Learning & Tech❯Talks & Lectures❯Science Pubs

with Nico Spadafora, Paleontologist, Founder of The Fossil Team

Image credit: artist Hodari Nundu

Please note this event takes place on Wednesday due to Election Night.

We’ve all heard the phrase, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Turns out, nature seems to agree! From the fossil record to the animals living around us today, evolution has a funny habit of coming up with the same solutions again and again. Different animals can end up looking remarkably alike and sometimes even behaving alike despite evolving completely independently. This fascinating phenomenon is called convergent evolution.

In this fun and fascinating pub talk, paleontologist Nico Spadafora will take you on a journey through the weird, wonderful, and oddly repetitive world of convergent evolution. We’ll explore how it happens, why evolution keeps repeating itself, and what these evolutionary “reruns” can tell us about the incredible diversity of life on Earth.

Science Pubs are a casual lecture series located in fun venues across the region, recommended for ages 10 and over.

Zoom Option
If you are unable to join us in person, you can watch on Zoom. You must register in advance. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Nico Spadafora is the founder of The Fossil Team, an education company and traveling museum dedicated to bringing the wonders of natural history to life. He has spent more than two decades studying paleontology, zoology, and the natural sciences, diving headfirst into the scientific literature and developing a deep knowledge of both living and extinct animals. In his teens, Nico earned an internship at the Oregon Zoo where he studied the anatomy, behavior, and traits of elephants, lions, rhinos, and many other animals. He later took his knowledge into the wild as a professional tracker and wilderness educator with Trackers Earth, following the trails and sign of bears, cougars, elk, and other wild animals. Today, Nico specializes in dinosaurs and prehistoric mammals and loves sharing the strange, spectacular, and sometimes downright bizarre stories hidden in the natural world. When he’s not studying, tracking, or obsessing over animals in the wild, he enjoys movies and games cuddled up with his house panthers Puma and Rufus.

WSU Vancouver MIS club and the Oregon Data Community host a free one-day training event for data professionals and students using the Microsoft Data Platform.

Session topics include SQL Server, Microsoft Fabric, Power BI, Azure Synapse, data analytics, visualization and more!

Coffee and Beverages will be provided, and lunch will be available for a small fee.

Conference attendance is free, but registration is required. Use the QR code below.

Join us for our next Forest Pub focused on Mushrooms as the Architect of the Forest: Fungi and their Hidden Ecological Roles, an evening of storytelling, science, and community exploration in partnership with the Oregon Mycological Society. This special edition of Forest Pub dives into the fascinating world of fungi and their essential role in forest ecosystems—from decomposition and soil health to the hidden underground networks that connect trees and support forest resilience.

Guests will hear from local mycology expert, Tim Glassman, to learn how mushrooms shape forest ecology and climate health, and discover how fungi support both natural systems and human understanding of the forest. As always, Forest Pub blends science with storytelling in a relaxed, social setting designed to spark curiosity and conversation over a shared love of forests.

Speaker: Tim Glassman is currently the Chair of the Education Committee of the Oregon Mycological Society (OMS). He has been teaching Beginner’s ID and Toxicology to members and is currently creating a new Fungal Ecology class. Tim grew up in Buffalo, New York where he foraged around town riding his bicycle. Since then, he earned a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from MIT and worked as a Semiconductor Process Engineer at Intel for 21 years. After retiring in 2018 he joined OMS to learn about the diversity of mushrooms in the Pacific Northwest.

Portland Fabric User Group It's that magical time of year again where we have our all day FREE technical conference at a local site. This year, we are once again holding our conference at Washington State University Vancouver, up in the Salmon Creek area. As many of you know, the active leadership lives in the Vancouver area, so we've naturally migrated the event to Vancouver due to the availability of high-quality sites with excellent parking. We're in partnership with WSU Vancouver and the WSU

We've all heard the phrase, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Turns out, nature seems to agree! From the fossil record to the animals living around us today, evolution has a funny habit of coming up with the same solutions again and again. Different animals can end up looking remarkably alike and sometimes even behaving alike despite evolving completely independently. This fascinating phenomenon is called convergent evolution.

