Software and Interactive Technologies Lab (SWITCH)

Who we are

  • ► We are a group of researchers (Academic Staff, Associates, PhD Candidates) working in the broader area of Software and Interactive Technologies, including: Software Engineering and Information Systems, Open Source Software, Software Security and Software Model Checking, Learning Technologies and Virtual Learning Environments, Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, Game Based Learning and Mobile Learning, Music Informatics, Human-Computer Interaction and User Experience Design.
  • ► We are highly experts:
    •     ○ We teach: various courses offered, both at under- and post- graduate level
    •     ○ We do research: our publications appear at the highest ranking international scientific journals and conferences
    •     ○ We participate in and coordinate projects: numerous international and national level technology development and research projects
    •     ○ We develop open software tools in various domains
  • ► Browsing through the SWITCH website pages you can develop a better understanding of who we are and what we do and offer.
  • ► If you have any question or proposals for collaboration please contact us!
  • ► Thank you for visiting!

News

Archived News

STAFF

ACADEMIC STAFF

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Web Conferencing,Computer Supported Collaborative Learning
+30-231099.8990
Kalamaria, Office 20, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Thessaloniki, Greece
Thrasyvoulos Tsiatsos is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Informatics of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He obtained his Diploma, his Master's Degree and his PhD from the Computer Engineering and Informatics Department of Patras University (Greece). His research interests include Networked Virtual Learning Environments, Computer Uses in Education, Evaluation methods of Internet Learning Environments and Open and Distance Education using Multimedia and Internet Technologies. He has published more than 90 papers in Journals and in well-known refereed conferences and he is co-author in 3 books. He has been a PC member and referee in various international journals and conferences. He has participated in R&D projects such as OSYDD, RTS-GUNET, ODL-UP, VES, ODL-OTE, INVITE, EdComNet, VirRAD, SAPSAT, E-internationalization for Collaborative Learning (EICL) and Education of oreign and Repatriated Students (NSRF – National Strategic Reference Framework, 2007–2013). Also he is member Technical Chamber of Greece
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Human-Computer Interaction, Human-Robot Interaction, Web science, Web accessibility, Educational technologies
+30-231099.1925
Kalamaria, Office 24, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Thessaloniki, Greece

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Christos Katsanos is an Assistant Professor (2018) of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) in the Department of Informatics of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece. He holds a PhD (2010) and a Diploma (Master of Engineering, 2004) from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of University of Patras in Greece. His research lies in the fields of Human-Computer Interaction, Human-Robot Interaction, Web science, Web accessibility, and Educational technologies. He has at least 808 known citations and h-index=16. He has published more than 50 papers in refereed journals and conferences, including top HCI venues, such as ACM SIGCHI conference, International Journal of HCI, IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems, and Interacting with Computers. He is a coauthor of the Book “Introduction to Human-Computer Interaction” (in Greek), which is used as the main reading in related courses of many Universities in Greece. He has participated in 10 R&D projects. He is a founding member of the ACM-GrSIGCHI and a member of the Technical Chamber of Greece.

Last update: 11 February 2021
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Conversational Pedagogical Agents Computer Supported Collaborative Learning
+30 2310991938
Kalamaria, Office 22, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Thessaloniki, Greece
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Stavros Demetriadis is currently Associate Professor at the School of Informatics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh), Greece. He holds a BSc degree in Physics, MSc in Electronic Physics, and PhD in Multimedia educational technology from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He teaches courses and conducts research in the broader area of Learning Technologies with emphasis on Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), Conversational agents for learning, Adaptive Educational Hypermedia Systems, Educational robotics and Tangible interfaces for programming, Multimedia learning, Cognitive training technologies. He has published more than 150 research papers in international scientific journals (with IF) and international/national conference proceedings with more than 2000 third party citations (as of May, 2018). He is member of the scientific committee in several top ranking international Conferences each year (such as IEEE ICALT, ECTEL, CSEDU, etc.). His supervised PhD project “Cubes Coding” was presented with awards in two international competitions (Open Education Challenge 2014 and NUMA-2014). His conference articles have received three times “Best paper” awards and one article has been highlighted as 'spotlight paper' at the IEEE Transactions of Learning Technologies journal. Since 1995 he has participated in many AUTH research projects and has been project leader in some of them, such as the “Kaleidoscope Network of Excellence” AUTH team and the “colMOOC” international project to promote the use of conversational agents in MOOCs. He is also a Python enthusiast, offering the MOOC “Introduction to Programming with Python” (in Greek) and developing the 'pytolearn' website for advancing Python-based domain-related coding.
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+30-231099.8406
New Building of School of Sciences, Office 4.15, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Thessaloniki, Greece
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Open Source Software, Software Engineering, Enterprise Information Systems
+30-2310-991910
Thessaloniki

