gold Club. Prior to becoming a Developer Evangelist, Jennifer was a software developer in Microsoft’s Natural Interactive Services division. In this role, she earned two patents for her work in search and data mining algorithms. Jennifer has also held positions with Ford Motor Company, National Instruments, and Soar Technology. Jennifer holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Engineering and Master’s Degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Her graduate work specialized in artificial intelligence and computational theory. Jennifer blogs at http://blogs.msdn.com/jennifer and tweets at http://twitter.com/jennifermarsman.

Grok Talk: Pluralsight – Training You Need When You Need It

Description: In a world where the technology landscape is constantly changing it is increasingly difficult to get timely, affordable and reliable training. This talk will give an introduction to online training from Pluralsight where industry professionals bring their expertise and experience to get you started with an in-depth understanding of the technology.

Bio: Ron has been a part of the computer industry for 40+ years. During his career 35 years were spent at NCR Corporation where he held a number of positions all of which were associated with software development. Ron retired from NCR eight years ago and has continued his interest in software development with a focus on .NET. Ron has started working part time for PQ Systems in Dayton where he is a member of the CHARTrunner Lite development team.

March 28, 2012, 6PM – A Sneak Peek of Visual Studio & Team Foundation Server 11 - Randy Pagels

Location: IDCAST/UDRI, TechTown, 711 East Monument Avenue, Suite 101 in downtown Dayton. Google Map

Description: Microsoft’s application lifecycle management tooling is all about enabling teams to deliver great software. You will learn how to more effectively plan and track work by using the new web-based project management tools; how to bridge the divide between development and operations by utilizing IntelliTrace in your production environments; and how to help keep team members on-task and “in the zone”, no matter how much there’re randomized. See the new “My Work” experience for managing your active tasks and integrated code review features. In addition to making your team more productive, you will see how you can boost your overall code quality with new features such as code clone and an overhauled unit testing story in Visual Studio 11. With Team Foundation Server you will see the full gamut of collaboration improvements, from the newly revamped Team Explorer, to the version control & build improvements. Want to work offline seamlessly? Wish merging happened less frequently & was simpler when it did? How about find work items faster? Join us to see all this and more.

Bio: Randy is a Sr. Developer Technology Specialist and a Developer Platform and Evangelism tools team member covering the Heartland District (MI, OH, KY, TN). His expertise includes Visual Studio, Team Foundation Server, Test Professional, and Lab Management products. He educates the customer to maximize their ALM tools by explaining best practices, installation, and configuration through presentations, workshops, or quick starts. Prior to Microsoft he worked for 16 years as a developer in the IT area and has designed and developed many .Net web applications using agile methodologies. Randy is a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) on Team Foundation Server. For further resource information, please refer to his website teamsystemcafe.net.

Grok Talk: Story Points and Stats - Steve Daum

Description: Assigning story points to estimate new feature effort is common in agile software projects. This talk will discuss story point data from a real project. We will look at the data using statistical techniques typically used by quality control workers – to see what can be learned.

Bio: Steve Daum has been developing software for over 20 years. Steve works with the software development team at PQ Systems in Dayton, Ohio. He has worked on different projects using various flavors of development technology over the years. Steve has worked on SQCpack and CHARTrunner; two commercially available statistical applications on the Windows platform. He often lurks on twitter and occasionally tweets: @SteveDaum.

February 22, 2012, 6PM – Making a Mockery of Hard to Test Code - Phil Japikse

Location: IDCAST/UDRI, TechTown, 711 East Monument Avenue, Suite 101 in downtown Dayton. Google Map

Description: Test Driven Development can be hard. Oh, sure, it's easy to write the standard bank account tests that you see in all of the demos. But what about real life? What about that service that hasn't been developed yet? What if the code you are trying to test doesn't follow Uncle Bob's SOLID principles? I will show you how free mocking tools will brighten your day!

Bio: An international speaker, Microsoft MVP, MCSD, CSM, and CSP, and a passionate member of the developer community, Phil Japikse has been working with .Net since the first betas, developing software for over 20 years, and heavily involved in the agile community since 2005. Phil works as the Agile Practices Evangelist for Telerik (www.telerik.com), serves as the Lead Director for the Cincinnati .Net User’s Group and the Cincinnati Software Architect Group, and is the host of the Zero To Agile podcast (www.telerik.com/zerotoagile). Phil founded Agile Conferences, Inc., a non-profit dedicated to advancing agile in all aspects of software development. In his spare time, Phil works part-time as a Firefighter/Paramedic, serves as Cub Master for his sons’ Cub Scout Pack, and volunteers for the National Ski Patrol. You can follow Phil on twitter via www.twitter.com/skimedic and read his blog at www.skimedic.com/blog.

TechFest^TM is free family fun with science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Participate in approximately 70 hands-on experiences with STEM exhibits, demonstrations and games. Stage and theatre speakers, such as an NASA astronaut or an Air Force flight test pilot, an outstanding college professor, a classical guitar player and others deliver entertaining and informative talks on STEM topics. Sponsored by the Affiliate Societies Council of Dayton, a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization.

Saturday, February 18 from 10 AM - 6 PM & Sunday, February 19 from 11 AM - 5 PM.at Sinclair Community College

http://www.ascdayton.org/TechFest/