Steve Brownlee stevebrownlee

Workshop for Agentic AI

Overview

This workshop will run for 4 or 5 weeks, depending on the engagement level of the attendees and how long the group projects take.

The purpose of this workshop is to coach people on the basic usage of an agentic AI tool integrated with Visual Studio Code. You will be showing the learners how to use RooCode with the RooFlow addition. The LLM you will be using in the workshop is Gemini since the basic model is free to use.

Your weekly goals are detailed below. How you achieve these goals is up to you.

Exploring a Large Codebase

Week 1: Docker Containers and API Unit Testing Introduction

Overall Goals

Get students comfortable with Docker containers as a development environment
Introduce the concept of unit testing in the context of APIs
Teach the fundamentals of mocking in unit tests
Have students write their first unit tests for the learn-ops-api

HVAC Project Summary - Hot Air Exhaust System

Property Details

Location: 3-story home in Pittsburgh, PA
House Orientation: Front faces West, Back faces East
Roof Type: Hip roof (no gable ends available)
Architecture: Brick exterior with dormer on 3rd floor

Current HVAC Setup

Basement: New AC unit installed

Beginner Software Development Path

A comprehensive 9-month journey from zero to job-ready software developer

Educational Design Principles

This path is designed around key adult learning principles:

Scaffolded Learning: Each module builds systematically on previous knowledge
Immediate Application: Theory is immediately applied through hands-on projects
Spaced Repetition: Core concepts are reinforced across multiple modules

Content Production Dashboard - Technical Requirements

Architecture Overview

Frontend: React 18+ with TypeScript, Vite for build tooling
State Management: Redux Toolkit or Zustand for global state
API Layer: GraphQL with Apollo Client
Backend: Node.js with GraphQL (Apollo Server) or Python with Strawberry
Database: PostgreSQL with Redis for caching
File Storage: AWS S3 or similar with CDN
Real-time: GraphQL subscriptions or WebSocket connections

Full Stack Reflection Questions

C# and .NET

What is the LINQ way you can query a collection in C# to locate a single item in it?
Could you explain the benefit of providing an initial value for properties in a C# class?
What are the benefits of using inheritance?
How do you handle exceptions in C#?
(Research) What are the different access modifiers in C# and when would you use each one?

Modular Curriculum for Software Development with AI

Module Code Key

F - Foundation Modules: Core programming and web development fundamentals
AI - AI Fundamentals: Introduction to AI concepts and capabilities
B - Backend Development: Server-side programming and data management
D - DevOps and CI/CD: Infrastructure, deployment, and operational excellence
E - Enhancement Modules: Integrating AI into existing applications
S - Specialization Modules: Advanced topics for specific career paths
C - Capstone Projects: Applied learning through comprehensive projects

Data Engineering

mindmap
  root((Entry-Level
    Data Engineer))
    (SQL Mastery)
      Basic to Advanced Queries
      Data Modeling
 Performance Tuning

Senior Software Engineer Competencies

Competency	Skills	Description
Technical Expertise	Coding, debugging, code quality, technical trade-offs	Demonstrates high-level proficiency in programming languages and frameworks, regularly writes and reviews code, makes decisions on technical trade-offs, and understands system security and performance implications.
Problem Solving	Debugging, critical thinking, technical decision-making	Regularly identifies, analyzes, and resolves complex technical issues, prioritizes technical debt management, and makes pragmatic decisions on when to focus on essential features versus additional refinements.

	// Exercise 4: O(1) Space - Constant Memory
	// Finding the largest number WITHOUT creating new arrays

	// Test data
	const small = [3, 1, 4, 1, 5, 9, 2];
	const medium = Array.from({length: 100}, () => Math.floor(Math.random() * 1000));
	const large = Array.from({length: 10000}, () => Math.floor(Math.random() * 1000));

	// O(1) space function - only uses a few variables
	function findLargest(arr) {