In this fun and fascinating pub talk, paleontologist Nico Spadafora will take you on a journey through the weird, wonderful, and oddly repetitive world of convergent evolution. We'll explore how it happens, why evolution keeps repeating itself, and what these evolutionary "reruns" can tell us about the incredible diversity of life on Earth.

Science Pubs are a casual lecture series located in fun venues across the region, recommended for ages 10 and over.

Science Pub Mission Theater is a monthly event that is open to anyone and everyone. No scientific background required. Just bring your curiosity, sense of humor, and appetite for food, drinks and knowledge! For more information or to sign up for our mailing list, email: [email protected].

Portland Analytics Club Calling all developers, AI engineers, software architects, data scientists, DevOps professionals, and tech enthusiasts — **TechConnect** is your ultimate destination for career growth, project showcasing, and global peer networking in the tech ecosystem.

Hosted in a self-led, Slack-style virtual space, this **virtual tech networking event** invites you to connect, collaborate, and innovate with a diverse community of tech minds and hiring professionals from around the wo

Saving Throw Studio presents G.A.T.H.E.R., previously called Beginner Friendly App Building for Innovators: a three-hour, innovation-focused workshop for people building software without a technical background. No experience is required and the session is structured to be judgment-free -- guided, founder-friendly building rather than a lecture. This edition digs into prompting accuracy, breaking complex features down into plans a non-engineer can actually execute, and the architectural decisions behind front-end design. Bring a laptop and whatever refreshments you want; there is no dress code. Hosted by Ryan Green at North Bank Innovations inside the Vancouver Innovation Center, 18110 SE 34th St, Vancouver, Washington. Park in Lot 1, the red lot. Weekend doors are locked, so latecomers sho https://luma.com/j9rh2whz

You've all heard the phrase, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Turns out, nature seems to agree. From the fossil record to the animals living today, evolution has a funny habit of coming up with the same solutions again and again. Different animals can end up looking remarkably alike and sometimes even behaving alike despite evolving completely independently. This fascinating phenomenon is called convergent evolution. In this fun and fascinating pub talk, paleontologist Nico Spadafora will take you on a journey through the weird, wonderful, and oddly repetitive world of convergent evolution. Explore how it happens, why evolution keeps repeating itself, and what these evolutionary “reruns” say about the incredible diversity of life on Earth.

Science Pubs are a casual lecture series located in fun venues across the region, recommended for ages 10 and over.

Nico Spadafora is the founder of The Fossil Team, an education company and traveling museum dedicated to bringing the wonders of natural history to life. He has spent more than two decades studying paleontology, zoology, and the natural sciences, diving headfirst into the scientific literature and developing a deep knowledge of both living and extinct animals. In his teens, Nico earned an internship at the Oregon Zoo, where he studied the anatomy, behavior, and traits of elephants, lions, rhinos, and many other animals. He later took his knowledge into the wild as a professional tracker and wilderness educator with Trackers Earth, following the trails and signs of bears, cougars, elk, and other wild animals. Today, Nico specializes in dinosaurs and prehistoric mammals and loves sharing the strange, spectacular, and sometimes downright bizarre stories hidden in the natural world. When he’s not studying, tracking, or obsessing over animals in the wild, he enjoys movies and games, cuddled up with his house panthers, Puma and Rufus.

Portland Analytics Club **What is FirstFridayFair Monthly Job Fair?** [FirstFridayFair Monthly Job Fair](https://events.tao.ai/pod/analytics.club/6j382kbpcnvd) is a **global virtual job fair and remote hiring event** hosted by the [Analytics.CLUB](Analytics.CLUB) community. This **online job fair platform** brings together **professionals, employers, recruiters, and career coaches** for an immersive, **self-managed career networking experience**. 🎥 **New to FirstFridayFair? Watch our explainer

