Devnexus 2026

10 Things I Hate About AI

Cody Frenzel

Cody is a Solutions Architect at Ippon Technologies and self-proclaimed software craft evangelist. He has over 10 years of experience as a full stack developer, with a passion for optimizing engineering workflows. In his free time he likes to play tennis competitively or go hiking with his dog King Louie.

Laurie Lay

Laurie is a senior software engineer at Ippon Technologies, where she specializes in front-end development and software solutions that drive both user engagement and business success. With a master's degree in cognitive psychology, Laurie brings a unique perspective to software engineering, combining her understanding of human behavior with cutting-edge technology to create intuitive, user-friendly, and developer approved software applications. Her diverse career path spans a variety of fields, including professorship, owning a restaurant, motorcycle mechanics, and software engineering, each of which has contributed to her well-rounded skill set and innovative approach to problem-solving. This eclectic experience allows her to bridge...

10 Tools & Tips to Upgrade Your Legacy Code with GenAI

Vinicius Senger

Vinicius Senger is a developer, inventor, and technical speaker working for AWS in California in the Global Specialist Team as a Senior Developer Advocate for Java. He started developing software at just 8 years old and never stopped accumulating 30 years of work in the IT area. Founder of Globalcode and The Developers Conference, Vinicius was considered top 20 influencer in IoT development, Java Champion winning two Duke's Choice Award in California for innovation projects in automation, robotics, boats, houses, helmets and many others. Since 2017 at AWS, he has been working with Java, IoT, Serverless, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence...

Jonathan Vogel

Jonathan has been working as a DevOps specialist solutions architect at Amazon Web Services for over a year and has previously practiced professional software development for over a decade. He is passionate about enabling builders. Jonathan lives in the Triangle area of North Carolina and enjoys climbing rocks, birding and music.

Agentic AI for Java Microservices: Cloud Performance Optimization at FinTech Scale

Sibasis Padhi

Sibasis Padhi is a Staff Software Engineer at Walmart Global Tech with over 18 years of experience and a Global expert in Agentic AI - microservices architecture, cloud performance optimization, and financial systems. He specializes in building high-volume FinTech transaction platforms and introducing Agentic AI into enterprise Java ecosystems for self-optimization and resilience. Sibasis has spoken at the IEEE Cloud Summit 2025, SSCET 2025, and multiple professional events and is a published author. He also serves as a mentor and judge for international technology competitions, sharing his expertise in scalable and secure cloud solutions.

Agents, Tools, and MCP, oh my! Next-level AI concepts for developers

Jennifer Reif

Jennifer Reif is a Developer Relations Engineer at Neo4j, speaker, and blogger with an MS in CMIS. An avid developer and problem-solver, she has worked with many businesses and projects to organize and make sense of widespread data assets and leverage them for maximum business value. She has expertise in a variety of commercial and open source tools, and she enjoys learning new technologies, sometimes on a daily basis! Her passion is finding ways to organize chaos and deliver software more effectively.

AI Agents for Java Devs: From Demo to Deployment

Brian Benz

Brian is a Java Champion and a Cloud Advocate at Microsoft, helping developers get the most out of Azure. Before Joining Microsoft, he was a program manager, evangelist, solution architect, consultant, developer, and author at IBM, Deloitte, and other companies. Find him on Twitter @bbenz. A current list of Brian's talks can be found at https://aka.ms/brianspeaking

AI for Busy Java Developers

Frank Greco

Frank is a senior technology consultant and enterprise architect working on cloud and AI/ML tools for developers. He is a Java Champion, Chairman of the NYJavaSIG (first JUG ever), and runs the International Machine Learning for the Enterprise conference in Europe. Co-author of JSR 381 Visual Recognition for Java API standard and strong advocate for Java and Machine Learning. Member of the NullPointers. #STEAMnotSTEM

Architecting Microservices for Agentic AI Integration

Rohit Bhardwaj

Rohit Bhardwaj is the Director of Architecture at Salesforce, where he specializes in architecting multi-tenant, cloud-native solutions within resilient microservices and service-oriented architectures using the AWS stack. With a passion for solving complex problems, he has led transformational programs that reduce costs and improve efficiencies. Rohit has a rich background in designing scalable cloud microservice architectures with Spring Boot and Netflix OSS on AWS and Google Cloud. As a Security Ninja, he proactively addresses application security vulnerabilities through ethical hacking and threat modeling. Rohit has been involved in building Lambda architecture solutions using Apache Spark and Cassandra for real-time analytics...

Brokk: an AI-Native Code Platform for Java, in Java

Jonathan Ellis

Founder of Brokk (https://brokk.ai). Previously: author of JVector, co-founder of DataStax, founding project chair of Apache Cassandra.

