Bitcoin and the Energy Transition

Matthias Triendl

This talk examines the role of Bitcoin mining in accelerating and economizing the energy transition. We'll explore how integrating Bitcoin mining with renewable energy sources can reduce the environmental footprint of heating and make renewable energy more financially viable. The presentation will focus on the practical aspects of this integration, demonstrating how it can lead to more stable green energy grids and provide an economic boost to areas with renewable resources. Attendees will gain insights into the symbiotic relationship between bitcoin and sustainable energy, understanding how Bitcoin mining can support the transition to a greener economy.

What the xz backdoor can teach us about supply chain security

Richard Weinberger & David Gstir

The recent discovery of a backdoor in the xz-utils package vividly demonstrates that supply chain attacks are not only a reality but also pose a significant threat. In this presentation, David and Richard will provide an overview of the attack on the open-source ecosystem and discuss supply chain attacks more broadly. The objective of this talk is to offer both a technical and a non-technical overview of the attack, offering insights that may help mitigate similar incidents in the future. Additionally, David and Richard will explore the potential impact of supply chain attacks on individuals and their software projects. This discussion aims to shed light on the broader implications of these attacks and provide guidance on safeguarding against them in an increasingly interconnected digital landscape.

David Gstir is a security researcher and software engineer at sigma star gmbh with 15+ years of hands-on experience in designing, engineering and auditing software for various use cases. He obtained a master's degree in computer sciences from the University of Technology Graz, Austria where he specialized in IT security and cryptography. Richard is co-founder of sigma star gmbh where he offers consulting services around Linux and IT security. Upstream he maintains various subsystems of the Linux kernel such as UserModeLinux and UBIFS. Beside of low level and security aspects of computers he enjoys growing lithops.

Working with Kotlin - double the productivity, half the bugs

Martin Häusler

Are you fed up with Java throwing NullPointerExceptions at you in production? Did you write enough getters and setters for a whole developer lifetime? Do you wish for something better? Then this talk is for you. We'll talk about Kotlin, the programming language created by JetBrains, which has taken the world of the Java Virtual Machine by storm. From Android apps to server-side development and even build scripts, Kotlin is everywhere. The talk gives an introduction to the language and its key features as well as side-by-side comparisons with Java. Whether you're a seasoned Java veteran, or a newcomer who's just learning programming, this talk has something in store for you.

Martin studied computer science at the University of Innsbruck. While working towards his PhD, he got in touch with the founders of Txture, the startup company he's working for today as a senior backend developer and software architect. His favorite topics include Kotlin, the Java Virtual Machine and databases. Outside of his job he's a passionate gamer, from the latest blockbusters on PC and consoles to classic tabletop dungeons and dragons.

To be, or not to be

Sergei Koiushev

All engineers are working with tasks every day. And of course we make a decision which task should be done next. There are a lot of different ways and approaches to do it. Nowadays Agile(Scrum) methodology has become an engineering standard and prioritizing backlog is a common operation. I'm gonna talk about most usable prioritization Models. Based on my experience, I will share pros/cons of them. Also mention which can be used for roadmap planning. How we organized the roadmap planning in my current company to consider opinions from development, service and sales teams.

Hi, I’m Sergei. As a software engineer I have had more than 10 years development experience. Although I began as an intern Developer, I eventually earned a position as the Team Lead in charge of development of a high load storage system. I’ve worked on daily bases with different technologies and programming languages such as Java, Golang, C and C#. During my professional career I've experienced different Agile methodologies and SCRUM. I used to adapt the SCRUM approach to R&D team specific. I’m passionate about technologies and building software development processes.

From containers to Serverless Functions

Maximilian Schellhorn

In the evolution of cloud computing, containers have become a pivotal technology. They provide a robust way for packaging, deploying and operating applications, with Kubernetes emerging as a leading orchestrator. On the other hand, Serverless functions provide a streamlined, event-driven model that abstracts infrastructure management entirely. In this session we’ll explore the fundamental differences in architecture, scalability, and operational characteristics between these technologies. By investigating real-world scenarios and code we’ll gain insights into choosing the right approach based on workload requirements, deployment scenarios, and operations. Lastly, we’ll explore synergies between these technologies, demonstrating how they can be combined to leverage the strengths of both.

Maximilian Schellhorn works as a Senior Solutions Architect at Amazon Web Services. He supports companies with designing well-architected applications and running them in the cloud. Before that he worked for more than 10 years as a Software Engineer & Architect on distributed system design and monolith-to-microservice transformations. His recent work focuses on Serverless (Java), SaaS and Event Driven Architectures.

We need to talk… (more) about mental health at work

Veronika Betzel

“Why are you so emotional?”, “Can’t you just put your private life aside?”, “We are at work, please be professional!” Who doesn't know sentences like these? In a world captivated by progress and achievement, mental health and well-being often find themselves relegated to the shadows or not taken seriously. Embark on a transformative journey with me, redefining mental health discussions in the workplace. Visualize a setting where mental well-being is integral, fostering genuine support. Explore the tangible benefits for both employees and management, understanding how a supportive workplace elevates individual thriving and overall organizational success. Offering examples of navigating mental health challenges at work and providing guidelines, insights, and ideas for supporting others, this talk goes beyond. Regardless of whether you encounter challenges or not, valuable tips and insights into supporting mental health issues in the workplace will be shared. The question is not, “Should we talk about mental health at work?” but rather, “How can we talk about mental health at work?” This session will offer a direct answer to that question by giving examples and guidelines out of personal experiences.

