Foundry Fridays: Your Gateway to Azure AI Discovery
đ What Is Foundry Fridays? Every Friday at 1:30 PM ET, join the Azure AI Foundry Discord Community https://aka.ms/model-mondays/discord for a 30-minute live Ask Me Anything (AMA) session. Itâs your chance to connect with the experts behind Azure AIâPrincipal PMs, researchers, and engineersâwho are building the tools youâll use in classrooms, hackathons, and real-world projects. Whether you're experimenting with model fine-tuning, curious about local inference, or diving into agentic workflows and open-source tooling, this is where your questions get answered live and unscripted. đĄ Why Students & Educators Should Join Direct Access to Experts Ask your questions live and get real-time insights from the people building Azure AI. Weekly Themes That Matter From model routing and MCP registries to SAMBA architectures, AI Agents, Model Router, Deployment Templates each week brings a new topic to explore. Community-Led Conversations Hosted by leaders like Nitya Narasimhan and Lee Stott, these sessions are interactive, inclusive, and designed to spotlight your questions. No Slides, Just Substance Skip the lecturesâthis is about real talk, real tech, and real learning. đ Bonus Learning: Model Mondays Want even more? Catch up on the Model Mondays series on demand at https://aka.ms/model-mondays and get ready for Season 3, streaming every Monday at 1:30 PM ET. đ How to Join Join the Discord: https://aka.ms/model-mondays/discord Find the AMA: Check the #community-calls and #model-mondays channels or look for pinned events. Ask Anything: Bring your questions, ideas, or just listen in. No registration needed. đŹ Final Thoughts Whether you're coding your first AI project, mentoring students, or researching the next big thing listen and ask the experts questions and hear from the wider community. Foundry Fridays is your space to learn, connect, and grow. So grab your headphones, jump into Discord, and letâs shape the future of AIâtogether. đď¸ Fridays | 1:30 PM ET đ Azure AI Foundry Discord đ https://aka.ms/model-mondays/discordModel Mondays S2E13: Open Source Models (Hugging Face)
1. Weekly Highlights 1. Weekly Highlights Here are the key updates we covered in the Season 2 finale: O1 Mini Reinforcement Fine-Tuning (GA): Fine-tune models with as few as ~100 samples using built-in Python code graders. Azure Live Interpreter API (Preview): Real-time speech-to-speech translation supporting 76 input languages and 143 locales with near human-level latency. Agent Factory â Part 5: Connecting agents using open standards like MCP (Model Context Protocol) and A2A (Agent-to-Agent protocol). Ask Ralph by Ralph Lauren: A retail example of agentic AI for conversational styling assistance, built on Azure OpenAI and Foundryâs agentic toolset. VS Code August Release: Brings auto-model selection, stronger safety guards for sensitive edits, and improved agent workflows through new agents.md support. 2. Spotlight â Open Source Models in Azure AI Foundry Guest: Jeff Boudier, VP of Product at Hugging Face Jeff showcased the deep integration between the Hugging Face community and Azure AI Foundry, where developers can access over 10 000 open-source models across multiple modalitiesâLLMs, speech recognition, computer vision, and even specialized domains like protein modeling and robotics. Demo Highlights Discover models through Azure AI Foundryâs task-based catalog filters. Deploy directly from Hugging Face Hub to Azure with one-click deployment. Explore Use Cases such as multilingual speech recognition and vision-language-action models for robotics. Jeff also highlighted notable models, including: SmoLM3 â a 3 B-parameter model with hybrid reasoning capabilities Qwen 3 Coder â a mixture-of-experts model optimized for coding tasks Parakeet ASR â multilingual speech recognition Microsoft Research protein-modeling collection MAGMA â a vision-language-action model for robotics Integration extends beyond deployment to programmatic access through the Azure CLI and Python SDKs, plus local development via new VS Code extensions. 