The Data Challenge behind the Einstein Telescope - The Data Playbook Podcast with Kris Peeters & Tjonnie Li

What does it take to listen to the universe?In this episode of The Data Playbook, Kris Peeters talks with Tjonnie Li, Professor at KU Leuven, about gravitational waves, black hole collisions, and the massive data challenge behind the Einstein Telescope.They explore how modern science is becoming deeply data-driven, why the next generation of research infrastructure will need to operate like a science factory, and how AI, automation, and large-scale compute could become essential for turning petabytes of raw data into scientific discovery.This episode covers:what gravitational waves are and why they matterhow black hole collisions are measuredwhy the Einstein Telescope could transform European sciencethe data, compute, and storage challenge behind next-gen physicswhat academia can learn from industry about automation and orchestrationhow AI agents could support future scientific discovery👉 Subscribe for more episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@Dataminded👉 Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/aBbykwnsmpI👉 Explore more content & insights: https://dataminded.com👉 Follow Dataminded on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dataminded#DataEngineering #AI #GravitationalWaves #EinsteinTelescope #BigData #ScientificComputing #ResearchInfrastructure #DataPlaybookChapters:00:00 Intro: Tjonnie Li joins The Data Playbook02:08 What gravitational waves are - in plain English05:19 Why science is becoming data-driven11:28 How we measure black hole collisions today15:50 The Einstein Telescope: ambition, timeline, and European bid19:44 The data infrastructure challenge: from terabytes to petabytes30:56 AI, automation, and the idea of a “science factory”38:50 Why this matters for Europe, innovation, and society