tech
Benchmarking, Schema Migrations, Retrieval-Augmented Gen AI on Python & Postgres
Steam Plant - Fred Hutch Cancer Center
Join us for an exciting collaborative talk night with the [Puget Sound Python meetup](https://www.meetup.com/psppython/)! (aka PuPPy) Cross-Posted at [https://www.meetup.com/psppython/events/313614285/](https://www.meetup.com/psppython/events/313614285/) **This event starts 30 minutes earlier than usual.** Doors open at 5:30 and speakers will begin at 6:00 sharp. We have a bunch of talks planned about Postgres and Python: * **Junaid Hasan**: Benchmarking Database systems on the NYC Taxi Database * **Ivan Schneider**: Schema Evolution Automation (SEA) * **Shoumik Gandre**: Using Python Postgres for Async Rag Backfilling We're also looking forward to hearing from **Andrew Beyer**, a Senior Developer at PATH. . ===== Talks: **Junaid Hasan**: Benchmarking Database systems on the NYC Taxi Database Data science workflows on local hardware often face a “Mid-Size Data” problem: datasets between 1GB and 100GB that are too large for spreadsheets but inconvenient for distributed clusters. This study benchmarks five data management systems (PostgreSQL, SQLite, Pandas, DuckDB, Polars) on a 41-million row NYC Taxi dataset using a standard Apple M1 laptop. Our results reveal an 18,000x difference in ingestion latency between row-stores and zero-copy columnar engines. Furthermore, forensic analysis of query plans demonstrates that execution architecture (Vectorized vs. Volcano) dominates optimizer intelligence for analytical workloads. Finally, a sensitivity analysis over 20 iterations exposes significant volatility in SQLite’s query planning (σ > 400s) compared to the stability of DuckDB and PostgreSQL. . **Ivan Schneider**: Schema Evolution Automation (SEA) SEA is an ongoing project designed to take the gruntwork out of database development. Change a database field in a real Python app and you're updating six things: the model, the migration, the API, the CLI, the tests, the front-end. SEA is a CLI that automates that propagation — you describe the change in plain Engli