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Data good enough for operations is not necessarily analytics-ready. Exactly one month ago I published the first episode of my Industrial Data Quality Podcast. In my opinion, a topic of critical importance that is all too often overlooked, especially with all the buzz around AI. In the most recent episode, I had the pleasure of inviting guest speaker Thomas Dhollander, co-founder of Timeseer.AI. Together we explored critical challenges in industrial time series data reliability and observability....

In this video I explain how to read data from an Airtable into a PySpark dataframe on Databricks. Airtable is a popular spreadsheet tool used at many enterprises. It offers additional features compared to other tools such as Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets

Today I published a 30 minute talk about my career in data thus far. I’ve made many mistakes along the way, but learned a tonne from them. Although I made many jumps over the years, I’m happy I always stuck around the central theme of data. Perhaps my talk can give you some inspiration if you feel stuck? Topics include: How I ended up in data after graduating in Materials Science and working in aluminium....

Welcome to my podcast! In this very first episode I introduce the topics of this podcast and explain my background in data. Follow the show About Denis Gontcharov

In this video I demonstrate how to perform data quality checks on a Delta table in Databricks using Soda Core. Soda Core is the open-source Python package developed by Soda. It can be compared to Great Expectations, but is much simpler in my opinion. I enjoy using Soda in my professional projects and will continue exploring this framework.

Resources Check out the complete code on GitHub. Browse the GX Data Doc on Azure Blob Storage. Use Case Last week I explored Soda as a data quality testing framework for my large enterprise client. This week I’m exploring a more mature alternative called Great Expectations or GX in short. GX generates neat HTML reports called Data Docs that give an overview of your data quality test results. The client wants to share these reports with the team - but not with the world!...

Use Case For my current engagement I’m tasked with developing an automated data quality framework for a large industrial enterprise in the renewable energy sector. The client has over a hundred independent SCADA systems from various vendors gathering energy production data. All this data has to flow in one central repository to be analyzed with Databricks. The client is obligated to ensure high data quality for contractual reporting to external parties....

I often work from WeWork, which is a public co-working space with a shared WIFI-network. Securing my connection For security and privacy reasons, I therefore work behind a VPN. I purchased an AirPVN subscription and configured it as an OpenVPN connection in NetworkManager1: NetworkManager’s terminal user interface nmtui This way, even if I’m working from Prague, my location will always be shown as Belgium2. This was important because my current enterprise client’s IT-security team kept receiving alarms that my location was changing all over Europe....

In this episode of the Smart Metals Podcast Denis and I, dive into the topic of transferring shop floor data to the cloud and leveraging AI for predictive maintenance and other use-cases in the metals industry. We discuss essential components like the Unified Namespace (UNS) and Data-Centric AI, highlighting why smaller manufacturers shouldn’t shy away from cloud technology. We also break down common misconceptions about AI, particularly for SMBs, and explore the benefits of cloud services....

This week at Smart Metals Podcast, we, the hosts Denis Gontcharov and Luke van Enkhuizen, had a fascinating conversation about the future of factory connectivity with Russ Waddell, an expert in industrial connectivity. We explored the challenges of integrating manufacturing systems, the importance of cultural and technological shifts, and how to leverage AI and data science to unlock the full potential of manufacturing processes. We delved deeper into topics like the evolution of industrial connectivity, unified namespaces, and strategies for starting your digital transformation journey....