We’ve got two big events coming up in the Charlottesville Data Science community this week.
This Wednesday, Charlottesville Data Science hosts our November event at Vault Virginia. We’ll be featuring the talk How AI Systems Leak the Data They’re Built On from Hunter Moore, co-founder and CTO of Hardshell, a Charlottesville-based AI security startup. In his talk, Hunter will walk through how deployed AI systems are attacked in practice, using real-world case studies to explore indirect prompt injection, system prompt extraction, and privacy attacks that induce a model to divulge sensitive data.
Then on Friday, UVA Data Science hosts Datapalooza 2026, their signature annual event showcasing research and industry trends across Grounds and the greater data science community. I’m serving as a panel speaker for one of the breakout sessions, called How Can a Technologist Create and Innovate? Datapalooza is free and open to the public, so I hope to see you there!
Call for Demos: Show Us Your Agent Skills
Are you using AI agents in your data-centric workflows? If so, how? What’s working, and what’s not? Consider giving a quick demo of your agentic AI skills at a future Charlottesville Data Science event!
One of my favorite data science podcasts is Vanishing Gradients by Hugo Bowne-Anderson. This year, Hugo has been running an excellent series called Show Us Your (Agent) Skills, in which long-time Python, ML, AI, and data builders show how they’re actually using AI agents today. I’d love to replicate this idea within the Charlottesville Data Science community.
If you’re using AI agents to assist with data analysis, machine learning development, data engineering, or any other data-centric workflow, and you’re game to give a brief demo for your fellow community members in a friendly environment, we’d love to hear from you. Please submit your idea through the Charlottesville Data Science Call for Proposals!
Cool stuff from the Charlottesville Data Science community
Mike Pfaffenberger published Code mode: make your agents 2x faster and 2x cheaper on long tasks on the Pydantic blog, exploring the benefits of letting your coding agent write a little program that calls a sequence of tools at once, instead of the model calling them one at a time.
Justin Schroeder released Standard Music, an open-source Mac app that invents imaginary artists from scratch, with backstories, career arcs, voices and discographies — then writes and records their songs on your Mac.
More upcoming events around Charlottesville
Tuesday, November 17: rvatech/ holds its annual rvatech/Women in Technology Conference at the Science Museum of Virginia in Richmond.
Wednesday, November 18: Cville AI Explorers hosts a Show & Share at Studio IX. Up to eight community members get 15 minutes each to demo what they’ve been building, from an “AI software factory” to an offline AI-powered rotary phone. A few speaking slots were still open at last check!
Wednesday–Thursday, November 18–19: UVA’s Contemplative Sciences Center hosts AI Anxiety + Human Flourishing, a two-day public symposium on preparing young adults for a future with AI. Speakers include Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, AI ethics researcher David Danks, and UVA President Scott Beardsley.
Tuesday, December 1: The Tom Tom Foundation hosts The Infrastructure of Tomorrow: Data Centers, AI, and Virginia’s Future, a conversation with State Senator Creigh Deeds and Delegate Katrina Callsen about whether Virginia can remain a leader in the digital infrastructure economy — while also protecting affordability, sustainability, and the long-term interests of its communities.
Friday, December 4: The LaCross Institute for Ethical Artificial Intelligence in Business at UVA Darden hosts its fourth annual UVA Conference on Ethical AI in Business at The Forum Hotel, bringing together leaders from business, technology, and policy to talk about adopting AI responsibly. This year’s theme is “The AI Readiness Imperative: Preparing People & Organizations for Responsible AI.”