Foreword

Dear Readers,

a twenty-year cycle comes to an end this month. September 1998, my first days as an elected Director of IIT - September 2018, concluding days of my current service in the same position. Two incredibly creative and highly challenging decades! I am deeply grateful to all my colleagues, for their great work, ideas, support, and excellent collaboration. Today, IIT has a valuable collection of important scientific achievements, is a thriving and renowned Institute in the world of Informatics and Telecommunications, and looks forward to the future with confidence, full of competence and creativity.

Recalling my first days as Director, twenty years ago, I remember myself engaged in the exciting process of giving our Institute a new logo, one that would best reflect our vision: aim towards scientific excellence. The truth is that we have covered quite a distance during these years. I dare comparing our progress to a leap, a leap towards scientific excellence. That's why I share with you this little story (see below) on the conception of our logo. The fact that individuals, groups and labs, all of us in IIT, by working hard all these years, together, towards the same direction, we have actually performed that leap, justifying thus, with our efforts, the initial idea behind the logo.

Closing this foreword, I would so much like to invite you to join the European Researchers' Night, on Friday, September 28. This year again, the main event is being hosted by NCSRD and IIT participates with some particularly interesting installations. Come to discover science, meet researchers, and enjoy yourself!

Stelios C. A. Thomopoulos, IIT Director

Leap of Excellence: the concept behind IIT's logo
2018 is the 20th anniversary of the IIT logo. The IIT logo was inspired in September 1998 by its newly elected Director Dr. S. C. Thomopoulos to mark the Institute's new vision for an upward route towards excellence. Read more

Research

Upcoming! 28 September: Researchers' Night 2018
The National Centre for Scientific Research "Demokritos" (NCSR-D) will once again be hosting the European Researchers' Night on the 28th of September, simultaneously with Europe and other locations in 6 Greek cities. The event presents science and researchers in different kinds of workshops, panel discussions and exhibitions. All events are free. IIT invites you to visit the NCSR-D campus, on the evening of 28/9, discover several aspects of computer science, meet researchers, and enjoy yourself! Read more

More in Research

Upcoming! Important Pilot in FocusLocus project of ISL

80 children with ADHD, aged 8 to 15 yrs, will participate in a pilot study experiment, at the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital, that will run for 8 weeks. Starting September 17, children will test the REEFOCUS game, that has been developed in the context of the FocusLocus Innovation Action project, led by the ISL Lab of IIT. Read more

More than 90 systems competed in the 6th BioASQ Challenge

The BioASQ series of challenges, organized for the 6th year in a row by SKEL Lab, IIT, pushes the research frontier in biomedical information systems. This year's challenge successfully completed on May 2018. More than 90 systems developed by 16 teams around the world participated in the 2 tasks of the challenge. Read more

Publications: Books, Journal articles, Conference papers

New R&D Projects
• COSMOS (Cultural Osmosis - Mythology & Art) (started)
• CULDILE (CULtural DImensions of deep LEarning) (started)
• Google DNI Data Stories (accepted)
• Narration (Integrated system for management and curation of digital content and production of personalized and collaborative narratives.) (started)
Complete list of R&D Projects

Events

15 July: AI4IoT Workshop co-organised by IIT

Dr. C. Spyropoulos from SKEL Lab, IIT, co-organised and participated in the AI4IoT - "Workshop on AI for Internet of Things", in the context of the IJCAI-ECAI-18 (27th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence & 23rd European Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 13-18 July), in Stockholm, Sweden. Read more

11 July: Big Data for Precision Medicine

H2020 iASiS project of SKEL, IIT, successfully organised the Big Data for Precision Medicine Symposium in the frame of the 6th Hellenic Forum, at the campus of NCSR Demokritos. The Symposium hosted a number of representatives from European and Greek research and commercial projects, including all 6 projects funded under the topic "Big Data supporting Public Health policies" of the Horizon 2020 programme. Over 240 delegates participated in the Symposium, among which young and senior researchers from various fields, along with health and research policy makers (including the Greek Deputy Minister of Research & Innovation, K. Fotakis). Read more

10 July: Workshop on Research e-infrastructures

Software and Knowledge Engineering Lab (SKEL) and EU project DARE successfully organised a workshop on "The role of Research e-infrastructures in the National Research Agenda", at the NCSR Demokritos campus, in Athens, in the frame of the 6th Hellenic Forum. Dr. V. Karkaletsis chaired the Workshop. Read more

28 June: FLYSEC Final Info Day and Cluster Meeting of Border Security Projects

The event provided insight on the FLYSEC project, coordinated by the Integrated Systems Lab (ISL) of IIT, and the alignment of its results with the implementation of the joint IATA/ACI Smart Security programme, while contributing to the overall picture of the EU research portfolio and agenda by inviting key cluster projects in the relevant area of airport, border and risk based security paradigm shift. Read more

18 June: Info Day (Training) of Primary School Teachers by Net Media Lab

Organization of an Info Day (Training) of Primary School Teachers at the 6th Primary School of Agia Paraskevi within the framework of the European project «primeTECH: Promoting Technology Enhanced Teaching in Primary Schools» (Erasmus+ School Sector). Read more

iASiS project presented in various events

Researchers from the Software & Knowledge Engineering Lab (SKEL) presented the EU H2020 project iASiS at the following events.
- 12 June: "Technology & Health" workshop organised by the Association of Insurance Companies - presentation by Dr. G. Paliouras. Read more
- 16 May: "Big Data Athens" meetup - presentation by Dr. A. Krithara. Read more
- 11 May: "AI and Medicine in the Future" workshop in the frame of the 44th Panhellenic Medical Conference - presentation by Dr. G. Paliouras. Read more

2-3 May: Ariadne's Journey, a Projection Mapping Production presented with huge success

"Ariadne's Journey", inspired by the world of Knossos and designed within NCSR-D, was presented with huge success at both the Athens Science Festival (ASF) at Technopolis, and in NCSR-D's auditorium. The conceptualization, design and production of the work was formulated by a specialized group of architects, animators and artists working within the ISL Lab of IIT. More than 2700 viewers, out of whom over 1700 were students, attended the screenings. Read more

3 May: IIT at Workshop on patients with heart problems

Dr. H. Papadopoulos from IIT reported on state-of-the-art technologies of NCSR-D that support the everyday life of people with heart problems, at the Workshop titled "Supporting people with heart disease and the contribution of their carers", organised by the Greek Carer Network 'EPIONI', at Technolopis, Athens. Read more

IIT participated in numerous scientific events

Between September and December 2017 researchers from IIT participated in Conferences like 'ICDM 2018', 'ICFHR 2018' & Workshops like 'AI4IoT', 'AI & Medicine in the Future', 'Big Data for Precision Medicine Symposium', 'Research e-infrastructures in the National Research Agenda', 'Technology & Health'.

• 31 August: Dr. J. Baras, University of Maryland, gave an interdisciplinary lecture entitled "Neuromorphic Artificial Intelligence: From Mathematical Foundations of Deep Learning to 'Cortex-on-a-Chip'", at NCSR-D, attracting a large number of Researchers from all the Institutes of the Center. Read more
• 5-8 August: G. Retsinas and P. Kaddas from the Computational Intelligence Laboratory (CIL), IIT, participated in the 16th International Conference on Frontiers in Handwriting Recognition (ICFHR 2018), Niagara Falls, USA. Read more
• 2-4 June: Dr. H. Papadopoulos from IIT presented NCSR-D's research activities in projects about eHealth such as RemoteCARE, HealthNET in the 9th Forum about Ambient Assisted Living in Italy as coordinator of EIP AHA Action Group A1: "Adherence to prescription and medical plans". Read more
• 25-27 May: Dr. H. Papadopoulos from IIT participated in the 2nd International Conference on Digital Medicine where he presented NCSR-D IIT projects about eHealth. Read more

