DevClubEE #108: Franklin Ezeji, Zeynep Öztuğ

Info: Modern software systems increasingly need lightweight automation that can run reliably across cloud, edge, and embedded environments.

In this talk, I will introduce SchedNext, a lightweight agent runtime designed to schedule, execute, and observe workloads through filesystem-native interfaces.

I will walk through the architecture, design decisions, and challenges involved in building a portable runtime that can operate across different environments.

The session will include a live demonstration of scheduling and running agents, showing how the same concepts can apply from server-side automation to edge devices.

Info: Software engineering is often associated with writing code, but the real challenges appear in the decisions behind the code.

How do we choose the right technologies? How do we balance speed, reliability, and complexity? And how do we make decisions that will still make sense years later?

This talk explores the practical side of engineering: understanding tradeoffs, making technology choices, and thinking about systems rather than isolated components.

Through real examples, we will look at how engineers move from simply implementing tasks to making decisions that shape resilient and maintainable systems.