ACM TechTalks

ACM members and non-members alike are welcome to attend our popular series of free TechTalks by expert industry professionals, distinguished ACM award laureates, and visionary researchers from industry and academia. Focused on keeping our global audience of busy practitioners at the forefront of technical trends, professional development, and emerging technologies, the TechTalks are also popular with students and educators. Recent talks have covered topics in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Big Data and Data Science, Blockchain, Computer Vision, Deep Learning, JavaScript, Microservices, Python, Quantum Computing, and more. Registration is free and the TechTalks can be attended both live and on-demand, on desktop and mobile devices. Check this page frequently for upcoming events as well as our on-demand archive. To subscribe to our TechTalk announcements, email [email protected].

ACM TechTalks

View Our Recent TechTalk

Introduction to Retrieval Augmented Generation

The generative AI space has been rapidly evolving. While we are in a phase of rapid experimentation and PoCs, 2025 is pegged to be the year of generative AI driving real business value. With the growing demands of complex use cases on AI systems, the need for more context-aware models has been rising. Retrieval Augmented Generation, or RAG, is a novel technique that enhances the natural language abilities of Large Language Models by integrating external knowledge retrieval with generation.

This introductory talk is aimed at explaining why RAG is becoming a critical component of the AI toolkit. If you want to build AI systems or are simply interested in the latest trends in generative AI, this session is designed to provide an introduction, insights and practical knowledge on RAG.

The session will include:

LLMs and the need for Retrieval Augmented Generation: The limitations of current models and why RAG is crucial in overcoming them.
What is RAG and how does it help?
The definition of RAG, how it works and what are its advantages.
Real-world applications: Some examples of RAG in action across industries.
Building a RAG system: The basics of how to design and implement RAG systems.
Challenges and Emerging Patterns: Challenges in deploying RAG systems and the trends that are shaping the field.

ACM Learning Center TechTalk Archive

ACM award winners, leading researchers, industry veterans, thought leaders, and innovators address today and tomorrow's hottest topics and issues in computing for busy practitioners, as well as educators, students, and researchers. Check out our archive of these ACM TechTalks, free for members and non-members alike.

TechTalks on Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning

Talks from some of the leading visionaries and bleeding-edge researchers in AI/ML: Fei-Fei Li on visual intelligence in computers and ImageNet; Eric Horvitz on AI solutions in the open world; and Tom Mitchell on using ML to study how the brain creates and represents language.

9 July 2024 :

Understanding the LLM Development Cycle: Building, Training, and Finetuning with Sebastian Raschka

8 May 2024 :

Design is Testability with Titus Winters

13 March 2024 :

Programming Distributed Systems with Mae Milano

ACM TechTalks

Amanda Randles TechTalk

Register now for a special free ACM-SIGHPC TechTalk, "Developing Vascular Digital Twins to Shift from Reactive to Proactive Care," presented on Wednesday, October 30 at 12:00 PM ET/16:00 UTC by 2023 ACM Prize in Computing recipient Amanda Randles, Professor at Duke University. ACM Distinguished Scientist Michela Taufer, Professor at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, will moderate the questions and answers session following the talk. Continue the discussion on ACM's Discourse Page.

ACM TechTalks

Eddie Aftandilian TechTalk

View the recent ACM TechTalk, "Lessons Learned from Building GitHub Copilot(s)," presented by Eddie Aftandilian, Principal Researcher at GitHub Next. Rahul Pandita, Staff Researcher at GitHub Next, moderated the questions and answers session following the talk. Continue the discussion on ACM's Discourse Page.

ACM TechTalks

View Our Recent TechTalk

ACM Learning Center TechTalk Archive

TechTalks on Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning

View Latest Learning Center TechTalks

Understanding the LLM Development Cycle: Building, Training, and Finetuning with Sebastian Raschka

Design is Testability with Titus Winters

Programming Distributed Systems with Mae Milano

Amanda Randles TechTalk

Eddie Aftandilian TechTalk