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.
Researcher
Georges is a researcher with Cranfield University’s Centre for Space Systems and the European Space Agency’s OPS-SAT Space Lab. His peer-reviewed papers appear at IEEE AeroConf, the SmallSat Conference, AIAA SciTech, SpaceOps, the International Astronautical Congress, and i-SAIRAS. His journal articles appear in Remote Sensing and Space Education & Strategic Applications. See the full list on the Publications page, or follow along on Google Scholar and ORCID.
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.