In this WeAreDevelopers World Congress 2024 recap article, we look back at Francesco Ciulla's fantastic session where he created an AI-powered app using Rust and Docker in order to demonstrate how simple it is to translate speech, live.

A Problem to Solve

Francesco began the session by sharing how he came up with the idea for his presentation. As an Italian speaker presenting in English to an audience in Berlin, he saw it as the perfect opportunity to experiment with live translations. He explained that the concept for the app wasn’t fully clear at first, but as the idea evolved, it became a fascinating project—an app designed to translate live streams from foreign languages into his native Italian in real-time, allowing instant understanding across language barriers.

The Problem and the Idea

The challenge that Francesco wanted to tackle was understanding live streams in real-time. The solution involved building an app to translate spoken content into the desired language, pushing Francesco to utilise cutting-edge tools.

Introducing Rust and Docker

Rust is a compiled programming language renowned for its safety, concurrency, and performance. Francesco highlighted Rust's efficient memory management and lack of a garbage collector, features that may go some way to explaining how it became the fastest growing programming language in the Stack Overflow 2024 Developer Survey.

Francesco introduced Rust, highlighting its speed and power comparable to C++, while emphasizing its superior developer experience, making it ideal for building robust applications. He then transitioned to Docker, explaining its role in constructing, deploying, and running applications seamlessly. He clarified the difference between containers and images within Docker's client-server architecture and discussed how Docker simplifies development by allowing multiple programming languages and database versions to coexist on a single machine, making it easier to manage complex environments.

Building the App: Code and Functionality

Francesco guided the audience through the structure of a Rust project and the organization within essential files and dependencies.

Live Demonstration and Surprises

The live demonstration showcased the app's capabilities. Despite its simple appearance, the app's strength lay in its real-time translation functionality. The session was engaging, illustrating practical applications of Rust and Docker, with Francesco speaking Italian on stage as a live test of the app. The potential is huge for a tool like this, and this fascinating demo shows the way that these tools can increase inclusiveness particularly when communicating to audiences from around the globe.

Conclusion and Future Prospects

By leveraging Rust and Docker, Francesco creatively tackled his live-stream translation challenge. The project, while not production-ready, offers a solid foundation and sparked inspiration among attendees.

Be sure to check our Watch section if you'd like to watch Francesco's session (and over 500 others from the World Congress) and keep an eye out for lots more amazing content.