CAIML Meetup
Cologne AI ML
The “Cologne AI Machine Learning Meetup” (CAIML) is the leading deep tech community in the NRW Rhineland region and regularly organises meetups at various venues across Cologne. The events feature excellent specialist talks and practical tech demos, including the underlying source code. The meetup brings together academics and researchers, professional software developers and industry experts, as well as interim managers, to share expertise and network.
Venue
The CAIML Meetup no. 44 will take place on September 8, at TH Cologne, Technology Arts Science, Campus Südstadt Ubierring 48:
Agenda
What’s coming up in our next Cologne AI Machine Learning meetup:
First Session
“Talk to Your Data: A Semantic-Layer Architecture for Reliable Analytics Agents” by Tim Voßmerbäumer, Data & AI Consultant at Scalefree:
“An LLM can produce valid SQL over a warehouse schema and still answer the wrong question, because the schema does not carry the organizational meaning of a metric. This talk presents an agentic system over Google Ads, Google Analytics 4, and Google Search Console data, modeled in Data Vault 2 on BigQuery, in which a governed semantic layer serves as the agent’s knowledge interface. The agent answers along two paths: questions that map to a predefined metric go through the dbt Semantic Layer, using definitions that already exist rather than ones the model writes. Questions no predefined metric covers take an exploratory path, where the agent writes its own SQL under a rule-based guard. The agent may also decline when the data cannot support an answer. Without that option it does not fail visibly, but produces SQL that passes every structural check, fabricates the rows, and reports them faithfully.“
Second Session
“From ChatGPT to Agentic AI: The Common Thread of AI Development” by Dr. Ivan Herreros (Senior AI Consultant, Machine Learning Engineer at inovex) traces the development from conversational LLMs to agents that increasingly take over digital workflows.
“How is Agentic AI actually progressing, how will it keep reshaping day-to-day work, and is any of it really impossible to predict? To answer that, we trace the evolution of LLM-based applications: from natural-language dialogue to the delegation of digital workflows to agents that act autonomously over ever-longer time horizons. The common thread: viewed with some distance, most of the steps (from RAG through MCP to Claude Code and Agent Harnesses) were not just predictable but predicted. Drawing on almost three years of building conversational and agentic AI platforms, we show which patterns recur and what actually sits behind the buzzwords. Whoever understands this underlying logic can situate new technological developments proactively, instead of reacting to every new hype cycle.”
Third Session
Networking with food and drinks provided by KölnBusiness – the Economic Development Agency of Cologne
Further information
CAIML aims to bring together people interested in AI and ML (machine learning). For more information visit & join us: Cologne AI and Machine Learning Meetup
CAIML Mission
“We want to bring people together who are interested in AI and Machine Learning. At our meetups, we have: networking, talks, fireside chats, knowledge exchange and applications of AI and Machine Learning. We organize our meetups every other month at different locations in Cologne. We are always looking for innovative and inspiring speakers. If you know somebody who would be an excellent fit for our meetup, we would highly appreciate if you help us and recommend this speaker to us.”
Please follow our CAIML community also on Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/caiml-meetup/posts
Videos
Recap from our last meetup #43 … new videos to be published.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to TH Köln, Prof. Dr. Gernot Heisenberg, and KölnBusiness Wirtschaftsförderung for their support and Aaqib, Marc & Fabian for the excellent organization.
Retrospective
Don’t miss the previous meetups of the CAIML community in Cologne: