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Laboratory of informatics and Robotics in Education and Society

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About Us

Members

Nikolaos Fachantidis

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Nikolaos Fachantidis is the mind behind the lab. He is an Associate Professor at the School of Education and Social Politics at the University of Macedonia and also the Director of LIRES Lab. Prof. Fachantidis received his diploma from the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) department of AUTH, Greece, and his PhD in robotics. He has worked as a researcher at the same department, the Computer Science dept. of UPENN Philadelphia and the Faculty of Education of AUTH. From 2000 to 2014, he has worked as a lecturer, assistant, and associate professor at the dept. of Education, in the field of New Technologies in education and as an associate professor at the Department of Informatics and Telecommunication Engineering, Faculty of the Engineering University of Western Macedonia. Prof. Fachantidis is the Director of the Robotics Lab, and he leads the multidisciplinary research field “Socially Assistive Robotics”. His research interests are focused on educational robotics, socially assistive robotics, development and evaluation of educational software, usage of New Technologies in and out of school, educators’ vocational training, and human-machine interface. He has acquired research funding, from the Greek National Research Foundation, the EU, and companies. He is a specialist in creating robot prototypes. The robot “Daisy”, for children with autism, has won the TELLUS awards 2015 for innovative technologies in Education (Paris 2015), while the presenters and animateurs “Roll” and “Rollita” have participated in fashion shows and interactive presentations.

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Kostas Zafiropoulos

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Kostas Zafiropoulos is a Professor of Quantitative Methods at the Department of Educational and Social Policy, University of Macedonia. He holds a degree in Mathematics from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and a PhD from its School of Primary Education. His teaching and research focus on statistics, quantitative methods, research methodology and data analysis, with extensive experience in the use of statistical tools such as SPSS and Jamovi. He has held several academic and administrative positions, including Vice Chair of the Department and Director of postgraduate programmes and research laboratories. His research interests cover educational research, technology and AI adoption in education, e-government, social media and network analysis, as well as quality assessment and public-sector management. He has published extensively in international scientific journals, supervised doctoral research, and serves as reviewer and editorial board member for several academic publications.

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Panagiotis Varsamis

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Panagiotis Varsamis is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Educational and Social Policy, University of Macedonia, specializing in Special Education and the education of individuals with motor and physical disabilities. He studied Physical Education and Sport Science at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and completed his PhD at the German Sport University Cologne. His research interests focus on inclusion, adapted physical education, psychomotor development, rehabilitation, social skills and educational support for students with special educational needs.

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Antonios Dimitriou

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Antonis G. Dimitriou is our engineer and good ideas back up 🙂 He received his diploma and Ph. D degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2001 and 2006, respectively, from the School of Electrical & Computer Engineering of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh), Greece. His Ph.D was on electromagnetic wave propagation modelling for wireless communications. Since 2014, he serves as a teaching and research faculty member in the same school. He has participated in 20 research projects, 9 of which since 2007 as a principal investigator in the fields of Robotics, Radio Frequency Identification (RFIDs) and Wireless Sensor Networks. He was involved in «HΟRIZON 2020-H2020-SEAC-2015-1-709515- “Science Technology Innovation Mathematics Engineering for the Young (STIMEY)», where his task was focused on the design (hardware, software) and deployment of the first social companion robot for student-motivation in education. Dr Dimitriou is currently the coordinator of the funded (~1M€) project “Intelligent Repeaters and Robots for Fast, Reliable, Low-Cost RFID Inventorying and Localization”, where prototype SLAM-capable terrestrial robots and drones are designed and constructed to continuously perform inventorying and localization of RFID-tagged items in any (including unmapped) area. He is also the coordinator of “CultureID: The Internet of Culture in the Museum”, which aims at installing RFID technology in the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, which will enable new ways of interactions between the visitors, the exhibits and a prototype social robot, currently developed and constructed for this purpose. From 2013 to 2017, he has been a Management Committee Member in the COST Action IC1301 “Wireless Power Transmission for Sustainable Electronics”. He is the author of more than 70 journal and conference papers published in the scientific literature. He is currently an Associate Editor at IEEE Journal of Radio Frequency Identification. He is an IEEE Member since 2001. He has been a TPC member in major international conferences and has received invitations for talks in major international scientific conferences. He organised and hosted the “5th International Workshop on Wireless Power Transmission for Sustainable Electronics” in Thessaloniki in 2015. He serves as a reviewer in major journals and conferences. In 2001, he received the “Ericsson Award of Excellence in Telecommunications” (1st prize) for the best diploma-thesis of the year in the field of “Communications”. In 2011, he received the 2nd best student paper award in the 2011 RFID-Technology and Applications Conference. He has been honoured twice with the “IEEE Wireless Communications Letters Exemplary Reviewer Award” for 2012 and 2014 from the IEEE Communications Society, entering top 3% of reviewers for 2012 and 2014 respectively. Since 2014, Dr Dimitriou has been elevated to the grade of IEEE Senior Member.’ In 2021, he mentored team “VROOM” which received the 3rd place in the International Competition of Bosch “Future Mobility Challenge”, where teams from around the world deliver a prototype autonomous driving car in scale 1:10.

