Neill will look back at a project from a decade ago: building and deploying a recommender system for a car rental website.
He’ll cover the business problem, the approach he took, the challenges
he encountered, and how the system ultimately made it into production.
Along the way, \\mixture models, stochastic gradient descent, discrete
choice modelling, significance testing,\\ and \\purchasing power
parity\\ will all make an appearance.
Drawing on his experience of taking the project from theory through to
implementation, Neill will share some of the things that worked, some
that didn’t, and lessons that may help you on your next data science
project.
\-\-\-
Neill Sweeney has a B.Sc. in Applied Mathematics, an M.Sc. in
Mathematics and Physics, and a Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence, where
he specialised in poker AI.
He was interested in AI before it was cool. Since then, he has worked
on everything from calibrating milk meters to building recommender
systems for car rental websites. He has always been particularly
interested in connecting theory with real-world implementation.
Designing What’s Next AI, agents and the changing shape of experience Dublin UX is back this September for an exclusively in-person evening of talks, conversation and community, presented in partnership with SiriusXM. Now in our 11th year, Dublin UX continues to bring together the people shaping products, services and experiences across Ireland and beyond. For this edition, we’ll explore how AI and agentic technologies are changing the way products are designed, how teams work and how experiences connect across an expanding range of surfaces. Join us for three talks featuring four speakers, followed by an opportunity to continue the conversation with the wider Dublin UX community. Event schedule Doors open at 6pm with a food, drinks and networking reception. The talks will begin at 6:45pm sharp and the formal programme will finish by 8:30pm. There will be additional networking at SiriusXM until 9pm. The running order and individual session timings remain subject to change. Talks and speakers Agentic workflows Salomé Mortazavi, Senior Director of Design Systems and Operations at SiriusXM Amie Tornincasa, Vice President of Product at SiriusXM Salomé and Amie will explore how agentic AI is becoming part of the product development process and changing the way cross-functional teams work. Drawing on their experience at SiriusXM, they will consider how organisations can use these emerging capabilities to move faster while continuing to create thoughtful, differentiated experiences for customers. About Salomé Salomé Mortazavi is Senior Director of Design Systems and Operations at SiriusXM, where she enables teams to build the best possible experiences for listeners. She is currently focused on integrating agentic AI into cross-functional workflows, helping teams move faster while continuing to deliver exceptional listener experiences. Previously, at VMware and Pivotal Labs, Salomé partnered with organisations including Under Armour, Nordstrom, Dell and Boei
AI sits on both sides of the observability equation. On one side, your AgentCore apps and agents are production systems nobody quite knows how to debug: non-deterministic and unwilling to explain themselves. On the other, those same models are being pointed back at your telemetry as an on-call assistant that reads traces faster than any human can. We're taking both seriously, and you'll build on both. After a short framing talk, we run two hands-on sessions: one instrumenting an AgentCore agent with OpenTelemetry's GenAI semantic conventions, one wiring a model up to live telemetry so it can work a real incident. We circle back at the end to compare each approach. Bring a laptop. Food, drinks, and accounts provided. Agenda: Doors open Welcome & Housekeeping (5min) KickOff: AI for Observability & Observability 4 AI (25min) Track A: Observability for AI (30-45min) Track B: AI for Observability (30-45min) Drinks & Networking
The tech industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in the corporate world. It is a dynamic and ever-changing sector where people can build careers and thrive in them. On 1st October 2026, GTA Black Women in Tech Ireland is honoured to collaborate with Amazon Ireland to bring to Dublin a panel discussion, Q&A session and networking event that will introduce attendees to Amazon Ireland, help build their networks, explore careers in tech in general, and more specifically at Amazon. Our speakers from Amazon will talk about their careers and we will open the floor to questions that the audience might have. We will also have tech leaders from the banking and professional services industries who will explain how tech translates to careers in non-tech organisations, thus breaking the stereotypes that tech careers are solely found at companies considered tech giants. Speakers Fiona Simpson - Sales Leader, Ireland & NI at AWS Priscilla Fadele - Network Dev Engineer II Tshego Putu, Vice President, Cybersecurity, JP Morgan Ifeyinwa Egbuche, Manager, Technology & Data Operations, EY Key Takeaways You’ll leave this event with practical strategies and advice to: Build long-term career resilience in a rapidly evolving industry Identify skills to develop and careers that are possible in the world of tech Strengthen your professional visibility and positioning Practice your networking skills and connect with talented students and skilled professionals Who This Event Is For? This event is designed for: Current university students in search of internship or placement opportunities Students who have just completed their degree and are looking for graduate programmes Professionals looking to break into the tech industry Professionals already working in tech and looking to build their network Professionals already working in tech and looking for new opportunities Come ready to connect, learn and enjoy some refreshments. Finger food, tea, coffee and soft drinks will be provided thr