Thomas Kogias
IT Educator & Developer
University IT lab educator for around a decade, and a developer: I build websites, web applications, and tools, some for university departments and courses, some for people around me. Beyond the web, I work on broader software and IT problems. Technical by nature, a communicator by training: I enjoy explaining technology and I do it effectively, in writing and in person, to technical and non-technical audiences alike.
- Location
- Syros, Greece
- tkogias at gmail dot com
Experience
– present
Developer at Independent projects
Websites and web applications, built and maintained end to end. Case studies on the Projects page.
Highlights
- Varied IT problem-solving alongside the web work: network troubleshooting, system setups, ad-hoc technical help
– present
IT Laboratory Instructor at University of the Aegean, Department of Product and Systems Design Engineering
Covering the informatics teaching needs of the undergraduate curriculum, seconded from the Ministry of Education: teaching courses, theory and laboratories.
Highlights
- Courses taught:
- Informatics (HTML5, CSS)
- Programming Technologies and Methodologies (C#)
- Information Systems Design and Development (C#, object-oriented programming)
- Web Design and Programming (Node.js)
- Mobile Application Development (Android, Java)
- Member of the SmartMove lab (maritime robotics, intelligent transportation systems, maritime informatics): hands-on across the lab's autonomous-vessel work, from assembly, wiring and sea trials to simulation, research projects, and the lab's website (see Projects)
- Autonomous fleet work: eight identical 1 m surface vessels (Pixhawk autopilot, Raspberry Pi 5 companion computer) plus larger research vessels, all on ArduPilot; vessel logic in Python (pymavlink, DroneKit), swarm and obstacle-detection experimentation; a BlueROV2 Heavy underwater ROV (ArduSub)
- International maritime summer school (annual): organizing team, co-teach 3 labs, lead-teach the 2 software labs (ArduPilot simulation; companion-computer integration, a progressive Python project arc from telemetry to formation keeping), with published notes and a public code repository; ~45 international postgraduate students over 2 intensive weeks
- Administration and development of the Interactive Systems Design laboratory infrastructure, hardware and software
- Co-designed and built the department's new website on Drupal 8 (2018) and have run it since; its static successor is in development (see Projects)
- Educational material on the e-class platform; support for student theses
–
Secondary Education IT Teacher (PE86) at Greek Ministry of Education
Permanent post, appointed through the 2005 ASEP national competition. Taught informatics at a general upper secondary school, a vocational upper secondary school, a special education school, and a primary school.
Highlights
- Technician at the Cyclades Centre for Informatics and New Technologies (KEPLINET) for four years: maintenance and upgrades of computers and networks across the prefecture's school and administrative units
- Installation and maintenance of a 104-endpoint videoconferencing network across the Cyclades
- Co-organized two international conferences on ICT in education, held in Syros
- Website development and maintenance
–
Stagiaire, Information Society DG (software technologies) at European Commission
Traineeship in Brussels, in the open source software field.
Highlights
- Analysis and review of EU-funded open source software projects
- Organized a conference promoting open source software adoption in EU public administrations
- Developed and maintained the Commission's open source website
–
Software Engineer at ACN.gr (Altec Group)
Member of the team designing, developing, and supporting consumer web applications running 24/7 with thousands of concurrent users.
Highlights
- Java J2EE, C++, Oracle DBMS, Apache/Jakarta projects, HTML/Velocity templates
- Dynamic websites (PHP, Java); database development and administration (Oracle PL/SQL, MySQL)
- Wrote documentation and trained the customer support department
Volunteer
–
Archive rebuild and operation at basketforum.gr community
Rebuilt the community’s lost forum from an emergency crawl into a fully static, searchable archive: 26,000 pages and 880,000 posts (2005 to 2019) with full-text and member search, hosted on Cloudflare Workers. Live since January 2026 (see Projects).
Highlights
Education
– present
PhD candidate in Artificial Intelligence in Programming and Robotics Education, University of the Aegean, Department of Product and Systems Design Engineering
Courses
- Thesis: 'Artificial Intelligence Tools in Programming and Robotics Education: Pedagogical Framework, Assessment and Instructional Design'
–
MA in Communications Studies, University of Leeds, UK
Courses
- Dissertation (distinction): 'A critical investigation of the Open Source software phenomenon'
–
BSc (Hons) in Computer Science, University of Kent, UK
Courses
- Final-year project: a dynamic web application for storing and managing conference paper submissions (PHP, Java, MySQL)
Publications
Assisted Reality as an enabler for resilient remote learning during COVID-19 , IEEE 28th International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Innovation (ICE/ITMC) & 31st IAMOT Joint Conference
First author. A framework for remote maritime vocational training and examination using assisted reality devices, evaluated in real class conditions; presented at the conference in France. The project included a custom Android app (Java) I built for the RealWear HMT-1 assisted reality glasses.
The Aegean Ro-Boat Race: A Regatta to Accelerate Innovation in Marine Robotics and Autonomous Vessels , IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine
Collection: The Aegean Ro-Boat Race 2023 , IEEE Data Descriptions
Building an autonomous boat: a multidisciplinary design engineering approach , IEEE International Workshop on Metrology for AeroSpace (MetroAeroSpace)
Languages
- Greek
- Fluency: Native
- English
- Fluency: Near-native
- French
- Fluency: Working knowledge
Skills
- Development
- Keywords:
- Teaching & Technical Communication
- Keywords:
- Marine Robotics & Embedded
- Keywords:
- IT Problem-Solving
- Keywords:
Interests
- Sport
- Keywords:
- Music
- Keywords:
