About Me

Growing up in a STEM oriented environment at home made me love science and technology from an early age. Other than nurturing a love for all things digital from an early age it also lead me to pursue a bachelor's degree in Physics.

After graduation I worked as a Physics and Mathematics tutor for several years. However at some point I decided that I needed to change my career path, I wanted to be more professionally involved in the IT world. Computers had always been a hobby on the side but never somethign that would be by job full time and I wanted that to change. After trying and failing to reconcile my work schedule with the time requirements of various master's programs I found a good match in the Hellenic Open University. This made it possible for me to pursue my studies in this new field without needing to leave work.

In 2015 after finishing my Master's in Information Systems I subsequently found work as a developer and software engineer for an IT consulting firm in Belgium. The next three plus years where an interesting and unique mix of acquiring applied experience and developing my theoretical knowledge on the job. Driven by the diverse needs of both the client base and the company projects in combination with the move to a new country forced a steep learning curve. Later I made the move to working full time as a software architect for the Data Science Hub at VITO. The personal and professional growth during those 2 years however was worth the effort and the experience is one that I will always remember fondly. With growth however came the realisation that I personally favoured and was better suited to a more structured working environment. As such I made the switch to a data engineer position at Barco where I am to this day.

Contact Details

Georgios Manakanatas
  Draakstraat 32
2018 Antwerp, BE
  0030 6977 13 82 53
  0032 0471 55 23 25
  manakanatas@gmail.com

Download Curriculum Vitae

Education

Hellenic Open University

Master's Degree in Information Systems• 2012 - 2015

Curriculum: Information and Communication Technologies.
Main subjects: Computer Networks and Communications, Computer Architecture,Software Engineering, Software Design and Management Processing.
Thesis title: ”Blocking Inference Channels in Outsourced Data Mining.”
Relators: Prof. Ilias Stauropoulos, Prof. Basilios Berikios

University of Crete

Bachelor's Degree in Physics• 2000 - 2009

Curriculum: Physics and Mathematics.
Main subjects: Quantum Physics, Atmospheric Physics, Introduction to Circuit theory, Applied Geophysics, Elements of Electronics, Introduction to Optoelectronics, Financial Mathematics, Computational Physics

Work

BARCO

Data engineer • November 2021 - Today

My position is as a data engineer at BARCO for the software and IT team.
My main responsibilities are collaborating with and supporting my colleagues in all aspects of working with data on the back end. Setting up the infrastructure and desiging all the stages of data ingestion, cleansing, enrichment and preparation for analysis.

The work is focused mostly on helping the company make maximum use of existing data as well as tap into unexplored sources of information as it transition to the cloud and a more data driven way of work.

VITO

Software Architect • November 2019 - October 2021

My position at VITO was that of Software architect for the data science hub.
My main responsibilities there where supporting my colleagues in all stages of IT related projects. Form exploratory discussions with colleagues in order to identify problems that they might have where we can help them, to high-level design of the proposed software solutions, all the way through to the development of a PoC up to fine tuning it for deployment to production.

The work was focused mostly on improving the way that the organisation works with data. Design and implementation of new or optimization of existing database models, setting up new or improving existing ETL pipelines. Helping solve issues related to data engineering and data science as well as helping the push to make the organization more digital and data driven. This was primarily done by helping colleagues transition to a more data centric way of working. Identifying the knowledge that researchers need to acquire as well as a clear and simple path to do so was key in supporting the organization’s digitization efforts.

Most of the work was done in Python , R and Bash/PowerShell mostly due to the dominance these programming languages have in the scientific field. Smaller parts are made using JavaScript and Java. Some of the more interesting projects like a custom organization wide data discovery pipeline and the data science hub's involvement in SOLID also make extensive use of semantic technology and graphs.

Apogado CVBA

Software Engineer / Consultant• April 2016 - October 2019

As a software engineer in Apogado I focused mostly on back end development and more specifically the following:
Expanding and modifying the eGov connector SOA product. Running on the Talend ESB but relying only on Java and open source Apache components to avoid vendor lock in.
Preliminary architecture and continued development for the GDPRBox product. Built on JavaScript with focus on a clean MEAN stack.
As well as small ad hoc development for clients as the need arode and Unit ,API testing for all projects.