Building AI Agents with Spring & MCP

James Ward

Professional software developer since 1997, with much of that time spent helping developers build software that doesn't suck. A Typed Pure Functional Programming zealot who often compromises on his ideals to just get stuff done. Currently a Developer Advocate for AWS.

Josh Long

Josh (@starbuxman) has been the first Spring Developer Advocate since 2010. Josh is a Java Champion, author of 7 books (including "Reactive Spring") and numerous best-selling video training (including "Building Microservices with Spring Boot Livelessons" with Spring Boot co-founder Phil Webb), and an open-source contributor (Spring Boot, Spring Integration, Axon, Spring Cloud, Activiti, Vaadin, etc), a Youtuber (Coffee + Software with Josh Long as well as my Spring Tips series ), and a podcaster ("A Bootiful Podcast").

Choose your fighter: Spring AI vs LangChain4j

Malavika Balamurali

Malavika Balamurali is a longtime Java fan who has been working with it since Java 8 released. She is a Junior at Kennesaw State University pursuing a Bachelor's in Computer Science with a focus in Data Science. She's also a member of SWE, GWC and NCWIT and likes working with Java in all of its glory. Even Applets, which she makes fun of on a daily basis. She also presented a lightning talk at AJUG about SpringAI and LangChain4j.

Context Engineering: Connecting the Dots with Graphs

Stephen Chin

Stephen Chin is VP of Developer Relations at Neo4j, conference chair of the LF AI & Data Foundation, and author of numerous titles including the upcoming GraphRAG: The Definitive Guide for O'Reilly. He has given keynotes and main stage talks at numerous conferences around the world including AI Engineer Summit, AI DevSummit, Devoxx, DevNexus, JNation, JavaOne, Shift, Joker, swampUP, and GIDS. Stephen is an avid motorcyclist who has done evangelism tours in Europe, Japan, and Brazil, interviewing developers in their natural habitat. When he is not traveling, he enjoys teaching kids how to do AI, embedded, and robot programming together...

Conversational AI Semantic Search for E-commerce using Elasticsearch + RAG

Karthik Govardhanan

Karthik Govardhanan is a Senior Engineering Manager at CVS Health, leading AI-driven search and SEO innovations for one of the world’s largest retail and pharmacy platforms. With over 14 years of experience spanning CVS, Macy’s, Capgemini, and The Home Depot, he specializes in search relevance, personalization, and conversational commerce. Karthik’s expertise includes large language models, retrieval-augmented generation, semantic search, and scalable e-commerce architectures. He holds a Bachelor’s in Electronics and Communication Engineering and an MBA from Boston University.

Design Patterns for Multi-Agent Systems

Brian Sam-Bodden

Brian Sam-Bodden is a Principal Applied AI Engineer at Redis as well as an author, instructor, speaker, developer advocate, and open-source contributor and Java Champion who has spent over thirty years crafting software systems. He holds dual bachelor’s degrees from Ohio Wesleyan University in computer science and physics and a Master's in Data Science from Harvard University. Brian is a frequent speaker at user groups and conferences nationally and abroad and is the author of “Beginning POJOs: Spring, Hibernate, JBoss and Tapestry”, co-author of the “Enterprise Java Development on a Budget: Leveraging Java Open Source Technologies” and a contributor to...

From Context Windows to Context Graphs: The Next Generation of AI Systems

Medha Chakraborty

An engineer at heart and a leader by practice, I bring 17 years of experience in building robust enterprise solutions. As an Application Development Leader at BlackRock, I focus on designing and delivering scalable systems that drive real business impact. Java has always been my strongest language, and I’m equally passionate about exploring new and emerging technologies, especially the world of AI. Beyond my role, I nurture my passion for community building by leading the Java SIG at Atlanta BlackRock, where I connect developers, ideas, and innovation. Prior to BlackRock, I worked as a consultant with GAP, Pearson, JP Morgan,...

Srijani Dey

As a Senior Director, in the 'Strategic Program Transformation' function of Aladdin Data, I am responsible for the delivery of Studio programs, collaborate and connect the dots across multi-disciplinary teams and help focus on value realization. 'Strategic Program Transformation' function at BlackRock, is accountable to deliver complex, cross-functional, multi-year, Aladdin-wide strategic initiative, aligned to firm's goals and priorities and commercial client outcomes.

From Microservices to Agent-Services: Architectural Patterns for Autonomous System Boundaries

Mo Haghighi

Dr Mo Haghighi is distinguished engineer/Senior director for Cloud Platform and Infrastructure at Discover Financial Services. His current focus is hybrid and multi-cloud strategy, application modernisation and automating application/workload migration across public and private clouds. Previously, he held various leadership positions as a program director at IBM, where he led Developer Ecosystem and Cloud Engineering teams in 27 countries across Europe, Middle East and Africa. Prior to IBM, he was a research scientist at Intel and a Java developer at Sun Microsystems/Oracle. Mo obtained a PhD in computer science, and his primary areas of expertise are distributed and edge computing,...

Prasanth Pari

Prasanth Pari is a Principal Infrastructure Engineer at Discover Financial Services

From Monolith to AI Agent: Modernizing Java Systems with MCP

Theo Lebrun

Theo Lebrun is a seasoned Data Engineer and Technology Consultant based in New York City, with extensive experience in cloud computing, databases, and software development. He has a strong command of tools and technologies such as AWS, Kafka, Databricks, and Python, enabling him to assist numerous clients in optimizing their data pipelines to meet and exceed their objectives. Theo's technical expertise are matched by his passion for sharing his knowledge with others. He has authored multiple blog posts while also being an active speaker at various conferences and meetups. Some of his recent presentations include technical topics such as creating...

Fundamentals of Software Engineering In the age of AI

Nathaniel Schutta

Nathaniel T. Schutta is a software architect and Java Champion focused on cloud computing, developer happiness and building usable applications. A proponent of polyglot programming, Nate has written multiple books, appeared in countless videos and many podcasts. He’s also a seasoned speaker who regularly presents at worldwide conferences, meetups, universities, and user groups. In addition to his day job, Nate is an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota, where he teaches students to embrace (and evaluate) technical change. Driven to rid the world of bad presentations, he coauthored the book Presentation Patterns with Neal Ford and Matthew McCullough, and...

Dan Vega

Dan Vega is a Spring Developer Advocate at VMware Tanzu. He has been developing software for the web for over 20 years and his superpower is problem-solving. Dan is a blogger, YouTuber, course creator, and speaker. He is a lifelong learner and his passion is sharing his knowledge with the developer community. Dan lives near Cleveland Ohio with his beautiful wife and 2 daughters. When he isn’t writing code or teaching he enjoys spending time with his family, lifting weights, running, or reading a good book.

GenAI for Supply Chain at Apple using RAG

Varsha Venkatesh

MS in CS @ RIT ; prev. 1 year at Tesla; Current 1+ year at Apple

Hacking AI - How to Survive the AI Uprising

Gant Laborde

Gant Laborde is a New Orleans native, born and raised. He grew up with hurricanes (not the drink), rich New Orleans culture, and as a free tour guide for all his out-of-state friends. Over the years he’s seen his city experience corruption, flooding, heartbreak, and most importantly, revived-determination. “New Orleans doesn’t know how to quit,” Gant says, “that’s why I love it.” Gant firmly believes conflict abets passion, a fire always moves fastest uphill. As CIO for the popular company Infinite Red, Gant works remotely from his home and uses his self-managed autonomy to explore a variety of leadership arts....

Inside MCP: Live Protocol Messages, Real-Time Flows, and Smarter Agents

David Parry

David Parry is an accomplished Director of Architecture with over 20 years of experience in Software Development. It all began in 1996 when he discovered the fascinating world of programming, with a particular focus on Java applets. Throughout his illustrious career, David Parry has been involved in various noteworthy projects. He has successfully built and implemented content management systems for a wide range of clients, including the esteemed Johny Walker and its renowned keepwalking.com. Additionally, as a consultant at a Big 4 firm, David played a pivotal role in solving critical issues for numerous customers, demonstrating his expertise in handling...

Integrating LLMs in Java: A Practical Guide to Model Context Protocol

Dan Vega

Dan Vega is a Spring Developer Advocate at VMware Tanzu. He has been developing software for the web for over 20 years and his superpower is problem-solving. Dan is a blogger, YouTuber, course creator, and speaker. He is a lifelong learner and his passion is sharing his knowledge with the developer community. Dan lives near Cleveland Ohio with his beautiful wife and 2 daughters. When he isn’t writing code or teaching he enjoys spending time with his family, lifting weights, running, or reading a good book.

OK, But What About Predictive AI?

Brayan Muñoz V.

Brayan Muñoz V., an Oracle Ace Associate, is a Java SDE, Data Scientist, and Professor with an MSc in Data Science (UCJC) and a Telematics Engineer degree (PUCMM). He brings six years of software development experience, which includes three years in AI and data science projects, in monolithic and microservices architectures. He currently serves as a Professor and thesis advisor at PUCMM's School of Computing and Telecommunications. Brayan is a Board Member of the Dominican Republic Java User Group (@JavaDominicano) and a winner of the JCP Program Awards Java in Education category with the group, frequently speaking on Java and...

José R. Almonte C.

I am a Telematics & Software Engineer and Data Science graduate with 4 years of experience building solutions in FinTech and E-learning platforms. My work is driven by responsibility, teamwork, and continuous learning, and I am passionate about advancing in Software Engineering, AI/ML, Data Science, Sports Analytics, and Finance. Outside of work, I enjoy traveling and exploring new cultures, following NBA, MLB, NFL, and European soccer, playing padel, experimenting with new recipes, reading, and practicing piano.

