Thanks again for joining us for last week’s Breaking Into Data Science & AI Engineering panel discussion with Charlottesville Data Science and Cville AI Explorers! With 70+ in attendance, this was our largest monthly event in years, and it was excellent to see a roughly even mix between UVA students, faculty, and staff and members of the regional tech community at large.
Special thanks to our panelists Hunter Moore, Luke Kang, Miriam Friedel, and Cory Everington for sharing their insights and advice, and to the UVA School of Data Science for hosting us and for providing the pizza.
We’ll be back with our next Charlottesville Data Science event in October. In the meantime, check out beCamp 2026, or one of the other events in the “More upcoming events around Charlottesville” section below. It’s going to be a busy fall in the data science, AI, and machine learning scene in Charlottesville!
Registration for beCamp 2026 now open
Registration is officially open for beCamp 2026, Charlottesville’s annual “un-conference”. beCamp is one of the longest-running and most storied events in the Charlottesville technology community. This year is a particularly special one, as beCamp is celebrating its 20th anniversary.
If you haven't been before, beCamp is a conference planned by the people who show up. There are no pre-selected speakers or sessions. Participants collaboratively build the conference agenda together.
Anyone can pitch a session about anything you’re interested in speaking or learning about. Sessions from previous years have covered everything from deeply technical topics to drone racing to ranked-choice voting to baking the perfect loaf of sourdough.
We’ll gather on the evening of Friday, October 2 to pitch sessions, vote for our favorites, and assemble the conference schedule. Then, on Saturday, October 3, we’ll reconvene and run the conference we just planned the day before!
beCamp is completely free to attend. There’s no better way to connect with the local tech community, share what you’re interested in, and learn something new!
More upcoming events around Charlottesville
Wednesday, September 2: Over in Richmond, RVA Data Enthusiasts hosts The Future of Data is Agentic at Ippon Technologies. Drawing on real-world case studies, Peter Bilzerian of MPP Insights explores “Agentic BI” and discusses what AI actually changes about the work of data engineers andBI developers — and what it doesn’t.
Friday, September 4: The UVA School of Data Science hosts an award ceremony and reception for the 2026 Data Is ART Competition. Data visualization expert Alberto Cairo will give a keynote talk, followed by the award presentation for this year’s winners. Open to the public.
Thursday, September 10: UVA Data Science professor Mona Sloane hosts a panel discussion at the UVA School of Law to launch her new book, Predicted: How AI Is Restructuring Social Life.
Thursday, September 17: CvilleBioHub holds its fifth annual BioDiscovery Summit, “From Spark to Scale,” at the Irving Theater in the CODE Building.
Friday, September 18 – Saturday, September 19: UVA’s Department of Systems and Information Engineering celebrates its 50th anniversary with an open house, networking receptions, and interactive sessions spread over two days.
Thursday, October 1: AFCEA Central Virginia (CeVA) holds its third annual Data Centric Summit (DCS26) at the Irving Theater in the CODE Building. The summit will focus on the technologies, architectures, and operational practices shaping the next generation of data‑driven decision-making across defense, government, and industry.
Friday, October 2 – Saturday, October 3: beCamp 2026, one of the longest-running and most storied events in the Charlottesville technology scene, returns for its 20th year. beCamp is Charlottesville’s annual “unconference”, an event fully planned and run by the people who show up. Join fellow members of the Charlottesville tech community to connect, share, and spend a day learning something new. There’s nothing else quite like beCamp in town!
Friday, October 23: The UVA Darden School of Business hosts the inaugural Innovate@Darden event. Innovate@Darden will bring together students and practitioners for a day of dialogue around emerging trends, career pathways, and real-world applications of tech and AI across industries.