Tech Affiliates
Discomfort is Growth. Learn it.
Eastern NC's room for people in IT, software engineering, and cybersecurity — whether you're already in the field or just breaking in.
Founded by Kelvin R. Tobias · Kelvinintech Consulting LLC · Kinston, NC
WGU live coding · Aug 1 meetup · September · DevPulse · Jul 28 panel · LinkedIn group · Facebook group
Live coding an LLM agent with Western Governors University
I hosted a live coding session with my alma mater, Western Governors University— building an LLM agent in real time.
Watch on YouTube: From Missing Packages to AI-Verified Code | Dev Meetup Highlights
This meetup recap is a live coding session. I build an LLM agent in C# on Linux, starting from a missing package and a project that won't build. We connect the agent to tools and an incident-management prompt, then run a cloud scan that comes back clean. People on the call jump in and debug it with me. The point of the session is that syntax still matters, even when AI is writing alongside you.
I hosted it with my alma mater, Western Governors University. I earned my bachelor's in software engineering there in March 2026, and I'm returning in March 2027 for an MBA in Computer Science and AI Engineering.
Tech Affiliates Meetup NEW!
A community for professionals and aspiring professionals passionate about IT, software engineering, and cybersecurity. Network, share goals, explore opportunities, and collaborate — together.
| When / where | Details |
|---|---|
| Date | Saturday, August 1, 2026 |
| Time | 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM · 3 hours |
| Location | Middle Grounds 302 N. Herritage St, Kinston, NC Open in Maps |
| Who | All welcome — casual, but professional. Join the groups before you arrive: LinkedIn · Facebook |
The flow
| Time | What |
|---|---|
| 9:00 | Arrival & Networking Meet and connect over coffee and conversation. |
| 9:30 | Group Introductions Who are you? Where are you from? What is your journey into tech? What are your goals — and how can this community support you? |
| 10:30 | Small Group Breakouts Connect by path — IT, Software Engineering, or Cybersecurity — then strengthen the network on Facebook and LinkedIn. |
| 12:00 | Group Photo & Departure Capture the moment before we wrap up. |
DevPulse — Live Multi-API Developer Dashboard in development
ASP.NET + LLM · Retrieve → Generate — a .NET 8 Razor Pages dashboard with independent API cards and Ask DevPulse RAG over recent HN + GitHub signals.
Live Tech Affiliates build session in Kinston, NC — exact date coming soon.
| Date | September 2026 Exact date coming soon |
| Location | Kinston, NC |
| Stack | C# · .NET 8 · ASP.NET Core Razor Pages · HttpClient · DI · CSS Grid · Embeddings / RAG · LLM (server-side) · Azure App Service (planned) |
| Surfaces | Weather · Hacker News · GitHub · Crypto · Daily Challenge · Ask DevPulse |
DevPulse is a .NET 8 Razor Pages dashboard that aggregates live developer signals into one view — Weather, Hacker News, GitHub, Crypto, and a Daily Challenge — each as an independent card so one failing API can't take down the page.
The app is built on a copyable mid-level pattern: typed models, service-layer HttpClient calls, dependency injection, and a dark CSS Grid shell. Each HTTP card returns a shared CardResult<T> so success and errors stay isolated.
September focus — Ask DevPulse: a free-text ask box on top of those feeds. The app does real RAG over recent HN + GitHub chunks (embeddings + in-memory similarity, no vector DB required): retrieve first, then generate a grounded answer with citations. If the LLM is down, it still shows the top retrieved sources — proving retrieval worked. Follow along in the ta-devpulse repo.
- Independent API cards with per-source failure isolation
- Typed models · HttpClient services · DI
- Ask DevPulse RAG: retrieve → generate with citations
- Graceful LLM fallback shows top retrieved sources
- Azure App Service public demo (planned)
RSVP for DevPulse View project repo
Tech-n-Careers Panel
Kelvin joins Kinston Teens for a panel on real estate, creative media, and AI — how professionals use technology to build careers. Open to all ages; refreshments provided.
| Date | Tuesday, July 28, 2026 |
| Time | 5:30 PM |
| Location | Kinston Enterprise Center 327 N Queen St, Kinston, NC 28501 Open in Maps |
| Hosted by | Kinston Teens · Kelvin speaking on the AI / software path alongside real estate and creative media professionals. |
Tech Affiliates Labs
The community stays free. Labs is where trading tools get built — Session Levels, APS Pro, Marauder, and Santana. None are for sale yet; they ship when they're ready.
Prompt Engineering with Kinston Teens
One student said AI feels intimidating. Another uses it every day but doesn't know how it works. Both are why Tech Affiliates exists.
In this workshop we got a real feel for how LLMs, RAG, and multiple agents work together — including cyclical prompting: one model drafts, another critiques and refines, then you run it again with a new lens until the reasoning holds.
By the end, they weren't guessing. They were giving AI direction.
Origin
Three years ago I walked into my first dev meetup in Atlanta with a new laptop and a freeCodeCamp cert. Now I get to host my own. I'm building the room I once needed.
— Kelvin R. Tobias, Founder
Stay connected between meetups
Share goals, opportunities, and wins year-round. Search is optional — use the links below.
LinkedIn group · Facebook group
Community snapshots
Conferences, meetups, and people I've learned alongside.
If you're in Eastern NC, come through
Join a group, RSVP for the Jul 28 panel, grab the Aug 1 flyer, or contact kelvinrtobias@gmail.com for 1:1 advisory through Kelvinintech Consulting LLC.
Jul 28 panel · Aug 1 details · LinkedIn group · Contact kelvinrtobias@gmail.com