Pythia Open Day: Artificial Intelligence Leads the Way to Digital Transformation

On Wednesday, March 29, 2023, the Open Day of the Pythia project was held with great success at Innovathens. The aim of the event was to mobilize the innovation ecosystem and inform the technology community about the new trends in the field of Artificial Intelligence, good practices and the possibilities offered through the implementation of digital assistants — intelligent chatbots.

The event was held in person and attendance was extremely high, with over 400 participants. Among the participants were executives from the Public and Private sector, members of the academic community, representatives of institutions, etc.

The Open Day was opened by Mr. Georgios Karamanolis, Co-founder CTO/CIO of Crowdpolicy, who spoke about artificial intelligence, new trends but also about the company’s experience around the implementation of automatic digital assistants (Intelligent Chatbots), as well as the important innovation network of Crowdpolicy, which counts 10 years of business activity.

Mr. Georgios Karamanolis, Co-founder CTO/CIO of Crowdpolicy

Then, the Mayor of Platanias of Chania, Mr. Ioannis Malandrakis, addressed a short greeting and highlighted the added value of the implementation of the Municipality’s Automatic Digital Assistant — which is the first Chatbot implementation in a Greek Municipality — for the immediate information of and communication with citizens.

Mr. Ioannis Malandrakis, the Mayor of Platanias of Chania

Mr. Ioannis Charalabidis, Professor at the University of the Aegean and Coordinator of the Pythia project, briefly presented the importance of the promotion of artificial intelligence in a wider context and the value of synergies between organizations for the production of significant research results for society and the economy.

Mr. Harris Alexopoulos, Head of the Pythia project from the University of the Aegean, briefly presented the research and scientific goals of the Pythia project as well as the desired long-term results.

Mr. Harris Alexopoulos, Head of the Pythia project from the University of the Aegean

Then, Mr. Vasilis Kokkinos, Ph.D. Department of Computer Engineering & Informatics, University of Patras, spoke about the importance of artificial intelligence in education, but also the process of applying and implementing the research and scientific goals of the Pythia project.

Mr. Tassos Michalopoulos, Project Manager, Crowdpolicy, and Implementation Manager of the Pythia project for the company, presented the website of the project which is available at https://thepythiaproject.com/.

After the presentations, Mr. Andreas Pipis, Head of the General Directorate of Development and Productive Operation of Information Systems of the Economic Sector and Public Administration, GSISPA, Ms. Maria Theofanopoulou, CEO of GTP Headlines, Mr. Ioannis Georgoulakis, Head of R&D, Innovation Director of Softone, and Ms. Georgia Georgakopoulou, Digital Transformation Division of National Bank, representing the agencies participating in the Pythia project, commented on the above.

Mr. Andreas Pipis, Head of the General Directorate for Development and Productive Operation of Information Systems of the Economic Sector and Public Administration, GSISPA, Ms. Maria Theofanopoulou, CEO of GTP Headlines, Mr. Ioannis Georgoulakis, Head of R&D, Innovation Director of Softone, and Ms. Georgia Georgakopoulou, Digital Transformation Division of the National Bank

This was followed by short talks on Technology Trends, Research and Synergies for the promotion of Artificial Intelligence in sectors of the economy and society by:

• Mr. Ioannis Soldatos, Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence Expert, who spoke about Industrial IoT, Industry 4.0, Finance 4.0. and the successful example of Infinitech.
• Mr. Vassilis Orfanos, Special Advisor, Nvisionist, who spoke about nvbird AI for Green Energy.
• Mr. Yiannis Kotsis-Giannarakis, Coordinator of the Innovation Hub for Digital Governance, GRNET, who spoke about the GR digi-GOV-innoHUB.
• Mr. Georgios Kougianos, Project Manager, Crowdpolicy, who spoke about Artificial Intelligence Good Practices — Bot As A Service and Crowdpolicy’s experience.
• Ms. Katerina Mavroidi, PostDoc researcher, from the University of the Aegean, who spoke about Artificial Intelligence and Gamification.
• Mr. Stelios Neophytides, PhD Candidate and Research Assistant A, who spoke about Machine Learning Applications in Remote Sensing and Earth Observation.

Mr. Ιοannis Soldatos, Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence, Mr. Vassilis Orfanos Special Advisor, Nvisionist, Mr. Yiannis Kotsis-Giannarakis, Coordinator of the Innovation Hub for Digital Governance, GRNET, Mr. Georgios Kougianos, Project Manager, Crowdpolicy, Ms. Katerina Mavroidi, PostDoc researcher from the University of the Aegean, Mr. Stelios Neophytidεs, PhD Candidate and Research Assistant A

Finally, the Greek Innovation Ecosystem had an important presence, represented by two teams that stood out in innovation marathons.

The Bellerophon team briefly presented the ELTair application which enables the user to schedule the collection of their luggage instantly using artificial intelligence.

Afterwards, the Data Minds team talked about Water AI and the use of Artificial Intelligence for better water management in cities.

The Bellerephon and Dataminds teams

The Pythia project aims to:

• create good practice at Greek and international level, as through the support and promotion of open solutions, it strengthens the competitiveness and extroversion of businesses,
• achieve equal services for all citizens,
• increase accessibility to innovative communication & transaction processing services with the public or private sector,
• upgrade services and utilize capital more effectively through applications in sectors of the economy (tourism, retail, public administration).

“The project, with code T2ΔK — 01921, is implemented within the framework of the Action “RESEARCH — CREATE — INNOVATE” of the Special Service for the Management and Implementation of Actions in the Research and Innovation Sectors (EYΔE EK), with co-financing from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) of the European Union and national resources through the Operational Program “Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship & Innovation (EPAnEK)”. The project is coordinated by the University of the Aegean (Department of Information and Communication Systems Engineering/ Information Systems Laboratory) with other partners being the University of Patras (Department of Computer Engineering and Informatics/ Distributed Systems and Telematics Laboratory), the National Bank of Greece, the General Secretariat of Public Administration Information Systems, Crowdpolicy, International Publications Ltd. (GTP) and SoftOne Technologies.

The collaborating entities of the Pythia project are fully active in the research and innovation ecosystem, and demonstrate the necessary entrepreneurial potential and research excellence to highlight and exploit new opportunities in the Greek and global economy. Their partnership in the context of the project is a comparative advantage to foster new good practices as it contributes to the mobilization of a broader innovation ecosystem to develop targeted know-how development and diffusion actions. This partnership is expected to promote the results of the project in the market, to increase business opportunities, and to produce results that the research community can utilize, seeking synergies with potential stakeholders.

💡More information:

• The Pythia Project: https://thepythiaproject.com/
• University of the Aegean — Department of Information and Communication Systems Engineering/ Information Systems Laboratory — http://www.icsd.aegean.gr/is-lab/
• Crowdpolicy — http://www.crowdpolicy.com