CPOSC SPEAKERS

Jonathan Bowman

Tools (and Toys) for the Terminal

The command-line console is, fascinatingly, a technology both ancient and trending. Whether you are familiar with the command-line, scared of it, or some combination, you are welcome at this session. We will explore together some open-source tools for making your terminal both useful and fun.

Currently a software engineer at Cargas, in the past Jonathan has also been a middle and high school teacher, web developer, IT director, data wrangler, and always a hobbyist developer. An avid Vim user and command-line aficionado for a few decades, he loves hearing of new tools and methods that are making hobbies or work enjoyable. He also enjoys jogging, shaving, and puzzling over the intricacies of parenthood.

Tom Courtney

Supercharging Innovation: AI’s Role in Ideation and Visualization

Struggling to generate and visualize innovative new product ideas? This talk explores how AI accelerates ideation and visualization, automatically using 14 ideation techniques to instantly produce 70 detailed new product concepts - then automatically creates 70 stunning AI-generated images in seconds using DeepSeek generated python code. But why stop at images? We’ll take a look at how AI-powered "TEXT TO 3D DESIGN" tools transform these AI-generated concepts into real 3D printed models. Experience a game-changing AI workflow that turns imagination into reality.

Tom Courtney is a seasoned innovator with a career leading global high-tech product development teams and organizations at companies like Apple, Xerox, and ASML. Through his work, writing, and consulting, Tom delivers actionable AI strategies that enable individuals to unlock their potential and enhance both their professional and personal pursuits.  When he's not exploring the intersection of AI and society, you might find him playing piano, 3D printing, eBike riding, or experimenting with new technologies.

Scott Dienner

AI in the Support Stack: Real-World Applications & Critical Considerations

Explore practical AI implementations in support operations through real-world examples: automated Zendesk ticket summarization, RAG-powered knowledge base queries, and vector search for Jira issues. Learn how these solutions enhanced support efficiency while examining the gap between AI reality and perception, separating genuine potential from inflated expectations.

I've been a software engineer for around 12 years and a manager for around 2 years. I've been enjoying using AI to solve lots of problems, maybe too much. My day to day usually involves a lot of meetings and programming in SQL, React, and nodejs.

Logan Farr

Secrets to a Well-Designed Service

What sets apart a well-designed service from a run-of-the-mill service? How do we avoid architecture anti-patterns as software developers? In this talk, we'll cover the key ingredients of any service at all levels – development patterns, CI/CD, infrastructure, and even runtime in a production environment.

Logan is an engineering manager at HealthVerity, and has been working as a full-stack software engineer for over a decade. He's passionate about technology and leadership, and loves to nerd out about cloud infrastructure. In his free time, Logan loves traveling, reading, video games, and playing D&D.

Zach Fedor

Rage Against the Machine Learning: A Luddite's Guide to AI

Far from being simpletons or technophobes, the Luddites were skilled craftspeople who saw how new factory tech was destroying their communities and livelihoods. So they fought back with secret meetings, organized resistance, and hammers. This talk compares the Industrial and AI revolutions, exploring how Luddite principles and tactics might be adapted for the digital age, when the machine to break exists in the cloud not the factory floor.

Co-organizer of TechLancaster and member of the local meetup scene since 2014. English major turned self-taught web developer currently building React apps at early stage startups and pondering deep philosophical questions about life, the universe, and JavaScript.

Tim Freund

Automate Infrastructure with Incus and Ansible

Learn how you can quickly build, destroy, and rebuild labs and project infrastructure using Incus (LXC / KVM), OpenTofu (Terraform), and Ansible. This talk is informed by experience building and rebuilding labs for class. Participants will get access to a live container for the duration of the talk and all configuration artifacts will be available for download so you can build your own lab later.

Tim is a software engineer and SRE who spends his days teaching the trade to students at Thaddeus Stevens. When he isn't you can find him volunteering at Lancaster Cemetery or running the trails through Lancaster County Park. He's always on the lookout for delicious food in the area, so share your tips.

Robert Hudson

Curious George Makes a Job

There was once a curious not-so-little monkey, or at least 99% similar (by DNA), who could not decide what he wanted to be when he grew up. And by all reckoning, he was well past grown-up age. He liked computers, and he liked people, and he liked making them work together. But no job was just right for him. So he got the idea to hack his way to a new job for the future. This presentation is that story.

