November Meeting: Build Smarter Cross-Platform Applications

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join Pratt & Miller Engineering and us on Tuesday, November 26th, at 6:00 PM in the Redwood Conference Room of the Microsoft Charlotte Office. Building “smarter” applications is a popular and important topic in the software development community. In many cases, machine learning is the primary tool used to create apps that improve their delivered value by dynamically adjusting as more relevant data is made available. In addition to “smarter” applications, maximizing code re-use by creating cross-platform applications is another popular and important topic among software development professionals. With Xamarin, you can deliver native Android, iOS, and Windows applications with a single .NET codebase. What if you needed a cross-platform “smart” application? Is this possible?

In this session, we will explore how to leverage Azure Cognitive Services and ML.NET along with Xamarin to create a cross-platform RSS reader that is “smart.” As we use it, it improves and gets smarter.

The meeting presenter is Richard Taylor.

Richard L. Taylor Jr. is a 25-year software development and technology professional living in Huntersville, NC. His experience includes the design and development of small to enterprise-class applications. He currently serves as Vice President of Platform and Cloud Engineering at SentryOne.

Richard is a believer in using the right tools for the job and has leveraged ASP.NET (Web API, MVC), SQL Server/MongoDB, Angular, Bootstrap, JavaScript/NodeJS, KendoUI, and Xamarin (just to name a few) to deliver solutions. He has a great deal of experience but likes to explore new technologies, tools, and techniques to help create better software.

Richard has a passion for the software development community. He serves as one of the organizers of the Modern Devs Charlotte meetup group and is the founding organizer of the Charlotte Xamarin Developers meetup group. Both groups try to create environments where developers of all skill levels can come together and learn about the latest technologies, tools, and techniques to create software. These groups also provide a venue to network with fellow developers in the community. In addition to serving the local software development community via meetup groups, Richard also speaks at regional, national, and international technology user groups and conferences. His speaking schedule can be found here: http://www.rightincode.com/page/speaking-schedule

Richard recently received the Progress (Telerik) Developer Expert designation. DE’s are highly skilled, visible, and elite industry leaders who write, speak, help, and code using Progress (Telerik) products. There are 44 DE’s in 13 different countries who are ambassadors for Progress Products to the tech community.

When not developing software, Richard is focused on spending time with his lovely wife Shondrecca (she gives the best hugs!!) and their five children (Richard III, Ayanna, David, Jonathan, and Stephen).

The meeting sponsor is Pratt & Miller Engineering.

Pratt & Miller is a product development company that through technology and innovation, solves customers’ most technical and complex challenges in Mobility, Motorsports, Defense, and Manufacturing industries.

Logical Advantage recently joined the Pratt & Miller family! Pratt & Miller specializes in custom engineered IoT devices and enterprise software, including firmware, message brokers, cloud services, data acquisition, analytics, and visualization for IoT. Learn more at http://www.prattmiller.com.

Please RSVP so we know how much food to order.

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September Meeting: Refactoring to Testable Code

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join SentryOne and us on Tuesday, September 25th, at 6:00 PM in the Redwood Conference Room (formerly named MPR or the Multi-Purpose Room) of the Microsoft Charlotte Office. Most developers have the responsibility of working with an existing codebase. In many circumstances, the existing code was not designed with testing in mind. This does not allow leveraging of automated testing to reduce risk and improve quality. To realize the value of automated testing, this existing code must be refactored which is not always easy to accomplish. By attending this session, you will learn several techniques to refactoring code that was not designed to be testable. In addition, a unit test will be added to the newly refactored code and executed as a part of an automated test suite.

The meeting presenter is Richard Taylor.

Richard Taylor is a 25-year software development and technology professional living in Huntersville, NC. His experience includes the design and development of small to enterprise-class applications. For the last ten years, he has focused on web-based applications, and that is where his passion lives.

When not developing software, Richard focus is on spending time with his lovely wife Shondrecca and their five children (Richard III, Ayanna, David, Jonathan, and Stephen).

The meeting sponsor is SentryOne.

SentryOne creates unmatched solutions that empower Microsoft data professionals to achieve breakthrough performance across physical, virtual, and cloud environments. SentryOne products give customers the capability and confidence to monitor their databases, diagnose performance issues, and optimize the entire SQL Server estate to provide real business value. The SentryOne team includes more than 140 employees located in Charlotte, NC, Jacksonville, FL, Salem, NH and Dublin, Ireland. Learn more at www.sentryone.com.

Please RSVP so we know how much food to order.

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April Meeting: Creating Robust Architecture Using Angular & ASP.NET Core Web API

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join TEKsystems and us on Tuesday, April 25, at 6:00 PM in the Multi-Purpose Room (MPR) of the Microsoft Charlotte Office. Modern web applications built today typically consist of various technologies used to deliver the final solution. Over the last several of months, there have been significant new developments both in front-end frameworks for building single page applications as well as back-end frameworks designed for applications hosted in the cloud. In this session, we will explore using ASP.NET Core to host a Web API that provides services to an Angular (2+) single page application. As a developer, you will take away from this session a solid understanding of how to design a modern web application using these technologies.

The meeting presenter is Richard Taylor.

Richard Taylor is a 25-year software development and technology professional living in Huntersville, NC. His experience includes the design and development of small to enterprise-class applications. For the last 10 years, he has focused on web based applications and that is where his passion lives.

