Available for new engagements from Q3 2026
I help ambitious teams take deep-tech ideas from research prototype to manufacturable product — embedded AI, sensor fusion, wearables, and the R&D-to-production pipeline that connects them.
01ServicesSEC. 01 / 07
Focused engagements across the path from research prototype to shipped hardware.
Turning promising research or a proof-of-concept into a realistic, de-risked roadmap toward manufacturable product — architecture, sequencing, and go/no-go criteria included.
Expert guidance on emerging device technologies — spintronics, MRAM, neuromorphic and in-memory computing, novel sensing. Assessing whether the physics is sound, the technology is mature, and the claims survive scrutiny.
Technical due diligence for investors and acquirers — assessing feasibility, IP defensibility, manufacturing readiness, and engineering team maturity.
Bridging the gap between a working demo and a certifiable, manufacturable product — DFM/DFA review, supply chain planning, and test strategy for sensor-rich, power-constrained systems.
Ongoing technical leadership for early-stage teams — hiring the first engineers, setting architecture direction, and representing the tech to investors. Defined scope, fixed monthly hours.
Every engagement starts with a fixed-scope first step and concrete deliverables, so you can judge the work before committing further.
Discuss your project →02Selected WorkSEC. 02 / 07
Details anonymized where client agreements require it.
Proof early on that I could run the full path alone — from sputtering sensor films to patenting the positioning device they enabled, to pitching the business plan that won competitive startup funding.
Led a Japan–Switzerland–UK team through 20 days of round-the-clock synchrotron beamtime to image a contested switching mechanism — physics behind today's HDDs and tomorrow's MRAM.
Steered ETH, IBM Zürich and three universities through a full Horizon Europe cycle — absorbing a pandemic and a months-long equipment failure without missing a single deliverable, closing with objectives exceeded.
Independent architecture and power-budget review for a UAE-based wearable startup — locating where the design would miss its battery-life target and what to change before committing to hardware.
Early-phase discovery for a mobile banking product with Core SE — [scope: requirements / user flows / technical scoping] for an established financial-services client.
03ApproachSEC. 03 / 07
The same discipline I bring to engineering, applied to the engagement itself.
A short, structured audit of where the product really stands — architecture, team, supply chain, and the distance between the demo and a deliverable. You get an honest readout, not a pitch.
The riskiest assumptions go first: the sensor that has never run on battery, the model that only works in the lab, the part with a 40-week lead time. Cheap experiments before expensive commitments.
Hands-on execution with your team — architecture, firmware, ML pipelines, DFM — until the milestone ships. I work in your repos and your stand-ups, not in slide decks.
Engagements run from two-week diagnostics to multi-quarter delivery partnerships — always with a clearly scoped first step.
Discuss your project →04ExperienceSEC. 04 / 07
CORE SE / Freelance
Helping hardware and deep-tech startups make the jump I know first-hand: from promising physics to de-risked, manufacturable product.
ETH Zürich / IBM Research Zürich, Switzerland
Delivered a €3m Horizon Europe project with IBM Zürich on time despite pandemic and equipment failures — coordinating eight engineers and scientists to a working TRL-6 neuromorphic chip prototype.
Tohoku University, Japan
Built the first artificial synapse and neuron from newly discovered magnetic physics — a spintronics breakthrough with 1,000+ citations and US/Japan patents — while leading a three-country synchrotron campaign and winning four grants.
Micropositioning device startup, Russia
Turned in-house magnetoresistive sensors into a patented, best-in-class positioning device — and into grant money — going from fabrication to business plan solo.
05Publications & PatentsSEC. 05 / 07
06AboutSEC. 06 / 07
I'm Alex Kurenkov — an engineer working at the intersection of hardware, AI and product. Over 14 years I've moved between research labs and startups, taking ideas from bench prototype to something that ships, scales, and survives contact with real users.
That path has been unusually wide on purpose: university research with publications and patents, hands-on hardware and firmware engineering, digital-transformation consulting for established organisations, and deep-tech R&D strategy for startups — across projects in Japan, Switzerland, Russia, the USA and the UAE. Different industries, regulatory regimes and engineering cultures teach you what actually transfers and what only works at home.
My focus spans the full spectrum: assessing whether a technology's underlying physics is real and mature — for investors betting on it or founders building on it — through to the point where a working demo must become a manufacturable, certifiable, cost-effective device without losing its technical edge.
I work with founders, engineering leaders and investors who need someone fluent in both the research and the realities of production — someone who can tell you honestly whether an idea is six months, six years, or one physics miracle away from shipping.
07ContactSEC. 07 / 07
Whether you need a due-diligence review, a technical sounding board, or hands-on engineering leadership — the first conversation costs nothing and is usually worth having early.
[email protected]I reply to every serious inquiry within two working days.