PostgreSQL Meets Django!

Dear Illinois Prairie PUG members,

We received multiple positive reviews after our July meetup, so in August, we are going to have two talks again!
If you are wondering why we are having a meetup at the end of August, it's because Djangocon.US is coming to Chicago! The event will take place on August 24-28 at Voco Downtown Chicago, and we wanted to use this opportunity to have a joint event.
If you know any Django developers who might be interested, please invite them!

We really liked Zach's presentation about pg_schema, and on August 26, we will hear from him again. He will present the talk The Database flywheel.
The second talk will be presented by Aayush Gauda:
Can PostgreSQL Reduce Repeated Quantum Computation? Caching Quantum Simulation Workloads.

Agenda

5:20 - doors open
5:30 - pizza arrives
6:00 - 6:10 - Hettie. Opening remarks
6:10- 6:40 - Zach. The Database flywheel.
6:45 - 7:15 Aayush. Can PostgreSQL Reduce Repeated Quantum Computation?
7:15 - 7:50 - Open discussion and networking
7:50 - 8:00 - Cleanup time and closing

Speaker: Zach Paden

Zach Paden is a tech lead at Symetra with experience ranging from scrappy startups and consulting to large regulated enterprises. His work spans data platform, analytics and application development where he’s seen more than his fair share of projects get bogged down or catch on fire due to their schema management practices.

Talk Title: The Database flywheel

Talk description

Devs often think a lot about how to have CICD when it comes to their application itself, but often rely on a shared dev DB to actually test code. We'll discuss how you can shift this left so that your database changes can be tested and validated BEFORE hitting any long-running instance.

Speaker: Aayush Gauba

Aayush Gauba is a researcher and open-source contributor whose work spans mathematics and physics. He serves as the Marketing Chair for DjangoCon US 2026 and organizes PyData St. Louis. He has presented at conferences including PyCon US, DjangoCon US, and PyData, and is passionate about building practical AI systems and supporting open source communities.

Talk title: Can PostgreSQL Reduce Repeated Quantum Computation? Caching Quantum Simulation Workloads.

Talk description

Quantum simulations are often computationally expensive, yet many
scientific and engineering workflows repeatedly evaluate identical or
nearly identical simulation inputs. This talk explores whether PostgreSQL can serve as a persistent caching layer for these
workloads, allowing previously computed quantum simulation results to
be reused instead of recomputed.
We’ll look at how PostgreSQL features such as indexing, JSONB,
generated columns, and efficient query planning can be leveraged to
identify cache hits, discuss the tradeoffs between storage and
computation, and examine scenarios where database-backed caching
provides meaningful performance improvements. The session will also
cover cache invalidation strategies, reproducibility considerations,
and practical system design for integrating PostgreSQL into scientific
computing pipelines.
The talk is intended for developers, database practitioners, and
researchers interested in using PostgreSQL beyond traditional
transactional workloads, demonstrating how it can play a role in
accelerating computational research.

Notes about our new venue.

We are delighted to have an independent venue for the first time since I am hosting the meetups, and hope that this will be our permanent home. And as you all know, with more freedom comes more responsibilities.

- You will notice the change in the RSVP form.
- We are thankful to our hosts and promise to be responsible.
- We comply with the PostgreSQL Code of Conduct.
- We do not want to waste food, so please indicate your dietary preferences.
- We will not close RSVPs on the morning of the meetup, but please do your best to RSVP in advance so we can order the appropriate amount of food and drinks.
- We have space for older kids to hang out, and we have on-site childcare. If you indicate on your RSVP that you are planning to use childcare, we will contact you closer to the event with more information.

This meetup will be hybrid. The livestream start time is at 6 PM

Thank you, and I look forward to seeing you all at Chicago Innovations 1 W.Monroe!

Hettie Dombrovskaya
Illinois Prarier PUG Organizer