Christos Schizas

The Department of Computer Science has 21 faculty members, and more than 100 postdoctoral Research Fellows and PhD students. The Department is highly research oriented with an overall rate of ~ 5 journal publications per faculty per year. Since Cyprus joined the EU in 2004 it has participated in over 250 projects funded by various frameworks of the European Commission as well as other local and international sources with a total funding in the level of about 30M EUROs. Currently the active department projects are over 35 with a total funding that exceeds the 10 MEUROs. The Department, through the eHealth lab (www.ehealthlab.cs.ucy.ac.cy), has an extensive and long-standing expertise in the area of eHealth projects based on its participation on numerous related EU projects, such as Fi-Star, LINKED2SAFETY, eENERCA, cy-EHR, GRANATUM, mEducator, EMEDIT, MPOWER, HEALTHSERVICE24, LINKCARE, MEDICATE, ΗΕALTHWARE, EMERGENCY112, AMBULANCE, INTERREG projects such as INTERMED, INTRAMEDNET, and FUTURE HEALTH. The lab hosts a multidisciplinary team of experts with a strong background on eHealth, medical imaging, and life sciences informatics and has a long list of completed and on-going projects in the above areas in Europe and internationally. The eHealth Lab is active in several areas related to this project including eHealth an mHealth systems, analysis of high dimensional epidemiological studies with phenotypical, imaging and genetic data analysis, chemo - & pharma-informatics, intelligent and decision support systems, and data mining in medicine in collaboration with the Computational Intelligence Lab – CIL (http://cil.cs.ucy.ac.cy/). The lab hosts a multidisciplinary team of experts with a strong background on eHealth, medical imaging, and life sciences informatics and has a long list of completed and on-going projects in the above areas in Europe and internationally. The team of eHealth Lab will collaborate closely with all partners within the currently proposed project in order to agree on state-of-the-art technologies for eHealth, genetics analysis, and systems medicine analytics defining their accompanied services how to better serve the IPMT CoE. The Computational Intelligence Lab - CIL of the Department; hosted in the same building as the eHealth Lab, collaborate very closely and synergistically. CIL will spend a lot of effort mainly during stage 2, if this proposal passes stage1, for developing intelligent data analysis systems. It is expected as previous studies have shown that through intelligent data analysis one can develop very useful tools for the medical personnel and other health professionals for helping the citizen mainly through preventive medicine, and through prognostic procedures. The CIL is publishing several articles every year that demonstrate through examples its applicability in various medical domains. Both Labs collectively have 10 academics/researchers, 12 Ph.D. candidates and 6 M.Sc. students. Moreover the labs collaborate with about 15 medical experts from the Ministry of Health, the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics, the Aretaeio Hospital, and other private hospitals in Cyprus. The international collaboration of these labs has been very has been very active and rich going back to the beginning of the 90s when the University of Cyprus was established; worth mentioning the collaboration with Imperial College London (Prof A.G. Constantinides, Prof L.T. Middleton); Kings College University Hospital and FMF Foundation, London (Prof. K.H. Nicolaides); St Mary’s University Hospital, London (Prof A. Nicolaides); University of Groningen, The Netherlands (Prof. Nicolai Petkov), National Technical University of Athens (Prof. D. Koutsouris), Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki (Prof P. Bamidis). The Computer Graphics and Hypermedia Lab - (CGH Lab) (www.cs.ucy.ac.cy/graphics/) was founded in 2002 with the purpose of contacting research and hosting postgraduate students in the areas of computer graphics, simulation, virtual reality, and serious games. The Lab is fully equipped for research in its areas of interest. It has a 3-wall stereo projection system, a stereo head-mounted display and a limited-area motion capture system. It is also a partner in a recently constructed 4 sided CAVE at the CUT University in Limassol. The lab has been very active since its establishment, attracting over 20 funded research projects from local and EU sources. It is being involved in international collaborations and has organised several conferences in the wider graphics area. At the moment it hosts 4 post-doctoral researchers, 2 doctoral students as well as masters and undergraduate students, working on various aspects of real-time virtual environments. The post-doctoral researchers are: (1) Dr. Andreas Aristidou, PhD from University of Cambridge (2011). His research interests include human animation, 3D motion analysis and classification, real-time marker prediction for mocap and applications of geometric algebra in engineering. (2) Dr. Alessandro Artusi, PhD from Vienna University of Technology, Austria (2004). His research interests include computational photography, high dynamic range imaging, energy algorithms for mobile devices, wearable computing, compression/decompression image and video standards, image processing and colour science applied to computer graphics. (3) Dr. Marios Kyriakou, PhD from University of Cyprus (2014). His research interests include crowd simulation, immersive and semi-immersive virtual reality systems, focusing on immersed users' experience and their sense of presence. (4) Dr. Melinos Averkiou, PhD from University College London (2015). His research interests include creation, understanding and modeling of 3D geometry.

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of Cyprus admitted its first undergraduate and postgraduate (Masters) students in the Fall of 2003, and its first Ph.D. students in the Fall of 2004. It currently has 17 faculty members. The ECE Department aims to excel in both teaching and research, providing high quality degree programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The Department covers the traditional areas of Electrical and Computer Engineering such as telecommunications, power, control, signal processing, circuit design, computer architecture, etc, as well as other areas that have recently gained high visibility such as computational intelligence, bioengineering, and nanotechnology. Over the period covering 2009-2012, the ECE Department has published 253 refereed publications, 78 of which were journal publications in some of the most prestigious journals in the field. Two authored books, published by J. Wiley and Cambridge University Press were also published by a faculty member of the Department and an additional edited book by J. Wiley was published by another faculty member. The faculty members of the ECE Department have also been very successful in attracting significant external research funding. Specifically, in the specified period, 67 research projects totalling more than 10 million Euros (UCY budget) were active in the Department with faculty members being PIs or co-PIs. The majority of the research funding (more than 95%) was awarded from funding sources external to the University, while a small portion of the research grants was awarded from internal, competitive, University of Cyprus research programs. The Optical Diagnostics Lab (ODx Lab) concentrates on optical technologies which provide complementary, microstructural and biochemical, information. This expertise includes optical coherence tomography, nanoparticle enhanced Raman spectroscopy, fluorescence microscopy, and fluorescence endoscopy. The experimental activities of the laboratory are complemented by computational analysis and novel computational intelligence methodologies. These research activities are also supported by expertise and infrastructure in biological methods for in vitro and cell experiments. The ODx Lab is a fully equipped medical optics facility with 100 m2 of laboratory space and additional office and computing facilities for graduate students and postdoctoral associates. The laboratory is well suited for optic and fibre-optic experiments. Tissue culture techniques, histochemical and optical evaluation of cellular status and constructions of three-dimensional tissue mimicking constructs are routinely used. The Holistic Electronics Research Laboratory aims to conduct leading research into electronic circuits & systems using a holistic approach. Our methods combine analogue, mixed-signal and asynchronous digital integrated circuit design with custom sensor design (MEMS and optical) in order to find solutions for bio-related or biomimetic systems. We apply our philosophy using state-of-the-art and upcoming technologies in microelectronics, microsystems and nanosystems. Primary application areas include: ultra low power circuits & systems, electronics for space applications (using radiation hardening by design techniques), imagers & vision systems, smart sensors and MEMS devices, biomedical devices and neuroprosthetics, neuromorphic, bio-mimetic & bio-inspired electronics and brain-computer interfaces (BCI). The Embedded and Application Specific Systems-on-Chip Laboratory focuses its research and teaching mission towards the design, development, implementation and verification of low-power, high-performance and highly reliable systems on chip, suitable for embedded and mobile environments. Systems-on-chip (SoCs) integrate both software (such as drivers and operating system components) and hardware (analog and digital integrated circuits and other devices) on a single chip. Modern SoCs vary from general-purpose embedded microprocessors to highly complicated hardware architectures used in critical environments, as well as general-purpose chip multiprocessors. The design and development of these ubiquitous systems requires extensive knowledge of reconfigurable hardware (FPGAs), digital integrated circuit design, computer architecture, interconnection networks and software engineering principles. Research focuses on both development of new systems, and improvement of existing systems, through the use of hardware emulation engines and state-of-the-art tools and methodologies. The Nanobiotechnology Laboratory has amassed expertise in the translational nanotheranostics, molecular imaging and cell-based technologies, harnessing moleculers and light for faster diagnosis and better prognosis. It hosts the only setting for BRET/FRET technology in Cyprus and is considered a regional leader in translational nanotheranostics. Furthermore, the Nanobiotechnology Lab hosts dedicated facilities that are specifically designed to provide the physical and technical infrastructure required for researchers, and partners, to conduct high-quality research projects in modern cutting-edge scientific and technological fields. These facilities house state-of-the-art tissue culture and histopathology facilities, centrifuges, protein and nucleic acid analysis systems, DNA-processing and transfection platforms, advanced cell imaging systems for fluoresence resonance transfer energy (FRET), light microscopes and an inverted fluorescent NIR microscope equipped with CCD digital camera and a co-axial electrospinning setting. The team has complete access to Hephaistos MC-Chair of Nanomanufacturing. State-of-the-art animal facilities are available to the team in contractual agreement with Cyprus Inst. Neurology and Genetics.

The Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering (MME) at the University of Cyprus is a relatively young department, established in 2003. It provides high quality undergraduate (B.Sc. in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Minor Degree in Biomedical Engineering) and postgraduate (M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering; M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology) programs. Since 2004, the MME department has demonstrated significant research activities in various research areas including among others thermofluid mechanics and energy systems, biomedical engineering, materials science and engineering, mechanical system modeling and controls, design, manufacture, automations and robotics, micro- and nanotechnology and computational mechanics. The department’s faculty obtained over 15 million Euros funding from internal or external sources. Faculty members have been awarded, among others, Marie Curie Excellence Chairs, Marie Curie Transfer of Knowledge-Development projects, Marie Curie Excellence Team projects, ERC starting grant, FP7 Framework SP3-people and FP7 Framewotk SP3-People Marie-Curie Multipartners ITN, COST Action (coordination), H2020-MSCA-IF-2014, etc. The Cancer Biophysics Laboratory CBL (http://www.ucy.ac.cy/cancer_biophysics/en) of the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering collaborate closely with the CIL and eHealth Labs. In the present proposal, CBL will play an active role in mathematical modeling and simulations. CBL was established in 2011. The focus of the lab is on the combined application of principles from engineering and biology in order to investigate the effect of mechanical forces on tumor micro-environment and progression and optimize the delivery of therapeutic agents to solid tumors. CBL is a vibrant and internationally competitive research environment where novel computational approaches are combined with state-of-the-art experimental techniques to further explore the mechano-biology of cancers and overcome the barriers pertaining to the effective delivery of drugs to solid tumours. Apart from Dr. Stylianopoulos, the head of the lab, current lab members include 5 senior scientists and postdoctoral fellows, 6 graduate students, 6 Master students and undergraduates and 1 laboratory technician. The Polymers/Polymer Processing Laboratory The research activities involve the synthesis and characterization of functional organic polymers of various chemical structures and architectures using Reversible Addition-Fragmentation chain Transfer (RAFT) controlled radical polymerization and conventional free radical polymerization. High focus is given on the preparation of organic-inorganic polymer-based nanohybrids/nanocomposites via the combination of functional polymeric materials with inorganic nanoparticulates and their evaluation in biomedical, environmental, optical and catalytic applications. Laboratory equipment includes vacuum lines for polymer synthesis, high vacuum pumps, vacuum oven, weight balances of high accuracy, electrospinning set-up and spin-coating apparatus used in polymer processing, size exclusion chromatography system used for the determination of average molecular weights and molecular weight distributions of polymers, fumehoods for chemical synthesis, etc

The Department of Biological Sciences (established in 2003) admitted its first graduate students (MSc and PhD level) in 2003 and its first undergraduate students in 2007. The core mission and long-term ambition of the Department is to engage in high calibre, competitive research that represents cutting edge topics in current biology. In so doing, the target is to produce quantifiable research activity that can be recognized as an identifiable entity in Europe and the world, to foster international research collaborations and maintain an internationally extrovert profile, and to train the new generation of young researchers and scientific leaders of Cyprus, in Biology. …Along these lines, academic staff members are active in diverse research fields such as immunology, cell biology, developmental biology, embryology, computational biology & bioinformatics, genetics, epigenetics, virology, neurobiology, and cancer treatment and prevention, as well as in ecology and biodiversity. In the period 2008-2012 members of the department succeeded in securing more than 10M euros of external funding between and published more than 80 papers in peer reviewed international journals. Moreover, the Department offers one undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences, 3 MSc level programs, and 2 PhD programs. Importantly, the Department of Biological Sciences actively contributes to upgrading services provided by the public and private sectors in Cyprus, especially those concerning public health, the environment, and medicine. The Bioinformatics Research Laboratory (BRL) has been instantiated as part of the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Cyprus since 2005. Research activities of the BRL are mainly oriented towards the interpretation of large-scale genomic data and the use of computational methods in order to reveal the principles governing the Molecular Basis of Life. We are mainly interested in the elucidation of protein sequence to structure/function relationships with a strong expertise in developing/applying sequence similarity, statistical and