Education

Upcoming! 2nd year of successful "MSc in Data Science"

The "MSc in Data Science", a full time, 2-year-long, programme consisting of 3 semesters of classes and 1 semester allowed for Thesis writing, is the result of the collaboration between the NCSR-D (IIT) and the University of the Peloponnese, will (re)start in October. Read more

Upcoming! 3rd year of postgraduate studies program "Specialization in ICTs & Special Education - Psychopedagogy of Integration"

The 3nd round of classes for the postgraduate studies program entitled "Specialization in ICTs and Special Education-Psychopedagogy of Integration", organised by Net Media Lab in collaboration with the Democritus University of Thrace, will begin 05 October. Read more

Upcoming! "Special Education & ICT" seminar series

For the 6th consecutive year, Net Media Lab will organise an annual seminar series entitled "Specialization in Special Education and Information and Communication Technologies", consisting of 10 individual seminars, each of which lasts 32 hours over a period of 2 weekends. Read more

Upcoming! Free 2-day seminar on ICTs & Special Education

For the 7th consecutive year, Net Media Lab organises a free educational seminar entitled "ICTs and Special Education: The Spectrum of Autism" at the Main Auditorium of NCSR "Demokritos", the weekend 22-23/09/2018. Read more

25 June-6 July: Educational workshops SMARTcamp 2018, a five-year cycle has been completed
Two weeks of knowledge and experiments took place during the SMARTcamp summer workshops, bringing the students closer to Digital arts & Animation and Robotics thematic areas. This year the Integrated Systems Laboratory (ISL) of IIT, NCSR-D has achieved a significant milestone of completing a five-year cycle of successful organization of these workshops. The willingness and the dedication of the students overall, was remarkable which was depicted on the exceptional work that the students delivered in all courses. Read more

First ever postgraduate Diplomas by IIT

In June 2018, Net Media Lab of the Institute of Informatics and Telecommunications awarded the first ever postgraduate diplomas at NCSP-D for the postgraduate studies program "Specialization in ICTs & Special Education - Psychopedagogy of Integration", in collaboration with the Democritus University of Thrace. Read more

Lecture series at IIT

The IIT Seminar series gives the opportunity to postgraduate students, to new or existing members of the Institute's labs, to internal and external (invited) speakers to present their work and establish collaborations. List of upcoming and past seminars

2018-19: topics for MSc/BSc Theses and internships by IIS

See all the topics proposed by the Intelligent Information Systems (IIS) Division of IIT, for MSc/BSc theses and internships for 2017-18, in scientific areas like algorithms, artificial intelligence, machine learning, image analysis, and many more.

• Internships completed by: Giannoukos T., Kokkou M., Manolas D., Mantenogllou P., Melas P., Mpairaktari K., Stamouli C., Thanasoulas G., Mparmpakos P., Zidianakis M., Skarlis V., Topalis C., Giakoumatos A., Fotopoulos P., Kousathanas N., Orfanidi M. & Varsou P. Read more

Miscellaneous

8 May: IIT part of History!

Scientific article "Aspects of the History of Computing in Modern Greece", by K. Dritsa, D. Mitropoulos and D. Spinellis, published on May 8, in the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, highlights some of our Institute's important contributions, from Proteas to Ariadnet, to the History of Computing in Greece. Read more

A Net Media Lab's study-article has been included in an OECD's Strategic proposal

under the title: "Making Innovation Benefit All: Policies for Inclusive Growth", targeting Country Members. Read more

A Net Media Lab's study has been included in a "white paper"

titled "Strategic proposal for blockchain economy – virtual coins, and inclusive-supportive activities for people with disabilities". Read more

The Net Media Lab's project ieWomen in EDPR 2017

ieWomen is the unique project from Greece that is referenced in the Europe's Digital Progress Report (EDPR) 2017 Country Profile Greece and has assigned the title "Highlight of the year 2017". Read more

• 10 new job openings. IIT keeps on expanding: ten (10) new job openings were announced by IIT between May and August 2018. Complete list of job openings

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