George Vakanas
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Dr. George Vakanas, together with Yiannis Laouris and Maria Symeonides, founded MISnTED Ltd., which was the mother company for CYBER KIDS and The Multimedia Factory. George has also played a key role in the founding og the Cyprus Neuroscience and Technology Institute.
Brief History
George and Yiannis met in Tucson, where Yiannis was an Assistant Professor at the medical school, and George was in a double-major program studying mechanics and aerospace engineering on a Fulbright scholarship. Together they envisioned the founding of CYBER KIDS and Cyprus Neuroscience and Technology Institute. They interrupted their US careers to follow their vision, soon joined by Maria Symeonides and a year later by Dinos Georgiades. In a very short period of time, their team started with virtually zero capital and evolved into a team of 60+ and 30+ branches, with dozens of educational and promotional multimedia productions.
In 1996, George decided to leave the company and sold his shares to Harry Anastasiou and Evros Alexandrou. He co-founded a competitive company, CYBERnet, and subsequently moved to the United States, where he continued his academic dreams, completing a PhD at Stanford University. He served as Head of a Lab for Intel. He died in January, 2021.
Key Contributions
- Development of the program and contents of the CYBER School of Instructors
- Development of ideas and partly software for The Multimedia Factory
- Key organizer of the Cyprus - EU Parliament Video Conference 1995 and the Cyprus Russia Video Conference 1995
- Key figure (together with Yiannis Laouris, Lety Clerides, and Daniel Hadjittofis in developing The Hermes Project[1].