<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Teaching for practice | Giulia Solinas</title><link>https://giuliasolinas.github.io/courses/teaching-for-practice/</link><atom:link href="https://giuliasolinas.github.io/courses/teaching-for-practice/index.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><description>Teaching for practice</description><generator>Hugo Blox Builder (https://hugoblox.com)</generator><language>en-us</language><lastBuildDate>Thu, 08 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000</lastBuildDate><image><url>https://giuliasolinas.github.io/courses/teaching-for-practice/featured.jpg</url><title>Teaching for practice</title><link>https://giuliasolinas.github.io/courses/teaching-for-practice/</link></image><item><title>Topics</title><link>https://giuliasolinas.github.io/courses/teaching-for-practice/topics/</link><pubDate>Thu, 08 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://giuliasolinas.github.io/courses/teaching-for-practice/topics/</guid><description>&lt;h2 id="accelerate-your-teams-ai-literacy-with-immersive-handson-workshops"&gt;Accelerate Your Team’s AI Literacy with Immersive, Hands‑On Workshops&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why it matters&lt;/strong&gt; – In today’s fast‑moving market, every role—from technical sales and business analysts to project managers—needs a clear, practical grasp of AI. Our workshops blend cutting‑edge theory with real‑world labs so your team can &lt;strong&gt;design, test, and deploy AI agents&lt;/strong&gt; that actually move the needle.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr&gt;
&lt;h3 id="-what-youll-experience"&gt;🎯 What You’ll Experience&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;table&gt;
&lt;thead&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;th&gt;Audience&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;Gain&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;What You’ll Walk Away With&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/thead&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mixed‑role teams&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Cross‑functional groups that need a shared language&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;A common AI vocabulary that bridges tech &amp;amp; business&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Technical Sales&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Teams selling AI‑enabled solutions&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Playbooks for positioning AI agents and assistants&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Data &amp;amp; Analytics&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Analysts looking to automate insight extraction&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Ready‑to‑use frameworks for building autonomous agents&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Project Management&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Leaders steering AI initiatives&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Step‑by‑step guides for governance, risk, and stakeholder alignment&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;blockquote class="border-l-4 border-neutral-300 dark:border-neutral-600 pl-4 italic text-neutral-600 dark:text-neutral-400 my-6"&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hands‑on, not “talk‑only.”&lt;/strong&gt; Each session combines insights with practical examples.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;hr&gt;
&lt;h2 id="designing-aiinfused-agents--assistants"&gt;Designing AI‑Infused Agents &amp;amp; Assistants&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;blockquote class="border-l-4 border-neutral-300 dark:border-neutral-600 pl-4 italic text-neutral-600 dark:text-neutral-400 my-6"&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;From “What is an AI agent?” to “How do I ship one tomorrow?”&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;table&gt;
&lt;thead&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;th&gt;Topic&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;Engaging Takeaway&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/thead&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is an AI Agent?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;A self‑directed software entity that perceives its environment, makes decisions, and takes actions to achieve goals.&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Agents vs. Assistants&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;em&gt;Automation&lt;/em&gt; = scripted tasks; &lt;em&gt;Autonomy&lt;/em&gt; = adaptive, goal‑driven behavior.&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Design Frameworks&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Blueprint‑first: define persona, objectives, constraints, feedback loops.&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A2A (Agent‑to‑Agent) Interactions&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;How agents negotiate, hand‑off tasks, and collaborate in multi‑agent ecosystems.&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;AgentOps&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Operational playbook for monitoring, logging, and scaling autonomous agents.&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Agentic AI + Intelligent Document Processing (IDP)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Turn unstructured docs into actionable insights, then let agents execute downstream workflows automatically.&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Takeaway:&lt;/em&gt; You’ll leave with a &lt;strong&gt;starter kit&lt;/strong&gt;—templates to continue your journey and prototype your own AI‑driven workflows.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr&gt;
&lt;h2 id="artificial-intelligence-101"&gt;Artificial Intelligence 101&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;table&gt;
&lt;thead&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;th&gt;Concept&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;Real‑World Analogy&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/thead&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Foundation Models&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;The “universal knowledge base” that can be fine‑tuned for any industry.&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Supervised vs. Unsupervised Learning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Teaching a child with a tutor (labeled data) vs. letting them explore patterns on their own (no labels).&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MLOps vs. AIOps&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;MLOps = &lt;em&gt;building&lt;/em&gt; models; AIOps = &lt;em&gt;keeping them alive&lt;/em&gt; in production.&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Generative AI&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Creating new content—text, images, code—just like a human creator.&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tokenization &amp;amp; Embeddings&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Turning words into numbers that a model can “understand.”&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;AI Governance&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;The rulebook &amp;amp; safety nets that keep AI ethical, transparent, and compliant.&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Result:&lt;/em&gt; Participants gain a &lt;strong&gt;clear mental map&lt;/strong&gt; that demystifies the hype and points directly to actionable knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr&gt;
&lt;h2 id="prompting-openweights-models-on-your-local-machine"&gt;Prompting Open‑Weights Models on Your Local Machine&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;table&gt;
&lt;thead&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;th&gt;Step&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;What You’ll Learn&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/thead&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Open‑Weights vs. Proprietary&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Why you might want full control over model weights for privacy, cost, and customization.&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ollama vs. LMStudio&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Quick comparison of the two most popular local‑run frameworks—pros, cons, and ideal use‑cases.&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Choosing the Right Model&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Match task (text generation, classification, embeddings) with parameter count, context length, and hardware limits.&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Side‑by‑Side Testing&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Run the same prompt across multiple models and instantly compare outputs, latency, and token usage.&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Crafting Effective Prompts&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Proven patterns—few‑shot examples, temperature tuning, role‑playing—that turn a bland reply into a brilliant one.&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Best‑Practice Playbook&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Field‑tested checklist: validate token limits, guard against hallucinations, embed safety prompts, and automate testing.&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Outcome:&lt;/em&gt; You’ll have a &lt;strong&gt;ready‑to‑run local AI lab&lt;/strong&gt; that lets you experiment without ever leaving your laptop.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 id="lets-turn-curiosity-into-competence"&gt;Let’s Turn Curiosity Into Competence&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Ready to empower your team with AI that &lt;em&gt;actually works&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;br&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Contact me&lt;/strong&gt; for a sample syllabus, or a custom workshop.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Because the future of work isn’t just smarter tools; it’s smarter teams.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description></item></channel></rss>