Keynote Speakers

Dr Athena Michailidou

Dr Athena Michailidou was appointed Minister of Education, Sport and Youth on March 1, 2023. Dr Michailidou is a graduate of the Cyprus Pedagogical Academy and has received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Thessaloniki. She has an M.A. in Education from the University of Manchester and has completed a Ph.D. in Educational Studies at the University of London, specializing in educational research and evaluation. Having served as a public-school teacher, she then went on to teach as a professor of Pedagogy at the Cyprus Pedagogical Institute, also serving in the positions of its Head of the Research and Evaluation Department, Head of the Educational Research and Evaluation Center and, finally, as its Director. In this capacity, she served as Acting Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport and Youth (MOESY) and has represented the Ministry abroad in working groups of the European Commission on education issues. She also worked as collaborating educational staff at the Open University of Cyprus and the University of London.

Demetris Skourides

Demetris Skourides is the Chief Scientist for Research, Innovation, and Technology of the Republic of Cyprus. He holds a BSc in Computer Science from Arizona State University and an MBA from Henley Management College. With extensive training in digital transformation, AI, and data monetization from Columbia, Stanford, MIT, and Harvard, he brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise in his role. His career includes managerial roles in Oracle and Amazon Web Services where he led international cloud initiatives across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia-Pacific. He now chairs the Board of Directors of the Research and Innovation Foundation, driving strategic innovation and technology advancement in Cyprus.

Dr. Elena Hadjikakou

Dr. Elena Hadjikakou is the Director of Cyprus Pedagogical Institute at the Ministry of Education, Sport and Youth. She is a graduate of Cyprus Pedagogical Academy and the University of Cyprus. She completed her postgraduate studies (M.A.) and her doctoral studies (Ph.D) at the University of Reading, UK, in the area of Information and Communication Technologies in Education. She has worked as an in-service teacher trainer for many years at Cyprus Pedagogical Institute (C.P.I.), as permanent staff and as teacher on secondment. She has taught in many in-service training programmes for teachers, of all levels (pre-primary, primary and secondary education). She has been participating in various working groups and networks in Cyprus and abroad and her main interest is the effective teachers’ learning and the role of teachers in the learning process.

Dr Eleni Mangina

Dr Eleni Mangina carried out her PhD work at the University of Strathclyde (UK), working on Agent-based applications for intelligent data interpretation (1998-2001). Eleni Mangina holds an M.Sc. in Artificial Intelligence from the Department of Artificial Intelligence at University of Edinburgh in the UK and an MSc in Agricultural Science from Agricultural University of Athens in Greece. In 2002 she joined the School of Computer Science, at University College Dublin, Ireland. Dr Eleni Mangina is currently Professor at the School of Computer Science, University College Dublin in Ireland and the Vice Principal (International) for College of Science. Eleni Mangina is guided by her own definition of the art of persistence, that involves both courage and compassion with research integrity and authenticity. Her lab operates at the intersection between applied Artificial Intelligence (VR/AR; Data Analytics; UAVs; Information Systems) and a portfolio development within interdisciplinary applications (i.e. Energy Sector and Educational Systems with XR). Eleni contributes actively to IEEE Standards and is the Executive Editor for the publications of the IEEE Global Initiative on XR Ethics. She is currently the Chair of Athena SWAN Bronze Award application for the School of Computer Science.

Anahit Minassian

Anahit Minassian is a Youth Mental Health Technical Support Coordinator at UNICEF and a passionate advocate for youth empowerment, mental health, and resilience building. She has extensive experience leading global youth empowerment programs and collaborating with the UN, EU, and private sector, with a particular focus on innovation and inclusion in conflict areas. At UNICEF, she led the youth engagement component of the Reimagine Education initiative across 32 countries, played a key role in Ukraine’s humanitarian response, and developed targeted interventions for adolescents in conflict zones. Currently, her efforts are centered on enhancing youth mental health in Cyprus and building resilience in Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus.

Simona Petkova

Simona Petkova is a Policy Officer in the ‘Digital Education’ Unit at the Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (DG EAC) of the European Commission which is tasked with the implementation of the Digital Education Action Plan 2021-2027. Through that capacity she coordinates policy work on the ethical use of Artificial Intelligence in education, tackling disinformation, and promoting digital literacy and has played a key role in developing the 2022 Guidelines for educators on digital literacy. Prior to joining the Commission in 2017, Simona worked in international organizations on bridging the gender digital divide. Simona holds an MSc in Media and Communications Governance from the London School of Economics and a BSc in Media Studies and Sociology from City, University of London.

Dr Fridolin Wild

Dr Fridolin Wild is professor at the Institute of Educational Technology of The Open University, also leading the Performance Augmentation Lab (PAL). Fridolin seeks to close the dissociative gap between abstract knowledge and its practical application, researching radically new forms of linking directly from knowing something ‘in principle’ to applying that knowledge ‘in practice’ and speeding its refinement and integration into polished performance. He has been leading numerous EU, European Space Agency, and nationally funded research projects, including ARETE, LAAR, AR-for-EU, WEKIT, TCBL, ARPASS, Tellme, TELmap, cRunch, Stellar, Role, LTfLL, iCamp, and Prolearn. He leads the Special Interest Group on Wearable-Enhanced Learning (SIG WELL) of the European Association of Technology Enhanced Learning (EATEL). He chairs the working group on Augmented Reality Learning Experience Models (ARLEM) of the IEEE Standards Association as well as the Natural Language Processing task view of the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN). He co-chairs the IEEE ICICLE SIG XR for Learning and Performance Augmentation. Fridolin is a trust Governor of Oxford Spires Academy.

Dr Lynn Fiellin

Dr Lynn Fiellin is Professor, Biomedical Data Science, The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice, Department of Medicine, Center for Technology and Behavioral Health, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College, and Founding Director of the play2PREVENT Lab, an NIH and foundation-funded research program. Prior to Dartmouth College, Dr. Fiellin was on the faculty of the Yale School of Medicine for over 20 years. She and her team focus on developing and evaluating digital health games, in the form of videogames to impact the health and well-being of adolescents, including mental health, smoking/vaping, opioid misuse, and sexual health and have reached adolescents in 5 continents. Dr. Fiellin and her team have demonstrated, using the most rigorous scientific methods, the significant impact of their games. She has published over 25 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journal describing the results of her research.

Dr Tassos Kyriakides

Dr Tassos Kyriakides is an Assistant Professor, Yale School of Public Health and for over 20 years has worked as a biostatistician/clinical trialist designing and guiding US and international clinical trials and observational studies. He consults on methodology, data processes and management, and statistical analysis for numerous research protocols. He is the Head of Data Science at CARDET and oversees and strategizes the direction of the center based on data and the development of evidence based policies. Dr. Kyriakides is the Director, Department of Veterans Affairs Cooperative Studies Program Coordinating Center in West Haven, CT; in this capacity, he coordinates activities in five clinical trials and a Lung Precision Oncology Program in 112 Veterans’ Affairs Medical Centers. He has been the lead biostatistician of two clinical trials of the play2PREVENT Lab (PlayFORWARD and PlaySMART) examining the impact of gaming and risk prevention. He has an interest in the history of medicine, social determinants of health and the socio-cultural dimension of the benefits of Greek/Mediterranean nutrition. He is the co-proponent for the establishment of a Yale entity that will focus on research, education, and impact of olive oil on human and planetary health.

Dr Lucy Avraamidou

Dr Lucy Avraamidou is currently the Director of the Institute for Science Education and Communication and a Professor of Science Education and Communication and a Rosalind Franklin Fellow. Dr Avraamidou ’s research is associated with theoretical and empirical explorations of what it means to widen and diversify STEM participation in school and out-of-school settings through the lens of intersectionality. At the heart of the account of her work is an exploration of underrepresented groups’ identity trajectories and negotiations with the use of narrative and life-history methods.

Dr Charalambos Vrasidas

Dr. Charalambos Vrasidas is co-founder and Executive Director at CARDET, an international non-profit designing innovative digital learning that aim to empower people and organizations to thrive. He is Professor of Learning Innovations and Associate Dean for e-learning at the University of Nicosia. An innovator, designer, educator, lifelong learner and social entrepreneur, he has designed and implemented a large number of impactful initiatives in 40+ countries. A big part of his work at CARDET and UNIC is focused on designing and implementing award winning initiatives integrating digital tools, mobile learning, gamification, XR, and AI for digital transformation. For more information visit www.cardet.org.

Dr Michalinos Zembylas

Dr Michalinos Zembylas is a Professor of Educational Theory and Curriculum Studies at the Open University of Cyprus, an Honorary Professor at Nelson Mandela University, South Africa, and an Adjunct Professor at the University of South Australia. He holds a Commonwealth of Learning (COL) Chair for 2023-2026. He has written extensively on emotion and affect in relation to social justice pedagogies, intercultural and peace education, human rights education and citizenship education. His recent books include Privileged Irresponsibility, Responsibility and Response-ability in Contemporary Times: Higher Education, Coloniality and Ecological Damage (co-authored with Vivienne Bozalek) and Working with Theories of Refusal and Decolonization in Higher Education (co-edited with Petra Mikulan). In 2016, he received the Distinguished Researcher Award in “Social Sciences and Humanities” from the Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation.

Dr Jahna Otterbacher

Dr Jahna Otterbacher is an Associate Professor and the Dean of the School of Pure and Applied Sciences at the Open University of Cyprus (OUC). She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, USA. Jahna also heads the Cyprus Center for Algorithmic Transparency (CyCAT) at OUC, where she oversees interdisciplinary research focused on developing technical and educational solutions to enhance algorithmic transparency and literacy. In addition to her role at OUC, Dr. Otterbacher co-leads the Fairness and Ethics in AI-Human Interaction (fAIre) group at CYENS. This group collaborates with two prestigious international partners, University College London (UCL) and the Max Planck Institute (MPI), to develop tools and techniques to promote algorithmic fairness, transparency and positive symbiosis in Human – AI interaction.

Dr Demetris Trihinas

Dr Demetris Trihinas is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science, of the University of Nicosia with specialization in Big Data Management and Processing. He is also a Senior Member at the University’s Artificial Intelligence Lab overseeing Data-Intensive Computing initiatives. As a Researcher, his work is focused on designing and developing scalable and self-manageable data analysis systems by exploring the intersection between (Big) Data Management, Distributed Systems and Machine Learning. Examples include performance and quality-aware optimization of continuous analytic jobs in edge computing settings, scalable emulation of data-intensive IoT services, low-cost approximation techniques for self-adaptive monitoring, interoperable analytics over blockchains and federated learning deployments.

Panayiotis Thrasyvoulou

Panayiotis Thrasyvoulou is the Partner in charge of People Consulting, Immigration and the Academy of Learning and Development at EY Cyprus. He joined EY after having worked for 15 years as Human Resources Manager in diverse groups of companies. He founded his own consulting firm which he successfully ran for 3 years, before taking on his current position. Panayiotis’ work concentrates on organizational (re) design, performance management, HR transformation, leadership development and culture. His project portfolio includes clients from government and semi-governmental organizations, as well as clients from the private sector. He holds a BSc in Business Management from Essex University, an MSc (Distinction) in International Employment Relations & Human Resources Management from LSE, and a PhD (cand.) in Management from the University of Cyprus. At LSE he received the “Foundation of Automation and Human Development School Prize for the Best Overall Performance”. His academic research revolves around the issues of work and organisational (re)design. Panayiotis served two terms as the President of the Cyprus Human Resources Management Association (CyHRMA).

Dr. Efi Nisisforou

Dr. Efi Nisiforou is an Assistant Professor in Distance Education, in the School of Education, University of Nicosia. Her scholarly work focuses on human-computer interaction (HCI), technology-enhanced learning (TEL), instructional design and evaluation, personalised learning, educational neuroscience and the integration of new technologies across all levels of education. She has published papers in international conferences and journals and has received EU research funding. Additionally, she serves as a project manager, coordinator and national partner in various research projects including INFINITE, TINKER, and LEADER-AI.

Dr. Marios Avraamides

Dr. Marios Avraamides is a Professor of Cognitive Psychology at the University of Cyprus where he teaches courses on Cognitive and Experimental Psychology, Memory, Attention, and Perception. He has previously obtained a BA in Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin followed by an MSc and a PhD degree in Cognitive/Experimental Psychology from the Pennsylvania State University. Prior to returning to Cyprus, he worked as a postdoctoral scientist at the University of California Santa Barbara (USA) and the Max-Planck-Institute for Biological Cybernetics (Germany). His research interests lie within the field of spatial cognition and include among others spatial memory, navigation, and perspective-taking.

Alexandros Tifas

Alexandros Tifas is a Mental Health Nursing Officer and Certified Drug Addiction Counselor (IC&RC/AODA) at the Mental Health Nursing Services Administration of the Ministry of Health. Alexandros holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychiatric Nursing from the Technological University of Cyprus, as well as two Master’s degrees—one in Integrated Health Science from Kristianstad University, Sweden, and another in Management and Social Planning in the Drug Addiction Field from the National School of Public Health, Greece. He has over 20 years of clinical experience in both residential and outpatient settings and is currently seconded to the Ministry of Health in Cyprus, where he plays a key role in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of mental health policies and services.

*Please note that the list of the list of keynote speakers will be regularly updated. The Organising Committee of the LIS is currently in contact with esteemed academics and high-caliber experts to join and present at the Summit. More information will be shared soon.