Community Member Spotlight: George N. Tzintzarov
Meet George N. Tzintzarov, a PhD student of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at Georgia Tech, advised by Dr. John D. Cressler. In his role, he is responsible for exploring how the harsh, radiation-rich outer space environment negatively affects optical systems. When he isn’t conducting his research, you can find George looking at stars and planets with his telescope or doing woodworking projects.
George looking for the magic!
As part of our Community Member Spotlight series, we caught up with George about a favorite project of his, something about him that’s not listed in his resume, what excites him the most about what he’s studying in his research, and one thing he’d tell others about Tech Square ATL (TSQATL) Social Club.
Q: What's a favorite project of yours and why?
A: One of my favorite projects with one of my buddies was connecting a traffic light to the internet. On the way back from a road trip, I stopped by a yard sale in the middle-of-nowhere Tennessee and bought a highway sized traffic light (because why not?). I ripped its guts out and re-wired all of the connections to work with an outlet. I put a raspberry pi in it for the controls, and then came the fun part. We connected the pi, through our router, to a public domain (which we bought for 10 bucks a year). We built a webpage that interactively displayed the status of the light and the ability for anyone, from anywhere in the world, to change the light (and it tweeted every time the light changed). It was one of those projects where building the entire thing was extremely fun, and then after about two weeks you realize that it actually has no useful function.
Q: What's something about you that's not on your resume?
A: I got first place in a bodybuilding competition in high school. This is before I really knew I loved science.
George at the Power Meal he hosted in 2020.
Q: What excites you the most about what you're studying in school?
A: The fact that my research can one day be used to aid human space travel past the moon!
Q: What do you enjoy doing during your time off?
A: I have several hobbies which I rotate, depending on the weather and my mood. On a nice day, I will take my motorcycle out to the mountains and do a ride for a couple of hours. On a clear night, I will take my telescope out and do some astrophotography, look at planets and stars, and try to learn more about the cosmos. And when I have to stay indoors, I love doing wood-working projects and tinkering with electronics (raspberry pi/arduino projects).
George's latest headshot, courtesy of TSQATL.
Q: What's one thing you would tell people about Tech Square ATL Social Club?
A: Tech Square ATL Social Club has an AWESOME workspace environment where you can post up and crank out a lot of work, but also take some breaks and chat with some cool people that are around.
Q: What's your favorite restaurant/cafe in the Tech Square neighborhood?
A: Cypress Street Pint & Plate! Beer and burgers after work is one of my simple pleasures.
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