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Vassilios Dagdilelis

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Vassilios Dagdilelis is our wise member! He is a Professor at the Department of Educational and Social Policy of the University of Macedonia in “Applications of Informatics in Education” and also Chairman of the Board of EOPPEP. (National Organization for Certification of Qualifications and Vocational Guidance. In addition, he is an active member of the Laboratory of Informatics and Robotics Applications in Education and Society – LIRES. Dr. Dagdilelis received a degree in Mathematics from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 1976 Didactip , Universite GRENOBLE I in 1986, and his doctorate from the Department of Applied Informatics, University of Macedonia in 1996.

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Maria Sytziouki

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Dr Maria Sytziouki is faculty staff in the University of Macedonia. She holds a doctorate degree in Education Science and a Post-Doctorate Scholarship from Aristotle University of Thessalonica. Her specialization is in skills development and assessment, reskilling and upskilling of the workforce and talent acquisition. She has an extended teaching experience in University Sector in the subjects of lifelong learning and skills management, leading and managing people in non-formal educational sector, international education and training and organizational psychology. She works as an expert in national-international organisations and industry stakeholders in the fields of Skills and Qualifications Certification, in workforce planning and skills forecasting models and talent acquisition management. Maria Sytziouki interest focus on the technology integration (artificial intelligence, machine learning, augmented reality) in talent acquisition, learning and skills development, technology effects in workforce, skills analytics in different industries and job architecture and design in the technology sector.

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Ioannis Lefkos

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Ioannis the problem solver (and the ‘muscles’) of our team! He is currently working as Laboratory Teaching Staff at the Department of Educational & Social Studies, University of Macedonia, teaching courses of Educational Applications of ICT. He is a member of the Laboratory of Informatics & Robotics for the Education & the Society (LIRES). Ioannis has a Major in Pedagogy and a Major in Science, an M.Sc., and a Ph.D. in Science Education & ICT in Education. He has significant experience teaching at the Departments of Primary Education and Physics of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, at the Muslim Teacher Academy, at the University of Macedonia, and the Open University, in graduate and Masters level programs. He also has many years of teaching experience in Primary Education and as a Teacher Trainer in face2face or distance learning programs. Ioannis is also a Scientix Ambassador and has been involved in a number of European and National research projects, working on the development and exploitation of educational software or the development and evaluation of educational materials. His research interests focus on Teacher Training, ICT in education, Social & Educational Robotics, Science Education, and Scientific Literacy.

