FOSSASIA Summit 2026

 Attending the FOSSASIA Summit: A Refreshing Dive into Open Source and AI

I recently had the opportunity to attend the FOSSASIA Summit for two days, on March 9th and 10th, and it turned out to be an incredibly enriching experience. From insightful talks to reconnecting with familiar faces and meeting new people, the event truly captured the spirit of the open-source community.

Day 1: Learning, Conversations, and a Social Evening
The first day kicked off with a strong focus on the intersection of humanity and technology. One of the most memorable sessions I attended was “Stay Human In the AI Age” by Mario Behling. It set the tone for the day by reminding us that while AI is rapidly evolving, human values and ethics must remain at the center of innovation.

Another engaging talk was “Hardware Freedom in an AI-Dominated World: How to use AI as a Tool (Instead of Becoming a Tool)” by Mitch Altman. It provided a refreshing perspective on maintaining control over technology and emphasized the importance of open hardware in an increasingly AI-driven ecosystem.

The keynote on “Protecting Children Online: What Role Can Open Source Play?” was both thought-provoking and timely. It highlighted the responsibility of the open-source community in building safer digital spaces for younger users.

I also attended “Open Source Tools to Build Next Generation Chip Designers” by Harish Pillay, which gave a glimpse into how open-source tools are shaping the future of hardware design. It was fascinating to see the depth and possibilities in this space.

Beyond the sessions, the highlight of the day was reconnecting with Hong Phuc. It was wonderful meeting her again after Fossasia 2017 in Singapore—it brought back a lot of great memories and reminded me how strong and connected the community is.

In the evening, I joined the social event, which was a perfect setting to unwind and network. I had the chance to meet a few Red Hatters from Pune, and we spent some quality time discussing work, open source, and shared experiences. It was great to connect with them in such an informal and friendly environment.

Day 2: Deep Dives into Tools, Testing, and Performance
The second day continued with equally engaging sessions. “ZTA and PQC Support in FreeIPA” by Sumedh  Sidhaye offered insights into security advancements and how open-source identity management is evolving to meet modern challenges.

“Standardizing Developer Experience: Eclipse Che and the Power of Cloud Development Environments” by Rohan shed light on how cloud-based development environments are transforming workflows and improving consistency across teams.

One of the most relatable talks was “The Pizza Problem: What AI Doesn’t Get About Testing” by Deepak Koul. It cleverly illustrated the limitations of AI in understanding real-world testing nuances, using simple analogies that resonated with everyday engineering challenges.

I also attended “Autonomous Playwright Test Remediation via MCP and GitHub Actions,” which explored automation in testing and how AI-driven remediation can streamline development pipelines.

Finally, “Biscuit: Solving PostgreSQL’s Wildcard Search Performance Problem” by Sivaprasad Murali provided a deep technical dive into database performance optimization—an excellent session for anyone interested in backend efficiency.

Reflections
Overall, attending the FOSSASIA Summit was a rewarding experience. It offered a balanced mix of technical depth, forward-looking discussions, and meaningful human connections. From AI and hardware to testing and developer experience, the sessions covered a wide spectrum of topics that are shaping the future of technology.

More than anything, the event reinforced the importance of community in open source. Whether it was reconnecting with familiar faces or meeting new ones, every interaction added value to the experience.

I’m glad I could be part of it, and I look forward to attending again in the future.

Fossasia- A wonderful Experience

I came to know know about Fossasia during one of the Pyladies Meetup, when the organizer of Fossasia Hong Phuc Dang visited us and discussed about Fossasia. It was so inspiring and after that I decided to submit a talk for their conference. Then I started thinking about the topic on which I can submit a talk. So I just went through what I have worked on, then some topics came in my mind.Among all I submitted talk on "Robot Framework- A Smarter way to automate test", as I am a QE so this was the best topic  for me to discuss, as it helped me in my work and reduced my manual efforts, so it was best to share with others.

