Distinguished member of FORTH Head of the Human - Computer Interaction (HCI) Laboratory Head of the Ambient Intelligence (AmI) Programme Professor of Computer Science, University of Crete
Institute of Computer Science (ICS)Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH)
N. Plastira 100, Vassilika Vouton GR - 70013 Heraklion, Crete, Greece
Phone: +30 2810 391741 FAX: +30 2810 391799 Mobile Phone: +30 6947 000176 E-mail: csATics.forth.gr
Dr. Constantine Stephanidis, Professor at the Department of Computer Science of the University of Crete, is the Founder and Head of the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Laboratory, and the Founder and Head of the Ambient Intelligence (AMI) Programme of the Institute of Computer Science of the Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (ICS-FORTH). From January 2004 to November 2016 he served as the Director of ICS-FORTH. Since 2016, Prof. Stephanidis is a Distinguished Member of FORTH.
Since the late 1980s, the initiatives and research activities of the Founder and Head of the HCI Laboratory, Professor Constantine Stephanidis, have actively contributed to Research and Development activities in the wider interdisciplinary field of Human-Computer Interaction, fostering the development of an "Information Society for All", promoting inclusion and advocating for the positive impact of new technologies on society.
Highlights of his activities over the past 35 years are included below.
I. The Ambient Intelligence Program and its Research Facility
In 2004 Professor Stephanidis founded and since then he is leading the Ambient Intelligence Program of ICS-FORTH. This is a long-term horizontal interdisciplinary Research and Technological Development Programme, aiming to create and apply pioneering human-centric technologies and provide a platform for cooperative research towards developing and studying related technologies and assessing their impact upon the individual, as well as upon society as a whole. Moreover, the aim is to also provide a unique showcase for demonstrating the potential, added-value and benefits of these technologies in different aspects of everyday life.
The main objective of this research direction is to study Pervasive and Artificial Intelligence technologies and their application in every-day life situations, following the Human-Centric Design and Universal Access approaches. Throughout history, humans have continuously adapted to their surrounding environment, in order to survive, but also improve their quality of life. Today, Ambient Intelligence technologies have the potential to create intelligent environments, able to proactively adapt to humans, as well as to serve their needs and goals, in various activities of everyday life, integrating sensing capabilities, processing power, reasoning mechanisms, networking facilities, applications and services, digital content and actuating capabilities, all distributed in the surrounding environment. The underlying vision is to improve the quality of life of people through the creation and provision of safe, efficient and user-friendly technologies, which support and cater to the needs of each and every individual user, in a seamless, unobtrusive and invisible way.
Prof. Stephanidis is supervising the development of new software development frameworks and methods for the creation of applications, services, products and interactive systems that aim to provide natural, intuitive, and high-quality interaction with Intelligent Environments, through a variety of I/O devices and interaction techniques. The developed technological solutions adopt multi-disciplinary approaches and incorporate the recognition and monitoring of user interaction with the environment, distributed processing, reasoning mechanisms, computer networks, sensor and actuator networks, and multimodal interaction techniques. He is also supervising studies aimed at evaluating the impact of these technologies on the individual and society as a whole, as well as highlighting the potential and the benefits of such technologies in various aspects of everyday life.
The research activities are carried out within the Ambient Intelligence Building, a Research Facility constructed, under his supervision, with funding from the European Commission and designated as a flagship project of the European Union. It comprises simulation spaces (small-scale experimental environments that simulate realistic conditions of everyday life) that allow the development and evaluation of innovative applications and interactive systems that include: a house, a classroom, a recreational space, an exhibition, a greenhouse, and a “white-room”. The infrastructure of each space consists of a combination of modern equipment available in the market and specialized objects that are technologically enhanced through specific hardware and specialized software, the latter responsible for transforming the simulation space into an integrated intelligent environment, adaptable to the specific needs of each individual user and context of use. Thus, integrated pilot solutions can be tested in a laboratory environment (in vitro), before they can be transferred and applied in real life settings (in vivo).
II. He coordinated and edited White Papers, which were published in the international literature as the roadmap and RTD agenda towards an "Information Society for All" and which were used by international organizations, government agencies and the industry:
III. In the context of the Lab's recent research activities in the field of Human Centered Design of Artificial Intelligence Technologies, he actively contributed to the writing of the White Paper:
IV. He is one of the co-founders of the European Design for All e-Accessibility Network (EDeAN) and founder of the corresponding National Network GR-DeAN. He is also the senior editor of the EDeAN White Paper (2006), outlining a roadmap for possible relevant future European initiatives regarding the goal of "Design for All", digital accessibility and the inclusion of people with disabilities and the elderly in the "Information and Knowledge Society":
V. He has published more than 800 articles in scientific archival journals, proceedings of international conferences and workshops, chapters in encyclopedias, edited books and handbooks, etc.
VI. He has played a leading role in the formation and development (nurturing) of the international research community in the area of Design for All and Universal Access, in the context of the interdisciplinary field of Human-Computer Interaction, through a series of initiatives:
VII. He has contributed to the European and international RTD Policy:
He has been actively contributing to the European Commission RTD Policy on Information Society, either as a member of EC experts’ committees, or as National Representative in Management Committees of successive RTD Framework Programmes in the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).
Especially in the field of Universal Access, the work of the ERCIM Working Group “User Interfaces for All” and of the International Scientific Forum “Towards an Information Society for All”, which he founded and coordinated, had an extended influence on the research and the funded programs of the European Commission (COM(1999) 687 final) and of the European Council (eEurope: an Information Society for All, Lisbon, 2000), as well as of the National Science Foundation (nsf03612 Universal Access | NSF).
He was the Scientific Coordinator of the EC Coordination Action INTERLINK (2006-2009), which addressed large-scale, basic research problems in 'software intensive systems and new computing paradigms', 'ambient computing and communication environments' and 'intelligent and cognitive systems', under a human-centred perspective, and defined joint basic research agendas at the time for world-wide cooperation in these domains.
VIII. Participated as a Member of Expert Committees in International Organizations:
IX. Contributed to the introduction of the interdisciplinary field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) into the University education:
In the early 1990s, he organized the teaching of the first courses in the scientific field of Human-Computer Interaction in Greek Universities (Computer Science Department of the University of Crete, and Department of Informatics and Telecommunications of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens).
Since then, this interdisciplinary area has been recognized as extremely important and dynamically developing, both in Greece as well as internationally (related courses are taught in all Departments of Informatics, in many of them as core courses). In the Computer Science Department of the University of Crete, two undergraduate courses and one course at postgraduate level are continuously taught until today.
He has supervised a long series of PhD (16), MSc (67) and BSc (123) theses in this field.
During the last decade, he is the responsible Professor for the Summer School on 'Human-Computer Interaction' organized annually by ICS-FORTH for students of the York University, Canada.
X. Invited as a Distinguished Lecturer in Universities of USA, in the context of "Keynote speeches from Distinguished Researchers ":
XI. Invited Keynote addresses in major international conferences:
XII. In recognition of his contribution, he has received international awards and distinctions:
XIII. He has taken over important administrative positions:
XIV. He offered and continues to offer services to the state and the academic and research community, as:
XV. Scientific Responsible in R&D projects and RTD contracts:
Since 1988, he has been engaged as the Scientific Responsible in more than 180 European Commission, nationally and industry funded R&D projects and RTD contracts.
Α. Scientific Responsible for the participation of the ICS-FORTH in the following collaborative European Commission funded projects:
Β. Scientific Responsible for the participation of the ICS-FORTH in the following collaborative nationally funded projects: