

Solving Scala's Build Problem with the Mill Build Tool
Solving Scala's Build Problem with the Mill Build Tool By Li Haoyi
Mill is a Scala build tool that improves upon every aspect of the venerable SBT toolchain: more performant, easier to understand, and scalable to larger codebases. Unlike most build tools, Mill makes build configuration easy: easier to write, easier to navigate, and easier to understand. This talk will explore how Mill works, demonstrate its advantages over SBT in a live-coding setting, and dive into the novel techniques that a modern build tool uses to improve upon older build tools of years and decades past.
About Li Haoyi
Li Haoyi graduated from MIT with a degree in Computer Science and Engineering, since then has built core infrastructure for high-growth companies like Dropbox and Databricks, and has been a major contributor to the open source community. Author of the "com-lihaoyi" suite of OSS Scala projects, these projects have over 10,000 stars on Github, and are downloaded over 20,000,000 times a month. Haoyi has deep experience in the JVM and has professionally built distributed backend systems, programming languages, high-performance web applications, and much more.
Learn more about Li Haoyi by visiting his website/blog here:
Search, Retrieval, Training, and Analytics with Modern AI Data Lake By Chang She
As AI systems become increasingly complex and data-driven, the underlying infrastructure for search, retrieval, training, and analytics has emerged as a critical bottleneck. This talk explores the next generation of AI data lakes, presenting a comprehensive approach to managing large-scale, multimodal datasets that can dramatically accelerate machine learning workflows.
Drawing from his extensive experience in working with the most cutting edge Gen AI companies, LanceDB’s CEO Cofounder Chang She will demonstrate how modern data infrastructure transforms AI development. The presentation will cover innovative techniques for efficient vector search, optimized training pipelines with dataset construction, and integrated analytics, showcasing real-world implementations from leading AI companies that highlight the potential of purpose-built data management solutions.
About Chang She
Chang She is the CEO and cofounder of LanceDB, the developer-friendly, open-source database for multi-modal AI. A serial entrepreneur, Chang has been building DS/ML tooling for nearly two decades and is one of the original contributors to the pandas library. Prior to founding LanceDB, Chang was VP of Engineering at TubiTV, where he focused on personalized recommendations and ML experimentation.
Learn more about Chang She here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/changshe/
Learn more about LanceDB here:
Agenda
5.30pm - Arrival, meet people, networking, find seat
5.55pm - Welcome to Bay Area Scala by Salar Rahmanian
6.00pm - Solving Scala's Build Problem with the Mill Build Tool By Li Haoyi
7.00pm - Search, Retrieval, Training, and Analytics with Modern AI Data Lake By Chang She
8.00pm - Event end
After the event we can continue our conversations and grab a drink at a local bar (self funded). As a suggestion https://www.vaultsteakhouse.com/piano-lounge which I believe is downstairs from event venue.
Data Council
If you're attending Data Council, you're in luck — our meetup is happening the evening right after the first day of the conference wraps up! It's the perfect way to wind down, connect with fellow data enthusiasts, and keep the conversations going.
Plus, the folks at Data Council have generously shared a discount code for our community — so if you haven't grabbed your ticket yet, now's a great time.
Buy your tickets here using promo code SCALA20 for 20% off tickets:
https://www.datacouncil.ai/bay-2025
It truly is one of the best conferences of the year so hope to see everyone there.
After, Join us after Day 1 for a fun and relaxed end to an action-packed day!
Thank You
Big Thank you to:
Our speakers
Tubi for hosting our event, you are awesome.
Everyone who attended and support our meetup group
Our friends at Data Council for the conference discount code for our community
Notes
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