The Software Development Special Interest Group (SD-SIG) invites the Cornell developer community to its next Developer Excellence Workshop on Thursday, November 13, from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. The previous month's workshop covered the fundamentals of getting set up with Cornell's AI Gateway, and this month's installment will focus on answering two key questions:

• When does AI make sense in your application?
• What does the integration code look like?

Cornell developers interested in practical AI integration will ideally have a basic understanding of API calls, but prior knowledge is not required. If you didn't attend the October 30 workshop, this one will catch you up on the essentials.

What to Expect

Deciding If AI Belongs in Your Solution

Participants will examine a realistic scenario: analyzing dorm room inspection data to identify underlying patterns and recurring issues. Using a fictitious dataset from a fictitious school, everyone will walk through the decision process:

• What problems can AI solve that would be tedious or impractical to code manually?
• When is traditional code actually the better choice?
• What value does AI provide in this specific case, if any? 

This workshop isn't about finding places to use AI because it's trendy, it's about making informed technical decisions.

Basic Integration Patterns

Once participants have decided if AI makes sense, the workshop will highlight a simple proof of concept web application, including:

• How to connect to the Cornell AI Gateway from your code using your API key.
• Constructing effective prompts that send relevant data to an LLM.
• Processing and displaying the results in a useful format. 

This is a straightforward example showing common integration patterns you can apply to your own projects. No production-ready application, just a clear demonstration of the fundamentals. 

Access the Zoom link, full agenda, or get an ICS file to add this event to your calendar on the SD-SIG meeting page (sign-in required). You can learn more about the group there as well.