Level: Beginner to Intermediate

Prerequisite: None

William Henry

Senior Catastrophe Pricing Scientist

Mercury Insurance

Agentic code generation is a key capability for data and ML teams in 2026. In this hands-on course, managers and player-coaches will learn how LLMs have evolved into autonomous agents and how to safely use them to generate, debug, and iterate on code.

Students will explore the 2026 tool landscape (including Cursor), run live demos, and build code with agents step by step. The course also covers an agent harness toolbox for safe code generation and best practices for rolling it out in your team, including real-world examples.

You Will Learn

• How LLMs evolved into autonomous agents and the core loop plus high-impact use cases for data/ML teams
• The current 2026 tool landscape: leading models, tools, benchmarks, costs, and a decision matrix
• How to set up and use Cursor for code generation with live demos
• Hands-on experience using agents inside Cursor to generate and iterate on simple data/ML code and multi-step workflows
• Best practices and tools for safe code generation including rules, context, MCP, static analysis, test gates, and human-in-the-loop
• Approaches for piloting and rolling out agentic code generation in your team

Geared To

• Data science and analytics managers
• ML engineering leads and player-coaches
• Technical individual contributors newer to agentic AI tooling
• BI/analytics professionals seeking practical productivity gains

Pre-requisites

Basic familiarity with Python is helpful but not required. No advanced coding or AI expertise needed.

Laptop Setup

Students must bring their laptops to class

Note on Corporate Laptops:

This course requires installation of Cursor desktop workspace as well as the ability to download data and code files. If your corporate laptop prevents these activities, we recommend you bring and use a personal device instead.

System Requirements:

Windows PC or Mac with:

• A modern browser
• Desktop version of Cursor code editor installed (https://cursor.com/download).
• Cursor Pro plan strongly recommended for full agent and Composer usage during hands-on labs. (A 14-day free trial of Pro is available. If relying on the free trial, do not activate it until the week before class.)

Setup:

Instructions will be emailed to registrants prior to the event to prepare your laptop before the conference.

There is no time allotted in class for laptop preparation.

* Enrollment is limited to 34 attendees.