Real-Time Fraud Detection in Java with Kafka, Streams & Vector Similarity

Tim Kelly

As an Associate Developer Advocate at MongoDB, I specialize in leveraging my Java expertise to build scalable applications, with a particular focus on integrating MongoDB. My role involves not only developing solutions but also sharing insights with the developer community through various platforms. Passionate about continuous learning and innovation, I aim to demystify complex technologies and empower developers with practical knowledge.

Ricardo Mello

Ricardo Mello is a Senior Developer Advocate at MongoDB with over 14 years of software development experience. He specializes in Java, Spring, and Kotlin, helping developers and organizations build modern, scalable applications. Ricardo is active in the Java community, creating technical content, articles, and talks on architecture, data modeling, and database integration

Spec Driven Development Why your prompt chaos won’t scale

Simon Maple

Simon Maple is the Founding Developer Advocate at Tessl and former VP of Developer Relations at Snyk, ZeroTurnaround, and IBM; a Java Champion since 2014, JavaOne Rockstar speaker, Duke's Choice award winner, Virtual JUG founder, and London Java Community co-leader.

Stop Fighting Your AI: Engineering Prompts That Actually Work

Martin Rojas

I'm a UI Architect with over a decade of experience crafting intuitive user interfaces for enterprise, retail, and consumer applications. I specialize in building dynamic and adaptable experiences with React (SPAs), Next.js (SSR), Nuxt.js, and React Native. My passion lies in leveraging modern front-end technologies to deliver exceptional user experiences.

The Evolution of Memory in Humans and AI Agents

Raphael De Lio

Raphael De Lio is a passionate software engineer who loves to think about solutions and ways to improve anything he touches. With over seven years of experience across multiple roles, industries, and countries, he brings a rich perspective to solving technical challenges and connecting with developer communities. Born in Brazil, Raphael lived in Portugal for six years before moving to the Netherlands in 2022. His main role was a Software Engineer, with expertise in Java, Kotlin, and scalable systems. He also served as the organizer and host of the Dutch Kotlin User Group, building a community for Kotlin enthusiasts in...

The Missing Protocol: How MCP Bridges LLMs and Data Streams

Viktor Gamov

Viktor Gamov is a Principal Developer Advocate at Confluent, founded by the original creators of Apache Kafka®. With a rich background in implementing and advocating for distributed systems and cloud-native architectures, Viktor excels in open-source technologies. He is passionate about assisting architects, developers, and operators in crafting systems that are not only low in latency and scalable but also highly available. As a Java Champion and an esteemed speaker, Viktor is known for his insightful presentations at top industry events like JavaOne, Devoxx, Kafka Summit, and QCon. His expertise spans distributed systems, real-time data streaming, JVM, and DevOps. Viktor has...

The wrong reasons to build an MCP server

Shaaf Syed

Shaaf Syed is a seasoned Java developer, AI enthusiast, and advocate in the developer community. With deep expertise in Quarkus, Jakarta EE, and modern cloud-native Java, he has helped drive innovation in AI-powered applications, particularly focusing on Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), vector databases, and knowledge graph integrations. Shaaf regularly speaks at major conferences and meetups, sharing practical insights on Java, AI, and application modernization. Passionate about open source and developer education, he mentors and writes technical content.

Daniel Oh

Daniel Oh is a Java Champion and Senior Principal Developer Advocate at IBM, where he leads efforts to advance cloud-native innovation through open-source technologies. Renowned for his ability to bridge technical and collaborative gaps, he empowers developers and organizations to build transformative solutions—from AI-driven applications and serverless architectures to resilient microservices. As a CNCF Ambassador and TAG DevEx co-chair, Daniel actively shapes the cloud-native ecosystem, fostering partnerships between enterprise developers, AI engineers, and platform engineering teams to accelerate hybrid cloud adoption. His technical leadership extends beyond code contributions, as he mentors communities and champions strategies that enable businesses to thrive...

When One Agent Isn’t Enough: Experiments with Multi-Agent AI

Kenneth Kousen

Ken Kousen is the author of the Pragmatic Programmers books "Mockito Made Clear" and "Help Your Boss Help You", the O'Reilly books "Kotlin Cookbook", "Modern Java Recipes", and "Gradle Recipes for Android", and the Manning book "Making Java Groovy". He is a regular speaker on the No Fluff, Just Stuff conference tour, and has spoken at conferences all over the world. He is a Java Champion, a JavaOne Rock Star, and a Devnexus Rock Star. Currently he a Professor of the Practice of Computer Science and Associate Director for STEM Initiatives at the Entrepreneurship Center at Trinity College in Hartford,...

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Ai engineering

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