Better Futures Club is a weekly event (alternating Tuesdays and Thursdays) focused on imagining and making better futures. Imagine an artist community, a think tank, and a research center in the same building. People in all of those fields working alongside each other imagining and creating different futures together. Cross pollination and inspiration. Liberal Arts and STEM and R&D. Photographers, physicists, authors, astronomers, musicians, makers, mathematicians, designers, developers, fashionistas, climatologists and all manner of imaginative optimists. All Better Futures Club events are covered by the Contributor Covenant Code of Conduct (https://www.contributor-covenant.org)

Tags: ruby, STEM, liberal arts, community, hacking, AI

Imported from: http://calagator.org/events/1250482760

Few conservation behaviors have captured the public’s interest as much as recycling. But sorting your trash and placing it at the curb isn’t recycling . . . it’s just the start of a long and somewhat surprising journey for your empty milk cartons and back issues of Cat Fancy.

• Where do those materials go once in the bin?
• How do they get sorted out? And where do they go from there?
• What about those rumors that recycling trucks just deliver materials to the landfill, or dump them in the ocean?
• How can recycling even deliver environmental benefit, given all of the trucks and machinery involved?
• What’s the deal with plastic, anyway?

You have questions, and we have answers!

After pioneering recycling policy in the late 1980s, Oregon is now implementing the first “extended producer responsibility” law for packaging in the U.S. The Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act, adopted in 2021, was launched July 1, 2025 and is designed to provide residents and businesses a recycling system that can be trusted to deliver the environmental benefits that recycling has long promised. But even a fully modernized recycling system has limited potential to stem the tide of unsustainable levels of production and consumption.

Explore how recycling is simultaneously necessary and insufficient, how recycling needs to be improved, and what else Oregon could be doing to use materials sustainably.

David Allaway and Justin Gast work at the OR Department of Environmental Quality, and between them have over 57 years of experience with recycling systems. In addition to his time at DEQ, Justin has worked at the local and national levels for the likes of Resource Recycling magazine, the Washington County (OR) Solid Waste & Recycling Program and The Recycling Partnership. David has testified before Congress and co-chaired Oregon’s Recycling Steering Committee, and his work has been featured in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, the National Law Review, Time, Sierra and PBS Frontline.

Minors ok when accompanied by a parent or guardian

The Technology Association of Oregon convenes the Agentic AI Summit, a gathering for Oregon technology professionals focused on agentic AI - systems that plan, take actions, and use tools on a persons behalf rather than simply answering prompts. The program is aimed at engineering leaders, product teams, data and platform practitioners, founders, and the operators who have to decide where autonomous agents genuinely earn their keep. Expected themes include practical deployment patterns, evaluation and guardrails, security and data governance for tool-using systems, cost and reliability tradeoffs, and lessons learned from teams already running agents in production. As with other TAO summits, expect a mix of talks, panels, and structured networking with the regional tech community in downtow https://www.techoregon.org/event/agentic-ai-summit

The Portland SIMposium is a premier event designed for IT leaders, taking place at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Portland, United States. This all-day event brings together CIOs, CISOs, and technology leaders from across the Pacific Northwest, offering a unique opportunity for collaboration, insight, and innovation. Attendees will engage in a series of mainstage panels, breakout sessions, and fireside conversations that delve into key themes reshaping technology leadership today. Topics of discussion will include AI-driven transformation, cybersecurity resilience, workforce evolution, and the human side of digital leadership. Participants will hear from executives who are at the forefront of technology change across various industries, as well as thought leaders from Oregon's vibrant innovation ecosystem. The event also features the prestigious Oregon CIO & CISO of the Year Awards, highlighting exceptional leadership and impact within the region. With the chance to connect with over 150 regional technology and business leaders, attendees can expect to gain actionable insights that will enhance their strategic governance and leadership effectiveness. The Portland SIMposium promises a day filled with knowledge-sharing, networking opportunities, and community engagement.

