Tech Events at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam

with Rutger Putter (, )

Nix NL's meetup around the NixOS 26.11 release, hosted by the Computer Science department of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the New University building on De Boelelaan. Topics: the 26.11 release notes (speaker still to be confirmed) and Rutger Putter on how Nix ended up in the Dutch government. Doors and pizza at 19:00, talks at 20:00, unstructured time from 21:00. RSVP through the organisers' form. The NixOS Foundation pays for food and drink. Why go: the Nix-in-government talk is the draw, and a university room keeps it informal. Best for Nix users and platform engineers deciding whether to adopt it.

Two days at the Vrije Universiteit on AI in education, where the research meets the classroom: assessment integrity, tutoring systems, what the evidence actually supports and what it does not. Run by VU researchers, it draws teachers, university staff, policy people and the companies selling into them. Starts 09:00 on 29 October at De Boelelaan 1105. Why go: relevant to edtech founders and product people as much as to educators - this is the room where the buyers explain their constraints in public, before you build against them. Worth the two days if education is your market; a single morning will do if you are only curious.

An afternoon of creative coding in the VU's NU building, part of the worldwide Processing Community Day. It opens at 13:30, then First Pixel, a hands-on beginner workshop from 13:50 to 15:10 where you bring a laptop and leave with a generative sketch you wrote yourself. Open Systems follows from 15:30: short community talks on generative work, ten to fifteen minutes each, chosen through an open call. The day closes from 17:00 with Render Loop, a live-coded audiovisual algorave. Free, but registration is required. Main room NU-2C33, the beginner workshop in NU-6A25, De Boelelaan 1111. Why go: one of the few Amsterdam rooms where people who write code to make images actually show the work, and the beginner workshop means you need not arrive knowing Processing. Best for designers, creative technologists and anyone curious about generative art.

A full-day, hands-on AI workshop for women, pitched at beginner-to-intermediate users: working through real tasks with Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini rather than watching demos. Run by SimpleAI at the Vrije Universiteit on De Boelelaan 1105. 09:00 to 17:00 on 23 October, lunch included. Women only. Free — the Eventbrite listing confirms a zero-priced general ticket, which is unusual for a day of this length and means places will go. Why go: a supervised full day changes how you work in a way a lunchtime webinar does not, and the beginner-to-intermediate framing means nobody is expected to arrive fluent. Best for women in any role who are being asked to use AI tools at work and want practice with someone to ask.

The KIN Center for Digital Innovation at VU Amsterdam runs its research-meets-practice talk series, this edition on AI systems that keep learning after deployment. Academic hosting keeps the vendor content out; the audience is a useful mix of VU researchers and people from Amsterdam product teams.

with Wolf Marcuse (Partner, Dawn Technology)

Digital sovereignty — the ability of organisations and governments to maintain genuine control over their digital infrastructure, data, and technology choices — has moved from a theoretical concept to a board-level priority. Wolf Marcuse from Dawn Technology joins the KIN Centre for Digital Innovation at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam to explore what digital sovereignty actually means in practice: the strategic decisions, the organisational trade-offs, and the implementation realities. KINTalk is the research group's standing public lecture series, consistently drawing a sharp audience of practitioners, researchers, digital strategists, and senior public-sector professionals. Free to attend.