Episode 139:

Decoupling the Execution Engine From Python’s Pandas with Aditya Parameswaran of Ponder

May 24, 2023

This week on The Data Stack Show, Eric and Kostas chat with Aditya Parameswaran, Associate Professor at UC Berkeley & Co-Founder of Ponder. During the episode, Aditya discusses the zoo of data languages including a 101 on Pandas, why builders should be adapting to users, exploring what Ponder is solving in the data space, interesting theories on the way things should operate in the industry, and more.

Notes:

Highlights from this week’s conversation include:

  • Aditya’s background and journey in the data space (2:47)
  • What does Ponder do? (5:18)
  • 101 on Pandas and why people utilize it (6:42)
  • The challenge of translating Pandas to a big data platform (16:11)
  • Data Warehouses and ML workflows (21:27)
  • The differences in the “zoo” of data languages (26:56)
  • Why do ML and data engineering have to be so different in languages? (34:39)
  • Builders should be adapting to the users and not the other way around (39:32)
  • Will we see a singular data interface in the future? (46:19)
  • Aditya’s most surprising discovery in his research (50:40)
  • Final thoughts and takeaways (53:18)

Read more of Aditya’s work:

The Data Stack Show is a weekly podcast powered by RudderStack, the CDP for developers. Each week we’ll talk to data engineers, analysts, and data scientists about their experience around building and maintaining data infrastructure, delivering data and data products, and driving better outcomes across their businesses with data.

RudderStack helps businesses make the most out of their customer data while ensuring data privacy and security. To learn more about RudderStack visit rudderstack.com.