After submission I was just waiting whether my talk will be selected or not, and to my surprise it got selected and I received mail for confirmation. This was the first time I was going to some conference as a Speaker so I was little nervous  , also happy as for the first time I was travelling out of India to Singapore which is a beautiful country. So all together it was a mixed feeling. But I was excited for both of these. Thanks to Praveen who did all my paper work for Visa. So I was all set with my talk, slides and Visa.

We reached a day earlier before the conference, so got a chance to explore some places like Universal Studio, Marina Bay which we explored when we visited Microsoft office. Also I visited RedHat Singapore office and spent a half day there.

Fossasia

Fossasia organised a event for the participants in Microsoft Office on 16th March, so we all were there early morning, we had breakfast there, thanks to Microsoft for providing us all this. There we all introduced our self and our topics on which we were going to speak. After that we all visited Suntec City there and it was fun to see lots of hardware stuffs with new technologies and features.
On 17th we went to Science Centre where the conference was organised, it was nice place. So we all were welcomed there, followed by keynotes and some talks. Also there was a ceremony for code heat contest winners.  So the first day ended with Artificial Intelligence Panel Discussion which was enjoyed by everyone.
On second day there were many tracks, and some workshops. In evening there was a Speakers Dinner, where we interacted with each other and came to know about different technologies they are working upon. It was a nice experience. Third day we were there exactly 9am, as Siddhesh was having his workshop from 9:00 am, and Praveen was also having his talk early morning on MiniShift. I was also going to give a talk on the same day. So it was a big day for me as for the first time I was speaking in a Conference. And fortunately all went well, and it was a wonderful experience. We also managed to spend some time to explore Science Centre and it was a nice place to enhance our basic knowledge about Physics, Nature, Electronics and lot of others things.

Pyladies Booth at Fossasia

As I and Anwesha were travelling to the event, so it was good idea to have a Pyladies booth there. Also Hong Phuc  asked us for the same,and  Fossasia was giving us space for Pyladies. So we also planned for that and were ready with posters, stickers and some photo probes. Anwesha packed all the stuff for the booth, and we were all set to go. So on the first day Anwesha reached a little early to set up the booth, after some time I was also there. Then she figured out where we can set up the booth, after we get a table for us, we quickly set it up with all the things we carried. And as always Pyladies Umbrella was the center of attraction, It Rocks!!! Everyone coming to our booth was keen to pose with that and other probes. So we told people about Pyladies, how we started and what we do and how often we meet. Lot of people come up with different question like how can they join us, Is there a Pyladies chapter in their country too or can they start the same. So it was good as Pyladies were a part of Fossasia, our presence was felt by everyone there.


My experience as a Speaker 
As written earlier it was the first time I was giving a talk in any conference. So after my talk was selected, I started preparing slides. With lot of things going around as  training, exam, family function, visa stuff and also shifting of my home, it was very difficult for me to save some time for preparing. At beginning I was so confused what to keep in the slides and what not to, as it was a 20 min session. So here I have to make decision between lots of things. Then I decided to put very basics things for this so that even a fresher can also get an idea about it and can start using it. So I prepared my slides and a demo session too so that people can understand more clearly how Robot Framework runs. So for demo I prepared a very simple task to verify if Fossasia home page opens when we hit its url. I was prepared for the talk on the final day but still a strange feeling was there inside me as speaking in an empty room and in front of audience are two different things. But putting aside all the things apart I encouraged myself and developed trust in  myself that I can do it. Then the moment came when I was in front of audience, so I started with my introduction, I prepared 4-5 lines for that but there I ended up in two lines only may be due to nervousness. Then I just relaxed and was going with the flow. Slowly I gained a little confidence and go ahead, with all what I prepared and demo too. The good part was that there was good internet that allowed me to show the demo. As first time it was a good experience but now I feel I can do better than this. As we learn from our mistake and I know where something went wrong with me so now its the time work on those areas. We should not bound our self from doing anything with a fear that we can't do it, we should give a try, then only we will know where we stand. So keeping going there are a lot new things which we have to learn in life.