directory of mature research results...university of patras directory of mature research results –...

University of Patras Research Committee

Innovation and Technology Transfer Office

Directory of Mature

Research Results

[ Patras, July 2014 ]

University of Patras Directory of Mature Research Results – July 2014

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Directory of Mature

Research Results

2 0 1 4

Disclaimer

The content of this publication does not reflect the official view of the

University of Patras. Responsibility for the information and views expressed

herein lies entirely with the researchers who contributed the mature

research results descriptions.

v.0.10 July, 23th, 2014


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Forward

On July 2014, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs invited the Greek Universities to an event for

promotion of mature research results of technology readiness level 6 or high. This was

considered a good opportunity to mobilize the research community of the University of

Patras in order to create a Directory of mature research. The response to the call, despite

the end of academic year period was overwhelming, an indication of the readiness of our

community and the attention we pay to innovation and technology transfer issues. So we

decided to launch this directory as a focal point of mature research results. This open

publication is going to be supported by the new Unit of Innovation Technology Transfer

and Entrepreneurship, part of which is the ITT Office of the Research Committee that

administers and produces this publication. I hope this is just another step of our University to

play a more active role in technology trasnfer and innovation at the local and global level.

Nikolaos Avouris, Professor of School of Engineering

Head of Research Committee

CONTENTS

Introduction 4

School of Natural Sciences 7

School of Engineering 13

School of Health Sciences 67

School of Business Administration 69


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The University of Patras: a brief introduction

In 2014 the University of Patras celebrates its 50th anniversary. It was November 1964 that the

University was established with the Decree 4425/1964, as the third Greek University. It was

created in order to deal with the many challenges that were then facing Greek society. It

continues until today to do so.

According to the original proposal to the Greek Parliament, the mission of the new University

was to promote teaching and research on subjects that would support the economic

development of Greece, with emphasis on science, technology, economic and social

sciences and business administration. The objective was also to train specialized scientists

and engineers, to reduce brain drain and attract high level scientists from worldwide.

Many of the original objectives were met and even extended. The University has now grown

into a two-city campus (in Rio and Agrinio); its subjects of teaching and research have been

extended from the original ones to the humanities, education, life and medical sciences; it

has attracted Greek and international scientists from all over the world; it has grown in

number of students (over 30,000 today), faculty, and staff; and has become the largest

educational and research institution of Western Greece and one of the most prominent in

Greece. While it maintains its regional and national engagement, it also has a strong

international orientation. The University in 2013-2014 went through external evaluation of all

its 24 departments: the results underlined its strengths and values as a centre of excellence

at the European level. Today, in a time of economic crisis for Greece and Europe, it is

evident, that our record demonstrates that public spending for Universities, such as the

University of Patras, is an investment for the generations to come and for the future of our

country and Europe as a whole.

The NMR Facility,

Pharmacy

Department


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The University consists of five Schools: (i) School of Natural Sciences with departments of

Biology, Geology, Material Science, Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry. (ii) School of

Engineering with departments of Architecture, Environmental and Natural Resources

Management, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Computer Engineering and

Informatics, Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics, Civil Engineering, Chemical

Engineering. (iii) School of Health Sciences, with departments of Medicine and Pharmacy.

(iv) School of Humanities and Social Sciences, with departments of Primary Education,

Educational Sciences and Early Childhood Education, Theatre Studies, Philology, Philosophy.

(v) School of Business Administration with Departments of Business Administration, Business

Administration of Food and Agricultural Enterprises, Cultural Heritage Management and New

Technologies and the Department of Economics.

The University of Patras offers a vast variety of courses through the twenty-four (24)

Undergraduate Programs of Studies that lead to a Ptychio degree based on 4 years of

studies (6 years for the Faculty of Medicine) or to Diploma degrees of 5 years of study for the

School of Engineering. Furthermore the University of Patras offers over thirty (30) Programs of

Postgraduate Studies, some of which are inter-departmental and inter-university, operating

in collaboration with other universities in Greece and abroad. The postgraduate programs

of the University of Patras lead to Masters and Doctorate degrees.

