ICS-FORTH & CSD-UoC Labs

18.45 - 19.45

In this section representatives from ICS-FORTH and UoC, CSD Laboratories will inform us about each laboratory research interests, running projects, goals etc. Consequently, graduate and undergraduate students will be able to know many details about each laboratory and choose which one better fits them to seek and perform an internship, their thesis, or even to work at. The presentation of each lab will last for 6 minutes. Each speaker should provide the presentation in PDF format and a link to his/her personal webpage by sending an e-mail to gsacsd@uoc.gr.

Laboratory: Computer Architecture and VLSI Systems (CARV)
Speaker: Dr. Vassilis Papaefstathiou
Speaker title: Assistant Researcher (Researcher C) of CARV, ICS-FORTH
Description: The Computer Architecture and VLSI Systems (CARV) Laboratory of the Institute of Computer Science (ICS), FORTH, was established in 1988. CARV promotes research, development, and education in the design and implementation of Computing Systems. We develop state-of-the-art prototypes, infrastructures, and innovative technologies that aim to stimulate entrepreneurship and impact the industry. CARV brings together multi-disciplinary expertise in the mutually interacting areas of nanoelectronic circuits and systems, architecture, systems software, compilers, parallel programming, and concurrency theory.

Laboratory: Computational Vision and Robotics (CVRL)
Speaker: Prof. Panos Trahanias
Speaker title: Professor Computer Science Dpt, Univ. of Crete and Head, CVRL, ICS-FORTH
Description: The Computational Vision and Robotics Laboratory was established in 1985. The groups' activities emphasize research and development in the areas of computer vision, computer graphics and autonomous mobile robots with "intelligent" behaviour. More specifically, the research efforts are directed towards visual perception of static and dynamic characteristics of the 3-D world (depth, shape, color, motion), object tracking, robot navigation, behaviour modelling and real-time graphics. Additionally, the group is interested in the exploitation of machine learning techniques in robotic applications. In this context, reinforcement learning and genetic algorithms are used to enable a robot to improve its skills and acquire new ones. Another research topic is related to the study of parallel implementations of the developed algorithms. Such issues are critical towards developing autonomous robots that are able to exhibit specific behaviours in real time. Finally, issues related with image and video communication are also investigated. In addition to the research work outlined above, CVRL also aims at applying the methods, technologies, and tools it develops in domains such as industrial automation, the support of people with special needs, space monitoring and security, home automation, virtual heritage, augmented reality etc..

Laboratory: Distributed Computing Systems (DCS)
Speaker: Prof. Evangelos Markatos
Speaker title: Professor Computer Science Dpt, Univ. of Crete and Head, DCS, ICS-FORTH
Description: At the Distributed Computing Systems Lab, we are interested in experimentally studying such planet-wide distributed systems in order to understand the forces that drive their day-to-day operation, as well as the dimensions that sustain their long-term evolution. In simple terms, we are interested in learning what kind of traffic is that which flows through the "veins" of such systems? What holds these systems together? How do they respond to various types of attacks? Under what circumstances would they collapse? How can we make them more robust? How can we trust them? How can we be safe in them?
Slides in PDF.
Slides in PPTX.

Laboratory: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
Speaker: Dr. Asterios Leonidis
Speaker title: RTD Personnel at HCI, ICS-FORTH
Description: The Human Computer Interaction (HCI) Laboratory of ICS-FORTH, established in 1989, is an internationally recognised centre of excellence, with accumulated experience in user interface software technologies, design methodologies, and software tools. The Laboratory carries out leading research activities focused on developing user interfaces for interactive applications and services that are accessible, usable, and friendly to all users in the Information Society, while, at the same time, providing an appropriate framework and tools for reducing development time and cost. The research activities of the Laboratory, rooted in the principles of Universal Access and Design for All, address the development of interactive applications and services for various platforms, such as personal computers, handheld computers, mobile phones, smart appliances, and other computational devices distributed in the environment. The Laboratory is actively engaged in technology and applications development in a variety of domains, including access to the World Wide Web, text processing, electronic books, interpersonal communications, education and vocational training, Telecommunications, Health Telematics and wearable computing. Most recent research activities of the Laboratory refer to Ambient Intelligence technologies and their applications in Smart Environments, following a User-Centred Design and Universal Access approach..
Slides in PDF.

Laboratory: Information Systems (ISL)
Speaker: Mr. Ioannis Chrysakis
Speaker title: Research and Development Engineer at ISL, ICS-FORTH
Description: Founded in 1986, the Information Systems Laboratory has become a major focal point in the international research community. It combines expertise in knowledge representation and reasoning, database systems, net-centric information systems, and conceptual modeling. Its grand research challenge is to succeed in the transition from traditional information systems, such as information retrieval systems, database and workflow management systems, to semantically rich, large-scale, adaptive information systems. Such systems will be characterized by large-scale semantic interoperation, massive distribution, and/or a high level of autonomy and self-adaptation. Besides conducting theoretical work on the above issues, ISL carries out applied research work in a number of application domains, including cultural informatics, biomedical informatics, e-learning, e-commerce and IT security. Work in these domains has a strong interdisciplinary character, since it includes the aspect of understanding the respective domain and modeling it through an appropriate conceptualization. Overall, the ISL aims to provide enabling technologies for the emergence of an information society and a knowledge economy.

