26 posts tagged with "community"

🏆Huge Congrats to Team Iron Lions (AU) & Kryptonite (IN) – Winners of the FIRST Tech Challenge (hashtag#FTC) Robot Game @ Asia Pacific Championship 2025! 🎉👏 I accidentally stepped into the TOUGH role: Queuer, a.k.a. The Runner 🏃‍♂️💨 as I returned to Macquarie University to volunteer at this epic event!

Equipped with my walkie-talkie 📻, I was on the move all day between the MQ Theatre 🎭, Practice Fields ⚙️, and the Pits 🔧, chasing down teams and making sure they were ready for their matches! It is not easy...

20 incredible teams 🌍 from Australia, New Zealand, Romania, USA, China, South Korea, UAE, and India – all bringing their A-game to the hashtag#FTC arena! 🤩 And wow – the hashtag#robots were sleek, smart, and absolutely mind-blowing 🤯✨. The design, hashtag#innovation, and hashtag#teamwork behind each one left me speechless. This is what hashtag#STEM is all about! 💡🛠️

✨ Special moment for me this time – my daughter finally hit the minimum age to volunteer 🎉 and joined me for the first time! 💕 So proud to share this experience with her. (Guess who she is in one of the pics? 😄📸)

Big shoutout to our incredible queuer squad: Shie (MQ Student) & Umar (Y9 Student) and me, led by the legendary Jo (15 years voluntering) 💪🔥. Can’t believe how intense this role is… I couldn't feel my legs by the end of the day 😅 (started at 7AM and wrapped up at 5PM!).

Huge shoutout to all the brilliant teams, coaches, volunteers, judges, and referees (Jo, Mark, Garry, Mary-Jane, Jim) 🙌 - and a massive appreciation to the amazing event organisers FIRST Australia (Lisa, Aaron, Will) who ran the show behind the scenes! 🎯👏

Wanna be part of an event like this, don't hesitate - jump in, volunteer, and experience the energy, teamwork, hashtag#GraciousProfessionalism (clap, clap, cheer!).

✨FIRST LEGO League Asia Pacific Open Championships 2025 – This Time, I'm a Judge! ⚖️ Unforgettable experience to be part of the hashtag#FLL hashtag#APOC 2025 again, but this year, not as a coach… as a judge! 💼💙

Over four incredible days, 59 amazing teams from all around the world gathered for this international celebration of robotics, innovation, and teamwork through the FIRST LEGO League at Macquarie University. And on Day 3 (Saturday), it was our turn to dive deep into the brilliance of these young minds. 'Sadly'🧐, Judges don't get to join the epic harbour cruise with 600+ students, coaches, and volunteers! We've got serious business to handle! ⚖️

These are what we celebrated and assessed during judging! All guided by the heart of hashtag#FIRST: Gracious Professionalism (clap, clap, cheer, 👏👏🎉) 🔹 Core Values 🔹 Innovation Project 🔹 Robot Design 🔹 Engineering Excellence, Breaking through 🔹 Rising All-star, Motivation

After 4 jam-packed hours of presentations, show cases and Q&A, the judges spent the whole afternoon in passionate deliberation process (yes, we were really into it, until 6pm, with closed curtains!). Each of us proudly advocated for the teams that wowed us most with creativity, problem-solving, and collaboration. 💬🔥

🎉 Congratulations to all 59 teams! You've earned your place on this stage, and you've shown the world what determination, teamwork, and innovation look like.

What stood out most to me? Seriously, these robots were awesome 🤖! Every team brought contagious energy, optimism, and passion, and it reminded me why I love being part of this community. 💙 🧠 Bold ideas 💡 Imaginative thinking 💪 Unshakable resilience 🤝 Unstoppable team spirit

Huge shoutout to the organizers (Will, Aaron), 28 judges (Melinda, Hester, Garry, Luke, Mary-Jane, Wil, Peter, Dawud), volunteers (Jack, and lots, lots of them), students, coaches, and mentors who made hashtag#APOC2025 such a magical experience. It's no small feat bringing together teams from across the globe, you did it with heart, precision, and joy.

So proud to be part of the hashtag#FIRST community, helping inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers, and world-changers. 🚀🌟

🏖️ Agentic LEGO Robotics talk at hashtag#AgentCon hashtag#Perth - my day trip to West Coast adventure with over 350 passionate participants! 🤖 What a cracker of a Friday it was! My first-ever talk on the west coast, and you all made it unforgettable. While Sydney shivered at 6°C ❄️, sunny Perth turned it on with huge crowd of amazing people for AI conference.

