DataTalks.Club

In this episode, we talked with Ranjitha Kulkarni, a machine learning engineer with a rich career spanning Microsoft, Dropbox, and now NeuBird AI. Ranjitha shares her journey into ML and NLP, her work building recommendation systems, early AI agents, and cutting-edge LLM-powered products. She offers insights into designing reliable AI systems in the new era of generative AI and agents, and how con...

In this episode, we talked with Abouzar Abbaspour, a data engineer whose career spans software engineering in Iran, building crowd and recommendation systems at a Dutch theme park, deploying large-scale ML models at Bol.com, and now working at Tesla. Abouzar shares how he bridged diverse industries, tackled real-world data challenges, and adapted to new roles while keeping a hands-on approach to m...

In this episode, we chat with Dashel Ruiz, whose journey spans semiconductors, machine learning, and teaching. Dashel shares how he transitioned from hardware to data science, navigated complex projects in diverse industries, and now combines technical expertise with a passion for teaching. Tune in to hear insights on building a career in data, mastering new technologies, and making an impact both...

In this episode, we talk with Michael Lanham, an AI and software innovator with over two decades of experience spanning game development, fintech, oil and gas, and agricultural tech. Michael shares his journey from building neural network-based games and evolutionary algorithms to writing influential books on AI agents and deep learning. He offers insights into the evolving AI landscape, practical...

At PyData Berlin, community members and industry voices highlighted how AI and data tooling are evolving across knowledge graphs, MLOps, small-model fine-tuning, explainability, and developer advocacy. - Igor Kvachenok (Leuphana University / ProKube) combined knowledge graphs with LLMs for structured data extraction in the polymer industry, and noted how MLOps is shifting toward LLM-focused workfl...

In this episode, we talk with Daniel, an astrophysicist turned machine learning engineer and AI ambassador. Daniel shares his journey bridging astronomy and data science, how he leveraged live courses and public knowledge sharing to grow his skills, and his experiences working on cutting-edge radio astronomy projects and AI deployments. He also discusses practical advice for beginners in data and...

At Berlin Buzzwords, industry voices highlighted how search is evolving with AI and LLMs. - Kacper Łukawski (Qdrant) stressed hybrid search (semantic + keyword) as core for RAG systems and promoted efficient embedding models for smaller-scale use. - Manish Gill (ClickHouse) discussed auto-scaling OLAP databases on Kubernetes, combining infrastructure and database knowledge. - André Charton ( Klein...

In this episode, We talked with Pastor, a medical doctor who built a career in machine learning while studying medicine. Pastor shares how he balanced both fields, leveraged live courses and public sharing to grow his skills, and found opportunities through freelancing and mentoring. TIMECODES 00:00 Pastor’s background and early programming journey 06:05 Learning new tools and skills on the job wh...

Struggling with data trust issues, dashboard drama, or constant pipeline firefighting? In this deep‑dive interview, Lior Barak shows you how to shift from a reactive “fix‑it” culture to a mindful, impact‑driven practice rooted in Zen/Wabi‑Sabi principles. You’ll learn: Why 97 % of CEOs say they use data, but only 24 % call themselves data‑driven The traffic‑light dashboard pattern (green / yellow...

In this episode, we talk with Orell about his journey from electrical engineering to freelancing in data engineering. Exploring lessons from startup life, working with messy industrial data, the realities of freelancing, and how to stay up to date with new tools. Topics covered: Why Orel left a PhD and a simulation‑focused start‑up after Covid hit What he learned trying (and failing) to commercial...

Thinking about swapping your 9‑to‑5 for client work, but worried that a long German–style notice period will kill your chances?  In this live interview, seven‑year data‑freelance veteran Dimitri walks through his experience of taking his freelance career to the next level. About the Speaker: Dimitri Visnadi is an independent data consultant with a focus on data strategy. He has been consulting com...

In this podcast episode, we talked with Will Russell about From Hackathons to Developer Advocacy. About the Speaker: Will Russell is a Developer Advocate at Kestra, known for his videos on workflow orchestration. Previously, Will built open source education programs to help up and coming developers make their first contributions in open source. With a passion for developer education, Will creates...

In this podcast episode, we talked with Lavanya Gupta about Building a Strong Career in Data. About the Speaker: Lavanya is a Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) alumni of the Language Technologies Institute (LTI). She works as a Sr. AI/ML Applied Associate at JPMorgan Chase in their specialized Machine Learning Center of Excellence (MLCOE) vertical. Her latest research on long-context evaluation of...

