About me

Updated by Ruben Berenguel on March 19, 2023

Welcome! I’m Ruben Berenguel, the mind behind the writing here at mostlymaths.net. I have a PhD in Mathematics and work as a Site Reliability Engineer (Software Engineer) in Google Zurich. All the writing here represents (and has always represented unless explicitly stated in the post) my own views.

I have a varied set of interests, that range from reliability and data engineering, management (my previous job) to bespoke shoemaking (a previous job). It’s a wide enough area to cover many subjects.

You can reach me via:

Twitter
LinkedIn
By email to ruben at this domain

You can find code I have written or contributed to, and slides for talks I have given on github.

You can subscribe to my newsletter, where I post links to interesting articles in the areas of personal development and learning, programming, reliability, data engineering and miscellanea. You can read previous editions online on this tag.

You can explore some of my interests by checking the interactive D3 sitemap of this site (in beta).

If you are interested in what technologies, fonts, etc are used in this blog you can read the details here.

I have three research publications you may not be interested in:

Ruben Berenguel, Ernest Fontich. Normal Forms and Sternberg Conjugation Theorems for Infinite Dimensional Coupled Map Lattices J. Dyn. Diff. Equat., 2021. (preprint available)
Ruben Berenguel, Ernest Fontich. Invariant Objects on Lattice Systems with Decaying Interactions Extended Abstracts Spring 2018, 137–145, 2019.
Ruben Berenguel, Núria Fagella. An entire transcendental family with a persistent Siegel disc J. Difference Equ. Appl, 16(5-6):523–553, 2010 (preprint available).

Talks

2021

Nov. - Python Barcelona: Mapping a developer organisation

At Map Camp Use Cases Edition
Video available here

Talk I gave with David Arcos (@dzpm) about using Wardley Maps to improve planning for a developer organisation, in our case, Python Barcelona.

May. - Keeping identity graphs in sync with Apache Spark

At Data+AI Summit 2021
Video available here

In this talk I explain how Hybrid Theory leverages Spark and GraphFrames to construct and maintain a 2000 million node identity graph with minimal computational cost.

Apr. - Keeping identity graphs in sync with Apache Spark

At Data Love 2021
Video available here

Same abstract as above.

2020

Jul. - Commoditisation and Programming Languages

At Wardley Maps BarCamp (Online)
Video available here

An exploration of what a commodity can be in the landscape of developers and programming languages.

Jun. - Internals of Speeding Up PySpark with Arrow

At DataXDays (Online)
Video available here

An updated version of my talk at Spark+AI Summit last year.

2019

Nov. - PySpark Workshop

At PyDay Barcelona
Video available here

An introductory workshop with Jupyter Notebooks on how Spark works and the basics of PySpark.

Oct. - Internals of Speeding Up PySpark with Arrow

At Spark+AI Summit Europe
Video available here

A dive into the details of how PySpark and Spark communicate, and the improvements Apache Arrow brings to this for Python developers.

May. - Mapping as a Tool for Thought

At SoCraTesUK

A light introduction to Wardley Mapping, and how conceptually mapping can be used for problem solving.

May. - Formally Verifying Complex Systems Using TLA+

At SoCraTesUK

I split a session with Yvan Phelizot for people interested in formal verification. I introduced TLA+ with the slides from last year’s Scala Exchange and showed some examples of Alloy and he talked about proves in Coq.