Cognitive Engineering is the application of scientific findings and engineering principles and patterns to cognition. If we understand how people perceive and think we can engineer interfaces that engage minds in a more natural and effective manner. The Cognitive Engineering Design Methodology, parallel to and distinct from convention-driven UX and commercially-driven branding, have resulted in significant--almost--paradoxical improvements: 6,000 nodes and 20,000 links in a digraph that shows both global trends and individual connections; 20:1 speedups that people find more comfortable; 50x the data density in visual representations which nonetheless evoke insights better; data tools that telegraph meaning yet draw crowds in art museums

This talk will show examples of these results and teach a bit of how they work. It will also present a case that coupling human minds with computers this tightly extends our intellectual reach--perhaps to problems we currently think intractable--much as a geometer's pencil enables solutions the geometer (and the pencil!) could not arrive at alone.

We will examine why the level of information security is so important not only for specific organizations but for the development of our digital society as a whole. Is there a digital “Pearl Harbor” and will it take a catastrophic event with physical damages to realize that we are building the digital future on unstable foundations. The presentation will also contain technical specifics about the components we can improve in the systems we create and use.

Escape room games are like a concise crash course on product development. In one hour you can quickly spot the strengths and weaknesses of your team and the process you are all used to, as well as how to improve it and make it easier and more engaging. Is there a weak link in your team, do you all know your personal strengths, why do you fail to deliver the product on time, how do you perform under pressure… You can find all the answers after spending an hour trying to escape from a dark room by solving puzzles and riddles. Nadezhda will share why her experience with escape rooms makes her a better manager, professional and a better human being in general.

From the basement filled with servers and switches we somehow rose into the clouds. And we float amidst them, and we scale and design… We as programmers, theoreticians and mathematicians had to learn how to fly and evolve into the mythical creature “DevOps”- someone who floats in the clouds and fixes various cloud issues while companies spend crazy amounts of money on Amazon, for example. I want to talk about AWS and the utility of such services, like Azure and Google Cloud. I want to talk about the path a programmer takes to become a DevOps (as there is no other starting point) and which one is more difficult. Truth is, manual server maintenance can be challenging if the system is gigantic. But there is no silver bullet and sometimes cloud services are not suitable. All in all, this talk will be about my personal floating in the clouds as that is all I have been doing lately (apart from staring at the wall in the meantime).

In this talk we'll look at the theory behind Angular. At the beginning of the presentation we'll focus on static versus dynamic systems and explain what place Angular takes in the entire spectrum. We'll discuss different processes involved in the development of open source software, and look into the motivation behind technical decisions shaping the direction of the framework.

We live in a time where access to facts and information is becoming easier and faster. Sometimes people are getting the feeling that the time they spend studying is “lost” because everything they will ever need is just a few clicks away. Is this really the case? Or is it not that simple and people are actually required to invest more time in their preparation in order to operate efficiently and effectively in the new world?

Multitasking is hard and if possible should be avoided. This is something that experienced devs and architects know quite well. In this talk Marian will present the difference between implementing multitasking with multiple processes, multiple threads in a single process or with fibers (coroutines) in a single process. You will learn about the benefits, problems and locking issues with each of them. Example programs will be provided in Marian's github account.

The accumulation of more and more data about the usage of educational software by modern students contributes to the changes in teaching methods. However, in some cases introduction of technology can lead to reduced student performance. In his talk Ivan Gospodinov will present some contemporary academic critiques on the use of digital tools and the so called datafication of education. When does the digital learning environment support self-education and when does it simplify the learning process and reduce its quality? What principles must an educational software adopt in order to meet the criteria for quality education?

David Cremin has been a venture capital fund manager for 22 years. Having funded over 100 businesses during his career, he has developed a perspective on how early stage companies can assess market opportunities for products or services. How do you design your product? Why do you decide to build it? How do you sell it? What processes should you use? Should you even decide to launch this effort?