In this podcast episode, we talked with Eddy Zulkifly about From Supply Chain Management to Digital Warehousing and FinOps About the Speaker: Eddy Zulkifly is a Staff Data Engineer at Kinaxis, building robust data platforms across Google Cloud, Azure, and AWS. With a decade of experience in data, he actively shares his expertise as a Mentor on ADPList and Teaching Assistant at Uplimit. Previously,...

In this podcast episode, we talked with Bartosz Mikulski about Data Intensive AI. About the Speaker: Bartosz is an AI and data engineer. He specializes in moving AI projects from the good-enough-for-a-demo phase to production by building a testing infrastructure and fixing the issues detected by tests. On top of that, he teaches programmers and non-programmers how to use AI. He contributed one cha...

In this podcast episode, we talked with Nemanja Radojkovic about MLOps in Corporations and Startups. About the Speaker: Nemanja Radojkovic is Senior Machine Learning Engineer at Euroclear. In this event,we’re diving into the world of MLOps, comparing life in startups versus big corporations. Joining us again is Nemanja, a seasoned machine learning engineer with experience spanning Fortune 500 comp...

In this podcast episode, we talked with Adrian Brudaru about ​the past, present and future of data engineering. About the speaker: Adrian Brudaru studied economics in Romania but soon got bored with how creative the industry was, and chose to go instead for the more factual side. He ended up in Berlin at the age of 25 and started a role as a business analyst. At the age of 30, he had enough of sta...

In this podcast episode, we talked with Alexander Guschin about launching a career off Kaggle. About the Speaker: Alexander Guschin is a Machine Learning Engineer with 10+ years of experience, a Kaggle Grandmaster ranked 5th globally, and a teacher to 100K+ students. He leads DS and SE teams and contributes to open-source ML tools. 0:00 Starting with Machine Learning: Challenges and Early Steps 13...

In this podcast episode, we talked with Andrey Cheptsov about ​The future of AI infrastructure. About the Speaker: Andrey Cheptsov is the founder and CEO of dstack, an open-source alternative to Kubernetes and Slurm, built to simplify the orchestration of AI infrastructure. Before dstack, Andrey worked at JetBrains for over a decade helping different teams make the best developer tools. During the...

In this podcast episode, we talked with Tamara Atanasoska about ​building fair AI systems. About the Speaker:​Tamara works on ML explainability, interpretability and fairness as Open Source Software Engineer at probable. She is a maintainer of fairlearn, contributor to scikit-learn and skops. Tamara has both computer science/ software engineering and a computational linguistics(NLP) background. Du...

In this podcast episode, we talked with Agita Jaunzeme about Career choices, transitions and promotions in and out of tech. About the Speaker: Agita has designed a career spanning DevOps/DataOps engineering, management, community building, education, and facilitation. She has worked on projects across corporate, startup, open source, and non-governmental sectors. Following her passion, she founded...

In this podcast episode, we talked with Isabella Bicalho about Career advice, learning, and featuring women in ML and AI. About the Speaker: Isabella is a Machine Learning Engineer and Data Scientist with three years of hands-on AI development experience. She draws upon her early computational research expertise to develop ML solutions. While contributing to open-source projects, she runs a newsle...

Reflection on an Almost Two-Year Journey of Generative AI in Industry – Maria Sukhareva ​About the speaker: ​Maria Sukhareva is a principal key expert in Artificial Intelligence in Siemens with over 15 years of experience at the forefront of generative AI technologies. Known for her keen eye for technological innovation, Maria excels at transforming cutting-edge AI research into practical, value-d...

We talked about: 00:00 DataTalks. Club intro 00:00 Large Hadron Collider and Mentorship 02:35 Career overview and transition from physics to data science 07:02 Working at the Large Hadron Collider 09:19 How particles collide and the role of detectors 11:03 Data analysis challenges in particle physics and data science similarities 13:32 Team structure at the Large Hadron Collider 20:05 Explaining t...

We talked about: 00:00 DataTalks. Club intro 02:34 Career journey and transition into MLOps 08:41 Dutch agriculture and its challenges 10:36 The concept of "technical debt" in MLOps 13:37 Trade-offs in MLOps: moving fast vs. doing things right 14:05 Building teams and the role of coordination in MLOps 16:58 Key roles in an MLOps team: evangelists and tech translators 23:01 Role of the MLOps team i...