The Data Behind Agents: Building Intelligent, Safe, AI Systems

About this event

WHAT IS IT ABOUT? AI agents dominate current industry discussion, yet clear explanations of what they are, why they fail, and what roles they are creating remain scarce. This session offers a foundational introduction for students and early-career technologists. We'll examine what distinguishes an agent from a conventional chatbot — tools, memory, and planning loops — and trace an agent through the completion of a realistic task. We then turn to the less-demonstrated half of the problem: the data an agent requires to be useful, and the boundaries it requires to be safe. The session concludes with an assessment of which roles are likely to endure, the skills underpinning them, and actionable first steps. WHO IS ON THE PANEL? Gajendra Babu Thokala (he/him) Senior Engineering Leader @ Apple \| Fellow\, British Computer Society \| Wharton CTO Program https://www.linkedin.com/in/gajendrababu Anusua Trivedi Head of AI @ Oracle Health HDI https://www.linkedin.com/in/anusua/ WHAT IS THE FORMAT? We'll have a quick introduction followed by guest speakers covering the questions above. Then we'll switch over to moderated Q&A. DO I HAVE TO BE AN EXPERT? A STUDENT? No and no. This event is open to all who are interested and is meant to be an introduction to the topic. WHO IS SPONSORING? North Seattle College's Technical Bachelor's Degree Programs • Application Development BAS Degree Program (https://northseattle.edu/programs/bas-application-development) • Computer Science BS Degree Program (https://new.northseattle.edu/bachelors-science-computer-science) Applications will open soon for Fall 2027 start dates! Please reach out to the Meetup host to learn more or use the links above. HOW DO I ATTEND AND PARTICIPATE? • This will be a virtual Meetup event. A direct link to the Zoom Meeting location will be visible when you RSVP. • You'll need to download (https://zoom.us/download) the appropriate software for your computer, tablet, or other mobile device. • Questions for the Q&A will be handled via the Zoom chat functionality, with instructions presented during the Meetup. We will provide automatic captioning for all speakers.