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Marianna Karatsiori

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Marianna Karatsiori, also known as our cultural ambassador! She is a teaching fellow at UoM and she teaches the courses of Pedagogy, Intercultural Education, Adult Education and Digital applications in education. Marianna worked as an education programme expert at the Ministry of Education and participated as a member of the scientific team at numerous national and European projects. Marianna was also responsible for providing advocacy and guidance to teachers to integrate web 2.00 tools into the classroom through delivering of webinars on several subjects related to ICT and innovative methodologies to a range of audiences (teachers, school leaders, policy makers). Marianna has worked at the International Bureau of Education (IBE) field office of UNESCO where she provided country specific Technical Assistance to UNESCO member states to enhance the capacities of governments to cater for quality education for all, based on quality and inclusive curricula and textbooks, teaching and learning strategies. Marianna has a long teaching experience in Universities, Technological Institutions, secondary and primary education. She has written books and published articles in international journals and conference proceedings about education reforms, pre-service teacher training, innovative methods of teaching and learning etc. Her main interests are teacher education and professional development, educational policy guidance and reform, ICT in the classroom.

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Vasileios Neofotistos

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Vasileios Neofotistos is a member of the Laboratory Teaching Staff at the Department of Educational and Social Policy, University of Macedonia. He holds a degree in Computer Engineering, two Master’s degrees in Adult Education and Graphic Arts–Multimedia, and a PhD from the University of Macedonia focusing on the relationship between ICT and learning theories in education. His teaching and research interests include ICT in education, distance learning, educational technology, robotics and STEAM, adult education, educational leadership, and the use of emerging digital technologies in teaching and learning.

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Sofia Pliasa

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Sofia Pliasa, PhD, aka the Dr. Daisy, is a postdoctoral researcher at the LIRES Lab, and the Department of Educational and Social Policy, University of Macedonia. Her PhD thesis ‘Design and Implementation of socially assistive robots to implement the role of mediator between teachers and children with developmental disabilities – application to activities with children with autism spectrum disorders’, conducted with the Daisy robot, and she established the ‘Arrow Theory’, for applications between robots and children in the autism spectrum. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher, participating in research programs such as the Able With Tech Tools (Erasmus +) with the aim of creating a Curriculum for students, for the use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and Robotics for the development of social skills and social integration of children in the autism spectrum, the national funded CultureID Project for the design of a socially assistive robot for a museum environment. She studied Kindergarten Teacher at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), and has been working in special education for the last ten years. Furthermore, she owns a Master’s degree in Teaching and New Technologies (University Western Macedonia) and has participated in HORIZON2020 and ERASMUS research programs for the utilization of New Technologies and robotics applications in the field of education. She is publishing her research in well-known international journals, conference proceedings, and collective volumes. She is also a lecturer at the MPS “Robotics, STEAM and New Technologies in Education” at DIPAE and has taught in the Department of Preschool Education (DIPAE) the course of Informatics. Likewise, she is an instructor at the distance seminar of KEDIVIM of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (EKPA) “Digital Narration in Education “and also in the distance seminar of KEDIVIM of the University of Macedonia “Digital Technologies in Living & Remote Education”.

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Chrissi Nerantzi

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Dr Chrissi Nerantzi (@chrissinerantzi) is a Reader in Academic CPD in the University Teaching Academy at Manchester Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom (UK). Her teaching practice as an academic developer and educator is playful, experimental and open. She teaches on the MA in Higher Education, supports colleagues in curriculum design across disciplines and professional areas and in pedagogic research and scholarship of teaching and learning. Her focus is on teaching excellence and innovations in learning, teaching and assessment. Her research interests are in the area of creativity, openness, collaborative learning and communities. Chrissi is regularly invited to share her work at conferences and events. She is a prolific writer. Her co-edited book with Professor Alison James The Power of Play was the first of its kind globally peer reviewed book on playful learning and has been downloaded over 23,000 times via Springerlink. Chrissi has initiated a series of open courses and professional communities with colleagues from her own and other institutions with international reach that have been sustained over many years (examples include @openfdol, @byod4l, @lthechat, #creativeHE, TLC). Many of her pedagogical ideas have been adopted by colleagues in her own institution and elsewhere. She was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship by the Higher Education Academy in 2015, was named the ALT Learning Technologist of the Year 2017, received the GO-GN Best Open Research Practice Award in 2018 and became a GO-GN Fellow in 2020. Chrissi is a Visiting Professor at the University of Bolton (UK), an Adjunct Professor at the University Nova Gorica in Slovenia and an Advisory Board member of the global UNESCO Programme Open Education for a Better World. “Before acting on this email or opening any attachments you should read the Manchester Metropolitan University email disclaimer available on its website http://www.mmu.ac.uk/emaildisclaimer “

