Speakers

Yaacov is a software engineer at Red Hat, he is a long time contributor to free software projects, volunteer at the Nitzanim project, and like cats.

Haim Michael started coding when he was 8 years old. During the years 2001 – 2007, Haim led the development of more than 200 applications and games for mobile telephones, together with their complementary server-side applications. Haim focuses on programming languages, and his rich knowledge and experience in Java programming span more than 25 years. Haim is a PHP Zend Certified Engineer, OMG-Certified UML Professional, Certified Java Professional, and a Certified Java EE Web Components Developer. In addition, Haim Michael holds an MBA (cum-laude) from Tel Aviv University.

Tech Leader, Head of Backend Cloud Gilda at Check Point, and Community Leader of Node.js-IL. With extensive experience in backend development and cloud technologies, Oren specializes in cybersecurity and education. He combines technical expertise with a passion for fostering collaboration and innovation. Beyond his professional work, Oren mentors aspiring developers through the Magshimim Program, helping shape the next generation of tech professionals in Israel.

Former hardware hacker turned Python enthusiast, I’ve worked as a programmable hardware engineer and security researcher. Today, I’m a software engineering team lead at the Hexagate team in Chainalysis, developing a real-time high-scale system that’s based on a distributed micro-service architecture.

I'm a backend developer with over six years of experience, passionate about the startup world and the challenges that come with its rapid changes. A few months ago, I founded TechGym, a program for seniors, with the goal of creating weekly sessions to stay technology fit.

Tsvi Mostovicz is a senior verification engineer who enjoys writing Python that's both practical and expressive. He maintains the Jewish calendar integration in Home Assistant, provides syntax support for the Specman language, and enjoys exploring Python features that make code cleaner and more maintainable.

A co-founder and CEO of AutoKitteh. Prior to that, he had been leading product management for cyber security and telecommunication companies. He earned his Ph.D. in computer science from Tel-Aviv University in the field of computer networks.

Data Science and Engineering Team Lead @ LSports, Lecturer at the Data Analytics program @ Hebrew University and WiDS Community manager.

Ortal Ashkenazi is a Data Scientist with a passion for solving real-world problems through data and language. She spent  four years at Gong, where she developed and evaluated natural language processing solutions that transformed complex conversations into clear, actionable insights. Prior to that, she worked as a software engineer at Algotec, building systems for medical imaging. She holds an MSc from the Technion. She is currently enjoying the richness the world has to offer while seeking her next exciting challenge.

Developer of 20Y+, fiercely hated by his cat for no apparent reason.

I'm a software engineer at Magos Systems, a company that designs and manufactures Radar for the civil sector. By education, I hold a Bachelor degree from the Technion and M.A from Tel Aviv University, both in Electrical Engineering. I've been in the tech industry for more almost two decades serving as a design engineer in various areas from hardware, through FPGA and software.

Liza Katz is a software engineer with 20+ years of experience in writing code, leading teams, and building clever AI tools with Python, search tech, and large language models.

Worked in Python, JS, Ruby, Go and more; nostalgic for Forth, Spreadsheets, Lisp Machines, Boxer. Believe in FOSS as just the starting point of wider unsolved problem of making software transparent to, and modifiable by, end users. Love interpreters that you can peek & poke at runtime. For now ignorant about AI; interested in human cognition & learning.

With 20+ years in data, ML, and GenAI, I blend academic research with real-world innovation. After a PhD focused on early GenAI work, I led GenAI initiatives at Datomize and now build tailored Small Language Models at Datawizz. I'm a founder passionate about AI for good.

I'm a **data scientist at SentinelOne**, and I'm *passionate about the power of data* to drive insights and innovation. My work centers around **machine and deep learning**. I've spent years honing my skills in **Python scientific programming**. As an organizing PyData Tel Aviv conference member, I'm dedicated to fostering **collaboration and knowledge-sharing** in the data science community. I take pride in building **Python packages** that make data workflows more streamlined and efficient. When I'm not working with data, you can find me hiking in the great outdoors or exploring the vibrant cultural scene of Tel Aviv. ChatGPT helped with phrasing this paragraph. Also, the LLM generated the last line entirely, and *it is untrue*. I do have **two daughters** and a **partner** with whom I love spending time.

Software developer and a technical lead. I take special interest in databases, web development, software design and performance tuning. More at https://hakibenita.com

Tal Sofer is a product manager at Treeverse, the company behind lakeFS, an open-source platform that delivers a git-like experience to object-storage based data lakes. Tal is a former engineering manager who led engineering teams building scalable tools for developers and started her journey at Treeverse as an R&D team lead. Tal holds a B.sc in Computer Science and Chinese studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In her free time you can find her running, cooking or brushing up on her Chinese.

Dr. Erez Waisbard - Principal Technology Researcher at CyberArk Erez Waisbard received his Ph.D. degrees in computer science from Bar-Ilan University and his M.Sc. from The Weizmann Institute of Science. He has over 25 years of industry experience in security and networks, designing and implementing systems at Lucent, Cisco, NDS and Nokia Bell Labs. He is currently a Principal Technology Researcher at CyberArk and a faculty member at the Open University, Israel in the Dept. of Mathematics and Computer Science. His research interests include cryptography, security, privacy, networked systems, and algorithms.

Yonatan Bitton, is a Principal Software Engineer at Fortinet with over 12 years of experience in software development. Passionate about tackling challenging coding problems, debugging, and exploring the intricacies of code, he strives to deeply understand the tools and technologies he uses.

Over the past 5 years at AWS ElastiCache, I’ve been responsible for performance evaluation of Redis/Valkey and serverless offerings, developing automation tools for performance qualification and monitoring. I also lead the Valkey-glide open-source initiative, focused on building the best Valkey client. This work has given me deep experience with Python, especially in high-performance and async contexts. I’ve collaborated with open-source communities on Python client libraries, and I'm passionate about pushing the boundaries of Python performance.

Shirli is a senior AI scientist at Intuit, where she brings cutting-edge innovation to life through generative models and agentic AI. Her areas of expertise span reinforcement learning, LLM training and evaluation, NLP, classical machine learning, and the design of intelligent agents. Shirli holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Technion, specializing in Reinforcement Learning, and a B.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering from Ben Gurion University.

Anat Wax is an automation developer at Red Hat, a Python enthusiast, and a lifelong maker. With a background in musicology and a passion for robotics, she enjoys building creative projects that bring code to life - often with personality, art and movement.