PyData Berlin 2025 August Meetup

Welcome to the PyData Berlin August meetup!

We would like to welcome you all starting from 18:00. There will be food and drinks. The talks begin around 18.30 and the doors will close at 18:45. Make sure to arrive on time!

Please provide your first and last name for the registration because this is required for the venue's entry policy. If you cannot attend, please cancel your spot so others are able to join as the space is limited.

Host:
Google is excited to welcome you to this month's version of PyData.
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The Lineup for the evening

Talk 1: Stop Overfeeding Your AI: A Practical Guide to Context Optimization
Abstract: Ever notice how your AI interactions start strong but quickly deteriorate with complexity? We've all been there – carefully crafting detailed prompts for AI models, only to receive increasingly mediocre responses as our inputs grow longer. The conventional wisdom says "more context equals better results," but real-world evidence suggests otherwise.
In this session, I'll share discoveries from analyzing thousands of AI interactions across various domains that reveal a surprising truth: the relationship between prompt length and response quality isn't linear – it's parabolic. There's a sweet spot, and most of us are operating well beyond it.

Speaker: Archana Vaidheeswaran
Bio: Archana is a Developer's Advocate at Aleph Alpha. Prior to this, she worked as a Program Manager and Community Leader in various AI Safety and women in tech communities. She has over 8 years of experience as an AI engineer. As a Board Director at Women in Machine Learning and a fellow at Python Software Foundation, she champions responsible AI development through community-driven initiatives.

Talk 2: Mastering real-time anomaly detection
Abstract: Detecting problems as they happen is essential in today’s fast-moving, data-driven world. In this talk, you’ll learn how to build a flexible, real-time anomaly detection pipeline using Apache Kafka and Apache Flink, backed by statistical and machine learning models.
We’ll start by demystifying what "anomaly" really means - exploring the different types (point, contextual, and collective anomalies) and the difference between unintentional issues and intentional outliers like fraud or abuse.
Then, we’ll look at how anomaly detection is solved in practice: from classical statistical models like ARIMA to deep learning models like LSTM. You’ll learn how ARIMA breaks time series into AutoRegressive, Integrated, and Moving Average components - no math degree required (just a Python library, hehe)! We’ll also uncover why forgetting is a feature, not a bug, when it comes to LSTMs, and how these models learn to detect complex patterns over time.
Throughout, we’ll show how Kafka handles high-throughput streaming data and how Flink enables low-latency, stateful processing to catch issues as they emerge. You’ll leave knowing not just how these systems work, but when to use each type of model depending on your data and goals.
Whether you're monitoring system health, tracking IoT devices, or looking for fraud in transactions, this talk will give you the foundations and tools to detect the unexpected - before it becomes a problem.

Speaker: Olena Kutsenko
Bio: Olena is a Staff Developer Advocate at Confluent and a recognized expert in data streaming and analytics. With two decades of experience in software engineering, she has built mission-critical applications, led high-performing teams, and driven large-scale technology adoption at industry leaders like Nokia, HERE Technologies, AWS, and Aiven.
A passionate advocate for real-time data processing and AI-driven applications, Olena empowers developers and organizations to use the power of streaming data. She is an AWS Community Builder, a dedicated mentor, and a volunteer instructor at a nonprofit tech school, helping to shape the next generation of engineers.
As an international speaker and thought leader, Olena regularly presents at top global conferences, sharing deep technical insights and hands-on expertise. Whether through her talks, workshops, or content, she is committed to making complex technologies accessible and inspiring innovation in the developer community.

Lightning talks
There will be slots for 2-3 Lightning Talks (3-5 Minutes for each) between the two main talks.
Kindly let us know if you would like to present something :)

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