C++ and Rust : Shared Minds, Bridging Worlds

We have another special event in the summer. We're joining forces, again, with Rust London to put on a crossover event.

We'll have talks on C++ and Rust, with an eye to what each community can learn from the other. So even if you don't think you're interested in Rust, you'll get something out of this evening.

Pizzas are provided by Realm

As usual, we'll kick off at 19:00 and run to about 21:00.

18:30 Doors open

19:00 "Intro and news" - Phil Nash & Ernest Kissiedu

19:10 "Async C++/Rust Interoperability" - Aida Getoeva

Bringing asynchronous C++ code to the safe grounds of Rust can be scary. Segmentation faults and memory leaks can make their way across the bridge and hide under the safe wrapper-covers. So let us delve into the inner workings of asynchronous interaction and ensure safe C++/Rust interoperability using the CXX library.

19:55 break

20:15 "Writing "Less Slow" C++" - Ash Vardanian

This talk focuses on identifying and addressing common inefficiencies in C++ code, with practical examples from the less_slow—cpp microbenchmarks. Learn which STL components to replace first for better performance and which design patterns—like dynamic polymorphism or specific uses of C++20 coroutines—are best avoided.

21:00 Finish, then reconvene somewhere nearby to continue...

---
About the speakers:

Ash is the founder of Unum, an advanced computing company developing primarily open-source infrastructure that is used by many modern database companies, as well as frontier AI labs and governments around the globe. With a background in Astrophysics, his current work focuses on the intersection of Theoretical Computer Science, High-Performance Computing, and AI Systems Design, with a special interest in large-scale Open Science projects.

Aida, formerly at Meta, started with a purely C/C++ background, but was fortunate enough to be part of the team that built the first large Rust project at Meta and a state-of-the-art source control server. She has encountered "impossible" runtime issues and debugged segfaults caused by implementing async C++/Rust FFI, and even written old-school futures. Despite all this, she still loves Rust!
When not coding, Aida likes to relieve stress by practising longsword fencing and hiking.