It’s Been a While Since We Sent a Copy!

Bad Nickelback pun aside, it has been a while since we sent out a newsletter, and a lot has happened here at The Applied Machine Learning Collective of the Rockies. This issue will cover the exciting changes, past events, and future meetups on the calendar. Needless to say, we have a LOT going on and hope you can join us! We apologize in advance for how long this will be, but we have a lot coming up!

Past Meetup Catchup

Since we last spoke, we have had a few amazing events we’d like to quickly discuss. As a reminder, we have meetup summaries and upcoming meetup announcements on our [website].0(https://amlcoftherockies.org/meetups/)

Kubernetes Workshop Series

We had one of our first hands-on workshops. The consensus was that we needed to do this again, but in a space better suited to labs and hands-on work. We heard you and are answering the call. In October, the Kubernetes Workshop Series: CKAD Prep will take place. Join Chase Christensen (CNCF Ambassador, Kubestronaut, Kubeflow Maintainer, and AMLC Member) for an intensive, full-day, hands-on workshop designed to take you from Kubernetes novice to Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD).

From Novelty to Asset: Steps to Enable AI Safely in Your Enterprise

In this session, Pete George asked and answered: What is the difference between the AI you read about in the news and Applied AI? He also discussed the inherent challenges of AI adoption in practice, which are pretty significant.

End-to-End Decision Apps with Microsoft Fabric

Microsoft Fabric brings together data engineering, analytics, machine learning, and reporting in a single platform. In this talk, Carl Elgin walked through practical examples of how Fabric can support end-to-end decision workflows, from raw data and lakehouse modeling to ML-driven insights and lightweight interactive experiences.

A Journey from Symbolic AI to Machine Learning and Applied AI

Before AI meant neural networks, it meant IF-THEN rules and formal logic. In this session, we traced the journey from early logic solvers to modern machine learning. We normally would leave it at that, but we wanted to also call out how amazing this session was. Often we are so focused on where we are going, we forget where we came from and what we may be just reinventing. The right tool for the right job is still a strong strategy, and LLMs may be a sledgehammer for something that requires a scalpel. This talk was given by Dr. Scott Wolff (a staff Data Scientist at Applied Sciences @ General Motors). Scott was building "intelligent" systems FOUR decades ago that would flow into what we call AI systems today. Scott holds a PhD in cognitive psychology from Northwestern University. This session was an amazing walk through Applied AI's history from the perspective of someone who's been along for the ride and has the receipts to prove it! We hope to introduce more of this type of content going forward. This was a truly special session with lively discussion about where we are heading based on where we've been.

Upcoming Meetups

[AMLC Presents: AI, GenAI, LLMs, and ML] (https://www.meetup.com/the-applied-machine-learning-collective-of-the-rockies/)

Join us at Code Talent for our collaboration with AI Camp for a fireside chat with local AI experts from the Colorado Front Range.

The Test Pyramid Survives. Assertions Don't: Testing AI in the Real World

Join Elliot for a session on that transition: what the testing pyramid becomes when the system under test is both deterministic and non-deterministic, and why LLM-as-a-judge is the one assertion primitive cheap enough to run at every layer of it. We'll walk the pyramid three times — the classic version, the AI version with a new foundation band underneath it, and the version with a judge operating at every band — then get into the pipeline and the data engineering that make it real.

Kubernetes Workshop Series: CKAD Prep

We are bridging the gap between cloud-native infrastructure and the future of AI. Kubernetes is rapidly becoming the backbone of modern AI/ML pipelines, and mastering container orchestration is essential for scaling next-generation workloads. Come for the certification, stay for the notebooks and PyTorch model serving!

ANNOUNCING OUR FIRST EVER CONFERENCE!!!

The Applied Machine Learning Collective (AMLC) of the Rockies is hosting a FREE mini-conference for professionals, hobbyists, and AI enthusiasts focused on practical machine learning applications and real-world execution.

• Who It’s For: Anyone supporting AI platforms, building datasets, running agents, or training models.
• Focus: Practical results from hands-on builders—cutting through the fluff to deliver projects.
• Activities & Perks: Speaker sessions, local networking, a raffle, and free food.
• Mission: Creating an open town square for AI builders to connect, scale communication, and grow together.

Speaking

Call for Papers is OPEN HERE!

Attending

Registration is open HERE!

Additional News

NEW Board Member!

We recently elected a new board member. Please welcome Elliot Sequeira. Elliot is a well-known community builder, code tester, and tech thought leader/advocate in the Denver AI/ML community. The AMLC Leadership really wanted a leader who had production code delivery on their resume. Elliot chose to step up, and the community voted to bring him on.

Elliot's Personal Intro

Hi everyone! I'm Elliot, and I'm excited to join the AMLC of the Rockies board.

I recently finished a post-graduate program in AI & ML at UT Austin, and I've been building an AI-assisted day trading system and an offline personal assistant. That follows 15+ years in quality engineering, building and leading QA teams alongside engineers and architects at fast-growing startups and large enterprises: - Real-estate SaaS at Luxury Presence - AI privacy and security at TripleBlind - AI-controlled robotics at Osaro and, before that, Kindred.ai, where I helped scale a warehouse robotics rollout from 6 to 300 robots - E-commerce at Symphony Commerce - Cloud data privacy and security at Perspecsys - In-console tournaments for Xbox and PlayStation titles at Virgin Gaming - Enterprise software and banking at EMC², Infor/Workbrain and Citigroup

My career began as a software engineer at British Telecom, before I moved into testing platform software.

Why AMLC? I learn best by building and by helping other builders, and this community does the same! I want to make sure our sessions always include something hands-on. As AI matures, I also want to help our community adopt engineering practices that deliver the predictable, responsive experiences users expect. And I'd like to open our doors to the testing community: a welcoming place for QA professionals to explore AI/ML, and a way to help upskill our peers across the industry.

Come say hi at the next meetup!

More to Come!

Thank you, everyone, and anyone who took the time to read this. We are building a hyper-local community. Think of us as a modern technical Rotary Club or practitioner’s guild for the AI era. We are building a high-signal, intimate community centered on technical craftsmanship, vocational fellowship, and local goodwill.

We exist to align three crucial pillars of our ecosystem:

• Industry Practitioners: The senior engineers and system owners actively deploying AI.

• Out-of-Industry Builders: Transitioning tech professionals and self-taught developers upskilling to break into ML.

• The Student Pipeline: Rising talent and "apprentices" from CU Denver, CU Boulder, Colorado School of Mines, CSU, and local institutions.

Through tight-knit technical chapter meetings (10–30 active builders per session), open-source civic projects, and our shared GitHub, we are laying the foundation for the region’s premier "farm team" for AI talent. We aren't here for massive, noisy crowds or corporate fluff. We pull up a chair, write code, share our craft, and build the future of applied machine learning locally.

We cannot do this alone and appreciate all the time, talent, and treasure this community has provided! Thank you all!

Next Time: A SHORTER Newsletter

In the next newsletter, we will update everyone on previous sessions, the progress on the upcoming community conference, and the Kubernetes workshop! We hope to see you there! Thank you!