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Software for Humanity 2025

September 23 @ 11:30 am EDT

Software for Humanity is a thought-provoking and immersive event that brings together software engineers, developers, technologists, and industry leaders to explore the intersection of technology, humanity, and sustainability. This event aims to foster knowledge sharing, collaboration, and awareness of critical topics such as open-source APIs, performance engineering, sustainable IT practices, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the tech industry.

This year’s theme, “There’s IT in ‘humanity’ but is there humanity in IT?”, promises a thought-provoking and immersive experience that unites software engineers, developers, and technologists. We aim to explore the intersection of technology, humanity, and sustainability, serving as a supportive community for tech leaders, practitioners, and enthusiasts by sharing knowledge about the newest trends and technologies in IT. Our event will be recorded but not live streamed.

Register

September 23, 2025   |  11:30 AM ET – 5:00 PM ET

🥪LUNCH WILL BE PROVIDED 🍽️
MathWorks  1 Apple Hill Drive  Natick, MA 01760-2098

Networking and Interactive Activities: Throughout the event, participants will have opportunities to network with like-minded professionals, exchange ideas, and collaborate on potential projects. Interactive activities, such as panel discussions, Q&A sessions, and hands-on workshops, will encourage active engagement and knowledge sharing.

Featured Sessions

  • 11:30 PM Lunch – provided by MathWorks
  • 12:00 PM INTRODUCTION – 5 minutes
  • 12:05 PM – 12:35 Session 1: “Leveraging Mainframe Data and Applications Anywhere via APIs – The Future Made Easy” – Thomas Halinski, Scott Brod, Brittany Dartlon, Justin Carr
  • 12:35 PM – 12:40 – BREAK
  • 12:40 to 1:10 PM Session 2: “Performance Engineering: Ensuring Speed, Scale & Stability” – Mohit Verma
  • 1:10 PM to 1:20 BREAK
  • 1:20 PM – 1:50 Session 3: “Building a Smarter System: Our Journey in Automated Performance Analysis” – Meng-Ju Wu, Sean Lee
  • 1:50 PM – 1:55 BREAK
  • 1:55 PM – 2:40 Session 4: (roundtable) “Ethical uses of IT & AI, Implications and Considerations” – Anoush Najarian, Sheila Miller, David Ross, Scott Brod, and moderated by Mohit Verma
  • 2:40 PM – 2:50 BREAK
  • 2:50 PM – 3:35 Session: 5: “Adding Carbon Awareness to your Technology Decisions” – Michael Eydman
  • 3:35 PM – 3:45 BREAK
  • 3:45 PM – 4:30 Session 6: “The Lazy Engineer or the Smarter Engineer? Navigating Productivity in the Age of LLMs” – Hina Gandhi
  • 4:30 -4:40 PM Concluding Remarks
  • 5:00 – 7:00 Appetizers/Drinks @ SKYBO5KZ 109, 319 Speen Street, Natick, MA 01760; Sponsored by Broadcom

Join us at Software for Humanity and be part of the movement to shape a sustainable, inclusive, and innovative future for the software industry!

Session Abstracts

Leveraging Mainframe Data and Applications Anywhere via APIs – The Future Made Easy

Mainframes hold decades of critical business data and applications—but unlocking their full potential often means bridging them with modern systems. This session will explore how APIs make it easier than ever to connect mainframe assets with cloud, mobile, and distributed platforms. The speakers will share practical examples of how organizations are streamlining integration, accelerating innovation, and extending the reach of legacy systems without sacrificing reliability or security. Attendees will walk away with insights into how APIs can simplify modernization efforts and create new opportunities for delivering business value.

Presented by Thomas Halinski, Scott Brod, Brittany Dartlon, Justin Carr

Performance Engineering: Ensuring Speed, Scale & Stability

In today’s fast-paced digital world, performance isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s mission-critical. In this session, Mohit Verma will explore how organizations can build systems that remain fast, resilient, and reliable at scale. From practical strategies for identifying performance bottlenecks to frameworks for ensuring long-term stability, this talk will highlight the key practices every engineering team needs to master to keep technology running at peak efficiency. Attendees will leave with a clear understanding of how performance engineering can drive both user satisfaction and business success.

