Eindhoven Data Community

Welcome to our next Eindhoven Data Community meetup, this time hosted at Weheat's factory in Duizel! The evening is built around one red thread that any fast-growing data organization will recognize: how do you scale self-service analytics as a company grows, without losing confidence along the way? It's a question about the choices, trade-offs, and engineering practices that keep analytics fast and trustworthy as a company outgrows asking the analytics team for everything. And to top it all off, the evening wraps up with a tour of the amazing factory facilities at Weheat!

About Weheat
Weheat is a young, innovative player in the heat pump market, founded just five years ago and rooted in high-tech manufacturing rather than the traditional HVAC industry. Based in Duizel, just outside Eindhoven, Weheat benefits from the innovative spirit of Brabant's Brainport region. There flagship product, the Blackbird, is a propane heat pump that stands out for its performance, sustainability, design and ease of use. Features such as 4G connectivity and an advanced online portal for remote diagnostics and maintenance underline our innovative approach. Through "design for manufacturing," Weheat keeps production efficient and scalable, with short lead times and direct lines to installers. There mission is to transform the way we heat our homes, delivering heat pumps that are efficient, sustainable, and easy to use.

Weheat: Scaling Analytics as Fast as We Scale the Fleet at Weheat
Every heat pump installation becomes a sensor stream waiting to be asked a question about field performance, fault patterns, install quality, COP. For a while, you answer those questions by asking the analytics department. Then the fleet grows 10× year over year, and that stops working. Self-service analytics is the obvious answer, but "self-service" means something different at every stage of a company. From a Python package to natural language question & answering. In this talk we want to highlight how Weheat scaled analytics at the pace of a fleet growing from 100 to 10K+ heat pumps, without scaling the team behind it. A look at the three reinventions of self-service, the choices and mistakes that shaped each one, and an honest provocation about what the next phase looks like.

Xebia: AI Agents for Self-Serve Data Engineering
AI-powered agents can help data engineering teams move faster, but speed is not enough! In data engineering, outputs need to be validated, reviewed, and governed before they can become trusted data pipelines. Discover how AI agents can support data engineering without becoming a black box. How can teams use AI agents, where traditional engineering practices remain non-negotiable, and how to design AI-assisted workflows that stay transparent and reliable.

Program
- 17:00 – 18:00 Food
- 18:00 – 18:10 Welcome
- 18:10 – 19:00 Kjell | Scaling Analytics as Fast as We Scale the Fleet at Weheat
- 19:00 – 19:15 Break
- 19:15 – 20:00 Eduardo & Prashant | AI Agents for Self-Serve Data Engineering
- 20:00 – 20:45 Factory tour
- 20:45 – 21:00 Drinks

About Kjell van Straaten | WeFabricate & Weheat
Kjell leads the software, data, and AI strategy and vision at WeFabricate, responsible for the connective tissue between systems, processes, and people across the organization. After a stint at Amazon's EU HQ in Luxembourg, he moved back to Eindhoven and joined WeFabricate/Weheat about four years ago to bring these disciplines to the manufacturing and energy industries, building the foundations from the ground up. His work has spanned most of the stack: PLM, ERP, and MES; machine integrations; the custom application software Weheat runs on; ICT; the data platform on Databricks; and now the further agentification of the enterprise. Central to his approach is the belief that durable platforms are built by maturing one-off solutions into reusable capabilities, and that the role of software, data, and AI is ultimately to enable the people doing the actual work. All in service of WeFabricate and Weheat's ambition to transform and disrupt the manufacturing and energy sectors.

About Eduardo Gonzalez | Machine Learning Engineer at Xebia
Eduardo is a Machine Learning Engineer with a PhD in Architecture of Information Systems and nearly a decade of professional experience in full stack development, ML/NLP, and research. Currently at Xebia Data, he specializes in developing agentic systems, MLOps solutions, and AI-based applications. His expertise spans the full technology stack, from algorithm design and model optimization to cloud infrastructure and DevOps practices. With a strong foundation in process mining, distributed systems, and data analysis, combined with proficiency in Python, JavaScript, and cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure), Eduardo is a versatile technologist who bridges research and production systems.

About Prashant Srivastava | Machine Learning Engineer at Xebia
Prashant is a Machine Learning Engineer at Xebia Data with experience in Generative AI, Data Science, MLOps, and Cloud Platforms. His work focuses on building AI systems, scalable machine learning platforms, and data workflows using services such as Google Cloud Platform, Azure, and Databricks.

Practical info
The meetup takes place at Weheat's factory, located at Wolverstraat 23 in Duizel. There's a bus from Eindhoven Centraal that drops you off right in front of the factory (bus stop Wolverstraat), or it's roughly a 20-minute drive from Eindhoven. There is ample free parking on location.

Please note: because the evening includes a tour of the production floor, all participants will be asked to sign an NDA at the entrance for the factory tour.