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Anna-Maria Velentza

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Anna-Maria Velentza is the kind of ‘give me the job to get it done’ member! She is a PhD student in the Laboratory of Informatics and Robotics in Education and Society, University of Macedonia in the Human-Robot Interaction domain. She received her BSc degree in Psychology from the University of Crete and her MSc in Computational Neuroscience and Cognitive Robotics from the University of Birmingham. She is experienced in designing and implementing original research with socially assistive robots, carrying out human experiments in various environments (i.e., typical, and special educational, museum etc). She has worked in the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory, Birmingham UK, developing autonomous systems for robots, in CN-CR, center for neuroscience and robotics, Birmingham, UK, working on Model Comparison on perceptual decision making and also in Telecommunication System Institute, Technical University of Crete at Horizon funded projects in the human-robot interaction domain. From 2014 to 2017 she was a research associate in the Transformable Intelligent Environment Laboratory (TIE Lab), Technical University of Crete, Chania, Greece while from 2015-2017 she was the Coordinator of the Prsychospatial Department of TIE Lab, a multidisciplinary group of undergraduate students, designing and carrying out cognitive experiments on the effects of environmental conditions on perception, attention, and mood, utilizing machine learning processes through neural networks. She has worked in the STIMEY Project, conducting research on the effects of the prototype SAR STIMEY on students’ attitudes, CultureID Project, collaborating with engineers to design a robot-prototype for museum interaction, and in “Designed for Better Learning” project as Member of the assessment committee. Her PhD is funded by national competitive scholarship program (ESPA). Her research is getting published in high quality conferences and journals, and she has been for multiple times an invited speaker in international workshops, conferences, and seasonal schools talking about Human- Robot Interaction, Cyber Physical Systems, and how to incorporate psychological methodology and principles in robotics research.

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Christina Pasalidou

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Christina Pasalidou is our most willing to help member! She is a PhD student in the Department of Educational and Social Policy of the University of Macedonia. Her doctorate thesis is about Human – Robot Interaction (HRI) in Augmented Reality learning environments. She has obtained a Master of Science degree (MSc) in the field of Educational Sciences and Lifelong Learning, specialized in “Informatics and New Technologies in Education”. During her Master’s studies, she focused on Augmented Reality technology and its use for educational purposes. Her Master’s thesis included a quantitative research on “Design, development of educational activities utilizing Augmented Reality and research of teachers’ attitudes”. She has conducted literature reviews on Augmented Reality in Education and Robotics and has also designed Augmented Reality applications for mobile devices. Pasalidou Christina is a graduate of the Pedagogical Department of Primary Education of the University of Ioannina with a degree of 9.33 and has received an IKY scholarship from the State Scholarships Foundation for her exceptional academic performance. She has participated in HORIZON 2020 research and innovation programme, receiving funding from the General Secretariat for Research and Technology – GSRT (As a reward for participation in competitive EU programs), Science Technology Innovation Mathematics Engineering for the Young (STIMEY). She is also a member of the Robotics Academy of the University of Macedonia and the Lires Lab (Laboratory of Informatics and Robotics in Education and Society), focusing on educational and social robotics applications. She has published and presented research papers at both national and international conferences. In addition, she has designed and implemented educational robotics courses for primary school students and has worked as a teacher, both in the private and public sector, in Primary Education. She is a communicative and willing person, supporting voluntary actions with a social impact.

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Kostas Papadopoulos

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Konstantinos Papadopoulos is an animal developer (literary replies in emails within milliseconds),CEO of PiSoft Ltd and leading software developer. Kostas holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science & Telecommunication Engineering and an M.Sc. in Applied Informatics, Technological Educational Institute of Central Macedonia. He is currently a PhD Student in the LIRES Lab, Department of Educational and Social Policy Faculty, University of Macedonia and his research focuses on the design and development of an emotion detection system for social robots. Moreover, he is a valuable research member in the LIRES team, responsible for architectural design & implementation of the Robot’s software and AI. He also worked in the European Union funded project Stimey as the lead software designer. From 2016 till today he is a Principal Software Engineer in Cruatech Ltd in Dublin, responsible for designing and implementing software solutions for Cruatech’s products or partners, specialized in physical security solutions. Moreover, from 2018, Kostas is the founder and CEO of PiSoft Ltd, being also a Team manager, and Lead Architect of software solutions. From 2009 to 2017, he was working as a freelancer in Thessaloniki, with extensive work done on IT and as a software engineer on different programming languages and platforms. He has also extended experience working as Software Engineer & System Administrator in MLS Pliroforiki S.A. in Thessaloniki, specialized in Android ROM, Android apps and web development for MLS products, and responsible for managing the web infrastructure behind their services and as Systems Administrator in TSE International LTD, Thessaloniki, responsible for managing their website portfolio, hosting infrastructure and local network, including network installations. In 2014 Kostas was responsible for all the IT work in the Agrotica exhibition for the Technological Educational Institute of Central Macedonia. Additionally, he has more than 17 years of experience on C#, PHP, CSS, JS, MVC, Java, Android, Swift(iPhone), Python, excellent knowledge on server hardening, able to do performance and security analysis on database infrastructure and system automation, while he also has extensive hands-on experience on hardware related failures.

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Christos Orfanidis

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Christos Orfanidis is the children’s’ favorite robotics trainer! He is an Electronic Engineer, graduated in 2009 from the Electronic School of Technological Applications of the Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki. Since 2021 he attends the postgraduate program in Educational Sciences to the University of Macedonia. He has extensive experience in Arduino and Python programming. He is a certified teacher in Educational Robotics by the “Robotics Academy” of the University of Macedonia, as he has been teaching and designing courses associated with educational robotics since 2016.

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Stavros Sfakianakis

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Stavros Sfakianakis is a Mechanical Engineer with an MSc with Honours, Class I in Mechanical Engineering, from the University of Leeds (2002). He has extended experience in the fields of research and development, industrial design, technical support, additive manufacturing production methods, design, fabrication and maintenance of CNC machines, supervision of production and installation of aluminium systems. Stavros is also experienced in the fields of technical support and customer development, concept and detailed design, as well as project management, design and implementation of technical education courses, as well as creation and translation of educational material. Until today he has work in numerous research programs. In the Horizon Project STIMEY he was responsible for the production of robot parts using additive manufacturing methods.He has worked at DELPHI Diesel Systems based at Innovation Centre Kent, UK as design Engineer with key responsibilities the design of new components and development of existing parts (using CAD, FEA), and as a 3D Printing Engineer using technologies such as FDM, SLA, SLS, and was involved in assembly, service and improvement modifications of 3D printers. His expertise include industrial design services (2D / 3D CAD), and he provides freelance services, has participated to a 3d printing company (Thes3D), and is the technical manager of unmanned aerial technologies company (GEP), where he has designed and produced a variety of aerial vehicles. He was honoured with the International Design Award (IDA) 2018 LA, USA for the design of the ACE for the design of Socially Assistive Robots. Stavros is also the Inventor of three patents.