As a consultant I mostly focused on evaluating client processes and software with an emphasis on overall architecture, security, user experience and support / documentation.
I also did small scale best effort scripting development or infrastructure as code when needed to meet any pressing requirements.

Hellenic Open University

Master's Thesis• September 2014 - September 2015

Knowledge hiding and Association rule hiding, hiding frequent itemsets, exact knowledge hiding through database extension, k-anonnymity, Rob frugal anonymisation, Apriori data mining algorithm. Python programming, tkinter GUI package, LaTeX text editor.

Freelance, Heraclion & Athens, Greece

Physics & Mathematics tutor• September 2004 - September 2015

Physics and Mathematics tutoring for high school and junior high school students. Advanced Physics and Mathematics classes for College students, preparatory courses for end of semester examinations.

Giorgos Siotos & Aenaon Tutoring Center

Part-time collaboration• September 2010 - September 2015

Giorgos Siotos Tutoring Center: 09/2010-09/2011 Physics and Mathematics tutoring for High School and Junior High School students. Aenaon Tutoring Center: 09/2011-09/2014 Physics and Mathematics tutoring for High School and Junior High School students.

Part-time work

Greenpeace & BFS Group• March 2006 - November 2007

BFS Group: 09/2007-11/2007 Direct Marketing, Customer Service, Portfolio Management, Database Management. Greenpeace: 03/2006-05/2006 Direct Dialogue Campaigner/Fundraiser.

Skills

Programming
Good working knowledge of Python, Java, JavaScript, SQL, Bash scripting.
Working knowledge in R and C.

  • Python
  • Javascript
  • Bash
  • Java

Frameworks & Tools
Good knowledge of: Node.js, Docker, Ansible, Flask, Postman, Spark
Working knowledge of: Apache Maven, Spring, Selenium, Airflow, Papermill, Jenkins, SoapUI, OpenAPI and Talend Open Studio Basic knowledge of: React, Django

  • Flask
  • Docker
  • Express
  • Node
  • Ansible

General
Solid mathematical background and analytical skills from my physics studies. Basic knowledge of Data mining as well as data anonymization and de-identification methods.

Languages
Dutch
Less than conversational, but learning.
English
Near Native Fluency, Certificate of Proficiency in English, University of Cambridge.
German
Conversational, Zeugnis Zentrale Mittelstufenprüfung, Goethe Institut.
Greek
Native speaker.

My Story

  • My story so far.
    Physicist! Teacher! Software Engineer! Greek!

    Georgios Manakanatas

  • It is widely believed that modern workers will need to change multiple careers during their working lives. Being a scientist I had to validate the hypothesis by experiment, and since no one I knew seemed to be prepared to volunteer to be my test subject that left me with only one option: I would be my own guinea pig! So a few years ago I set out to start a new career and see how things would go, for science of course!

  • My background was a diploma in Physics from the University of Crete. My first profesional steps where as a tutor of Physics and Mathematics working both freelance and in collaboration with various tutoring centers in Heraclion and Athens in Greece. In paralel however I had always been involved with compluters as a hobby and when time came to switch careers this interest allong with my good mathematical background from my diploma made the IT field an easy choice

  • After some failed starts trying to find a part time master's cource that would not clash with my working schedule I found the perfect match in the Hellenic Open University. Three years lots of coffee and long nights later I was armed with an M.Sc. in Information Science, knowledge of Software Design and Management Processing, basic coding skills as well as data mining methods and tools from my Thesis. With these I started testing the hypothesis that someone would actually pay me to apply these new skills in practice.

  • Predictably the opportunity presented itself in a manner consistent with murphy's law. The job I found was one in data integration put none of my fledgling skills in data mining, python and C to use and required a completely different set presenting a new and steep learning curve. Familiarizing myself with a new set of middleware frameworks and tools as well as new languages on the job was often hectic and always stressful but after a few years of working in the field I am now confident in my abilities.

  • While it's too early to tell the experiment seems to be going well. I have moved on to work as a software architect at VITO providing me with new opportunities and challenging me to put all the skills I have developed so far to the test!