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Ioannis Stamelos is a Professor at the Department of Informatics of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, where he carries out research and teaching in the area of Software Engineering, Open Source Software and Information Systems. He holds a diploma of Electrical Engineering (1983) and a PhD in Computer Science by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (1988). In the period 1985-1986 and 1988-1994 he was a Senior Researcher at CSELT (Centro Studi e Laboratori Telecomunicazioni) in Torino, Italy, working on CAD for VLSI and Software Quality. During 1995-1996 he was the Systems Integration Director of STET HELLAS, a mobile operator in (Athens, Greece). He has published approx. 200 articles in refereed international journals, conferences, etc. He is/was the scientific coordinator or principal investigator for his University in ~30 research and development projects in Information & Communication Technologies, with funding from national and international organizations. He is also member of the Board of Directors of the Hellenic Society for Free/Open Source Code and an adjunct Professor at the Hellenic Open University.
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Formal verification, Software security, Model-based System Design, Software architecture
+30 2310 998532
Thessaloniki

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Prof. Panagiotis Katsaros holds a Bachelor on Mathematics from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, a Master of Science on Software Engineering from the Aston University in Birmingham and a PhD on Computer Science from the Aristotle University. He worked in 2010 as a Visiting Professor in Stony Brook University of New York. Prof. Katsaros has published numerous articles in well-known peer reviewed international journals and conferences in the areas of formal methods/theoretical computer science, software engineering, dependability/security and embedded systems. He was the scientific leader of international research and development projects and the general chair of high-impact international conferences that took place in Thessaloniki – Greece. Prof. Katsaros has authored two textbooks in Greek on the Theory of Computation and on Compilers Construction, and has translated in Greek one book on the Principles of Concurrent & Distributed Programming. Finally, Prof. Katsaros studies and publishes articles on the history of logic and its relation with the notion of computation.

RESEARCH ASSOCIATES

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Technical Debt, Software Metrics, Empirical Software Engineering
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Thessaloniki

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Dr. Apostolos Ampatzoglou is a Guest Researcher at the Department of Computer Science of the University of Groningen, where he carries out research in the area of software engineering. In the period 2013-2016 he was an Assistant Professor at the same department, carrying out research and teaching in software engineering. He holds a BSc on Information Systems (2003), a MSc on Computer Systems (2005) and a PhD in Software Engineering by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (2012). His current research interests are focused on technical debt, reverse engineering, software maintainability, software quality management, open source software engineering and software design. He has published more than 65 articles in international journals and conferences. He is/was involved in 15 research and development projects in Information & Communication Technologies with funding from national and international organizations. Finally, he serves as a reviewer in numerous leading journals of the software engineering domain, and as a member of various international conference program committees.
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Pedagogical Conversational Agents, Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL), Artificial Intelligence in Education, ICT in Education
(+30) 2310991937
Et. Antistaseos 16 (Office 7),Thessaloniki

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Stergios Tegos is a Research Associate at the SWITCH Lab ('Software and Interactive Technologies Lab') of the Informatics Department, Artistotle University of Thessaloniki. He holds a PhD and an MSc in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Education as well as a BSc in Computer Science from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He is also a Software Engineer and a part-time Computer Science Lecturer.
His current research interests revolve around advanced learning technologies and lie in areas such as conversational pedagogical agents, computer-supported collaborative learning and artificial intelligence in education. His professional interests involve web and mobile application development, search engine optimization (SEO) as well as user experience (UX) research and design.

