From First Love to Future Trends: Linear Regression & LLM Evaluation

📍 Location: Plenitude, Via Lorenzini 4, Milano
🕕 Time: 18:30

### Agenda

• 18:30 – Doors open
• 19:00 – Welcome from PyData Milano
• 19:10 – Talk 1: Speeding up Linear Regression with Smarter Algorithms – Alexander Fischer (Trivago, Data Scientist)
• 19:50 – Talk 2: Beyond the Hype: Building and Evaluating Robust RAG Systems – Fabio Lipreri (Xtream, AI Engineer)
• 20:30 – Aperitivo 🍹 (offered by Plenitude)
• 21:00 – Optional dinner 🍽️

### Talk Details

#### Speeding up Linear Regression with Smarter Algorithms

Linear Regression is the workhorse of statistics and data science. Some data scientists even argue that "linear regression is all you need."
In this talk, we will introduce three ways to accelerate regression models using smarter algorithms, with practical examples from scikit-learn & fastreg (sparse solvers), pyfixest (Frisch-Waugh-Lovell), and duckreg (regression compression via DuckDB).

#### Beyond the Hype: Building and Evaluating Robust RAG Systems

In a landscape where new variations of Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems emerge almost daily, it's easy to get swept up in the latest trends and innovations. However, the true power of RAG systems lies not in chasing the hype but in understanding their fundamental principles and knowing how to effectively evaluate their performance. This talk is designed to ground participants in the foundational concepts of building a RAG system while guiding them toward more advanced techniques, such as hybrid search methods, and evaluate them with robust metrics.

🔗 RSVP now and join the PyData Milano community!