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Evangelia Alepaki

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Ifigeneia Drami

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Vicky-Anneta Tsoulfaidou

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Vicky-Anneta Tsoulfaidou is our nurse! She graduated with honors from the Nursing Department of the School of Health Professions and Welfare, TEI Thessaloniki. Subsequently, she completed her studies as a preschool teacher at the Pedagogical School of Aristotle University and holds a postgraduate diploma in “Master of Arts in Lifelong Learning,” Department of Educational and Social Policy, University of Macedonia, also with honors. Her thesis, titled “Social Robotics Assistance and Children with Pediatric Surgical Problems: The Experience of Healthcare Professionals,” was carried out at the General Hospital of Thessaloniki G. Gennimatas, where she has been working for the last 14 years. In addition, she has been involved in research on Emotional Intelligence in groups of healthcare professionals, specifically in the field of surgery, with publications in scientific journals and participation in scientific conferences. She is a certified instructor of AO Trauma (a non-profit organization based in Switzerland, aimed at the continuous education of doctors and nurses in orthopedic trauma), participating in courses in Greece and abroad. Recently (2022), she assumed the position of Deputy Head in the Pediatric Surgery Department at the hospital where she works. Her research interests include the interaction of social assistance robots with patients, aiming to reduce unpleasant symptoms.
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Sophia Gioumatzidou

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Sophia Gioumatzidou is a STEM educator and graduate student at the University of Macedonia, specializing in human-robot interaction. She is completing her Master’s thesis on “The felting technique for creating garments for the robot NAO to enhance trust and familiarity” from the MSc “Applications of Information and Communication Technologies in Education and Lifelong Learning”, specializing in “STEM and Robotics in Education”. She holds a degree in Mathematics from the University of Crete. Her academic and professional pursuits focus on placing student needs at the heart of technological design and innovation. As a STEM educator, she incorporates the latest developments into her curriculum, develops educational robotics courses for elementary school students. She is an active member of the Lires Lab at the University of Macedonia and is dedicated to continuously updating her knowledge and is enthusiastic about testing new devices, evaluating their usability and determining their best applications. Her work emphasizes improving the human-robot interaction by promoting diversity and inclusion in education and society.
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Athanasia Tsifotidou

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Athanasia Tsifotidou is the archaeological spirit of the team! She is a postgraduate student of the MSc in Education Sciences: Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Implementation in Education and Lifelong Learning at the University of Macedonia. She studied at the Department of History and Archaeology at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, specializing in Archaeology and History of Art. She is actively occupied with educational issues , as she is a teacher of literature courses of secondary school. Last year (2023) she participated in the collection of research data in the research project "CultureID" in the context of the social robot interaction with primary school children at the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki. During her undergraduate studies, she did her internship at the innovative research centre "ATHENA", contributing to the development of the research project "ARENA". More particularly, she was involved in the design of the "ARENA" website and the design of educational material for children according to Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligence learning, for a more interesting tour of the archaeological sites of Dion and Olynthos. In the past she participated voluntarily in the university excavations of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki at Karambournaki and Vergina and in the university excavation of the DI.PA.E. at Neo Risio. Athanasia has a keen interest in education, art and culture, as well as in the contribution of technology to education and archaeology. That is why she is constantly trying to educate herself through seminars and workshops on these topics.
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Sofia Konstantinidou

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Former Members

Efthymios Valkanos

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Efthymios Valkanos, is a Professor in the Department of Education and Social Policies,

University of Macedonia, teaching the subjects “Continuing Vocational Education and Training of Business Executives and Organizations”, and also a member of collaborating teaching staff at the Hellenic Open University. He had studied in the United States Organization, Management and Financial management of ongoing organizations

Education and Training at Central Connecticut State University (Master of Science in Administration and Supervision) and received his Ph.D. diploma at the University of Connecticut in the field of Educational Administration (Ph.D. in Educational Administration) with a doctoral dissertation in the professional development of teachers. Efthymios has worked in the private sector for 15 years in Education and Training matters in organizations and businesses. His interests mainly focus on the management and utilization of human resources, education and development of human resources, and in the Professional Development of Teachers. He is the writer of 5 scientific books, and has been engaged in book editing, in which he is also author of crucial chapters in matters of Organizations’ Management, Education and Development of Human Resources, Adult Education and Lifelong. In addition, he has made numerous publications in Greek and International scientific conferences and journals.

