PuPPy & Seattle Postgres Python Talk Night at Fred Hutch

Join us for an exciting collaborative talk night with Seattle Postgres at the Fred Hutch Steam Plant!

Agenda:

5:30-6pm: Doors open/networking
6-6:10pm: Opening remarks
6:10-6:35pm: Talk #1
6:35-6:50pm: Intermission
6:50-7:05pm: Lightning talk #1
7:05-7:20pm: Lightning talk #2
7:20-7:35pm: Lightning talk #3
7:35pm-8pm: Networking
After party to follow at TBD

What we'll do:

This event will feature the following presentations:

Talk #1: TBD
Speaker: Andrew Beyer
Description: TBD
Bio: TBD

Lightning talk #1: Benchmarking Database systems on the NYC Taxi Database
Speaker: Junaid Hasan
Description: Data science workflows on local hardware often face a “Mid-Size Data” problem: datasets between 1GB and 100GB that are too large for spreadsheets but inconvenient for distributed clusters. This study benchmarks five data management systems (PostgreSQL, SQLite, Pandas, DuckDB, Polars) on a 41-million row NYC Taxi dataset using a standard Apple M1 laptop. Our results reveal an 18,000x difference in ingestion latency between row-stores and zero-copy columnar engines. Furthermore, forensic analysis of query plans demonstrates that execution architecture (Vectorized vs. Volcano) dominates optimizer intelligence for analytical workloads. Finally, a sensitivity analysis over 20 iterations exposes significant volatility in SQLite’s query planning (σ > 400s) compared to the stability of DuckDB and PostgreSQL.
Bio: I am Junaid Hasan, I'm a Math and Data Science PhD student at UW Seattle, graduating this June. Most of my day-to-day research focuses on AI interpretability and computational number theory, and managing all the data got me interested in benchmarking databases. Before this, I spent some time working on cryptography and algebraic geometry. I'm currently looking for roles in the Seattle area after graduation. Outside of work, I'm usually hiking or watching soccer, cricket, and F1.

Lightning Talk #2: Schema Evolution Automation (SEA)
Speaker: Ivan Schneider
Description: SEA is an ongoing project designed to take the gruntwork out of database development. Change a database field in a real Python app and you're updating six things: the model, the migration, the API, the CLI, the tests, the front-end. SEA is a CLI that automates that propagation — you describe the change in plain English, it classifies the intent, flags what's dangerous, and generates the code. The immediate goal for the project is to make schema changes fast enough that they don't interrupt your flow. The reach goal is a SEA change: extend that to downstream consumers so the entire propagation chain, from database to front-end to API contracts, is something SEA coordinates rather than something you track manually.
Bio: Ivan Schneider is the creator of Factum Erit, a conversational task management platform that connects AI (Claude) to a structured database via MCP — so tasks captured in natural language land in real state, not just a chat window. He started his career as a programmer/analyst (Carnegie Mellon, BS Information and Decision Systems), spent 20 years covering financial technology as an editor and analyst, and returned to building software in 2024 with AI-augmented development.

Lightning Talk #3: Using Python Postgres for Async Rag Backfilling
Speaker: Shoumik Gandre
Description: I'll be discussing this repository where I collaborated to create an easy to deploy rag which uses Postgres to track the status of the async request (scheduled in rabbitmq waiting to be stored in vector database) https://github.com/Gauri-Khanolkar1/rag-in-a-box
Bio: TBD

What to bring:

Since this is a talk format meetup, you don't need a computer.

All attendees are required to abide by the PuPPy Code of Conduct, you can read the Code of Conduct here: https://www.pspython.com/code-of-conduct/

Building access:
Please enter the Steam Plant at the entrance on Eastlake Ave E.

Parking:
TBD

Transit:
The Steam plant is served by the route 70 with stops on Fairview Ave and Yale Ave and is within walking distance of the terminus of the South Lake union Streetcar at Fairview and Campus Drive.