Michail Bletsas (born March 19, 1967) is a Greek research scientist and the Director of Computing at the

MIT Media Lab The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fi ...

Early life

Bletsas was born in

Chania Chania (, , ), also sometimes romanization of Greek, romanized as Hania, is a city in Greece and the capital of the Chania (regional unit), Chania regional unit. It lies along the north west coast of the island Crete, about west of Rethymno ...

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

. He studied at

Aristotle University The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki ( AUTh; ), often called the University of Thessaloniki, is the second oldest Tertiary education, tertiary education institution in Greece. Named after the philosopher Aristotle, who was born in Stagira (anc ...

of Thessaloniki and received a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

computer engineering Computer engineering (CE, CoE, or CpE) is a branch of engineering specialized in developing computer hardware and software. It integrates several fields of electrical engineering, electronics engineering and computer science. Computer engi ...

from

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

.Biography
as a keynote speaker at the Consumer Communications & Networking Conference, 2007, retrieved 2010-06-23.

Career

Before joining the Media Lab, Bletsas was a Systems Engineer at Aware Inc. He is one of the founders of the Greek mobile advertising and marketing company

Velti Velti is a mobile marketing company offering its services to mobile operators and brands. The company was founded in 2001, went public in London in 2006 and on NASDAQ in 2011. In 2013 Blackstone, acquired the assets of Velti and the company was t ...

S.A. and he was also one of the leaders in an effort to provide

wireless network A wireless network is a computer network that uses wireless data connections between network nodes. Wireless networking allows homes, telecommunications networks, and business installations to avoid the costly process of introducing cables int ...

ing to the island of

Patmos Patmos (, ) is a Greece, Greek island in the Aegean Sea. It is famous as the location where, according to Christian belief, John of Patmos received the vision found in the Book of Revelation of the New Testament, and where the book was written. ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

. Since June 23, 2010, Bletsas is an Independent Non-Executive Director of Hellenic Telecommunications Organization SA (

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

, Greece).

OLPC

Michail Bletsas is one of the designers of OLPC's XO laptop. He was one of the principals of the OLPC team where he made various contributions, including the design and implementation of the first embedded layer-2 wifi mesh stack. From February 2006 to January 2009, he was OLPC's Chief Connectivity Officer and VP Advanced Technology and he was member of the group which received the Community category award of the 2007

Index: Award The Index Project, formerly INDEX: Design to Improve Life, is a Danish nonprofit organisation that promotes designs aimed at the improvement of life worldwide, both in developed and developing countries. The organisation is behind the biennial In ...

, for the design of the

OLPC XO-1 The OLPC XO (formerly known as $100 Laptop, Children's Machine, 2B1) is a low cost laptop computer intended to be distributed to children in developing countries around the world, to provide them with access to knowledge, and opportunities to " ...

laptop computer A laptop computer or notebook computer, also known as a laptop or notebook, is a small, portable personal computer (PC). Laptops typically have a Clamshell design, clamshell form factor (design), form factor with a flat-panel computer scree ...

Conferences

He was a keynote speaker at the 4th and 5th Annual

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE ...

Consumer Communications & Networking Conference in

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

, 2007 and 2008 respectively, at the 8th International Conference on Computer Based Learning in Science in

Heraklion Heraklion or Herakleion ( ; , , ), sometimes Iraklion, is the largest city and the administrative capital city, capital of the island of Crete and capital of Heraklion (regional unit), Heraklion regional unit. It is the fourth largest city in G ...

, 2007, at Disruptions 2007 in

, and at the 4th Balkan Conference in Informatics in

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

, Greece, 2009.Call for participation
BCI 2009, retrieved 2010-06-24.

References

External links

*MIT Media Lab "http://web.media.mit.edu/~mbletsas/" {{DEFAULTSORT:Bletsas, Michael MIT School of Architecture and Planning faculty 1967 births Living people Greek academics One Laptop per Child MIT Media Lab people Aristotle University of Thessaloniki alumni People from Chania