Presented by Mohit Verma. Mohit Verma is a seasoned Performance Engineering and Technology Leader with over 20 years of experience in delivering high-scale, high-reliability software systems. He has expertise in performance tuning, scalability, benchmarking, application monitoring, and cloud/architecture strategies. Mohit is recognized for developing technical competencies within organizations, mentoring engineering teams, and establishing best practices in observability, performance, and capacity.

 

Building a Smarter System: Our Journey in Automated Performance Analysis

Manual performance analysis is a significant bottleneck in software development. In this talk, I’ll share our journey of building a more intelligent, automated performance analysis system. We’ll move beyond the limitations of early manual methods and explore how we leveraged AI to create an intelligent, AI-powered solution. You’ll learn about our key development milestones, the pain points we overcame, and how we transformed a time-consuming workflow into a streamlined, automated process.

Co-presented by Meng-Ju Wu, Compiler Engineer at MathWorks, where he focuses on enhancing MATLAB’s performance. His work involves applying JIT compiler techniques and developing tools for performance and code quality analysis. He is passionate about building efficient, scalable systems that improve developer productivity and software reliability. Also presented by Seihyung Lee is a skilled Performance Engineer at MathWorks. Seihyung is particularly interested in harnessing artificial intelligence to drive innovation in performance monitoring and root cause analysis, continually striving to enhance user experience and product quality.

Ethical uses of IT & AI, Implications and Considerations

As IT and AI technologies advance, so do the questions about how they should be used responsibly. This round table will bring together diverse voices to examine the ethical implications of IT and AI, including fairness, accountability, transparency, and their broader social impact. Panelists will share perspectives on practical considerations for organizations, developers, and communities as they adopt and expand these powerful technologies.

Roundtable with Anoush Najarian, Sheila Miller, David Ross, Scott Brod, and moderated by Mohit Verma

Adding Carbon Awareness to your Technology Decisions

Carbon-Aware Application Portfolio Management (CAPM) integrates carbon metrics into everyday technology decision-making. This presentation introduces a pragmatic framework that augments traditional APM: total cost of ownership, technical fit, and business value, with per-application CO₂e visibility so architects, product owners, and sustainability teams can compare both performance and environmental impact side-by-side. I will summarize available data sources like cloud provider disclosures, carbon accounting tools, and grid intensity data; review calculation options based on emerging standards; and demonstrate resulting carbon dashboards along with a carbon-aware rationalization process. Will dive into real-world examples where this is applicable, such as cloud migrations, M&A, and SaaS optimization. The talk will also cover automation patterns for continuous carbon telemetry, normalization strategies for multi-cloud and hybrid environments, and governance practices to operationalize carbon-aware KPIs. CAPM reframes sustainability from annual report metrics into actionable, day-to-day application intelligence – enabling organizations to reduce emissions while preserving business outcomes.

The Lazy Engineer or the Smarter Engineer? Navigating Productivity in the Age of LLMs – Hina Gandhi

Large Language Models (LLMs) have transformed the way software engineers design, code, debug, and document. Tasks that once took hours can now be accomplished in minutes, but with this speed comes a new question: are we becoming more efficient—or simply more dependent? In this talk, we’ll explore the day-to-day life of a software engineer before and after the rise of LLMs, examining real-world scenarios where AI assistance boosts creativity and accelerates delivery, as well as cases where it risks eroding problem-solving skills. We’ll discuss strategies for leveraging LLMs as a force multiplier while maintaining technical depth, critical thinking, and craftsmanship. Attendees will leave with a balanced framework for integrating AI into their workflow without losing the essence of engineering excellence. key takeaways:
1. Balance AI and Skill Retention – How to integrate LLMs into your workflow without losing core engineering problem-solving abilities.
2. Boost Productivity Without Blind Dependence – Practical techniques to ensure LLM outputs enhance, not replace, critical thinking.
3. Redefining the Engineer’s Role – Understanding how AI shifts the focus from code creation to higher-level design, architecture, and strategy.

Details

  • Date: September 23
  • Time:
    11:30 am EDT

Venue

  • MathWorks
  • 1 Apple Hill Drive
    Natick, MA 01760-2098 United States