Learn MCP in 30 Minutes

Hosted by Aki Wijesundara and Manu Jayawardana

Mon, Nov 23, 2026

2:00 PM UTC (30 minutes)

Virtual (Zoom)

Free to join

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AI Engineering Bootcamp and Certificate: Build and Ship Production AI Agents
Dr. Aki Wijesundara and Manu Jayawardana
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What you'll learn

Explain what MCP does and what it replaced

Describe the protocol clearly enough to argue for or against it in a meeting.

Assess whether a tool should use MCP

Judge when the standard is worth adopting for a given integration.

Evaluate the security surface it opens

Ask the right questions before an MCP server reaches production.

Why this topic matters

MCP became the standard way models connect to tools, and it now appears inarchitecture decisions, security reviews and job specs. Plenty of people need to reason about it without ever building one. This is the conceptual version: what it does, what itreplaced, and what it opens up when you turn it on.

You'll learn from

Aki Wijesundara

AI Advisor | Educator | Google AI Accelerator Alum

Aki Wijesundara is an AI leader with a PhD in Machine Learning and extensive experience mentoring startups at Google’s AI Accelerator. With a career spanning both research and applied AI, Aki has taught 5,000+ students worldwide how to design and deploy production-ready AI systems.

He has worked across cutting-edge areas of applied AI, from LangChain and RAG pipelines to observability and large-scale deployment. As a researcher and educator, Aki bridges the gap between theory and practice, making complex systems approachable and actionable for engineers, founders, and product leaders.

Aki is also a frequent speaker and advisor to organizations adopting AI, helping them transition from experimentation to production at scale.

Manu Jayawardana

AI Founder | CCEO at TAI Labs | Co-Founder of Snapdrum

Manu Jayawardana is a serial entrepreneur with multiple AI startup successes.

He is also the Co-Founder of Snapdrum, an AI consultancy helping companies integrate and automate their businesses using AI. Through Snapdrum, Manu has worked with top startups and enterprises across the U.S., Europe, and Asia, advising on automation, product development, and AI strategy.

Currently, Manu is the Co-Founder & CEO of Krybe, an AI voice agent startup in London transforming how businesses automate customer interactions. His experience spans fundraising, scaling products, and leading teams to deliver production-grade AI solutions adopted globally.

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