My current research interests are in three fields (1) Smart/Intelligent Cities: formation and evolution; strategy and planning; platforms for sustainability, growth, safety, and governance; web and mobile applications design and development; open data; Internet of Things; and future Internet technologies, (2) Cyber-Physical Systems of Innovation: smart innovation ecosystems; knowledge and innovation networks; user-driven innovation; platform-ecosystems; software applications and platforms for innovation; collective intelligence; technology transfer; collaborative new product development; digital marketplaces, and (3) New Media: web and mobile technologies for new media; immersive storytelling; social media; and civic media.
I work as a European Projects manager at PRAGMA IoT, an innovative private company advancing a wide array of smart city technologies such as IoT, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and blockchain, all aimed at shaping sustainable, intelligent urban and industrial environments. My role involves orchestrating collaborative efforts across diverse initiatives, including RE-WITCH, focused on advancing renewable energy technologies; AUgmented CCAM, aimed at enhancing connected and automated mobility; CHRONICLE, focused on improving building performance in order to increase energy efficiency, comfort and well-being; and CREAMARE, where creativity meets maritime heritage to address pressing environmental issues. Passionate about leveraging technology to address complex challenges, I am dedicated to driving high-impact, user-centered solutions in project leadership and digital product design.
From 2018 to 2023, I’ve been a Research Associate at the Information Technologies Institute (ITI) of the Centre of Research and Technology Hellas. My main research project, IRIS: Integrated and Replicable Solutions for Co-Creation in Sustainable Cities, was a Smart Cities and Communities Lighthouse project, funded by the European Commission through the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. The project was designed to address an urgent need to deliver energy and mobility services that are cost-effective, accessible and reliable – making a clear contribution a more sustainable urban environment and a better quality of life for its inhabitants. A network of pilot (Göteborg, Utrecht, Nice) and early adopter cities (Alexandroupolis, Foscani, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Vaasa) worked with a mix of universities and research organisations, local authorities, innovation agencies and private expertise to accelerate entire communities to deliver ambitious energy, mobility and ICT empowered initiatives.
From 2000 to 2018, I’ve been a Senior Researcher in the URENIO Research Unit of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. My latest smart city project, STORM CLOUDS, aimed at deeply exploring how the needed shift by Public Authorities to a cloud-based paradigm in service provisioning should be addressed, mainly from the point of view of the end-users, and taking full advantage of edge ICT. The project defined useful guidelines on how to address the process in order to accelerate it, for Public Authorities and policymakers. These guidelines were prepared based on direct experimentation in 4 European cities, Águeda (PT), Manchester (UK), Valladolid (ES) and Thessaloniki (GR) creating a set of relevant use cases and best practices.
Since 1992 I have participated in more than 30 research projects funded by European Commission or the Greek Government.