TEST Three

It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using 'Content here, content here', making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for 'lorem ipsum'

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TEST Four

It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using 'Content here, content here', making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for 'lorem ipsum'

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PhD CANDIDATES

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Game Based Learning, Augmented Reality, Natural User Interfaces, VLEs, Distance Learning
(+30) 2310991935
Et. Antistaseos 16 (Office 6),Thessaloniki

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Nikolaos Politopoulos Received, both, the BSc degree (2013) and the MSc degree (2015) in Information and Communication Technology in Education from the Computer Science Department of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. He works, mainly, as a Web Designer and Web Developer. He currently designs his game for his dissertation in “Learning Technologies using Natural User Interfaces” which will lead on the PhD defense. He has published so far 10 scientific articles in international conferences proceedings and 3 in Greek conference proceedings. His research interests include human computer interaction, natural user interfaces, serious games, active video games, augmented reality, 3D virtual learning environments and computer supported collaborative learning. His current and past teaching activity comprises the delivery of a wide range of teaching modules, including Programming languages, Game Development, Multimedia technology and design.
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+(30)-2310991937
Et. Antistaseos 16 (Office 7),Thessaloniki

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Education
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Computerized Cognitive Training, Serious Games, Brain Games, ICT in Education
(+30)-2310991935
Et. Antistaseos 16 (Office 6),Thessaloniki

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Agisilaos Chaldogeridis graduated from Informatics Department of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 2010. He received his Master of Information Technologies in Education degree in 2012 from the Informatics Department of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Since 2013 his is a PhD candidate in Information Technologies in Education of the Informatics Department of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. While pursuing his doctoral diploma he works as a research associate in several projects which include IT services in areas such as e-learning, cognitive training and multimedia production. Also, he works as software developer in an IT company. His research interest is mainly in the Cognitive Training area and its implementation in order to provide and help special groups of people like elders, dementia patients and others. According to this direction he has published several book chapters and scientific articles in international conferences.
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Game Design, Serious Games, Augmented Reality, Gamification, Affective Computing
(+30) )6975924891
Et. Antistaseos 16 (Office 6),Thessaloniki

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Lampros Karavidas received, both, the BSc degree (2018) and the MSc degree (2020) in Interactive Software and Hardware Technologies from the Computer Science Department of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. During his MSc he had some Serious Games and Virtual Reality classes that helped acquire some game development skills and successfully complete his master thesis which was a game adapting to the user’s feelings. He has published so far some scientific articles in international conferences. His research interests include serious games, game design, human computer interaction, augmented reality, gamification and affective computing. He is passionate about teaching and his friends describe him as outgoing and a social media fan.
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Serious Games, Gamification, Methods of Assessing Soft Skills
(+30) 6955449512
Et. Antistaseos 16 (Office 6),Thessaloniki

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Karypidou Kyriaki received a BSc degree in Information Engineering at Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki (June 2018). During her bachelor studies she focused on developing applications for Android devices, whereas in her thesis she developed an Android application for finding and locating lost and stray dogs. In her internship she developed a three-layer service discovery framework for a 5G environment. The results were published in an article at the IEEE conference "23rd International Workshop on Computer Aided Modeling and Design of Communication Links and Networks". Later, she proceeded to acquire an MSc degree in Interactive Software and Hardware Technologies in the School of Informatics at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. In her master’s thesis she developed a gamified mobile application that helps people follow a healthier lifestyle. Subsequently, she published a paper presenting the application and its results, in the International Conference on Blended Learning (ICBL). She is currently a PhD student in the School of Informatics at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Her main research areas are Gamification and Serious Games. More specifically, she focuses on skills assessment using gamification elements. In parallel, she also works as an Associate Solution Engineer at Pfizer.

TEST Four

It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using 'Content here, content here', making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for 'lorem ipsum'

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MOOCs, Massive Open Online Courses, CSCL
(+30) 2310991937
Et. Antistaseos 16 (Office 7),Thessaloniki

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Georgios Psathas graduated from Informatics Department of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 2007. He continued his studies to take his Master degree in Information and Communication Technology in Education from the Informatics Department of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. As from November 2017, he is a Ph.D. candidate at the same University and department with his primary interest in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). On January 2019, he launched his first MOOC platform under www.letstudy.gr domain, providing MOOCs in the Greek language. He aspires to elaborate on smart technologies in MOOCs and apply them on his personal MOOC platform.
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Learning analytics
(+30) 6947404473
Et. Antistaseos 16,Thessaloniki

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Dimitrios Tzimas received the BSc degree in Informatics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and the MSc degree in “Digital Signal Processing for Communications and Multimedia” from University of Athens, Greece. He is currently a Ph.D. student at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. His research interests include Learning Analytics and MOOCs. He has published so far 6 scientific articles in Greek conference proceedings. He teaches Computer Science in secondary and higher education the last 18 years. He is a co-author of 3 greek books.
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Software Requirements, Domain Specific Languages, Business Process Management, Business Process Re-engineering, Process Simulation
+(30)-6977127979
Et. Antistaseos 16,Thessaloniki

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kathanaso.webpages.auth.gr
Konstantinos Athanasopoulos graduated from International European Studies (University of Macedonia) in 2015 and received a MSc in Informatics & Management (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) in 2017. As a PhD candidate in Informatics (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) his research focus is Software Requirements, Domain Specific Language and Business Process Management (Re-engineering, Automation, Simulation). Since 2017, he has successfully completed a research project and contract with the Municipality of Kalamaria and published one scientific paper. Additionally, he is enrolled in undergraduate classes to further advance his knowledge and understanding of Computer Science.
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Learning Analytics, Interaction Analysis, Self- Regulated Learning, Computer Supported Collaborative Learning, ICT in Education
(+30) 2310991935
Et. Antistaseos 16 (Office 6),Thessaloniki

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http://blogs.sch.gr/nikmichailidis/
Nikolaos Michailidis received the BEng degree in Electronic and Computer Engineering (ECE) from Technical University of Crete (TUC) and the MSc degree in Information and Communication Technology in Education from the Computer Science Department of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. Ηe is currently PhD candidate at the same department and Computer Science teacher in Secondary Education. His research interests include Learning Analytics, Computer Supported Collaborative Learning, virtual learning environments, and human computer interaction. He is member of the IEEE and the Greek Computer Society.
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Affective Computing, Augmented Reality, Natural User Interfaces, VLEs, Distance Learning, Collaborative Learning
(+30) 2310991935
Et. Antistaseos 16,Kalamaria,Thessaloniki

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Hippokratis Apostolidis received the BSc degree in Mathematics from Aristotle University, MSc in Computer Studies from Essex University and MSc degree in information and communication technology in education from the School of Informatics at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He is currently a PhD candidate of the School of Informatics at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He is working as programmer – analyst in Information Technology department of Piraeus Bank. His research interests include affective computing, machine learning, virtual learning environments, computer supported collaborative learning, and human computer interaction.
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Ερευνητική Ομάδα Μηχανικής Λογισμικού / SWENG
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Software Engineering, Free/Open Source Software, Process Mining, Software Process Improvement
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Et. Antistaseos 16,Kalamaria,Thessaloniki

