Berlin Buzzwords

This year, I'll be volunteering at Berlin Buzzwords. I'm looking forward to catching up with friends and getting new thoughts about and possibilities for large-scale data processing and search.

Sessions I'm looking forward to

•  Advanced Retrieval-Augmented Generation Techniques, Zain Hasan
  Zain will discuss advanced retrieval augmented generation(RAG) techniques such as hybrid search, re-ranking, query generation, and semantic text chunking.

• Improve LLM-based Applications with Fallback Mechanisms, Bilge Yücel
  This session explores different fallback strategies for RAG applications, enabling you to build robust LLM systems for various scenarios, using open source LLM framework Haystack.

• A Practical and Steadfast Approach Toward Semantic Search, Kentaro Takiguchi
  Exploring and enhancing lexical search and semantic search in practical scenarios, we assess various optimization methods and their varied effects on metrics. The focus is on the integration of semantic search into an established lexical search system, addressing potential challenges and pitfalls.

• End-to-End Encryption for Streaming Data Pipelines, Hans-Peter Grahsl
  This talk explains what it takes to bring end-to-end encryption to streaming data pipelines built on top of Apache Kafka and Flink. A live demo illustrates how to encrypt/decrypt sensitive payload fields by means of single message transformations and user-defined functions without any custom code.

• Hybrid Search with Apache Solr Reciprocal Rank Fusion, Alessandro Benedetti
  Hybrid search combines traditional keyword-based search with vector-based search. The result sets are merged and a single ranked list of items is returned. Reciprocal Rank Fusion is one of the most popular algorithms for such a task. This talk presents the work done to bring it to Apache Solr.

• Fixin the Hard Bits of Event Processing with Restate & Kafka, Stephan Ewen
  Discover Restate: A new tool for event-driven apps, blending Kafka's power with simplicity for handling complex transactions, async tasks, and microservices. Dive into its unique approach to tackle scalability, resilience, debuggability, and state management challenges in our session.