Rob is a good little hominid, and always very curious. This curiosity, along with the desire to make boring and slow things interesting and quick, took him on a career journey from fry cook to Radio Shack salesman to writing teacher to proposal writer to "technical analyst," a title that afforded him the flexibility to do all kinds of things. He also once pretended to be a golf instructor and dropped out of a PhD program, so things didn't always go just right. But he ended up with a nice job at a hospitality company, a family of very curious children, and hobbies, like origami, that mostly kee... Read More

Andy James

GenAI for Customer Support: Making an LLM More Capable on Niche Topics

This talk will shed light on the journey to integrate generative AI into Elastic's customer success and support operations, providing you with a behind-the-scenes look at our process. Topics include building a knowledge base, UX considerations, tuning RAG search, and observability for the features.

Andy has over 15 years of professional software development experience, including over 5 years each at both Google and Elastic. He's a full stack engineer focused on web applications, including Elastic's Customer Support Portal which features the Support Assistant; a chat bot utilizing Retrieval Augmented Generation to provide immediate Support to customers instead of needing to wait for a support engineer to assess their issue.

Joe Latrell

Lesson Learned - Continuing a Company After a Disaster

What do you do when your company implodes and takes a major step backward? We'll look at what happened, what could have been done better, and how to move on. This is a subject few seem willing to talk about. We'll cover the stigma of setbacks and retooling your mind to move forward again.

Joe Latrell is an inventor and entrepreneur with a passion for solving real-world problems through technology. He has coordinated satellite payloads for launch aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9, Blue Origin's New Shepard, and Rocket Lab's Electron, bridging the gap between cutting-edge aerospace and practical data applications. Before founding Quub, Joe built a broad base of experience across the tech industry — from launching an early suborbital rocket venture to developing data-driven software solutions for education and environmental analysis. At Quub, Joe leads the design and production of small, a... Read More

Alex Mayer

Advanced Git

Do you use git for work or personal projects? Ever wonder if your workflow could be better? Let's go over a few features of git that can help improve your process.

Alex has over a decade of experience as a Software Engineer and Site Reliability Engineer. He is the co-organizer of the Lancaster Linux Users Group (LancLUG), an avid GNU/Linux user, and contributes to open-source projects as often as he can.

murph

Hacker Public Radio - why you should listen, and contribute.

Hacker Public Radio is a community podcast that run 5 days a week. It is dedicated to sharing knowledge and has been running in various forms for nearly 20 years. Anyone that has anything that is of interest to hackers is welcome to submit a show. https://hackerpublicradio.org/

I'm murph, a system administrator in New Jersey, desktop Linux user, hackers.town resident, and EFF member. You can reach me on the fediverse at @murph@hackers.town.

Anupam Priya

Unleashing the Power, Potential and Productivity of Teams

Through this session, I aim to revisit the fundamentals of effective teamwork, uncover common blind spots, and explore research-backed strategies for building high-performing teams. Participants will critically reflect on how to unlock the full power, potential, and productivity of teams and gain actionable insights to drive collaboration and success in an engaging environment.

With 12+ years of experience in Business Consulting, SAP Technology and Project Management, Anupam currently works as a Manager with PwC's Advisory Practice in Toronto, having previously spent 9 years at Deloitte Consulting. She specializes in driving tech led business transformations and holds certifications as a PMP, SAFe Agilist 5, Scrum Master, and SAP Activate Project Manager. She also holds an MBA in Strategy & Operations and a Bachelors in Computer Science and Engineering. Beyond work, Anupam is a member of Access Employment and Toastmasters International and enjoys reading, painting, h... Read More

Benjamin Sautner

Nimbits: The Open Source IoT Platform That Shaped My Career

In 2004 I was working in the process control / data acquisition field doing automation of chemical plants in Pennsylvania. I've always enjoyed home automation and connecting devices to the internet and one day asked if I could get a licence for some of the data acquisition software we used so I could try to connect my aquarium to it. I was denied because it was expensive and proprietary. So I wrote my own just to show them! Nimbits was born!

I'm currently a Distinguished Software Engineer at Comcast where I work in our Connected Living organization focused on the Xfinity Android and iOS apps. I've been working in the mobile app space for over 10 years and before that I worked mainly in process control and automation systems. I come from a Java background and now I develop primarily using Kotlin Multiplatform. Ask me about my chickens!

Peter Stukalov

A GitOps approach with ArgoCD

A real world GitOps example using ArgoCD with code and the ability to poke buttons in a real infrastructure.

Hello, I’m Peter Stukalov, a DevOps and SRE specialist with 15 years of experience. I recently arrived in the U.S. from Russia on an H1B visa. My focus is on designing and automating cloud infrastructures, including GitOps workflows. I look forward to sharing my insights and learning from everyone at the conference.