3. Customer Story â DraftWise (BUILD 2025 Segment) The finale featured a customer spotlight on DraftWise, where CEO James Ding shared how the company accelerates contract drafting with Azure AI Foundry. Problem Legal contract drafting is time-consuming and error-prone. Solution DraftWise uses Azure AI Foundry to fine-tune Hugging Face language models on legal data, generating contract drafts and redline suggestions. Impact Faster drafting cycles and higher consistency Easy model management and deployment with Foundryâs secure workflows Transparent evaluation for legal compliance 4. Community Story â Hugging Face & Microsoft The episode also celebrated the ongoing collaboration between Hugging Face and Microsoft and the impact of open-source AI on the global developer ecosystem. Community Benefits Access to State-of-the-Art Models without licensing barriers Transparent Performance through public leaderboards and benchmarks Rapid Innovation as improvements and bug fixes spread quickly Education & Empowerment via tutorials, docs, and active forums Responsible AI Practices encouraged through community oversight 5. Key Takeaways Open Source AI Is Here to Stay Azure AI Foundry and Hugging Face make deploying, fine-tuning, and benchmarking open models easier than ever. Community Drives Innovation: Collaboration accelerates progress, improves transparency, and makes AI accessible to everyone. Responsible AI and Transparency: Open-source models come with clear documentation, licensing, and community-driven best practices. Easy Deployment & Customization: Azure AI Foundry lets you deploy, automate, and customize open models from a single, unified platform. Learn, Build, Share: The open-model ecosystem is a great place for students, developers, and researchers to learn, build, and share their work. Sharda's Tips: How I Wrote This Blog For this final recap, I focused on capturing the energy of the open source AI movement and the practical impact of Hugging Face and Azure AI Foundry collaboration. I watched the livestream, took notes on the demos and interviews, and linked directly to official resources for models, docs, and community sites. Hereâs my Copilot prompt for this episode: "Generate a technical blog post for Model Mondays S2E13 based on the transcript and episode details. Focus on open source models, Hugging Face, Azure AI Foundry, and community workflows. Include practical links and actionable insights for developers and students! Learn & Connect Explore Open Models in Azure AI Foundry Hugging Face Leaderboard Responsible AI in Azure Machine Learning Llama-3 by Meta Hugging Face Community Azure AI Documentation About Model Mondays Model Mondays is your weekly Azure AI learning series: 5-Minute Highlights: Latest AI news and product updates 15-Minute Spotlight: Demos and deep dives with product teams 30-Minute AMA Fridays: Ask anything in Discord or the forum Start building: Watch Past Replays Register For AMA Recap Past AMAs Join The Community Donât build alone! The Azure AI Developer Community is here for real-time chats, events, and support: Join the Discord Explore the Forum About Me I'm Sharda, a Gold Microsoft Learn Student Ambassador focused on cloud and AI. Find me on GitHub, Dev.to, Tech Community, and LinkedIn. In this blog series, I share takeaways from each weekâs Model Mondays livestream.Global AI Bootcamp
Are you ready to embark on an exhilarating journey into the world of Artificial Intelligence? The Global AI Bootcamp invites tech students and AI developers to join a vibrant global community of innovators, data scientists, and AI experts. This annual event is your gateway to cutting-edge advancements, where you can learn, share, and collaborate on the latest AI technologies. From Saturday, March 1st to Friday, March 7th, we have an action-packed schedule featuring 29 bootcamps across 19 countries. With the rapid evolution of AI shaping various industries, there's no better time to elevate your skills and make a meaningful impact in this dynamic field. Attendees can expect hands-on workshops, insightful sessions, and numerous networking opportunities designed for all skill levels. Don't miss this chance to be part of the future of AI! Why You Should Attend With 135 bootcamps happening in 44 countries this year, the Global AI Bootcamp is the perfect opportunity to immerse yourself in the AI community. Attendees can expect: Hands-on Workshops: Engage with practical sessions to build and deploy AI models. Expert Talks: Learn from industry leaders about the latest trends and technologies. Networking Opportunities: Connect with peers, mentors, and potential collaborators. Career