Imported from: http://calagator.org/events/1250482744

Discover how contemporary AI applications can serve as powerful tools for independent living, lifelong learning, and daily problem-solving. This interactive workshop demonstrates practical accessibility functions hidden inside everyday tech, such as instant text-to-speech audio conversion, natural voice-command interactions, and real-time smartphone image recognition (perfect for reading small labels or identifying objects). Moving into deeper research skills, we will outline advanced prompting methods while unpacking the distinct structural limits of large language models. Learn exactly why AI should never replace professional advisory services, and discover specific strategies for spotting online medical misinformation.

For this session, participants are asked to bring smartphones, laptops or tablets with internet access. Hands-on activities will also include more in-depth prompt writing techniques.

Taught by Adult Services Librarian April Younglove of the Lake Oswego Public Library, with one‑on‑one assistance provided by students from the Lake Youth Leadership Council.

For more information and to register for this free class, please call the Adult Community Center at (503) 635-3758. This class will take place at the Adult Community Center, located at 505 G Avenue, Lake Oswego. This event is sponsored by the Lake Oswego Adult Community Center and the Lake Oswego Public Library.

Why are some plant species rare, and what can be learned from them? These are two of the fundamental questions at the core of conservation biology. In an era of accelerated anthropogenic change, understanding how the past has shaped our biota and the distribution of species across our region is more important than ever before.

In this talk, evolutionary biologist Ash Gill will introduce some rare flowering plants of our region and discuss how their habitats have been affected by European colonization. She will go on to describe how data collected from rare species can be used to understand the evolutionary process. Lastly, she will share how citizen scientists can contribute to conservation by using tools at the Oregon Flora Project to learn about their local flora and document their observations.

With Ash Gill, Taxonomist at the Oregon Flora Project and Botanist/Wetland Scientist at SWCA Environmental Consultants

Science Pubs are a casual lecture series located in fun venues across the region, recommended for ages 10 and over.

OpenSearch Community & Triage Meetings The Data Prepper team will be triaging issues in the [Data Prepper project](https://github.com/opensearch-project/data-prepper). We meet at 11:00am US Central time.

Please see [our agenda in TRIAGING.md](https://github.com/opensearch-project/data-prepper/blob/main/TRIAGING.md#is-there-an-agenda-for-each-week) for details on our weekly agenda.

[Code of Conduct](https://github.com/opensearch-project/data-prepper/blob/main/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md)

This meeting i

Join us for an evening of storytelling, science, and community exploration in partnership with the Oregon Mycological Society. This special edition of Forest Pub dives into the fascinating world of fungi and their essential role in forest ecosystems-from decomposition and soil health to the hidden underground networks that connect trees and support forest resilience. Guests will hear from local mycology experts, learn how mushrooms shape forest ecology and climate health, and discover how fungi support both natural systems and human understanding of the forest. As always, Forest Pub blends science with storytelling in a relaxed, social setting designed to spark curiosity and conversation over a shared love of forests.

Join us for a pint & learn about our forests!

Step into the world of our forests at Forest Pub, a monthly program brought to you in partnership with McMenamins History at the Mission Theater in NW Portland. Every second Monday, we bring in dynamic guest speakers to explore how forests touch every part of our lives - from the natural wonders we depend on to the creativity, culture, and cutting-edge solutions they inspire. Whether it's science, stories, or the latest breakthroughs in innovations, Forest Pub connects the dots between our forests and our world.

Why are some plant species rare, and what can we learn from them? These are two of the fundamental questions at the core of conservation biology. In an era of accelerated anthropogenic change, understanding how the past has shaped our biota and the distribution of species across our region is more important than ever before.

In this talk, evolutionary biologist Ash Gill will introduce some rare flowering plants of our region and the ways their habitats have been impacted following European colonization. She will go on to describe how data collected from rare species can be used to understand the evolutionary process. Lastly, she will share how citizen scientists can contribute to conservation by using tools at the Oregon Flora Project to learn about their local flora and document their observations.

Science Pubs are a casual lecture series located in fun venues across the region, recommended for ages 10 and over.

Science Pub Kennedy School is a monthly event that is open to anyone and everyone. No RSVP or scientific background required. Just bring your curiosity, sense of humor, and appetite for food, drinks and knowledge! For more information or to sign up for our mailing list, email: [email protected].

