Big Data, Tiny Laptop

Ever wonder how you can work with "bigger than RAM" datasets on your laptop’s memory without needing a supercomputer? Join us for this in-person approachable and practical talk on modern tools reshaping how data is processed, analyzed, and presented, all from your local machine.

Javier Orraca-Deatcu will share how language-agnostic, open-source data storage and processing frameworks like Apache Parquet, Apache Arrow, DuckDB, and Polars make it possible to handle enormous data efficiently, whether you’re working with SQL, R, Python, and more. These next-gen frameworks let you process big datasets faster than ever, right on your laptop, for example, reading a 1.1 billion row, 22 column, 40GB data set on a MacBook Air in 25 milliseconds.

We'll also explore:

• Positron: A fresh, open-source coding environment purpose-built for data analysis and modeling, including all the best bells and whistles from VS Code and RStudio.
• Quarto: An open source technical publishing system similar in feel to notebooks (like Jupyter Notebooks) for creating beautiful articles, websites, slides, dashboards, and with full support for Python, R, Julia, and Observable.

This talk is perfect for data professionals, analysts, students, and curious tech enthusiasts looking to incorporate bleeding-edge open-source technologies into their toolkits - no need to be an expert. Come learn, connect, and see how you can make your data workflow more powerful without breaking the bank on hardware.

This event is a collaborative effort between Tech by the Beach, SoCal RUG, and CSULB’s Master of Science in Information Systems (MSIS).