I shared the journey📍of building our real-world hashtag#LEGO hashtag#robotics hashtag#agent: a goal-based, multi-agent, functional team of AI agents controlling a LEGO Spike Prime robot. Think of it as LEGO mini-figure engineers who powering the real-world robots.

Here's the agent lineup: 🎮 Controller Agent – Commands the LEGO Spike via hashtag#Bluetooth + hashtag#MCP 👀 Observer Agent – hashtag#YOLO object detection + video streaming (coded by hashtag#GitHub hashtag#Copilot!) 🧭 Planner Agent – Builds action plans using a knowledge base + hashtag#python code library ✅ Judger Agent – Confirms if goals are actually met 👩‍✈️ Orchestrator Agent – Keeps the whole squad in check 🎤 Voice Agent – Talks to humans like a pro 💻 Interactive UI – Pulls back the curtain so humans can stay in the loop

All this was powered by: 🧠 hashtag#SemanticKernel + hashtag#AzureAIFoundry agent services on Microsoft Azure 🧱 LEGO Spike Prime 3 from LEGO Education 🌊 Stories from our robotic team during the FIRST Australia FFL Submerged season

🎙️I also soaked in incredible talks from speakers across hashtag#Australia – so much talent in all 3 tracks from 24 talks in one day! 💡💬

• Welcome by Michael from UWA DI
• Introductory Keynote by David
• Let Me Tell You About Your Future 🔮 by Jiaranai
• Getting Started with AI Agents by Vanessa
• Azure MCP is the Connector You've Been Waiting For by Daniella
• From Bots to Brains: Patterns for Building Intelligent AI Agents by Rakesh
• MCP and A2A. Bringing some order to the chaos by Graeme
• Agent Architects: Building Smarter Brains, One Demo at a Time by Sammy
• From prompt to protocol, securing AI agents and MCP, George Coldham Building Trustworthy AI Agents by Michelle
• Live Coding an AI agent by Phil

🎉Huge thanks to the fantastic Global AI Perth organisers (Michelle, George, Julianne, Sabrina, Amy, Dinusha) and all the volunteers like Louisa for making it all happen. So great meeting ex-Insight friends Andreas & Rakesh. 🤝

hashtag#Perth, you were brilliant 🌟. Now that my 'crazy' mind knows a day trip across the country is an option! See you next time. 😎✈️

P.S. Don't forget to watch hashtag#LEGOMasters: Grand Masters of the Galaxy on Nine.

☀️ Beautiful Saturday in hashtag#Melbourne at Global Azure! 🌏 Had an incredible time with the amazing tech community here. So many great sessions happening - I honestly wished I could be in multiple rooms at once. 😄.

Here are the ones I attended: 👩‍💻👨‍💻

• Agentic AI: the future of innovation or just hype? by Yas
• Who tests their cloud code anyway? by Lars
• Your AI, Your Rules: Building a Multi-Model Private AI Assistant on Azure by Venura
• Building Responsible AI Apps with Azure AI Foundry by Lachlan
• The Future of Cloud Security: AI, Zero Trust, and Beyond by Pouya
• You use App Insights Right? Right? by Bron

🎤 RMIT University's Storey Hall is massive! My voice echoed through the space, and that enormous 8m x 10m screen (maybe even bigger?!) definitely turned up the nerves !! 😅

Massive thanks to the warm and enthusiastic audience 🙌: your smiles truly made my day. I loved sharing my story and hands-on experience of hashtag#LEGO hashtag#AzureAI & hashtag#Robotics 🤖. It's always exciting to see how creativity and technology spark curiosity in others.

Such a joy meeting new friends in Melbourne 🤝. Grateful for all the good vibes and great conversations! Until next time, Melbourne ❤️

What an exciting session at #syncs – packed with creativity, innovation, and hands-on AI fun!

We explored the power of Azure AI services in a truly interactive way. Whether you're just stepping into the AI world or looking to sharpen your skills, this session was a fantastic opportunity to learn, build, and get inspired! 💡🤖

Here's what we tackled together:

✅ Analyzed visuals using GPT-4o models ✅ Converted text to speech with Azure's Speech Service ✅ Generated stunning visuals using DALL·E 3

🖥️ From decoding images to bringing words to life and generating art from prompts — this was a deep dive into what's possible with today's AI tools.

Big thanks to everyone who joined us, asked questions, and shared their creativity! Stay tuned for more sessions where we explore, create, and innovate together. 🌐✨

Last Day @ Microsoft MVP Summit 2025 ! What an incredible week it's been! MVPSummit was packed with deep dives, insightful discussions, and direct interactions with the amazing product teams.

