DataTalks.Club

In this talk, Gustaf Gyllensporre, Senior AI Engineer and PropTech Founder, shares his unconventional career journey from selling Miami real estate to shipping production AI systems. We explore the tactical steps for breaking into the tech space as a self taught developer and how to successfully bypass traditional industry gatekeepers. Links:-  @PropTechFounder  - https://youtu.be/leXRiJ5TuQo?si=y...

In this talk, Aleksandr Kim, Senior Data Scientist at Intuit, shares his expertise in building AI-powered features in production from fine-tuning BERT models in cyber security to engineering scalable data verification platforms. We explore the reality of moving beyond messy research code to build observable, cost-effective AI agents and automated pipelines. You’ll learn about:- Translating traditi...

In this talk, Ivan, Senior Engineering Manager at Personio, shares his deep expertise in the data and software space from his early days building traditional NLP systems and massive ETL pipelines to his current leadership role in Identity and Access Management (IAM). We explore the rapid evolution of Generative AI, the reality of managing AI agents in production, and the emerging field of context...

The conference highlighted a critical shift in the technology and engineering ecosystem, moving away from passive implementations toward autonomous AI systems, collaborative communities, and robust engineering guardrails. Discussions centered on the practical architecture required to scale AI safely, the evolution of modern developer tools, and the importance of cross-border technical collaboratio...

In this talk, Nikita, Senior Applied Data Scientist at the AWS Generative AI Innovation Center, shares his expertise in bringing enterprise artificial intelligence out of the sandbox—from his early days optimizing traditional machine learning models like gradient boosting to deploying advanced production-grade GenAI pipelines. We explore what it really takes to move generative AI systems from pilo...

In this talk, Mariano, Lead Data Scientist and ML Engineer at OLX, shares his journey building high-impact AI media solutions. We explore the transition from traditional e-commerce models to Generative AI and Agentic tools, focusing on how to take AI products from a notebook to full-scale production. You’ll learn about: How to master the full product cycle from requirement gathering to deployment....

At Data Makers Fest, a recurring theme was the tension between GenAI hype and production reality. Speakers stressed that classical ML, MLOps, evaluation, data quality, and governance remain essential—especially in regulated sectors like fintech and healthcare. Another strong theme was inclusivity: building AI that serves smaller languages, diverse communities, and practitioners beyond the English-...

In this talk, Tatiana, Staff Software Engineer at LinkedIn, shares her journey from academic physics to becoming a Kaggle Master and winning the Sound Demixing Challenge. We explore how to use machine learning competitions as a strategic tool to build a high-impact career and bridge the gap between theory and production. You’ll learn about: Turning competition code into professional GitHub repos....

At PyConDE 2026, community leaders, educators, and Python tooling builders explored how Python is evolving in the age of AI — and why human connection, mentorship, and strong fundamentals matter more than ever. Jessica Greene (Ecosia / PyLadies Berlin) spoke about her work as a machine learning engineer and community organizer. She highlighted PyLadies Berlin’s role in creating inclusive spaces fo...

In this talk, Leonid Kholkine, Head of Research & Development at Their Data and Co-founder of Data Makers Fest, shares his unique journey from leading international student organizations to building one of Europe’s premier data conferences. We explore the behind-the-scenes reality of community building, the evolution of the Portuguese data scene, and the technical challenges of managing AI obs...

In this talk, Nasser Qadri, AI Engineering Manager at Google, shares his unique career journey—from a PhD in Politics and International Relations to leading high-stakes AI initiatives. We explore the evolution of the AI Engineer role, the critical intersection of social science and machine learning, and how to build robust agentic workflows with engineering rigor. You’ll learn about:- Moving beyon...

In this talk, Slawomir Tulski, Data Leadership Consultant and former Meta Data Engineering Manager, shares his ten-year journey through the evolution of data systems—from researching glaciers in Poland to scaling the ads ranking infrastructure at one of the world's largest tech giants. We explore the shifting definition of the Data Engineer, the "Actionable Data" philosophy, and how...

In this talk, Ruslan Shchuchkin, GenAI Engineer at Finance Guru, shares his unique career evolution from business administration and account management to building production-grade generative AI systems. We explore the transition from traditional Data Science to the modern AI Engineer role, defined by the "universal soldier" mindset and the ability to ship end-to-end products. You’ll lea...

