Engineering LLMs: Data pipelines, regulations, and reality

⚠️ NOTE: to ensure your spot at the meetup, please register via the Kickstart AI event page. Registration via this Meetup page is not valid.

We're super excited for our first meetup of 2026, we're back in Amsterdam, and this time at House of Watt powered by Kickstart AI, on Thursday 29 January!

This edition will be extra interesting, since it will be about Engineering LLMs: Data pipelines, regulations, and reality.

Training a foundational LLM from the ground up is an enormous engineering challenge. Doing it in a way that is transparent, inclusive, and compliant with the EU AI Act makes that challenge even greater. In our January technical meetup, we take a close look at the practical realities of building and operating LLMs.


This time, in collaboration with the PyData community we have curated two complementary perspectives that cover the full lifecycle of AI engineering: training a massive sovereign model from scratch and architecting privacy-first environments for self-hosted LLMs.

From curating massive datasets for training to architecting governance for self-hosted models, our speakers for this evening will tackle the realities of privacy and compliance.

Is this for you?
This meetup is aimed at professionals working hands-on with data and AI. You’ll find the sessions especially relevant if you are a:

• ML Engineer or Data Scientist interested in what it actually takes to train an LLM from scratch, including data pipelines, training infrastructure, and evaluation.
• System Architect or DevOps Engineer interested in the infrastructure required to support "bring your own model" workflows and self-hosted AI solutions.
• Tech Lead or CTO assessing how to deploy high-performance AI systems while meeting requirements such as the EU AI Act and GDPR.
• Professional interested in Sovereign AI, specifically how we can build transparent, inclusive models that reflect Dutch language and culture.

Excited as well?! We'd love to welcome you for a evening full of knowledge sharing, demos and of course great conversations, networking, and above all a fun evening with the PyData community!

Agenda

• 18:00 - 18:30: Welcome and drinks!
• 18:30 - 18:35: Kickstart AI intro
• 18:35 - 19:15: Talk 1 - GPT-NL: Developing a Dutch LLM from scratch
• 19:15 - 19:30: Break
• 19:30 - 20:10: Talk 2 - Bring your own LLM: building GitLab Duo for privacy-first environments
• 20:10 - 21:00: Networking / drinks

Talk 1 : GPT-NL: Developing a Dutch LLM from scratch by Julio de Oliveira Filho and Alexandru Turcu

GPT-NL will be a language model for Dutch language and culture. It will be transparent, inclusive, and compliant with Dutch and European values, with a platform where we can openly communicate about data and development. GPT-NL is an initiative of TNO, SURF, and NFI. As the training for the GPT-NL model approaches its end, this talk will share the experience and challenges of training a major LLM model from scratch. Julio and Alexandru will bring insights from their development pipeline, with details on their data curation pipeline and training framework. The session will also explore real-world applications they envision for the model and discuss how the consortium plans to responsibly disseminate GPT-NL within Dutch society.

Julio de Oliveira Filho does research, design, and engineer the next generation of intelligent autonomous systems—spanning robotics, quantum networks, IoT sensor systems, automotive technologies, and modern Defense applications. As the leading architect of GPT-NL, the first Dutch-English large language model trained fully from scratch, and one of the creators of NetSquid, the world’s most widely used quantum network simulator, I thrive at the intersection of advanced AI, complex systems, and cutting-edge engineering. My work focuses on developing adaptive, distributed, embedded systems through rigorous model-driven engineering, machine learning, and high-impact automation tooling. I’m passionate about elevating AI engineering into a mature discipline—where autonomous systems are not only powerful, but reliable, safe, and explainable by design.

Alexandru Turcu is an AI Engineer leveraging LLMs and ML to drive innovation across research. Recent MSc graduate from the University of Amsterdam, currently at TNO working on cutting-edge AI solutions. Skilled in Python, PyTorch, NLP, and transformer models, with a passion for applying AI to solve complex, real-world challenges.

Talk 2 : Bring your own LLM: building GitLab Duo for privacy-first environments by Eduardo Bonet

Increasingly more powerful Open Source models allow users the possibility of hosting their own LLMs, but often tools are not there to make use of these models. We are sharing in this talk a few lessons GitLab learned from developing GitLab Duo Self-hosted, a privacy oriented model-agnostic offering of GitLab Duo, including architecture, the difficulties and benefits of evaluation, and governance controls.

Eduardo Bonet is a proud generalist. Since 2021 building MLOps features at GitLab as a Software Engineer. Previously Data Scientist, ML Engineer, Android Engineer. Brazilian, almost a decade in the Netherlands, still can't accept cheese sandwiches as lunch, but will bike on snow.

Directions
The venue for this meetup is House of Watt (James Wattstraat 73, 1097 DL Amsterdam).