machine learning techniques. In particular, our research primary focus is on: (i) compositional features of gene/protein/genome sequences, such as practical considerations when performing database searches (e.g. masking), their functional/structural signals (e.g. rare codon clusters in coding sequences; transmembrane protein topology and structure), and the correlation of genome-wide composition to phenotypic traits (e.g. pathogenicity), (ii) method development and application for large-scale comparative genomics, with particular interest in understanding bacterial genome function and evolution. The BRL is physically located at the New University Campus, and its core space (58.08 m2) offers the workspace for BRL researchers, students and visitors (currently 1 postdoc, 3 PhD/1 MSc/1 undergraduate students, plus one adjunct professor), with access to modern workstations and development servers. The BRL production servers and the BRL web server (troodos.biol.ucy.ac.cy) are located in a dedicated server room of the department. For the more compute intensive tasks (e.g. pangenome analysis) the BRL has secured access to High Performance Computing facilities e.g. by actively participating in the multi-Teraflop CyTera infrastructure, hosted by the Cyprus Institute.

The Department of Psychology hosts 18 research-active faculty staff and offers very popular and competitive undergraduate and graduate programs of study in various areas of Psychology at the Masters and PhD levels (e.g., School, Clinical, Cognitive, Social, and Developmental Psychology) which enjoy international recognition. The research at the department spans a broad range in Psychology, with funding from competitive sources (e.g., European Commission – FP6, FP7, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, European Research Foundation, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development–National Institutes of Health, USA, International Reading Association, Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions) and publications in high impact international journals. Its faculty members have established international collaborative networks through programs such as the COST and ERASMUS and participate actively in the governing bodies of both scientific and professional associations (e.g., European Society for Cognitive Psychology, European Federation of Psychological Associations, Association for Contextual Behavior Science, American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine). Its mission is to educate new scientists in contemporary scientific Psychology, the production of knowledge that contributes significantly to the international literature on the understanding of Human Beings, and the multidimensional contribution to the local community by offering expertise on National Committees and Councils (e.g., Bi-Communal Committee on Education, Bioethics Committee, Council of Medically Assisted Reproduction, Cyprus State Scholarship Foundation). According to the World University Rankings, the Department of Psychology ranks in the top 200-250 Psychology departments in the world for 2018. The Memory and Attention Development Lab (MADLab; Department of Psychology) is a newly-formed lab that was established in 2018. It specializes on the study of cognitive and brain development and functioning through behavioural, neuroscience (EEG in particular), and molecular genetics methods. The MADLab is directed by Dr. Andria Shimi, a Cognitive Developmental Neuroscientist and a Lecturer of School Psychology at the University of Cyprus, and employs students at various levels of their career, along with certified clinicians with extensive professional experience in Psychopathology. The lab carries out research on attention, working memory, and learning, including related disorders and syndromes, and maintains its international standing through collaborations with various research groups around the world. Infrastructure and facilities: The MADLab includes newly-designed testing booths equipped with high-end computers for psychophysics experiment and all the necessary software to carry out empirical data collection and analyses (e.g., E-Prime 2, OpenSesame, Matlab, SPSS). It also has access to a Biosemi EEG system and equipment for carrying out studies in Virtual Reality.

Following the establishment of its Medical School in 2013 UCY has expanded its scientific horizons to include health related fields. One of the key areas of medical research is that of cancer both at basic science level and at basic science, translational and clinical level. The Medical School of the University of Cyprus strives to develop outstanding physicians, who will promote high quality health care services in Cyprus, and to drive scientific excellence in all aspects of human disease. The state-of-the art facilities and teaching sessions reflect the commitment to educate medical students at the highest professional and academic standards. The recruitment of high calibre academic and clinical personnel is ongoing aiming to complement current and evolving needs in medical teaching, delivering world-class research and improving patient care. The establishment of strong collaborations with all stakeholders and the development of strategic partnerships within and outside Cyprus constitute key components of the Medical School’s ambitious vision to excel in all 3 areas: teaching, research and patient care.