In this episode Revathy Ramalingam, Senior Software Engineer and AI Engineer at a healthcare startup, shares her inspiring personal journey from over nine years in telecom software architecture to successfully transitioning back into the industry after a seven-year career break. We explore the evolution of the AI engineer role, the practical application of RAG pipelines, and the strategic use of A...

In this talk, Aditya, an experienced AI Researcher and Engineer, shares his technical evolution—from his roots in embedded systems to building complex, large-scale AI agent architectures. We explore the practical challenges of enterprise AI adoption, the shifting economics of LLMs, and the infrastructure required to deploy reliable multi-agent systems. You’ll learn about:- The ROI of Fine-Tuning:...

In this talk, Juan, Analytics Engineer and author of Fundamentals of Analytics Engineering share his professional journey from studying psychological research in Colombia to becoming one of the first analytics engineers in the Netherlands. We explore the evolution of the role, the shift toward engineering rigor in data modeling, and how the landscape of tools like dbt and Databricks is changing th...

In this episode of DataTalks. Club, Paul Iusztin, founding AI engineer and author of the LLM Engineer’s Handbook, breaks down the transition from traditional software development to production-grade AI engineering. We explore the essential skill stack for 2026, the shift from "PoC purgatory" to shipping real products, and why the future of the field belongs to the full-stack generalist....

In this talk, Rileen, a Senior Computational Biologist and Cancer Data Scientist, shares his professional journey from physics and computer science to cutting-edge cancer genomics and applied machine learning. From his early work in alternative splicing models to deep learning in medical imaging, Rileen explains how biology, data science, and AI intersect to transform cancer research. TIMECODES:00...

In this session Sofya shares her journey building a pet-tech startup that blends machine learning sensor data and canine behavior analytics. She walks through her path from early programming explorations to launching a health monitoring device designed around anomaly detection and long-term behavioral baselines. TIMECODES: 00:00 Sofya's pet tech startup with machine learning sensor data and be...

In this talk, Xia He-Bleinagel, Head of Data & Cloud at NOW GmbH, shares her remarkable journey from studying automotive engineering across Europe to leading modern data, cloud, and engineering teams in Germany. We dive into her transition from hands-on engineering to leadership, how she balanced family with career growth, and what it really takes to succeed in today’s cloud, data, and AI job...

In this talk, Anusha Akkina, co-founder of Auralytix, shares her journey from working as a Chartered Accountant and Auditor at Deloitte to building an AI-powered finance intelligence platform designed to augment, not replace, human decision-making. Together with host Alexey from DataTalks. Club, she explores how AI is transforming finance operations beyond spreadsheets—from tackling ERP limitation...

At Qdrant Conference, builders, researchers, and industry practitioners shared how vector search, retrieval infrastructure, and LLM-driven workflows are evolving across developer tooling, AI platforms, analytics teams, and modern search research. Andrey Vasnetsov (Qdrant) explained how Qdrant was born from the need to combine database-style querying with vector similarity search—something he first...

In this talk, Hugo Bowne-Anderson, an independent data and AI consultant, educator, and host of the podcasts Vanishing Gradients and High Signal, shares his journey from academic research and curriculum design at DataCamp to advising teams at Netflix, Meta, and the US Air Force. Together, we explore how to build reliable, production-ready AI systems—from prompt evaluation and dataset design to emb...

In this talk, Sebastian, a bioinformatics researcher and software engineer, shares his inspiring journey from wet lab biotechnology to computational bioinformatics. Hosted by Data Talks Club, this session explores how data science, AI, and open-source tools are transforming modern biological research — from DNA sequencing to metagenomics and protein structure prediction. You’ll learn about: - The...

In this episode, we talked with Aishwarya Jadhav, a machine learning engineer whose career has spanned Morgan Stanley, Tesla, and now Waymo. Aishwarya shares her journey from big data in finance to applied AI in self-driving, gesture understanding, and computer vision. She discusses building an AI guide dog for the visually impaired, contributing to malaria mapping in Africa, and the challenges of...