Dinner and drinks will be available throughout the presentation. Please visit the McMenamins Kennedy School website for a dinner menu and venue information.

Suggested donation of $8 all goes to OMSI.

NODES 2026 is Neo4j's free, 24-hour global online conference, running across every time zone on November 12. The program is aimed at developers, data professionals, architects and AI engineers, with sessions on modern application development, multi-agent workflows, graph-backed retrieval and building context-rich systems that hold up in production. Talks are grouped by experience level, so there are introductory sessions for people new to graph databases alongside deeper technical material on knowledge graphs, agent orchestration and graph analytics at scale. Because the event streams continuously for a full day, Pacific-time attendees can join sessions in the morning, over lunch or in the evening, and recordings are typically published afterward. Registration is free through the Neo4j eve https://neo4j.com/event/nodes-2026-engineering-better-intelligence/

Tuesday, November 3 6pm doors, 7pm presentation All ages welcome at Mission Theater

Working with data that's too large, too slow, or too messy for regular CSVs? Join us for an introduction to the {arrow} package in R. We'll explore how Arrow and Parquet files can make large datasets faster to store, read, and analyze, all while using the familiar dplyr workflows you already know and love. Using Portland's Biketown data, we'll convert, query, and visualize millions of rides without breaking a sweat (or our laptops). Bring your laptop if you want to follow along. No need to RSVP via Meetup, but we might share info ahead of time in the event comments!

Tags: data, r, women in tech

Imported from: http://calagator.org/events/1250482764

Join Adult Services Librarian April Younglove from the Lake Oswego Public Library for a hands-on, four-part series designed to demystify artificial intelligence. Learn how to navigate the digital world, protect your privacy, and use AI tools with confidence and skepticism. Sessions include clear, live demonstrations, interactive discussions, and personalized tech support. Free for all participants.

• Location: Lake Oswego Adult Community Center
• Cost: Free for both residents and non-residents
• Requirements: Please bring a smartphone, laptop, or tablet with internet access for the hands-on practice portions.

Foundations for Everyday Use

Kick off the series by stripping away the tech jargon and discovering how artificial intelligence can simplify your day-to-day life. This foundational session introduces core AI concepts and terminology—including AI summarizers, generative chatbots, and natural prompting—in clear, approachable language. Through live demonstrations of Claude AI, Microsoft Copilot, and ChatGPT, you will learn how to safely use these tools to brainstorm recipes, plan custom travel itineraries, and organize daily tasks. We will introduce the essential "Ask–Tweak–Verify" (ATV) framework alongside critical privacy guidelines to ensure you protect your personal data right from the start.

One-on-one lab assistance is proudly provided by student volunteers from the Lake Youth Leadership Council to help you configure settings on your personal devices.

Date / Time: Tuesday, September 15 | 2:00–3:30 p.m.
Class Number: 34825

Hands-On Skills and Sandbox Practice

Build directly upon your foundational knowledge with a supportive, highly interactive sandbox session dedicated to mastering digital assistants. In Part 2, participants shift from watching demonstrations to writing and refining their own prompts. Under patient guidance, you will practice conversational techniques, discover how subtle shifts in word choices yield dramatically improved answers, and learn how to implement standard internet safety boundaries. A major focus of this workshop will be learning how to cross-reference and fact-check chatbot output to ensure your digital interactions remain secure, accurate, and productive.

Personalized, one-on-one tech support will be provided throughout the hands-on practice intervals by members of the Lake Youth Leadership Council.

Date / Time: Tuesday, October 20 | 2:00–3:30 p.m.
Class Number: 34826

Helping Seniors Navigate Daily Life With Confidence

Discover how contemporary AI applications can serve as powerful tools for independent living, lifelong learning, and daily problem-solving. This interactive workshop demonstrates practical accessibility functions hidden inside everyday tech, such as instant text-to-speech audio conversion, natural voice-command interactions, and real-time smartphone image recognition (perfect for reading small labels or identifying objects). Moving into deeper research skills, we will outline advanced prompting methods while unpacking the distinct structural limits of large language models. Learn exactly why AI should never replace professional advisory services, and discover specific strategies for spotting online medical misinformation.