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Process Mining in Information Systems
Elia Kouzari is an IT Consultant at a Statistics and Informatics firm and a PhD candidate at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in the field of Software Engineering. She holds a BSc in Information Systems from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (2009) and an MSc in Computer Science from the University of Cyprus (2011). She has participated in numerous local and international conferences and she is the writer of several scientific articles, published in scientific journals in Greece and abroad. She has been a lecturer of Computing in numerous tertiary education institutions in Cyprus since 2011 and at the same time, as an IT Consultant she is collaborating with organizations such as Eurostat, European Central Bank, World Bank etc. She is a member of numerous organizations and professional bodies in Cyprus such as Cyprus Computer Society, (ISC) 2 Cyprus Chapter, ISACA Cyprus Chapter and ELLAK-CY. Her research interests focus on: Free/Open Source Software, Process Mining, Software Engineering and Software Process Improvement.
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Open Source Software, Software Engineering, Software Reuse, Software Resilience
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Thessaloniki

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http://www.socialmind.gr
Open Source Software Engineering
Apostolos Kritikos is a PhD Candidate at Informatics Department of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece in the research area of Open Source Software Engineering. Apostolos received his BSc in Informatics in 2008 and his MSc in Informational Systems in 2010. He has participated in five (5) European Union funded research projects on behalf of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the Centre of Research and Technology Hellas (CE.R.T.H.) and has co-authored six (6) research papers that were published in international, peer reviewed, conferences and journals. Since 2015 he is an Open Data Registered Trainer with the Open Data Institute. He is also the co-founder and CTO of Social Mind, a 360 degrees digital marketing agency and software house based in Thessaloniki.
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Software reuse, Open source software development and computer games.
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Thessaloniki

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Computer Games Software Engineering
Maria Eleni Paschali is a PhD Student at the Department of Informatics of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece), in the group of Software Engineering. She holds an MSc degree in Applied Informatics from University of Macedonia, Greece (2011), and a BSc degree in Informatics and Communications from the Technological Education Institute of Serres, Greece (2008). Her research interests include software reuse, open source software development, and computer games.
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Software reuse, Open source software development and computer games.
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Thessaloniki

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Computer Games Software Engineering
Maria Eleni Paschali is a PhD Student at the Department of Informatics of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece), in the group of Software Engineering. She holds an MSc degree in Applied Informatics from University of Macedonia, Greece (2011), and a BSc degree in Informatics and Communications from the Technological Education Institute of Serres, Greece (2008). Her research interests include software reuse, open source software development, and computer games.

PHD GRADUATES

Panagiotis Sfetsos, Sulayman Sowe, Dimitrios Settas, Eleni Konstantinou, Ioannis Samoladas, Stamatia Bibi, George Kakarontzas, Apostolos Ampatzoglou, Terzidou Theodouli (Lia), Soumela Atmatzidou, Mavridis Apostolos, Stergios Tegos, Ioannis Magnisalis, Theodosios Sapounidis, Maria Kyprianidou, Andreas Konstantinidis, Anastasios Karakostas, George Triantafyllakos, Pantelis Papadopoulos, Vicky Myroni, Kostas Liotsios, Panagiotis Siozos, Stavros Filippidis, George Palegeorgiou, Evangelos Triantafyllou, Athanasios Karoulis, Stavros Demetriadis

Projects

Project Reference: 72174 Time Duration: 2020-2021 Partners: - Role of SWITCH in the program: Beneficiary AUTH Budget: 10.000 € Funding: GNOMON INFORMATICS S.A. Coordinators: I. Stamelos Project Site: -
Project Reference: 99696 Time Duration: 2020-2022 Partners: EKETA, Yammy Wallet, Web2Learn Role of SWITCH in the program: Partner AUTH Budget: 196.375 € Funding: GSRT Coordinators: I. Stamelos Project Site: https://blockademic.iti.gr/en
Project Reference: 95839 Time Duration: 2018-2021 Partners: Entersoft S.A. Role of SWITCH in the program: Partner, Scientific Coordinator AUTH Budget: 999.673 € Funding: GSRT Coordinators: I. Stamelos Project Site: -
Project Reference: 588438-EPP-1-2017-1-EL-EPPKA2-KA Time Duration: 2018-2020 Partners: Centre for Research & Technology, Hellas (CERTH), University of Valladolid (UVa), Aarhus University (AU), Open University of Catalunia (UOC), Saarland University (SU), Learnworlds (LW), GUNET (GU), Telefonica Education Digital (TED) Role of SWITCH in the program: Coordinator Action Budget: 999.673 € Funding: Erasmus+ Coordinators: St. Demetriadis Project Site: Landing Page: https://colmooc.eu/ Local Website: http://switch.csd.auth.gr/colmooc

