{"id":609,"date":"2026-05-11T13:33:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T13:33:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/textailes-eccch.eu\/?page_id=609"},"modified":"2026-05-11T13:33:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T13:33:35","slug":"athena-resarch-center","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/textailes-eccch.eu\/index.php\/athena-resarch-center\/","title":{"rendered":"Athena Resarch Center"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Dr. Georgios Ioannakis<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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George Alexis Ioannakis is a Principal Researcher (Researcher Grade B\u2019) at Athena Research Center with experience in European and national R&D projects, where he has contributed to and coordinated complex, interdisciplinary research efforts. His background spans 3D mesh processing, computer vision, and machine learning. In TEXTaiLES, he serves as the coordinator of the consortium. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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He received his Diploma (B.Eng, M.Eng) in Rural and Surveying Engineering of the Aristoteles University of Thessaloniki (AUTh) in 2011. In 2018, he received his PhD degree from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department (ECE) of the Democritus University of Thrace (DUTh) in the research domain of 3D mesh processing and information retrieval. Since 2013, he has joined the Institute for language and Speech processing (ILSP) of the Athena Research Center (ARC) as a member of the Multimedia Research Group. As of 2020, Dr. Ioannakis is an assistant researcher at the Institute for Language and Speech Processing of ARC.  His research interests include processing, content-based retrieval and classification of three-dimensional (3D) polygonal meshes, photogrammetry, digital image processing, pattern recognition, machine learning and the construction and programming of UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Systems). <\/p>\n<\/details>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Dr. Vassilis Katsouros<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Vassilis\u00a0Katsouros\u00a0is the Director of\u00a0Institute for Language and Speech Processing (ILSP)\u00a0at the\u00a0Athena Research\u00a0Center\u00a0(ATHENA RC)\u00a0since\u00a0June 2019. He received his M.Eng. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece, in 1992.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In 1993 he obtained the M.Sc. with distinction\u00a0in Communications and Signal Processing from Imperial College of Science Technology and\u00a0Medicine, University of London, UK. In 1997 he received\u00a0his Ph.D. degree\u00a0in\u00a0Mathematical modelling and Stochastic Control from Imperial College.\u00a0\u00a0Since\u00a01998 he has been working at the ILSP,\u00a0as head\u00a0of the Quality Assurance Office\u00a0(1999-2003),\u00a0in 2004-2007\u00a0he has elected Researcher at ILSP, in 2008-2015 he has promoted to\u00a0Senior Researcher\u00a0and in 2015-today he has promoted to Researcher Director.\u00a0\u00a0He has been elected as President of the Scientific Council of ILSP for the period 2009-2018, as member of the Board of Athena RC since 2016-2019 as\u00a0an elected representative of the Researchers\u00a0and Vice-President since 2019.\u00a0He was among the founding members of\u00a0LibrisTech, the first spin-off company of ILSP, where he acted as managing director until September 2004\u00a0and\u00a0until\u00a02010\u00a0he was President\u00a0of the\u00a0Board.\u00a0He is also\u00a0Member of the Board at\u00a0the\u00a0Information Society\u00a0S.A\u00a0since\u00a0June 2019.\u00a0His research interest involves\u00a0digital\u00a0signal processing, statistics analysis, machine learning and artificial intelligence\u00a0with applications in a wide variety of signals and data (voice, music, image, video, sensorial data, etc.)\u00a0He has authored a significant number of scientific publications in the above fields in books, scientific journals as well as international conferences. He has supervised doctor thesis and postgraduate thesis\u00a0as well as teaches in postgraduate programs in his research subjects.\u00a0He has also participated in the organization international conferences such as\u00a0\u0399CFHR 2014, he has\u00a0participated\u00a0in international competitions in\u00a0handwriting processing technologies\u00a0(ICDAR & ICFHR Contests), music technology (MIREX) and sensor data analysis (PHM Data Challenge)\u00a0with\u00a0among the best\u00a0submissions\u00a0and his is also\u00a0reviewer\u00a0in scientific journals and international conferences.\u00a0He has coordinated the quality control of various commercial products and software systems, he has been involved in research and development programs at\u00a0national\u00a0and European level, having the role of\u00a0the coordinator, the scientific manager or\u00a0a member of scientific teams.\u00a0\u00a0He is member at the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers)\u00a0since 1992, of the\u00a0Technical Chamber of Greece since 1992. Since 1999\u00a0he is a certified market maker\/trader of the Derivatives Market at the Athens Exchange\u00a0and\u00a0of the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) since 2005.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/details>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Dr. Christina Magrariti<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Dr Christina Margariti gained her BA(Hons) in Conservation from the University of the Arts London and her MA in Textile Conservation at the Textile Conservation Centre\/University of Southampton, UK, where she also completed her PhD. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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She was a Marie Sklodowska Curie Fellow at the University of Copenhagen (project FIBRANET, 2017-2019). She is the Head of the Applied Research Department at the Directorate of Conservation\/Hellenic Ministry of Culture and a collaborator of the Athena Research Center through the project TEXTaiLES. In the COST Action CA19131 EuroWeb, Europe through Textiles (2020-2024), she was the Leader of WG1 Textile Technologies and she is responsible for the instrumental analysis of Mycenaean textiles at the ELIDEK program FAROS, The Fabric of Kings (2023-2025, PI S Spantidaki). She has taught textile conservation at the Technological Educational Institute of Athens (now University of West Attica), the UCL Qatar, and the University of Copenhagen. <\/p>\n<\/details>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Thomas Pappas<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Mr. Thomas Pappas has a bachelor’s degree on Mathematics and a master’s degree in Algorithms, Logic and Discrete Mathematics from the National Kapodistrian University of Athens and the National Technical University of Athens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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During his master thesis he studied selfish routing games while his academic interests are pattern emergence and evolutionary game theory. During his studies he also started working as a Backend Web Developer for which he has over 10 years of experience in the field.  