DevConf, South Africa’s top forum for software developers, has unveiled its line-up of speakers for DevConf 2019. From designing office warfare artillery through to new approaches to old developer problems, DevConf has once again lined up a broad range of expert speakers on every trending topic in the sector.
Jade Abbott, a Senior Software Developer and Data Scientist at Retro Rabbit, will help answer cloud performance questions in a cloud shootout pitting three cloud giants against each-other on three real world applications. Mensa member and consultant Gerard de Jong will illustrate how satellites can be hacked with Software Defined Radio, using little more than a cheap USB dongle and a makeshift antenna; and developer Saurabh Agrawal will demonstrate how to build a self-driving toy car using machine learning, microservices, Java and Groovy using a Raspberry PI.
Renowned 17 year-old German software engineer Felix Wu will host an introduction to Mutation Testing; and senior Experience Designer and Head of Design at Retro Rabbit Liz Spangenberg will offer practical design tips for Android. From Monolith to Microservices, presented by Superbalist software engineer Liam Norman, will examine how and why to split up a monolithic old enterprise application into microservices; and Karl Fischer, DevOps lead at Obsidian Systems will focus on what happens Where Test-driven development and Infrastructure as code have a love child.
Do you need a room full of PhDs to implement data science and machine learning into your software product? No, says data scientist Helge Reikeras in his talk Data Science and Machine Learning Tools for Developers. Do you need a self-loading Arduino-powered Wi-Fi-controlled catapult for office warfare? If so, developer Matt Cavanagh is set to show you how to build one. Do you need to break away from outdated fonts? Justin Slack, head of design, user experience, and front-end development at NML, will outline Fonts on the web: past, present and future. And if you are thinking of transitioning out of development, Chris Dawson of DVT’s talk: ‘Why I decided to ditch the dev and dive into UX’ will highlight new options.
Kotlin is not just for the Android platform, says developer Pamela Hill in her talk Kotlin, Kotlin, Everywhere! Professional geek and Particular Software developer William Brander will look at the state of change in JavaScript and microfrontends as a solution to legacy JavaScript; BBD Google Developer Expert Mike Geyser will deliver a reintroduction to JavaScript; Java developer and architect for jstack Jaap Coomans will give the audience a practical guide to Apache Kafka from the trenches; veteran developer Gareth Stephenson will reveal his findings in an experiment on Mob Programming; software developer Gergana Young will explore the ‘I’ in IoT; and Anna Migas, Front-end Developer and Designer at Lunar Logic, will unpack the debugging of user interaction performance issues. Senior Developer at IQ Business Robert Bravery will explore how AI understands age, emotion and gender; and developer Sewagodimo Matlapeng will explain how to get your Python side project ready for deployment.
The big issues in the sector will also be addressed: senior software engineer Christina Burger will look at where all the women have gone; industry veteran Claire Wood will expand on Pink hardhats and other anomalies in a discussion on team diversity; developer and AWS-Jozi organiser Rory Preddy will talk on building accessibility into technology for people with disabilities; and software architect Chris Tite will outline agile techniques to mentor staff.
‘Stoic, essentialist, polymath, polyglot software engineer, and armchair philosopher’ Ryan Kotzen will assess Zen and the art of Developer Maintenance; and Tanya du Plessis and Riaan du Plessis will address the burning issue of burnout in the IT industry. Delegates will also hear from programmer Enrique Geldenhuys on why problems can be treated like nails, from fintech expert and coach Kevin Trethewey about what really matters when creating software and from Entelect software engineer Madene Marais about how to build a next generation web application.
Now entering its fourth year, DevConf will be staged at the River Club in Cape Town on 26 March 2019 and Vodacom World in Midrand on 28 March 2019. DevConf is presented in Johannesburg in partnership with Platinum Sponsor Allan Gray, Gold Sponsors EOH and Synthesis, Silver Sponsors Equal Experts and Offer Zen, Bronze Sponsor dvt and Refreshment Sponsor bbd software development. DevConf Cape Town is presented in partnership with Gold Sponsors Allan Gray and TFG Infotec, Silver Sponsor Equal Experts, Bronze Sponsor Offer Zen, Bag Sponsor Saratoga and Refreshment Sponsor bbd software development.
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DevConf 2019 will also offer updated packages that allow sponsors to ‘stand out and shine’ with innovative displays and interactive spaces; as well as a range of live demos for practical, engaging learning. For information about sponsorship packages, please click here.
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DevConf traditionally attracts 800 delegates in Johannesburg and 500 in Cape Town, with tickets selling out quickly. For more information, visit https://www.devconf.co.za/