Laboratory: Signal Processing (SPL)
Speaker: Dr. George Tzagkarakis
Speaker title: Principal Researcher at SPL, ICS-FORTH
Description: Research in SPL aspires to be at the forefront of signal processing with fundamental work on the development of image, audio, and speech signal processing theory based on non-Gaussian statistics, sinusoidal modeling, sparse representations, and compressed sensing. SPL researchers are active in applying state of the art signal processing techniques to a wide range of real world problems. Recent applications include distributed signal processing, immersive audio and multichannel audio coding, video image compression, speech synthesis with emphasis on voice conversion, speech enhancement, and other multimedia related technologies. SPL maintains research collaboration with other laboratories within FORTH-ICS including TNL, CML and CVRL and has close academic ties with the Department of Computer Science and other departments and institutes within the University of Crete. SPL currently consists of 3 faculty, 3 post-doctoral fellows, and 13 graduate students. Researchers in SPL are involved in a range of interdisciplinary research projects maintaining several active international collaborations with both academic and industrial partners across Europe, the US and Asia. Most recent ones include the Universities of Valencia and of the Basque Country, Spain; CEA/Saclay, France Telecom, and SAGEM, France; KTH, Sweden; the University of Southern California, USA; TWS, Italy; Cidana, China. Funding of this research has mainly been provided by the European Commission.
Slides in PDF.
Slides in PPTX.

Laboratory: Computational BioMedicine (CBML)
Speaker: Dr. Angelina Kouroubali
Speaker title: Collaborating Researcher at CBML, ICS-FORTH
Description: The mission of the Computational BioMedicine Laboratory (CBML) is to develop novel ICT technologies in the wider context of personalized, predictive and preventive medicine aiming at:

• the optimal management of chronic diseases (such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease) and the development of clinical decision support systems,
• the optimization of diagnosis and treatment through the use of novel medical imaging analysis tools and predictive models,
• the integration of multi-level biomedical data for supporting postgenomic clinical trials,
• the integration of in vitro, in vivo and clinical data with mathematical and computational approaches to better understand cancer complexity and progression,
• the implementation of well-established in silico methods and tools towards novel approaches that could be incorporated in the medical clinical research,
• the understanding of spatio-temporal neuronal dynamics of the brain reflecting different perceptual, motor or cognitive states that may be indicative of a wider range of cognitive functions or brain pathologies,
• the semantic interoperability of biomedical data tools and models for enhancing biomedical knowledge discovery.
• the theoretical and algorithmic research in areas of bioinformatics to improve the state- of-the-art and invent solutions to new problems,
• the applications of the state-of-the-art and best-practices in computational methods on specific biological problems with the intent to discover new biomedical knowledge, and support Translation BioMedical methodologies.

These active research directions are supported by several EC and national grants as well as a number of strategic clinical collaborations ensuring that the research output is driven from the actual clinical requirements and be translated to the clinical setting. Our mission in conclusion, is to contribute through our technology to the expected transformation of medicine making disease more preventable and treatment outcome more predictable, effective and personalized.

Laboratory: Telecommunications and Networks Laboratory (TNL)
Speaker: Maria Papadopouli
Speaker title: Professor of Computer Science, University of Crete and FORTH
Description: TNL's mission is research excellence in the areas of telecommunications, networks, network monitoring, measurements, and analysis, software-defined networks (SDNs), Internet of Things (IoT), software-defined radios, mobile computing, localization, network economics, and network security. TNL maintains a number of servers, network testbeds, and various spectrum monitoring equipments. It has an active participation in several EU, national, and industrial funded projects. Its members have received several distinctions, important grants (e.g., ERC starting, ERC Proof of Concept), and faculty awards (e.g., Google, IBM).
Slides in PDF.

Laboratory: Gnosis Data Analysis (Gnosis-DA), Computer Science Dpt, Univ. of Crete
Speaker: Prof. Ioannis Tsamardinos
Speaker title: Professor, Computer Science Dpt, Univ. of Crete and Founder & CEO, Gnosis Data Analysis
Description: Founded in 2013, Gnosis Data Analysis (Gnosis DA) is a University of Crete spin-off located in Heraklion, Crete, Greece.
Our mission: empowering companies and research institutions with powerful data analysis solutions and services.
Our personnel has a long experience in advanced statistics and machine learning, particularly in Predictive Analytics and Causal Analysis.
Predictive analytics: trends hidden in the data can predict the future evolution of markets, sale or more. Mathematical modelling and machine learning unveils these trends and enable prediction.
Causal Analysis: predicting what will happen is often not enough; sometimes the goal is to control future events. Discovering causal relationships in your data through causal analysis enables targeted interventions.
Slides in PDF.
Slides in PPTX.

Laboratory: Speech Signal Processing (SSPL), Computer Science Dpt, Univ. of Crete
Speaker: Dr. George Kafentzis
Speaker title: Post-doctoral Researcher, Adjunct Lecturer, Computer Science Department, Univ. of Crete
Description: The Speech Signal Processing Laboratory (SSPL) is located at the brand new campus Computer Science Department, University of Crete, in Heraklion, Crete, Greece. Research in SSPL aims at improving the state-of-the-art in speech signal processing and its applications. Our research interests include Statistical Speech Synthesis, Speech Intelligibility, Machine Learning for Speech Applications, Sinusoidal/Harmonic Analysis and Coding, Speech Pathology Detection, Speech and Speaker Modifications, Analysis of Expressive Speech and Interfaces for Speech Applications. SSPL has strong connections with industry (Toshiba, Apple, Orange, Google, etc.) and top-class universities (Univ. of Edinburgh, Univ. of the Basque Country, Univ. College London, etc). Funding of its researchers mainly comes from industrial contracts and the European Commission.
Slides in PDF.
Slides in PPTX.