Biographical info

I was educated at the University of Patras, Greece, in Electrical and Computer Engineering (BEng/MEng, PhD). I hold a Post Graduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education from Brunel University, UK. I have been teaching and researching in the area of Intelligent Adaptive and Learning Systems since 1993. My research activities fall under the umbrella of intelligent technologies involving key information processing methods such as fuzzy systems, neural networks, and global search, in particular differential evolution and particle swarms. They are aimed at the development of intelligent systems that exhibit different levels of learning, seamlessly combine explicit knowledge representation with significant learning capabilities, and can handle uncertainty which is inherent in complex environments. The above constitute a conceptual framework within which more specific methodological topics are pursued, and there are several well defined, coherent research streams:

Neural networks and learning systems - I have been researching in this area since 1993. My work is focused on supervised learning and pattern classification. I have developed new learning algorithms that provide improved learning, studied the convergence behaviour of existing and new learning algorithms, and applied advanced training schemes in applications in medical imaging, microarray image analysis and protein localisation. My work started with deterministic approaches to learning based on optimisation theory but gradually shifted towards stochastic and hybrid techniques, such as the new approaches inspired by the theory of nonextensive statistics. The last couple of years, I worked together with my PhD students towards developing effective learning methods for dynamic neural networks and for capturing temporal behaviours in evolving environments.

Techniques for searching, adaptation and evolution - I have been researching in this since finishing with my PhD. My work in this area has concentrated on researching new approaches to learning in adaptive systems through optimisation, and includes intelligent technologies that combine adaptation and evolution to solve difficult problems in complex environments. This relates to one of the most important research challenges today, which is to further develop intelligent systems theory towards the design of systems with a higher level of flexibility and autonomy that are able to develop their understanding of the environment and, ultimately, their intelligence.

Adaptive and personalised systems - my work in this area started in 2000 and has been expanded with my involvement in the London Knowledge Lab when I joined Birkbeck in 2004. The main thrust here is in the development of intelligence-based adaptation techniques for adaptive and personalised systems with applications in education and lifelong learning. My work in this area has led so far to a series of research grants from UK funding agencies, including the EPSRC, the ESRC, the AHRC and the JISC.

My research work has received awards from the ACM (in 2009, for work in Evolutionary Computation), the IEEE (in 2000 and in 2008, for work in Neural Networks Learning and in Feature Selection respectively), the EUNITE (in 2001 and in 2004, for work on Neural Networks for Medical Imaging and Bioinformatics respectively) and the IADIS (in 2006, for work in personalised systems).

Before joining academia I held R&D positions in industry, between 1990 and 1993 with AMBER S.A (a subsidiary of the HERACLES General Cement Company, Athens, Greece - member of the Lafarge Group) and between 1997 and 1998 with SYNDESIS Ltd, where I worked in several national and international projects on the development of embedded systems employing soft computing and computational intelligence methodologies. In 1998, I took up the post of research fellow in the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications at the University of Athens where I participated on EU-funded projects, and national projects in the area of medical imaging and educational technology. This was followed in 1999 by a postdoctoral fellowship (funded by the Greek State Scholarships Foundations) in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Patras to research new approaches to learning in adaptive systems through optimisation. In 2000, I joined the Department of Information Systems and Computing at Brunel University, where I worked first as a Lecturer and later on as a Senior Lecturer. In 2004, I moved to Birkbeck College, University of London, where I am currently Professor of Computer Science in the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems.

I have (co-)edited three books, entitled Adaptable and Adaptive Hypermedia Systems (2005), Advances in Web-based Education: Personalized Learning Environments (2006), and E-Infrastructures and Technologies for Lifelong Learning (2011). I am a member of the EPSRC College, the IEEE, the User Modeling Inc, the International Artificial Intelligence in Education Society and the Hellenic Artificial Intelligence Society, and a Charted Engineer, member of the Technical Chamber of Greece since 1990.

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