Personalized, one-on-one tech support will be provided throughout the hands-on practice intervals by members of the Lake Youth Leadership Council.

Date / Time: Tuesday, November 17 | 2:00–3:30 p.m.
Class Number: 34827

Becoming a Confident, Critical AI User

The final installation equips you with an essential digital defense toolkit to evaluate whether online content is authentic, accurate, and trustworthy. We will break down common system errors, reveal how "hallucinations" occur, and introduce quick, library-approved methods for verifying data across independent sources. Crucially, this session helps participants recognize how malicious actors deploy technology for modern fraudulent schemes—including cloning voices for identity scams, fabricating hyper-realistic deepfakes, and pushing complex cryptocurrency traps. Leave with the confidence and critical awareness needed to enjoy modern digital conveniences safely and securely.

Personalized, one-on-one tech support will be provided throughout the hands-on practice intervals by members of the Lake Youth Leadership Council.

Date / Time: Tuesday, December 15 | 2:00–3:30 p.m.
Class Number: 34828

Missed a previous session? Access archived video recordings, interactive presentation slides, and educational handouts from our past technology literacy classes below:

Explore the sophisticated tools and methodologies professional librarians utilize to identify computer-generated texts, altered documents, and artificial imagery. This session provides actionable, real-world clues to help you differentiate between genuine human creations and artificial content in your daily newsfeeds and correspondence.

This class was originally presented at the Lake Oswego Public Library.

• Watch the Presentation Video on YouTube
• View Interactive Presentation Slides
• Download Class Instructional Handout

Navigate the rapidly-evolving digital landscape with clarity and balance. This session pulls back the curtain on automated "content farms," breaking down how social media algorithms, financial pay-per-click incentives, and strategic influence campaigns purposefully accelerate the distribution of false narratives. Learn to evaluate source motivations and protect your digital footprint from predatory content design.

This class was originally presented at the Lake Oswego Adult Community Center.

• Watch the Presentation Video on YouTube
• View Interactive Presentation Slides
• Download Class Instructional Handout

For questions or more information regarding our technology programs, please contact Adult Services Librarian April Younglove at [email protected].

Portland Fabric User Group Explore how the Port of Portland is blending machine learning and AI with traditional BI to support operational and customer experience insights. Using the PDX terminal passenger‑arrival forecasting model and the Customer Experience Scorecard as examples, we’ll trace the end‑to‑end data journey – from raw data to Databricks pipelines to Power BI. The session emphasizes practical design considerations for surfacing AI‑generated data products or advanced analytics in a w

The Tech Academy **How can developers use AI effectively without losing sight of the fundamentals?**

AI is changing how software is built and how developers approach everyday problems. For students and early-career engineers, keeping up with new tools and practices can feel overwhelming. Understanding how the industry has evolved and learning to make thoughtful decisions about AI can help you adapt and build skills that last.

Our guest speaker, **Bethany Janos**, is a senior software engineer

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.

Portland Analytics Club Join a global, open-format gathering for those building and questioning AI — from real-world use cases to critical conversations around ethics, bias, and transparency. Every month, we create space for developers, researchers, and policymakers to connect in meaningful, unmoderated dialogue — with flexible chats, peer learning, and 1-on-1 video networking. Watch how it works: **[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOYkxBjrAYY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOYkxBjrAYY)** **Wh

Portland Analytics Club Join the global gathering of AI builders, researchers, and enthusiasts pushing the boundaries of agentic systems and multimodal intelligence. Connect every month for organic networking, 1-on-1 video chats, and powerful peer-to-peer exchanges across a flexible, open chat-based platform. **Watch how it works**: [https://youtu.be/trmf6Gqs6FM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trmf6Gqs6FM) What Is the **Agentic AI Multimodal** #MonthlyMixer? The **Agentic AI Multimodal MonthlyM