The Tech Sessions - Deep Dives: AI Without the Hype

We are, as always, very thankful to the University of Hull for kindly providing the space for the event. We will be in the Brynmor Jones Library - Teaching Room 4. (See Point 27 on the University Campus Map)

Parking is available in Wilberforce Multi Storey Car Park as there are no enforcements in that area between 17:00 and 08:30.

We are delighted to have two speakers for this event.

Speaker: Luke Savory

Title: RAG, tool calling and agentic fun with Elixir Phoenix

The modern AI chatbot apparently requires an entourage: LangChain, LangGraph, Amazon Bedrock, and a rotating cast of other "revolutionary" frameworks that promise to make everything simple while quietly adding seventeen new concepts to your mental load. Each one is groundbreaking, until the next one arrives six weeks later. Python is the expected language. TypeScript if you are feeling adventurous. Elixir does not usually get an invitation to this party. We brought it anyway.

This talk follows the journey of a RAG chatbot from hasty LangChain prototype to production system running inside an Elixir Phoenix application. No wrappers, no orchestration libraries, just direct conversation with an LLM API. We will look at how RAG and tool-calling actually work once you peel back the abstractions, and why the implementation turns out to be refreshingly straightforward.

About Luke

Luke studied Chemistry at university, and liked it enough to stay for a BSc and a PhD, and then completed several years in industrial R&D. The molecules were not always cooperative, which prepared him well for working with software. He crossed over to the software realm as a Product Owner/Business Analyst, though the job title undersells the hat collection somewhat. Between project work, he fills the quieter moments with Data Science and Software Engineering, because apparently one skill set felt insufficient, and he is a sucker for feeling out of his depth.

Speaker: Daniel Westlake

Title: Guardrails for AI in software development

William Gibson famously wrote “The future is already here. It’s just not evenly distributed”. His novel, Neuromancer may be 40 years old but the AI revolution it predicted is already here and that too is not evenly distributed. Software engineers and web developers have been early adopters of AI powered tools. This started with AI powered code completion and suggestions but now includes AI IDEs, AI agent pair programming and AI agent team orchestration. It truly is an exciting time to be a developer right now.
But with all this excitement and rapid change comes the risk of the unknown. We are charting new ground, but will the benefits outway the costs?. How can we shape our organisation’s use of AI to gain many of the benefits whilst mitigating most of the risk. The answer is guardrails;

• What can we do as developers to champion the cause of AI with our clients and teams?
• As early adopters, how can we set an example of what good AI adoption looks like?
• What safeguards are the legal team looking for as we roll out more AI tools?
• How can I explain the benefits of more AI cost to the accounts team?
• How can we benefit from AI tooling whilst maintaining quality standards and control?
• How can we ensure that AI doesn’t affect skills and training?

In this talk, Daniel will attempt to answer some of these questions.
He will make suggestions on what guardrails, systems and processes that your team can adopt to ease the pain of AI adoption. What can be done to minimise risks and how we can bring the wider team onboard with a brighter vision for AI, one that we all can benefit from.

About Daniel

Daniel Westlake is the Managing Director of Cursor, a bespoke web software and digital agency based in Lincoln. He is also the founder and co-chair of Digital Lincoln, a community initiative dedicated to supporting and growing the local digital economy.
Daniel has been building on the web since the late 1990s, beginning his career in television before moving into motorsport, where he managed Formula 1 related websites. At 26, he started working as a freelance web developer from a spare bedroom, a journey that over the past 23 years, has grown into Cursor: a team of 10 now based at the Boole Technology Centre in Lincoln.
With a background in software engineering and a deep interest in the relationship between people and technology, Daniel speaks regularly at industry and community events. He champions responsible digital innovation, digital skills and the continued growth of the tech sector in Lincolnshire.

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