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Model Mondays is a weekly series that combines a 30-minute livestream (Monday at 1:30pm ET) with a 30-minute AMA (Fridays at 1:30pm ET) to build your AI model IQ.

  1. 5-min Highlights - recaps the top 5 news items from last week
  2. 15-min Spotlights - a deep-dive with a subject matter expert
  3. 30-min AMAs - open-ended discussion, Q&A with the expert

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This week we put the spotlight on Advanced Reasoning with subject matter expert Marlene Mhangami - and covered the top 5 model-related news from Azure AI Foundry - in our #ModelMondays livestream. Browse the slides below - then join us Friday for Q&A with Marlene:

πŸ‘‰πŸ½πŸ‘‰πŸ½ Register for the AMA on our Azure AI Foundry Discord
πŸ‘‰πŸ½πŸ‘‰πŸ½ Post Your Questions on our Discussion Forum

Want to get a sense for what Reasoning models are, what advanced reasoning covers? Read on.


What are Reasoning models?

Reasoning models are a new category of Large Language Models that are trained (with large-scale reinforcement learning) to think deeply before they respond. These reasoning abilities are achieved by a combination of techniques including chain-of-thought, self-consistency, and deliberative alignment.

Reasoning models are designed to tackle hard problems involving logic, stratgegy, complex reasoning and multi-step planning. They are particularly effective in STEM fields (math, science, coding) where they can outperform popular general-purpose models in competitive benchmarks.

Want an introduction to reasoning models? Watch this episode from Season 1 where Jennifer Marsman covers the OpenAI o-series of reasoning models.

Advanced Reasoning Scenario

While the previous talk gives you a sense for what reasoning models are with a real-world use case, this advanced reasoning episode takes it a step further with an end-to-end sample and workshop that teaches you how to build a Deep Researcher - a research assistant that can conduct comprehensive web research, analyze & synthesize the information, and present its findings in a report.

The solution uses the DeepSeek-R1 reasoning model with the Tabily web search API, and the LangGraph framework to perform iterative cycles of research before delivering the final result. Watch the livestream of the episode below:


Reasoning Lab For Beginners

Want to get hands-on experience with reasoning models and learn how they differ from general-purpose models? Try this self-guided lab from Microsoft Build 2025 which explores the OpenAI o-series of reasoning models with hands-on exercises!

πŸ‘‰πŸ½πŸ‘‰πŸ½ Explore The Lab on GitHub
πŸ‘‰πŸ½πŸ‘‰πŸ½ Browse The Presentation on SpeakerDeck

The storyboard summarizes what the lab covers.

Lab333


Build Your Model IQ!

Model Mondays Season 2 is currently scheduled to go from June to September, covering the 12 key topics shown below.

πŸ‘‰πŸ½πŸ‘‰πŸ½ Register for Upcoming Livestreams to get reminders
πŸ‘‰πŸ½πŸ‘‰πŸ½ Register for Upcoming AMAs to get reminders

Season 2


This Week In Model Mondays

Want an easy way to catch up on all the news? Check out complete blog series written by our resident student blogger here on Tech Community!

You can also catch her recap for this week, right here on dev.to:


Continue Building Model IQ

Check out the upcoming episodes and register for livestreams & AMA:

πŸ‘‰πŸ½πŸ‘‰πŸ½ Register for Livestreams to get reminders
πŸ‘‰πŸ½πŸ‘‰πŸ½ Register for AMAs to get reminders

Season 2