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Nefeli Georgakopoulou

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Nefeli Georgakopoulou is our artist! She is an architect, designer, and digital artist. After her Master’s degree (2014) in Digital Arts and Virtual Reality from the Paris 8 University and the Athens School of Fine Arts, she became a member of the EnsadLab research laboratory of the École Nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris (2014-2017) and currently conducting her PhD at Paris 8 University. She has participated in several EC-funded ICT projects (H2020 “STIMEY”, S+T+ARTS Lighthouse-MindSpaces ) and her research interests include human-machine interaction, mixed reality, robotic art, digital aesthetics, and the use of AI in an artistic context. She has been the designer of the Socially Assistive Robot STIMEY, based on the target-population needs. She counts among her collaborators the noted designers’ Campana Brothers, the artist Nikos Alexiou in his participation at the 52 Biennial of Venice, and others. Likewise, she is the recipient of an IDA design award 2017 and among other things, she has created interactive artworks and installations that have been presented at various festivals such as the Amber in Istanbul, Piksel in Bergen, Laval Virtual in Laval, Digital Arts Festival in Athens, Futur en Seine Festival in Paris and others.

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Panagiota Christodoulou

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Panagiota Christodoulou, is the divinity of organization! She is a Ph.D. student at the Department of Primary Education, University of Western Macedonia, Greece Her Ph.D. examines whether a Socially Assistive Robot can promote conceptual change in science education for children and adolescents She has been engaged in research projects at National and European level (e g ARISTEIA, Erasmus+, HORIZON 2020 She has been a member of the European Association for Research in Learning and Instruction (and a member of the International Organising Committee of the EARLI JURE 2021 conference During STIMEY project 709515 she has been engaged in the participatory co-design and development of an online learning platform, which integrates social media, entrepreneurial tools, serious games, radio, and Socially Assistive Robotic Artefacts.

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Ioannis Agriomallos

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Ioannis Agriomallos is the machine learning force! He holds a 5-year Integrated Master on Electrical and Computer Engineering (MEng ECE) from National Technical University of Athens. My major is in Computer Science, with specialization in the fields of Computing Systems (diploma thesis), Computer Software, Control, Signal Processing, Robotics, Pattern Recognition, Computer Vision and Computer Networks. His working experience includes both academic and corporate profile, where his duties lie in the fields of Robotics, Machine Learning, Reinforcement Learning, Data Science, Forecasting, Linear Integer Programming and Recommender Systems. Ioannis’ academic experience as a Research Assistant stems mainly from two Horizon 2020 EU-funded robotics-related projects, RAMCIP and STIMEY. For RAMCIP his duties included grasp stability maintenance through slippage detection, utilizing machine learning classification techniques, and development of an appropriate reaction strategy (public deliverable available and corresponding publication in RAL & ICRA 2018). During that period he also worked on reacting to unintentional contact during human robot interaction (corresponding publication in MED 2017). For STIMEY he participated in socially assistive robotic artefacts for students’ emotional enhancement, community bonding and learning device, preparing 3D model representations in ROS Rviz. His extracurricular experience includes several online courses and specialization in Machine Learning, Computer Science and Robotics. His interests mainly revolve around those fields and how they can be applied to solve real-life problems and pave the way towards a new technological era.