When not developing software, Richard is focused on spending time with his lovely wife Shondrecca and their five children (Richard III, Ayanna, David, Jonathan, and Stephen).

The meeting sponsor is TEKsystems.

By working for TEKsystems, you become part of our dedicated Microsoft Technologies Practice. Since its inception, our Microsoft Technologies Practice has helped hundreds of Microsoft Specialists to find an ideal job opportunity in the marketplace. Our program at TEKsystems specializes in the cornerstone technologies of the Microsoft stack – .NET, SQL Server, and SharePoint. Our team consists of Delivery Experts, in the major market geographies, with ties to the most cutting edge work opportunities.

As a member of the TEKsystems Microsoft Technologies Practice, you will have access to a Market Delivery Expert that focuses on Microsoft Technology jobs around the clock in your local region as well as across the US. In some cases, we may offer you the opportunity to become a full-time employee of TEKsystems and work as a Microsoft expert on our staff or at our most prestigious clients. Be sure to speak with your local TEKsystems contacts Lindsey Thomka Hardin, Cody Martin, Kierra Brown, Holly Cavanaugh, and Amanda Miller about our Microsoft Technologies Practice and how it can benefit your career.

People are at the heart of every successful business initiative. At TEKsystems, we understand people. Every year we deploy over 80,000 IT professionals at 6,000 sites across North America, Europe, and Asia. Our deep insights into IT human capital management enable us to help our clients achieve their business goals – while optimizing their IT workforce strategies. We provide IT staffing solutions, IT talent management expertise, and IT services to help our clients plan, build and run their critical business initiatives. Through our range of quality-focused delivery models, we meet our clients where they are, and take them where they want to go, the way they want to get there. Learn more at www.teksystems.com.

Please RSVP so we know how much food to order.

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September Meeting: Angular 2 – You’ve talked & read about it, now build an app

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join us and CapTech on Tuesday, September 27, at 6:00 PM in the Multi-Purpose Room (MPR) of the Microsoft Charlotte Office. There has been a lot of activity with Angular over the last couple of years. As a developer, especially a web developer, the term/name Angular is not foreign to you. You have probably discussed it with other developers, you have read about it in developer trade publications, and you have probably written a sample “Hello Angular 2” application just to get a feel for Angular 2’s value proposition. Now you are ready to build a real application but you have some reservation on how to get started or if you have started, you are questioning if you are building your application correctly. In this session, we will explore using Angular 2 to build the major features common to all web applications. This should give you a solid foundation for using Angular 2 as an effective tool in your development toolbox.

The meeting presenter is Richard Taylor.

Richard is an experienced, dedicated, detailed-oriented technology and management professional with a career reflecting strong leadership qualifications coupled with “hands on” technology experience. Knowledgeable in the design, development, implementation, support, and management of computer systems. Focused on achieving results while utilizing advanced technologies and business solutions to meet a variety of needs. You can read his blog at www.rightincode.com and follow him on Twitter at @rightincode.

The meeting is sponsored by CapTech.

CapTech is an award-winning national IT management consulting firm that bridges the gap between business and technology. We deliver Transformation, Customer Engagement, Data & Analytics and Custom IT solutions for America’s leading Fortune 500 companies and government agencies. Our collaborative approach helps organizations grow their business, engage with customers and turn information into powerful data assets. It’s one of the reasons we were on the Inc. 500/5000 list for 9 years. Our clients tell us it’s because others talk, but CapTech listens. You can learn more at www.captechconsulting.com.

Please RSVP so we know how much food to order.

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September Meeting: Azure App Service – Building Enterprise Apps in the Cloud

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join us and Signature Consultants on Tuesday, September 22, at 6:00 PM in the Multi-Purpose Room (MPR) of the Microsoft Charlotte Office. Azure App Service is a one-of-a kind solution that brings together the tools you need for building enterprise-ready apps around a common development, management and billing model. You can choose from a rich ecosystem of pre-built apps and API services as well as a unified set of enterprise capabilities including mobile backend services, turnkey connectivity to SaaS and enterprise systems, and workflow-based creation of business processes.

Azure App Service frees developers to focus on delivering great business value instead of needing to worry about repetitive tasks such as stitching disparate data sources together or dealing with operational and compliance overhead. This unified approach lets you take full advantage of the service while helping you meet your company’s concerns about security, reliability, and scalability.

In this session, we will create an enterprise class web application and deploy it using Azure App Service. Once deployed, we will explore extending our application by integrating third party services and automating business processes.

The meeting presenter is Richard Taylor.

Richard is an experienced, dedicated, detailed-oriented technology and management professional with a career reflecting strong leadership qualifications coupled with “hands on” technology experience. Knowledgeable in the design, development, implementation, support, and management of computer systems. Focused on achieving results while utilizing advanced technologies and business solutions to meet a variety of needs. You can read his blog at www.rightincode.com and follow him on Twitter at @rightincode.

The meeting is sponsored by Signature Consultants.

Signature Consultants was established in 1997 with a singular focus: Provide our clients and consultants with superior staffing solutions. At Signature Consultants, it’s not just about the bottom line; it’s about the people. We focus on the relationships we have with our clients, consultants and candidates. Our motto, “Getting IT Right,” is reflected in every aspect of our company – it guides our decisions and actions and ensures that our consultants and clients always come first. Learn more at www.sigconsult.com.

Please RSVP so we know how much food to order.

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