Firsts
The world of AI in space is obsessed with being the first at achieving anything in orbit. Here are Georges’ contributions onboard the European Space Agency’s OPS-SAT-1 and OPS-SAT PRETTY spacecraft:
- November 8, 2020 First neural network onboard a satellite A TensorFlow CNN image classifier.
- April 16, 2021 First supervised machine learning trained onboard a satellite Initially with online learning for FDIR, then generalized with onboard ML as-a-Service.
- June 26, 2021 & February 16, 2022 First unsupervised machine learning trained onboard a satellite K-means for image clustering in 2021 and image segmentation in 2022.
- September 29, 2023 First Generative AI onboard a satellite WGANs to denoise corrupt images.
- July 27, 2026 First voice command of a satellite A spoken command over amateur radio, transcribed onboard to play DOOM.
Awards / Nominations
Georges develops and operationalizes AI technology demonstrators onboard the European Space Agency’s OPS-SAT Space Lab. His research focuses on leveraging edge computing for in-orbit machine learning and autonomous decision-making. Sometimes, his work gets recognized:
- Recipient of the International SpaceOps 2023 Award for Outstanding Achievement.
- Co-Chair at the IEEE AeroConf session in Machine Learning / Artificial Intelligence for Aerospace Applications.
- Co-Chair at the SmallSat Conference session in Advanced Technologies.
Leadership
Georges leads engineering teams and genuinely enjoys it. What he cares about most is people: coaching engineers, helping them grow and stick around, and building high-trust relationships across disciplines. He spots opportunities early and builds the team and partnerships that make them real.
Entrepreneur
Tanagra Space, Georges’ Estonian-based AI consultancy, supports the European Space Agency’s OPS-SAT mission control team at the European Space Operations Center in Darmstadt, Germany. He also founded Open Data Kosovo, a leading civic-tech non-profit with a global footprint.
Education
- M.S. in Spacecraft Design from Luleå University of Technology in Kiruna, Sweden.
- M.A. in International Affairs from the New School University in New York, NY.
- B.S. in Software Engineering from the University of Ottawa, Canada.