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Stavros Ioannidis

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Stavros Ioannidis is our mathematician! He graduated with a diploma in Mathematics from the School of Sciences, University of Ioannina in 2017, and he holds two M.Sc. degrees, in “Robotics, STEAM and New Technologies in Education”, Department of Production Engineering and Management, International University of Greece and Master in Education and Lifelong Learning, specialized in “Informatics and New Technologies in Education”, University of Macedonia. He conducted his Diploma Thesis “Utilization of robots, social assistance in STEM courses: implementation in the STIMEY program” in collaboration with the LIRES Lab when he also become a member. Furthermore, he has worked in the Horizon 2020 Project Stimey in the socially assistive robot’s evaluation in real classroom environment and has published his research in international IEEE and Springer conferences. Stavros is a Specialist in the use of e-commerce techniques and tools, and holds an Educational competence of Adult Educators of Non-Formal Education. Moreover, he has programming skills in Java, Mathematics, C++ and is a skillful user in the GeoGebra software.

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Stella Pampaliari

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Stella Pampaliari is a Human-Robot linguistics researcher. She is a Ph.D. student at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) in the subject of Robots-Assisted Language Learning. Stella holds a B.Sc. in French Language and Literature, AUTH, and an M.Sc. in Sciences of Education and Lifelong Learning, ICT in Education, University of Macedonia. In 2019, she participated in the Horizon 2020 project “Science, Technology, Innovation, Mathematics, Engineering for the Young (STIMEY)”, responsible for running pilot implementations of a socially assistive robot prototype in classrooms in North Greece, creating original learning material, and also providing teachers’ support, and teachers’ and students’ IT services for the enrollment and use of the project’s educational platform. During those activities, she also becomes a member of the LIRES Lab. Moreover, she is trained in Adult Educational training issues and Second Chance Schools Educators’ issues from the Scientific Association for the Promotion of Educational Innovation (EEPEK) and has a long experience in teaching French and English language for school students. Stella has been a volunteer in the Faculty of Fine Arts, School of Visual and Applied Arts, AUTH.

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🕇Miltiadis Stampoulis

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Miltiadis Stampoulis, born in Thessaloniki, but doing research for smart cities (not only for his city). Miltiadis is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational & Social Policy, University of Macedonia, and an active member of LIRES Lab. He graduated from the Department of Economics of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Holder of a D.E.A. and Ph.D. in Economics of Human Resources from the University of Paris I – Pantheon – Sorbonne. In his doctoral dissertation, he discussed the issue of wage-labor relations in a local labor market. Miltiadis was a Special Scientific Associate of the General Secretariat of the Region of Central Macedonia with responsibilities in matters of employment and vocational training policies, as well as technical support of the Regional Vocational Training-Employment Committee of Central Macedonia. He is an expert writer and valuable researcher, expert in labor markets, employment policies, labor relations, and analysis of the training-employment relationship. Moreover, he is a member of the Economic Chamber of Greece, the European Union of Labor Economists (EALE), the Hellenic Society of Business Administration, and the Scientific Association of Adult Education. He has been a member of the Committee of Experts of the National Council for Competitiveness and Development.

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Ifigeneia Metaxa

CV
Ifigeneia Metaxa is our industrial project force (and may the force be with us….) She is a Chemical Engineer (2000, Department of Chemical Engineering of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki-AUTH, Greece), MSc in Quality Assurance (2008, Hellenic Open University, Greece) and PhD in Chemical Engineering (2006, AUTH, Greece) and more than 15 years of experience in quality assurance, project management, corporate training, R&D, eLearning and health & safety consulting. Actively involved in research and commercial projects in various domains (factories of the future, big data, ICT, health and safety, circular economy), funded by a variety of mechanisms (H2020, Eurostars, Leonardo, Erasmus+, GSRT, cascade funding). She has acted as Dissemination and Exploitation Manager, Project Manager and Team Leader. She is the VET Chair of European Digital Learning Network (D-Learn), supporting skills’ development through digital education and learning technologies. Dr. Metaxa is experienced in following agile approaches and in using TQM and WCM tools in different processes. She has applied the EFQM Excellence Model for self-assessment to enable organisations and individuals to determine their status and to plan their next steps and also for the management of innovation for disruptive products in industrial manufacturing. She has also taught in Vocational Schools and Technical Universities in Greece. She has participated in designing curricula, preparing training material and related benchmarking surveys and reports.
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