Intro calls available now · project slots from August 2026
I help ambitious teams turn hardware ideas into shipping products — whether that means novel semiconductor devices or a wearable built from proven parts. Physics, prototyping, system architecture, and the strategy that connects them.
For founders building hardware, investors running technical due diligence, product teams scaling their systems, and labs commercializing research.
01ServicesSEC. 01 / 07
Focused engagements across the path from deep research to prototype to shipped hardware.
Start here
For founders and product leads with a prototype, concept, or pitch deck — find what breaks before you spend serious money.
You getarchitecture review · risk register · BOM & supply-chain red flags · go/no-go readout
Build
The step after "go": turning validated research or a proof-of-concept into a staged roadmap toward manufacturable product — architecture choices, technology sequencing, and validation gates your team can execute against.
You getstaged roadmap · architecture decisions · validation gates · cost & resource estimate
Bridging a working demo and a certifiable, manufacturable product — DFM/DFA review, supply-chain planning, and test strategy for sensor-rich, power-constrained systems.
You getDFM/DFA review · test strategy · supplier & BOM plan · certification path
Ongoing technical leadership for early-stage teams — hiring the first engineers, setting architecture direction, representing the tech to investors. Defined scope, fixed monthly days.
You getarchitecture direction · hiring support · investor-facing narrative · weekly cadence
Assess
Independent assessment of emerging device technologies — spintronics, MRAM, neuromorphic and in-memory computing, novel sensing. Whether the physics is sound, the technology is mature, and the claims survive scrutiny.
You getwritten assessment · maturity scoring · red flags · the questions to ask next
The investor-side counterpart to the diagnostic: technical due diligence for investors and acquirers — feasibility, IP defensibility, manufacturing readiness, engineering team maturity. Under NDA.
You getDD report · risk matrix · team & roadmap readout · follow-up Q&A
Not sure where to start? Start with the diagnostic.
Discuss your project →02Selected WorkSEC. 02 / 07
Anonymized where client agreements require it.
End-to-end system engineering for a UAE wearable startup — component validation, power and battery-life modelling, thermal and EMI/RF strategy, prototype definition, and a complete PCB/FPC handoff package for the design house.
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.
Designed and built a fully automated DC/RF characterization setup — custom PCBs, 3D-printed fixtures, Peltier temperature control, Python orchestration end-to-end — used to qualify the novel neuromorphic chips it was built for.
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.
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.
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
Independent technical consultant
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.
Book intro call[email protected]I reply within a day with whether I can help, what the first fixed-scope step would be, and what deliverables you should expect.