We are happy to introduce this month speaker Ashley Peguero, founder of Citylens. She is currently pursuing a Duel Bachelors of Data Science/ Ai and Business administration at Lehman College, with an interest in smart cities ,as well as tech-driven innovation in real estate.
She will present a ~30 min talk "All This Data… But Who Can Actually Use It? Turning Open City Data into Real Understanding".

We have more open data than ever before, but most people like our families and our communities members still can’t make any sense of it. This talk explores how we move beyond datasets and spreadsheets to create civic tools that translate complex city data into clear, human understanding. Through platforms like City Lens, we’ll look at how AI and thoughtful design can bridge the gap between data and everyday people, making city systems more transparent, accessible, and actually usable.

In Ashley's own words: "Right now, we’re living in a moment where cities are producing massive amounts of data — dashboards, reports, permits, policy changes but most of it is still locked behind technical language and disconnected systems. The people most impacted by these decisions are usually the ones who understand it the least. My work focuses on bridging that gap.

Through City Lens, I’m exploring how we move past just collecting and visualizing data, and instead build systems that actually make it make sense, using AI, real-time dashboards, and storytelling to turn complex city information into something people can understand and use.

But this talk goes beyond just the tool. It opens up a bigger conversation around collaboration. How do we bring together technologists, civic leaders, planners, and communities to build things that actually serve people? How do we use AI in a way that supports understanding instead of replacing it?

This session is really about shifting from just having access to data, to actually being able to use it. We’ll talk about how to encourage the next generation to not just look at data, but question it, build with it, and use AI in a way that helps improve the neighborhoods they live in.

I want people to leave not just thinking about the problem, but actually thinking about how they can be part of solving it."

For the second part of the meetup John Baker will give a lightning talk demoing his project with one of free AI-agentic Coding Jams developed by Google.

Open Q&A and community discussion to follow.

🆓 Free to attend — RSVP here or through meetup.com/hvtech

💬 Join the conversation in Slack

We welcome you to give a lightning talk, or share your professional achievements, tips and tricks. We welcome AI enthusiasts showing their AI projects and following their live development. Ongoing 2026 call for speakers is available for your submission. Feel free to add as many talks as interested. These talks will be considered for our community meetups and can lead to your speakers engagement with our DevFest this Fall.

Join our chapter GDG Hudson: https://gdg.community.dev/gdg-hudson/
Join our community at HVTechFest slack channel

Local tech professionals get-together in person on a monthly basis, alternating local municipalities. All these smaller size meet ups culminate with the two-day professional developers conference, DevFest Troy on October 23-24th, 2026. We will provide more details about this event as we move forward.
We are looking forward to seeing you there.