Interview with George Kourtidis

Featured Engineer

George Kourtidis

George Kourtidis - Electrical Engineer - Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki - Electronic. Greece

How did you get into electronics/ engineering and when did you start?

I always remember myself from a young age to deal with electronics and experimentation on various things, such as radios, tape recorders, etc.

This love for electronics was probably innate, since at the age of 5 I was admiring anything that was related to electronics. Later in childhood and in adolescence I began to dismantle and observe remote-controlled cars of that era. I was buying magazines about electronic structures and so I had the trigger to start my first kit. The electronics for me is love, as I foresaid so I could not live without working on them. I admit that I had to destroy many electronics in order to learn.

Later I finished high school and went to college where I graduated a few years later

What are your favorite hardware tools that you use?

I don’t have a particular favorite tool or tools. At this moment I use a digital oscilloscope simple but very functional (DS1062CF – 1Gsa / s 60MHz). This helps me to get the accurate measurements that are necessary for my project.

What are your favorite software tools that you use?

I usually use the Eagle Light, since my designs do not require multi-layer, many materials and a large surface. In case I have more demands I can switch to open source software like KiCad or DesignSpark which is my favorite. Moreover, the depiction of a 3DBoard is one of my concerns. In order to achieve that I use SketchUp and Pov-Ray

What is on your bookshelf?

There is a variety of books on it. Some of them are : FPGAs 101 by Gina R Smith, C + + by Clayton Walnum, Application-Specific Integrated Circuits by Michael John Sebastian Smith – Addison-Wesley, VLSI by Zhongfeng Wang, HC05, HC11 by Motorola and many other on microcontrollers, electronics and Linux from Greek literature.

What has been your favorite project?

I have in my possession some projects. The following three are my favorites: a. “Research and Development of an automatic measurement system of liquid volumes”, b. “Research and Development of an ultrasonic measurement system of volume”, c. “Research and Development of an electronic system that manage the energy for more economy to heating and to refrigeration of buildings “. These projects took part in competitions.

What type of projects do you work on in your spare time?

In my spare time I work on wireless networks and networks in general. Years ago I started to create a wireless community – a network in the city that I live, using WiFi technology, at the 2,4 GHz and 5GHz. It is about a free access network, in areas where there is a hotspot.

Lately I try to create my own cell hydrogen production. It is at a very early stage of course but I think I am on track. I am trying to find a solution in order to reduce the power consumption needed for cell to produce hydrogen. It will take time I guess, but I will give it a try. I hope someday it can be applied to vehicles.