Norbert Schmidt

About Me

I build tools that bridge the gap between complex science and everyday users. My main venture is DDQ B.V., where I develop impactful, science-based apps and instruments under the Pocket Science brand. I'm also currently project manager for ET Pathfinder at NIKHEF, the Einstein Telescope testbed for 3rd generation laser interferometers. I'm passionate about citizen science, astronomy, and connecting people with nature through technology.

My current big passion is building autonomous systems powered by local, self-hosted LLMs — I write about it at Noodpakket.tech. I'm an early adopter of self-hosted large language models, especially those using open source weights, and I've built my own autonomous cloud infrastructure on this very server, because I believe the future will be open and free.

I host waarnemen.com and I'm the founder of astroforum.nl. When I'm not building or observing the night sky, you'll likely find me trail running through the hills.

Projects

• Noodpakket.tech – Building autonomous systems powered by local, self-hosted LLMs.
• Black Hole Finder – #1 platform for visual confirmation of black hole merger events after gravitational wave detections.
• Dark Sky Meter – Light pollution measurement app, awarded the Dark Sky Defender Award. Featured on SciStarter.
• iSPEX – Smartphone spectropolarimetry for atmospheric and water quality research.
• astroforum.nl – Largest Dutch-language forum for amateur astronomers.
• DDCare – AI tools for doctors, including Medical Cockpit, LabTracker, and Trombose.net.

Publications

• Frontiers in Environmental Science (2025) – Recent co-authored research publication.

You can find my other work on arXiv and ResearchGate.

Talks

• TEDx Talk – My TEDx talk about Citizen Science.

Contact

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/norbertschmidt

ResearchGate: researchgate.net/profile/Norbert-Schmidt-5

Twitter/X: @nopmobiel