More Projects To be Added soon

     Courses


    Tutorials

How to Develop a MOOC


TOOLS

MentorChat has been developed as a domain-independent dialogue system that (a) promotes constructive peer interactions using facilitative agent interventions (prompts), and (b) enables the teacher to configure the support provided by the conversational agent.
MentorChat can support discussions in English or Greek, and was implemented using modern web technologies, such as HTML5, CSS3 and AJAX. The system infrastructure is based on a client-server model, which allocates workloads between the server and the clients. Its architecture comprises three main modules: the student, the teacher and the conversational agent module.
The conversational agent of MentorChat is based upon the following three models:
 The peer interaction model, which records and stores the students’ interactions in a computational format.
 The domain model, which utilizes the teacher’s domain knowledge representation in conjunction with the pattern matching algorithms to determine whether an agent intervention would be appropriate.
 The intervention model, which examines a series of various micro- parameters (e.g. the time passed since the last agent intervention) to determine if an intervention will eventually be displayed.

Contact : Stergios Tegos
GIANT is a functional tool for analyzing and graphically visualizing on real time the interactions that take place during blog-based collaborative activities. The idea behind GIANT is to allow students and teachers to use the automatically produced IA indicators, in order to support monitoring, awareness, self-regulation, and assessment during and after the online collaborative learning process.
The innovative aspect of the toolkit resides in the fact that the IA indicators are produced automatically, and not after the completion of the blogging activity, by measuring quantitative activity data, such as the number of posts and comments written and read by someone, the identity of the writer or reader of those comments/posts, the time when they were written or read, etc. They are presented to the students (and teachers) as dynamically produced feedback information, in order to help them monitor and regulate their activity, as well as that of others, supporting them at the level of awareness and metacognition, leading to self-regulative actions.
Furthermore, the effectiveness of the approach has been tested in real class teaching.
In total, 32 visualized IA indicators can be produced and displayed by the toolkit, varying from simple statistical awareness information to complex cognitive and metacognitive IA indicators.


Contact : Nikolaos Michailidis
It is a prototype device that classifies bio-signals which are caused by physiological reactions of the human organism. This function enables the interpretation of some basic human emotional reactions, such as anxiety. Intensive emotional states may cause physiological effects such as increased moisture of the human skin and in particular at the ends of the human body, reduced skin temperature and increased heart rate. The device has been developed by our laboratory and it has three sensors counting:
  1. Galvanic Skin Response (GSR).
  2. Skin Temperature.
  3. Heart Rate using Photo-plethysmography (PPG).

This device is used for student stress detection during synchronous educational activities in the same place or from distance. Students are watching their anxiety levels during their educational activity and they are motivated to apply biofeedback techniques in order to improve their relaxation achieving better performance. Also the teacher watching students’ anxiety is trying to regulate his/her behavior in order to achieve better relaxation and performance of his/her class.
Student stress awareness may be characterized particularly important for distance activities, where there isn’t face to face contact, as an additional communication and interaction feature.


Contact : Hippokratis Apostolidis
Tennis Attack is an interactive 3D video game, that uses the natural user interface Microsoft Kinect, in order to improve response time of, including but not limited to, athletes. The game targets to improve, using entertainment as its vehicle, the response time of the user to important stimuli of everyday life.
Tennis Attack belongs to the category of serious games and in particular, to the category of Active Video Games or AVG that promote exercise and healthy lifestyle converting a traditional sedentary activity into physical exercise. Unity game engine, C# scripts and Zigfu Development Kit or ZDK were used in order to develop Tennis Attack. The game can serve as a tool for measuring and improving simple reaction time (one stimulus - one response). It's partially configurable by the players and allows them to control the number of the balls and the rate at which they will appear on screen. Scores are stored in a database through a local server and allows the users to monitor their performance and observe their progress


