November 4th Meetup with Tom Greenhaw [Nerds Like Me]

November 4th Meetup with Tom Greenhaw

Nov
04
Tuesday
Tuesday, November 4th, 2025 7:15PM (CDT)
Address Info
Available on RSVP acceptance

Event Ended

This event has already taken place.

Attendees 34+ registered
Meet builders, founders, and leaders from Meta, Figma, and Amazon, specializing in AI/ML, Elixir systems, DevOps, and embedded robotics.

Nerds Like Me – November Meetup

Welcome to our next gathering of AI, data, and product enthusiasts. Expect lively conversation, hands-on demos, and plenty of opportunities to grow your network.


Event Details

  • Date: Tuesday, November 4
  • Time: 7:15 PM to 9:15 PM
  • Location: Highwood, IL (exact venue shared after you RSVP)

(Photo) A photograph capturing an indoor social or professional gathering where an older man is giving a presentation or talk to an audience seated in a room with dark blue walls and modern lighting. Text: EXIT Group of people attending a presentation/talk | Indoor (event space, likely a bar or wine shop) | Speaker addressing an audience, dark blue walls, brass pendant lights, wine racks visible | Candid, low-light event photography | Colors: #2C3E50, #A0522D, #F5DEB3 Note: The image is a candid photograph documenting a real-world social or professional event taking place indoors, featuring multiple people and a specific setting.

Featured Speaker: Tom Greenhaw

(Other) The image displays a section of a personal webpage, featuring four distinct content cards detailing interests in Physics, Artificial Intelligence, Electronics, and Photography. A smiling man wearing glasses and a suit jacket is prominently featured in a photo in the bottom right corner. Text: Physics From quantum mechanics to cosmology, I'm fascinated by the fundamental laws that govern reality and the universe's grand design. I enjoy reading about theoretical physics and understanding complex phenomena. Here is a paper describing my ideas (fair warning - some ideas are novel, unconventional, and maybe half baked :-) The 2-Field Theory of Space Artificial Intelligence (AI) The rapidly evolving field of AI, machine learning, and neural networks takes much of my time. I have formal education in AI from Stanford and over 30 years developing expert systems, machine learning systems for classification of products, LLMs for image analysis, document and handwriting recognition, and turnkey RAG chatbots. I'm especially interested in understanding its applications, ethical implications, and future potential to transform our world. Here is a white paper on Ethical AI, a call to action Electronics I love the hands-on aspect of electronics - designing circuits, building gadgets, and understanding how hardware interacts to create functional systems. From microcontrollers to embedded systems, it's a constant learning adventure. An example is an an ESP-32 based Garden Computer that records temperature, barometric pressure, soil moisture and battery/solar panel voltage. You can view the last 24 Trend here. Photography Capturing light, emotion, and moments in time through photography is a creative outlet for me. Whether it's landscapes, portraits, or abstract compositions, I appreciate the blend of technical skill and artistic vision. Note: The image is a screenshot of a webpage section, combining multiple structured text blocks (content cards) with a photograph of a person. It does not fit neatly into a single category like banner, logo, or a pure photograph, as it's a composite digital interface display.

Bio:
Tom Greenhaw is an entrepreneur, technologist and innovator whose career bridges software, data, and hardware development and implementation. Tom’s experience includes Machine Learning & AI, hardware and software development, and small business development having founded and sold two successful small businesses. Greenhaw has been part of the Nerds Like Me community, bringing cross-disciplinary curiosity that ranges across mathematics, physics, and applied engineering. His blend of technical expertise, gray hair, and imaginative inquiry makes him a distinctive voice in conversations on the future of technology and its impact.

Discussion:
As AI systems increasingly shape human decisions, current “AI ethics” approaches, mainly output filtering and refusals, fall short of providing real ethical reasoning. Philosophy offers several major ethical frameworks, including Utilitarianism, Deontology, Virtue Ethics, Care Ethics and the Hierarchy of Needs, each with strengths and weaknesses that can guide better AI design and usage. This presentation proposes an Ethical AI Benchmark that objectively measures how large language models respond across these frameworks, making their biases and value systems transparent. In addition to the theoretical aspects of this topic, Tom will present a proposed implementation using openly available tools including Postgres, Ollama, and local AI models. Finally, it calls for an open, collaborative effort to develop and refine this benchmark so AI serves not just profit motives but the greater good of humanity.
Slide Deck
White Paper

(Photo) A candid photograph captures a large group of people mingling and networking in a dimly lit indoor venue, which appears to be a bar or event space with dark walls, wine racks, and a visible presentation screen on the left. Text: [unreadable] benchmarking and provenance A Framework for Product and Retail Aligned in [unreadable] Group of people, social event, networking | Indoor, dimly lit bar or event space | Large crowd, presentation screen, wine storage, dark interior design | Candid, low-light event photography | Colors: #1E2125, #705C4E, #A0A0A0 Note: The image is a photograph documenting a real-world social event with many people interacting in a specific indoor setting.

(Photo) A man addresses a seated and standing audience during an indoor gathering or presentation in a dimly lit room featuring dark blue walls and wooden flooring. Group of people attending a presentation or meeting | Indoor (likely a private event space, bar, or meeting room) | Speaker addressing an audience, dark blue walls, wooden table, pendant lighting fixtures. | Candid, event photography | Colors: #2C3A4F, #B89C78, #A3734A, #E0E0E0 Note: The image is a photograph capturing a real-world event involving multiple people in an indoor setting, characteristic of event or candid photography.

Sponsorship: HELP!

A single round of drinks—or even light snacks—goes a long way toward fueling conversation. If your company can underwrite refreshments, we’ll highlight their support in event remarks and follow-up communications. Reply to this message or DM Jonathan to explore options.


What You Can Do Now

  1. RSVP – reserve your seat HERE
  2. Subscribe for updates: https://nerdslikeme.dream.page
  3. Complete your profile – we’ll use it in an upcoming session to spark deeper conversation.
  4. Whitelist us – add [email protected] to your contacts so you never miss an invite.
  5. Help spread the wordlike, comment, or reshare this post on LinkedIn to help others discover Nerds Like Me and grow the community.

See you soon, both familiar faces and first-timers alike.

Jonathan Shertok
Organizer, Nerds Like Me

(Logo) The image displays a logo featuring the text 'Nerds Like Me' in white, 3D-effect lettering, accompanied by a stylized graphic on the left resembling circuit board traces or a brain pattern. The overall design is set against a solid black background. Text: Nerds Like Me Colors: #FFFFFF, #C0C0C0, #000000 Note: This image is classified as a logo because it combines a distinct textual phrase with a unique graphic element, designed to represent a brand or identity. Its primary purpose appears to be brand recognition.

Ready for more?

Check out other posts from this blog.

View all posts