Lately, he\u2019s been working at the Athena Research Center as a Researcher Associate where he tackles problems around Computational Geometry, software analysis and ML algorithm optimisation.  <\/p>\n<\/details>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Stelios Alvanos<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Mr. Stelios Alvanos is an EECE graduate from the Democritus University of Thrace since 2024.  Currently, he is a PhD candidate under prof. Nikolaos Mitianoudis. His research interests involve machine learning and its applications to image and audio, with a current focus on machine learning applications in music information retrieval. He is currently a research associate at the Athena Research Center specializing in software development and machine learning operations. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Christos Chatzisavvas<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Mr. Christos Chatzisavvas received the Diploma in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Democritus University of Thrace (DUTh), Greece in 2024, where he is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree. He is also a Research Associate at the Athena Research Center. His research interests focus on Computer Vision and Unsupervised Learning, with applications in Object-Centric Learning and Semantic Segmentation. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Hercules Gousis<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Mr. Hercules Gousis is a 5th-year student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Democritus University of Thrace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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His research interests focus on robotics, 3D modeling and design, and computer graphics. His thesis involves the design of an autonomous platform for 3D object digitization and the implementation of autonomous 3D reconstruction algorithms on real robotic platforms. He is currently a research intern at the Athena Research Center , where he specializes in robotics applications and 3D object reconstruction.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Dr. Despina Tsiafaki<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Dr. Despoina Tsiafaki\u00a0is\u00a0a classical archaeologist, Director of Research, and Head of the Culture and Creative Industries Department at the Institute for Language and Speech Processing (ILSP), Athena Research Center. Her work bridges archaeology, digital humanities, and cultural heritage, with a focus on visual culture, identity, and connectivity in Northern Greece and the Aegean. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Since 1994, she has\u00a0participated\u00a0in the\u00a0Karabournaki\u00a0excavation (Thermaic\u00a0Gulf) and has co-directed it since 2014. She has led and contributed to interdisciplinary projects involving digital documentation, metadata design, and the development of FAIR-aligned research infrastructures. Her\u00a0expertise\u00a0includes managing archaeological datasets, comparative collections, and the digital transformation of heritage research. Dr. Tsiafaki also addresses the ethical and epistemological dimensions of digital heritage and AI in archaeology. She actively fosters collaboration between humanities and technical domains and contributes to national and European initiatives promoting innovation, accessibility, and responsible use of archaeological data.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/details>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Vaia Zachari<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Ms. Vaia Zachari is an EECE graduate of Democritus University of Thrace. She is currently a PhD candidate at Democritus University of Thrace under the supervision of Prof. Ioannis Pratikakis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Her research interests include 3D reconstruction and scene understanding, with a focus on computer vision and machine learning methods for 3D data. She is also a research associate at Athena Research Center, where she works on robot-acquired 3D data, focusing on the automatic identification of problematic regions in reconstructed scenes and the development of more automated, robust, and semantically enriched 3D reconstruction workflows.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Ioanna Kechribari<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Ms. Ioanna Kechlimpari received the Diploma in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Democritus University of Thrace, Greece, in 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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She has professional experience as an engineer, with a focus on field engineering and automation systems. She is currently a Research Associate at the Athena Research Center, where she works on cultural heritage and environmental projects, contributing to the development and management of datalake infrastructures.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Efstratios Politis<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Mr.\u00a0Efstratios Politis is an\u00a0undergrad\u00a0in Electrical and Computer Engineering at\u00a0Democritus University of Thrace, where he is currently working on his diploma thesis on\u00a0Design and Evaluation of Federated Learning Systems for Graph-Based Recommendation. He is also a Research Associate at Athena Research\u00a0C enter, working on\u00a0data management, API interfaces, systems\u00a0architecture\u00a0and data visualization. His scientific interests span a wide range of topics,\u00a0from theoretical computer science (algorithms, graphs, data structures, topology) to hardware design and verification, nanotechnology and quantum computing, data\u00a0analysis\u00a0and visualization.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Georgios Ioannakis George Alexis Ioannakis is a Principal Researcher (Researcher Grade B\u2019) at Athena Research Center with experience in European and national R&D projects, where he has contributed to and coordinated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-609","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/textailes-eccch.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/textailes-eccch.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/textailes-eccch.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textailes-eccch.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textailes-eccch.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/textailes-eccch.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":803,"href":"https:\/\/textailes-eccch.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/609\/revisions\/803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/textailes-eccch.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}