Join us for DubJUG 268 with Tyson Gern, founder of Colorado's Initial Capacity and former lead of Pivotal Ireland, travelling from Boulder, USA.
Deep Talk:Â Embeddings arenât a search strategy.
Many AI applications generate vectors, add a vector database, and assume their search problem is solved.
But depending on the data and task, keyword search, hybrid search, or metadata filtering can outperform embeddings. Pure vector search often struggles with exact identifiers, rare terms, and short keyword queries. Keyword search misses paraphrases and synonyms, and degrades when query vocabulary drifts from the documents. Hybrid approaches mix the two but require careful tuning, and the right mix depends on the data. The cost of picking the wrong approach surfaces later, resulting in disappointing results and the rebuild required to fix them.
The information retrieval community has spent decades developing techniques to evaluate search quality, using metrics like precision and recall over labelled query sets. Yet many AI systems still pick a retrieval method by reputation or convenience, without testing it on their own data.
Applying these evaluation techniques to AI-powered services on the JVM, Tyson compares keyword, vector, and hybrid search, and you'll learn how to benchmark search systems and choose the right approach when building Java services.
Expect questions, and expect answers!
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About the Speaker
Tyson is a founding partner at Initial Capacity, a software consultancy of lead developers building applications at scale for start-ups and the world's largest companies.
His journey in technology began in academia. He serves as a lecturer at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he teaches the next generation of engineers the nuances of software development and system design.
Before Initial Capacity, he spent significant time at Pivotal Labs, transforming the delivery practices of some of the world's most complex engineering organizations, and opening their Dublin office. He has a PhD in Mathematics which informs his perspective on logic, structure, and engineering elegance.
Find Tyson on Linkedin
About the Dublin Java User Group
Since 2006, the Dublin Java User Group, aka DubJUG, has been working with the global Java community to amplify technical knowledge for the benefit of Irish based developers and businesses. It is a resident member of Dublin's TechMeetup.space.Â
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Our Partners
SQUARESPACE, the design-driven platform that helps entrepreneurs build their brands and businesses online. SQUARESPACE empowers millions of customers in more than 200 countries and territories with all the tools needed to create an online presence, build an audience, monetize, and scale their business. The SQUARESPACE suite of products range from websites, domains, ecommerce, and marketing tools, as well as tools for scheduling with Acuity, and creating and managing social media presence with Unfold.
Their team of more than 1,700 professionals is headquartered in bustling New York City, with offices in Dublin, Ireland and Aveiro, Portugal, and coworking spaces in the UK, Netherlands, and Australia.
SQUARESPACE ARE HIRING âĄïž Discover more: Website / LinkedIn
Gong is on a mission to empower companies to unlock their full revenue potential. We help everyone in revenue teams to improve productivity, increase predictability, and drive revenue growth by deeply understanding customers and business trends and taking impactful actions.
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Integral Ad Science is a leading global media measurement and optimization platform that delivers the industryâs most actionable data to drive superior results for the worldâs largest advertisers, publishers, and media platforms. IASâs software provides comprehensive and enriched data that ensures ads are seen by real people in safe and suitable environments while improving return on ad spend for advertisers and yield for publishers. Our mission is to be the global benchmark for trust and transparency in digital media quality.
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Stackand.Co enrich the professional lives of Java software professionals - with over 20 years experience in the Irish tech recruitment market, they have helped many great people elevate their careers, and many great companies build their teams.Â
Perhaps they can do the same for you working with companies like this one?
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FINEOSÂ is a leading provider of core systems for life, accident and health insurers globally with 7 of the 10 largest group life and health carriers in the US as well as 6 of the largest life insurers in Australia. With employees and offices throughout the world, FINEOS continues to scale rapidly, working with innovative progressive insurers in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific.
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Geertjan on Java is an independent open source Java-oriented advisory, driven by Geertjan Wielenga, the Java Champion involved in several community-driven projects, such as Apache NetBeans and Foojay.io (the place for Friends of OpenJDK).
Are you, and your organisation, looking for insights into...
* How to better communicate with your developer audience;
* How to have more impactful technical documentation;
* How to bring developers onboard into your open source projects;
* How to leverage the international developer community for maximum effect?
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tcube is a low-cost no frills workspace provider located at O'Connell Bridge in Dublin city centre. They provide hot-desks, dedicated co-working desks, office-for-a-day, meeting rooms, and event space.
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