Veronika Betzel, also called Vero, started out studying to become a teacher, but ended up discovering a passion for Quality Assurance (QA) by chance. Initially working in QA part-time while studying, Vero made the switch to working full-time in QA after completing her bachelor's degree. Vero loves the diversity of her job, but what she enjoys most is the opportunity to communicate and exchange ideas with others. She values directness and open discussions both personally and professionally. Vero loves to teach others, making her presentations both informative and engaging. Starting QA in 2017 Vero has already amassed some experience in the QA field, working for two different companies. When she's not working, Vero can be found giving back to her community as a volunteer firefighter or kicking a ball around the soccer field. Whether at work or play, Vero is a communicator at heart and always looking to make a positive impact.

Snow, Code, and Safety: A Deep Dive into Avalanche.report

Simon Legner

Since 1960, the Avalanche Warning Service Tyrol has been a crucial element in ensuring the safety of both winter sports enthusiasts and Alpine residents. Starting from December 2018, a joint bulletin has been published for the Euregio Tyrol–South-Tyrol–Trentino in seven languages. The entire software stack supporting this service is open source (FOSS) and undergoes continuous development on GitLab. This talk provides an in-depth look into the software powering the daily avalanche bulletin, along with the standards (EAWS, CAAML) and processes that operate behind the scenes.

Lightning Talks

Richard Weinberger, Peter Kandolf, Anand Raj Manickam, David Peer, Jacob Rief, Simon Legner

Hidden Gems in Linux’s /proc File System by Richard Weinberger (slides available below)
Keep the fun alive in your company chats by Peter Kandolf
Autoscaling in Kubernetes with Custom Metrics and KEDA by Anand Raj Manickam
Avalanche Detection in Videos by David Peer
Playwright in Action by Jacob Rief
devdocs.io by Simon Legner

Unleashing the Power of Graphs in Java Code Structure Analysis

Johannes Troppacher

This talk explores Java code structure analysis using Graphs. It provides an introduction to Graphs and underscores their significance in both Graph Analysis and the field of Graph Data Science. The journey begins with exploring queries to analyze code dependencies and progresses to the application of graph algorithms for tasks such as community detection, centrality, and similarity. Additionally, the talk provides an introduction to node embeddings for machine learning. By the end of this presentation, software professionals will be well-equipped to extract valuable insights from Java code bases effectively.

With software engineering, I turned one of my hobbies into my profession. I started programming as a kid and am still as passionate about it as I was back then. My work life started at Allgemeines Rechenzentrum (ARZ) in Innsbruck where I worked for 22+ years on the core banking system for accounts. I started as a mainframe developer with COBOL and switched then to Java. Later, i was leading a small team with members in Vienna and Innsbruck. In Mai 2023 I joined Dynatrace where I’m now writing apps for the 3rd gen of the product mainly using TypeScript. I spend my free time with my wife and two kids, playing and making music and sometimes also contributing to open source projects or publishing my own ideas.

Avalanche Safety in the Cloud: Automating Avalanche Reports with Serverless and Speech Synthesis

Christoph Stanger

If a process is repetitive or a routine does not become a natural habit, we should automate! This applies not only to software development, but also to offline routines, such as internalizing the latest avalanche report before heading out into the snowy mountains. Automate. In this session, Christoph will provide insights into the "Avalanche Report Synthesizer" application, which automates the daily creation of a podcast-like avalanche report to make the reports more naturally accessible and audible. He will dive into this event-driven, serverless application and uncover the tools and frameworks used, from Pulumi (IaC), TypeScript serverless best practices to Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML).

Christoph works as a Strategic Cloud Engineer at Google and focuses on the modernization of containerized applications and the development of serverless applications. NodeJS and Typescript are his favorite tools to go fast. Prior to Google, he worked at AWS and MaibornWolff developing apps and services on various web, mobile and cloud platforms. Originally from Zirl, he enjoys being close to the ‘cloud’ during mountaineering as well.

Preparing for the European Cyber Resilience Act – Get your House in Order Before the New Legislation Hits

Mike Brunner

The final proposal of the European Cyber Resilience Act (CRA-E) is publicly available since September 2022 and so are the results of the EU's impact assessment of the planned regulation. Considering the potentially huge implications, especially for enterprises with less mature secure development practices, achieving compliance with the CRA-E will become a challenge once the legislation will be finally enacted. During this talk I will present an overview of the regulation's essential security requirements and how these relate to standards and best practices in secure development of software-intensive systems. I'd like to use this event to discuss your view on this upcoming regulation and will showcase interesting results from the CERTAINITY Cyber Resilience Act Preparedness Survey we conducted together with the university of Innsbruck.

As partner and founding member of CERTAINITY I’m leading our security engineering practice. I’ve been working as a security architect, business consultant and software engineer for over two decades. Currently I focus on secure software and product development, the implementation of security architectures and the establishment of associated processes - especially in areas of critical infrastructure.

Tales from updating a software appliance over 15 years

Lukas Ruetz

Updating software sounds easy, but it's not. It's ease in the beginning but gets harder over time because you always have to migrate the old system and configuration to the new system. The bigger your tech-stack gets the more components you'll need to update. A software appliance needs to update countless dependencies, migrate state and keep everything consistent. This talk starts with an overview of what it really means to update software and is also a collection of stories from 15 years of updating a software appliance.

Right after graduation Lukas co-founded a company that developed a software appliance for a TV playout system (digital signage) and later build two outdoor platforms which have become quite popular for several years. Ten years later Lukas joined Asteas Technologies as a software engineer because he wanted to work in a bigger team. In 2018, Lukas got the chance to lead the development team of the captive portal called IACBOX, and finally was promoted to the managing director in 2023. Lukas' tech stack usually has Linux under the hood and (too) many programming environments on top. In the past Lukas used a lot of Java/Groovy but later on more PHP, C and Perl which is now replaced with go.

Decentralization of infrastructure and DevOps tasks to the whole team

Alex Lanz

In recent years, many companies have started to document and automate their infrastructure in the cloud using infrastructure as code. However, the responsibility and execution remained part of the operations team. In this talk, I will show how you can hand over certain tasks to the developers and provide them full transparency, but without neglecting the topic of security. We will talk about tools like Terraform, Atlantis, 1Password Connect and many more.

Software Developer and Co-Founder of AboutBits

Surviving in the Open Source Jungle

Richard Weinberger

Open Source and the community behind it are like a vast jungle filled with opportunities, but it can be a tough place to navigate if you don't know the ropes. Richard takes you on a short tour through this jungle and shows you how to avoid common problems and find the valuable resources it has to offer. Learn the essential mindset to make the most out of Open Source without getting lost. He will share his insights from both perspectives, as a consultant and a private contributor.

Richard is co-founder of sigma star gmbh where he offers consulting services around Linux and IT security. Upstream he maintains various subsystems of the Linux kernel such as UserModeLinux and UBIFS. Beside of low level and security aspects of computers he enjoys growing lithops.

Putting Defenders to the Test: A Comprehensive Look at an Adaptable Testing Framework

Philipp Kratzer

AV-Comparatives is an independent lab dedicated to testing security software, which regularly releases test results to the public. Every antivirus product in the test is required to demonstrate its protection capabilities in various test areas. When challenging the leading vendors of the industry with unfavourable results, you better have a robust methodology. In this talk we present insights to one of our testing frameworks, showcase some typical applications and give an outlook to the future of the project.

Peering into the Future: An Introduction to Crystal Ball Algorithms

Martin Pichl

The aim of the event is to give you an understanding of recommendation systems and their benefits. First, we briefly present the basics of recommender systems. We then discuss use cases from practice to see how companies can benefit from predictive modeling.

Towards More Secure Code - Why Devs Should Make My Job Harder

David Gstir

With one security vulnerability chasing the next through tech news, we all know that security is an important part of software engineering. But how come I still see the same common, avoidable flaws in code audits? In this talk we’ll take a brief tour through some common vulnerabilities every developer should know about and discuss sustainable procedures to prevent them.

David Gstir is a security researcher and software engineer at sigma star gmbh with 15+ years of hands-on experience in designing, engineering and auditing software for various use cases. He obtained a master's degree in computer sciences from the University of Technology Graz, Austria where he specialized in IT security and cryptography.

Beyond Code: Lessons Learned as a Developer turned Engineering Manager in a Startup Environment

Christian Esswein

What could possibly go wrong if a startup scales from a handful of developers to a company with 30 people? All of a sudden I found myself in the position of handling 10 developers and had to care about more than just the next pull request.
Together we will take a look into the past and I will present some of our biggest challenges and personal learnings from growing and organizing a bunch of motivated developers without knowing where the journey will end. While theory explains you the easy way, practice always looks different.
And who the heck is responsible for buying coffee beans and milk??

Chris is a software engineer and development lead at Txture - a startup based in Innsbruck. Besides his work he is passionate about analyzing and visualizing outdoor sport activity data.

PamApp: The journey of building and scaling a system with 1M+ users

Ardit Shala

Explaining the journey of building a backend fitness platform from scratch as a distributed system on large scale, also covering a high-level architecture of the whole system. What's the story behind and how I got involved, what where the general requirements, the launch drama and handling traffic while working with one of the biggest fitness influencers.

500 employees and no hierarchy: agility and self-organization

Gerold Aschauer

In this talk, we will explore agile methodologies and their impact on organizations. We will discuss agile structures, Scrum, stakeholder involvement, team dynamics, the 'Flowmaster' concept, working without hierarchies, and challenges in agile environments.