Microsoft Redmond campus felt like a dream, just like a kid stepping into Disneyland for the very first time. Every hallway, every session, every conversation sparked curiosity and connection. Grateful for the opportunity to be part of such a passionate and brilliant community.

I'm heading back to home sweet home - Sydney with a suitcase full of swags, stickers, knowledge, and inspiration!

📸 Check out my 6-day photo collection below – my footsteps through this unforgettable experience. Until next time, MVPSummit!

Day 3 @ Microsoft MVPSummit. Really enjoyed Mark Russinovich and Scott Guthrie's sessions today: open, honest, and visionary. Loved the stories and insights, the full house says it all !

'100 Years of Microsoft History' with KC Lemson, Larry Osterman and Raymond Chen was super fun. Hearing the behind-the-scenes stories was incredible. Also a big takeaway from Oz du Soleil: create video content from the heart that you enjoy. Simple, yet powerful. 💡

Joined Inclusion Tech Lab tour and explored the Microsoft Redmond campus (each building has its own unique style). Snapped lots of photos and soaked in the creativity all around. 50th birthday of Microsoft and 15th birthday of Microsoft Azure coming up !

Selfies time with our amazing Insight MVPs, thank you so much for being around and making this week even more special. 🙌

Ended the day with a heartwarming dinner with Santhosh! So great to see you again after 10 years. Your journey, your dream, and now being part of Microsoft are awesome. ⭐

Day 2 @ Microsoft MVPSummit! 🔍 Tracked down the legendary Clippy 🧷 after 3 days of non-stop searching! Even convinced Clippy 🧷 to join the group photo with MVPs from Australia & NewZealand! All credits go to Elizabeth for making the magic happen. ✨

🎓 Joined Pablo's session about Microsoft's student program. It's absolutely inspiring to see so many former StudentAmbassadors becoming MVPs. If you're at university and curious about joining the 'Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors', this is the moment to get started! It's easier than you think: https://mvp.microsoft.com/studentambassadors?wt.mc_id=MVP_416103

👋 Highlight of today: meeting Hal, MVP for 27 years! Hal gifted me a vintage blue Microsoft MVP pouch. 🎁 Thank yo so much and I absolutely love it. Now just need to decide what to put inside!

🚍 Wrapped up the day with two campus tours: 'Studio B - XBX' and 'The Garage'. I couldn't resist being a little cheeky 😏 and asked if the lab test uses AzureAI to detect hardware anomalies.

Shoutout to Alice for keeping us calm and organised when the shuttle bus 🚌 ran late and took a 'slight detour' to Building 127 instead of 27 😅. The Garage truly represents the spirit of innovation and hackathon. 🛠️

Day 1 @ Microsoft MVP Summit ✨ Just look at all the amazing APAC MVPs in the group photo! 🌏 The energy, passion, and talent captured in that moment are simply unforgettable – celebration of community and innovation. 💫

And speaking of style and flair, don't miss the Insight MVPs rocking those fuchsia-infused shoes! 👟 We're striking a pose right in front of the iconic granite Microsoft logo – the perfect blend of fashion, tech, and pride. 📸

To top it off, here's an AI-infused photo too - the mix of personalities and futuristic vibes is totally on point ✨ Can you guess which one is me? 👀

After a full day of ‘A' and ‘I' magic, I hopped on the🚊& 🚌 – made my way to Seattle waterfront just before sunset. 🌇 Took a deep breath of that crisp air and bit into a hotdog 🌭 – the perfect way to wrap up Day 1. 💖

Day 0 @ Microsoft MVP Summit ✅! Spent whole day at Microsoft Reactor Redmond, diving deep into AI with some of the brightest AI MVPs around!🌟 It's been incredible connecting with so many MVPs, RDs & Microsoft team from all over the world and hear their stories 🌍: Priyanka, Matthijs, SARAVANAN, Dave, Alan, Jose, Lewis, Ko, Elizabeth, Christina.

So grateful for the warm welcome by Barnaby for making us feel like home. 🙌 Great pleasure to catch up & team up with our Insight MVPs: Paul, Stephen, Robert, David, Hakim, John, Roberto, Peter! Will suit up in our Insight MVP gears and ready to roll into Day 1 tomorrow!

💡🧠 Now my brain is buzzing with ideas and I can't wait to start experimenting with everything I heard and learnt today! 🚨 Don't forget: 90-minute keynote kicks off early tomorrow morning - set your alarms early and see you there!

P.S. check out the vintage software boxes and devices in the last 4 photos from Microsoft Reactor and Library! THE CHILDHOOD MEMORIES!