Growth: Discover new career paths and enhance your professional skills. In-Person Bootcamps Experience the energy and collaboration of our in-person events. Mark your calendars for these dates: Germany, Hamburg | Saturday, March 1st | Event Link India, Hyderabad | Saturday, March 1st | Event Link Nigeria, Jos | Saturday, March 1st | Event Link Canada, Toronto | Saturday, March 1st | Event Link United States, Houston, TX | Saturday, March 1st | Event Link India, Ahmedabad | Saturday, March 1st | Event Link Spain, MĂĄlaga | Saturday, March 1st | Event Link India, Chennai | Saturday, March 1st | Event Link United Kingdom, London | Thursday, March 6th | Event Link United States, Milwaukee | Friday, March 7th | Event Link United States, Saint Louis | Friday, March 7th | Event Link Canada, Quebec City | Friday, March 7th | Event Link Poland, KrakĂłw | Friday, March 7th | Event Link Virtual Bootcamps Can't join us in person? No problem! Participate in our virtual events from the comfort of your home: Angola, Luanda | Saturday, March 1st | Event Link Ghana, Accra | Saturday, March 1st | Event Link Netherlands, Amsterdam | Tuesday, March 4th | Event Link Colombia, BogotĂĄ - RockAI | Thursday, March 6th | Event Link Bangladesh, Dhaka | Friday, March 7th | Event Link Colombia, BogotĂĄ | Friday, March 7th | Event Link Hybrid Bootcamps Enjoy the flexibility of hybrid events offering both in-person and virtual participation: India, Palava | Saturday, March 1st | Event Link Spain, Madrid | Saturday, March 1st | Event Link India, Mumbai | Saturday, March 1st | Event Link India, Mumbai - Dear Azure AI | Saturday, March 1st | Event Link Bangladesh, Chattogram | Sunday, March 2nd | Event Link Pakistan, Lahore | Monday, March 3rd | Event Link Costa Rica, San JosĂŠ | Tuesday, March 4th | Event Link Hong Kong, Hong Kong | Wednesday, March 5th | Event Link Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur | Friday, March 7th | Event Link Bolivia, La Paz | Friday, March 7th | Event Link Artificial Intelligence is transforming industries across the globe. There's no better time than now to dive into AI and be at the forefront of innovation. Whether you're looking to start a career in AI or enhance your existing skills, the Global AI Bootcamp has something for everyone. Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to learn, connect, and grow. Visit our website for more information and register for a bootcamp near you! đ Explore All Bootcamps Let's shape the future of AI together!Integrating Power Apps with Azure Machine Learning & OpenAI using Power Automate
Learn how to integrate Power Apps with Azure Machine Learning & OpenAI using Power Automate through a Health Expense Planner Application. This app allows the user to predict their Health Expense using a Machine Learning Model and then get a detailed personalized plan to save funds for it.HackTogether: the Microsoft Teams Global Hack ends, but the developer journey continues!
On June 15 th , we closed out HackTogether: the Microsoft Teams Global Hack â the hackathon where developers learned how to build apps for Microsoft Teams and submitted hacks for a chance to win exciting prizes.Explore Innovative Technologies with Microsoft Reactor's Post Student Summit Event Series
Microsoft Reactor is hosting a Post Student Summit event series throughout April and May, following the success of the Student Summit held last March. The series provides opportunities for developers to gain new technical skills and connect with Microsoft's inclusive community. The virtual events cover a range of topics, including Azure Speech Service, Azure DataWorks, and AI on Azure. Don't miss out on the chance to register for the free sessionsFeedback requested for VS Code Educator Community
The Visual Studio Code team is hoping to create a centralized community for educators who use the editor to ask questions, share best practices or resources, and learn from each other. The team also hopes to use this as a platform to share features and demos of VS Code for common educational scenarios.Azure Cognitive Services Hands-on Workshop resources and insights.
Want to conduct a workshop on Azure Cognitive Services? Here are some insights on the Workshop conducted on ACS. You will also find the links to the resources and guides referred throughout the session and while preparing for the workshop.