Contact : Nikolaos Politopoulos
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Conversational Pedagogical Agents Computer Supported Collaborative Learning
+30-231099.1938
Kalamaria, Office 22, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Thessaloniki, Greece
Stavros Demetriadis holds a Bachelor Degree from Physics Department, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh) (1983) and a 2year Master Diploma in Electronic Physics (1986). Being a high school Informatics teacher since 1989 he grew an interest in the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Education and he entered the Department of Informatics, AUTh as a PhD student and research assistant in 1993. He got his PhD in "Multimedia Technology in Education" in 2000 and joined the Department of Informatics, AUTh as a Lecturer in 2002.
Stavros Demetriadis is currently an Assistant Professor with the Department of Informatics, AUTh teaching courses and conducting research in the broader area of Technology-Enhanced Learning.
His research interests include:
- Adaptive and Intelligent systems for Collaborative learning support
- Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) with emphasis on Collaboration Scripts
- Multimedia learning
- Advancing students' Computational Thinking with the use of Educational Robotics and Tangible systems for programming
- Teacher Training in the Use of ICT for Learning
- Constructivist Learning Environments
- Game-based Learning
His current (September 2011) scientific publications are:
- 23 papers in International Journals (refereed)
- 51 papers in Proceedings of International Conferences (refereed)
- 39 papers in Proceedings of Greek National Conferences (refereed)
- 6 Chapters in international edited volumes (refereed)
- 5 books in Greek (author or co-author)
LASSO is a web-based simulation, storytelling and interactive game to assess and optimize your soft skills in leadership. You take the role of a chief department manager in a multinational company and experience multiple situations, encounters and opportunities in which you will have to take decisions. Through these decisions, your soft skills in leadership will be tested and a profile based on Kouzes and Posner’s Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership and their Inventory will be produced. You will be able to improve your soft skills and optimize them with the help of in-game tips provided based on your profile, by replaying the game. You are also able to track your progress and compare your scores with the averages, through interactive graphs.
The principles of gaming-based learning and the technological tools for game support and development, which are widely disseminated in support or replacement of traditional teaching methods, were used in the designing process. A significant part of the time was devoted to reviewing available technologies and specific applications that can serve the purposes of the system and to assess the strengths and weaknesses of each solution.
The engine chosen to develop the game was Unity 3D. The additional Fungus visual novel and storytelling tool was used. The implementation of the scenario was heavily based on the inventory and was guided by expert guidance. A model for grading each possible option was also created trying to simulate the grading scale of the inventory. Also o database was created for the users and their scores.
It is known that education and the development of leadership skills can maximize productivity, build a positive culture, and promote harmony. Multiple companies would like to assess and train their possible employees in various skills. But apart from their importance to organizations, one might consider them particularly useful in their everyday life. The game is for anyone interested in developing and improving soft skills in leadership.
There are a lot of educational simulation games for developing both hard and soft skills, but not in a visual novel - storytelling style. Most business focused games are a simulation of managing a store or a company, focusing more on the decision making skills by removing the human interaction part. LASSO tries to simulate realistic situations and encounters in the workplace, in an everyday level.


Contact : Nikolaos Politopoulos

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LOCATION

• Εθνικής Αντιστάσεως 16, 55133, Καλαμαριά, Θεσσαλονίκη
• Ethnikis Antistaseos 16, 55133, Kalamaria, Thessaloniki
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Εργαστηρίο Λογισμικού και Διαδραστικών Τεχνολογιών
Τμήμα Πληροφορικής, ΤΘ 114
Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης
54124 Θεσσαλονίκη

Software and Interactive Technologies Lab
School of Informatics, PO BOX 114
Aristotle University Campus
54124 Thessaloniki, Greece

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Room 6: (+30) 2310 991935
Room 7: (+30) 2310 991937

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