Particular areas of excellence of

the University of Patras are

Engineering, Natural Sciences,

Life sciences, etc. According to

the recent 2013 edition of world

University rankings of QS

http://www.topuniversities.com/

the University is ranked within the

top 650 Universities in the world,

and in specific disciplines scores

higher, like Engineering (225th

position) and Natural sciences

(381th position), reflecting the

focus of the University in science

and technology.

In recent years the University of Patras has intensified its efforts in playing a key role as

technology transfer institution at the regional and national level as well as promoting

innovation and of entrepreneurship. Fostering the engagement of our University in

Technology transfer, innovation activities and skills development is a major priority activity

for the Research Committee and the University in recent years. “Through the creation of the

new Unit of Innovation Technology Transfer and Entrepreneurship we expect to fully mobilize

the capacities of our university to contribute to economic and social development of our

region and the country” said Prof N. Avouris, head of the Research Committee in a recent

http://www.topuniversities.com/


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statement to the Senate. This Directory of Mature Research Results is one step towards this

direction with an international flavor.

This Directory is maintained and promoted by the Innovation & Technology Transfer Office

(ITTO) of the new Unit. ITTO strives to find the most efficient ways to support turning ideas

developed by researchers into products. The Office promotes, protects & manages the

intellectual property developed by faculty members, students, other researchers, evaluates

inventions, manages the patent portfolio, negotiates technology licenses & assists

entrepreneurs with the creation of startups and spinoffs. Areas of activity of ITTO include:

Internal Information Recording, Mapping of the productive sector (Industry and SMEs) of the

wider region, search for funding opportunities. Development of mechanisms for the

valorization of research results, management of intellectual property and technology

transfer. Dissemination actions for the promotion of technological services and valorization

of research results.

During June and July 2014 an open call was issued to the University research community for

cases of research results that have reached technology readiness level 6 or higher, i.e. they

have already been demonstrated in relevant environments. 18 cases of mature research

results were proposed to be included in this current first edition. The directory is going to be

regularly updated and maintained in electronic and printed form and linked to the mature

research results online resources.


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School of Natural

Sciences


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Technology Opportunity

Organisation name: University of Patras

Organisation contact details (eg address,

email, phone number, website):

University city, www.upatras.gr

Department: Chemistry

Contact Person: Koutinas Athanasios

Position: Professor Emeritus

Email: [email protected]

Mobile phone: 2610997104

Title: Producing a probiotic multi-purpose starter culture using whey as raw material

Summary

This is an innovative approach using cheese whey to produce a starter culture suitable for

feta cheese aging and hard-cheese ripening as well as for the mass industrial production of

kefir, bioethanol, dried yeast for bread-making in sachets, and protein animal feed. It is the

combined outcome of a 12-year-long research, 27 international scientific articles and

publications as well as three doctorate theses and it is ready and mature for industrial usage

and applications. The culture is resistant to changes and molding, appearance of holes, and

improves flavor and aroma. It is low-cost for a simple thermal drying method is used thus

making its potential investment cost highly appealing to investors and it entails commercial

benefits while increasing quality and competitiveness. According to estimates, the first stage

of the investment should require about 1 million euro in capital.

Technology/Product/Service description

The proposed product is a dried starter culture for cheese ripening and industrial production

of bioethanol, baker’s yeast and animal feed. The innovation lays in the reduced production

cost compared to conventional methods and the improved characteristic of the products.


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Competitive advantages

Multiple use of starter culture

i) acceleration of cheese ripening

improvement of cheese quality and preservation

induce hard cheese hole formation

probiotic property

ii) baker’s yeast

improvement of bread quality

increase of shelf-life

Lower cost as compared to traditional production

iii) use as protein rich livestock feed

iv) fermentation of milk as starter culture for sour milk production

v) starter culture for whey treatment for alcohol and beverage production

vi) Product with reduced cost due to raw material negligible cost

It is an easy to use technology compared to existing ones. There is also a patent

application.

Market Analysis

Target markets are dairy production, baking and livestock feeds.

Competitors are companies producing propionate starter cultures and baker’s yeast

Sacharomyces cerevisiae. Our starter culture covers all the aforementioned uses. It is more

competitivedue to low cost and the advantages described in previous sections.

Companies producing starter cultures and baker’s yeast would be interested in the

proposed technology.

Development Roadmap & Investment

An one million investment is needed to develop the proposed technology. One year

development is needed for a competitive pilot plant and case study. In specific, 6 months

are required for the case study and six more for the installation. The proposed product can

be developed through a spin-off company which will be created.

Profile (team and backround)

The scientific team of Food Biotechnology Group in the University of Patras consists of

Koutinas Athanasios (Professor Emeritus), Kanellaki Maria (Professor) and Bekatorou Argyro

(Assistant Professor). The Food Biotechnolgoy Group specializes in fermentation sector

(food, biofuel), biotechnological valorization of agroindustrial waste for production of

added-value products, process design in industrial scale.


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Relevant Picture/drawing


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The inclusion of probiotic microorganisms in human diet has numerous health benefits. Whey is used for probiotic culture production and culture immobilization leads to increased viability and stability of probiotic microorganisms during processing and storage of the dairy or meat products Target markets are dairy production and meat products (sausages).


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School of

Engineering


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Organisation name: ECRG-LEMEC-UP

(Energy Conversion Research Group - Laboratory of

Electromechanical Energy Conversion – University of Patras)

Organisation contact

details (eg address,

email, phone number,

website):

Laboratory of Electromechanical Energy Conversion

University of Patras

http://lemec.ece.upatras.gr

+30.2610.996412

Department: Electrical and Computer Engineering

Contact Person: Emmanuel Tatakis

Position: Professor


Mobile phone:

Title: Optimal design and development of a micro-inverter for AC-PV modules

Summary

AC-PV modules are a new area on building integration of PV applications that has a high

penetration in the market. The ECRG-LEMEC-UP research team has focused, for over a

decade, on the subject of micro-inverters for AC-PV modules, during which 2 doctoral

dissertations, a PENED 2003 research program as well as many diploma theses have already

been concluded and another doctoral dissertation is currently ongoing. The research

objective is the optimal design and manufacture of the power converter that will be used,

in order to provide the maximum possible efficiency, for a wide power spectrum, with a high

power factor and high power density. A thorough literature study has been conducted and

the operation of different topologies has been analyzed, leading to the selection of the

Flyback current source inverter, as the most suitable topology for the specific application,

due to its high reliability and low cost. A special optimization algorithm has been developed

for this converter, based on the analytical equations of the electrical quantities, which

dictates the design and operational characteristics of the converter components,

according to the desired specifications (PV module power and voltage, volume, mass etc.),


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leading to the estimation of the efficiency of the final converter. Depending on the

operating power, two different switching modulation methods are used (DCM and i-BCM).

Currently, new calculations are conducted, so as to consolidate those two pulsation

methods and consequently improve the system efficiency and increase the power density.

What is more, a parallel active filter topology has also been developed, to eliminate the

converter input current ripple, which is double the grid frequency. All of the above have

been validated using prototypes which have been tested in laboratory environment, the

results of which have been published in prestigious scientific journals and conferences.


Traditionally in a solar power system, a relatively large number of solar panels is connected

to an inverter which produces an ac current and transfers the energy to the grid. That

inverter, together with producing the ac current from the dc current produced by the

modules, also has control over the efficiency of the modules. In order to achieve the

maximum power generation from the solar panels, an mppt algorithm is employed, but is

effective only if all the modules have exactly the same characteristics and are operating

under the same weather conditions. Micro Inverters are much smaller inverters designed to

match to a single panel or module.

A power inverter, necessary for the connection of the photovoltaic panel to the single phase

ac grid, has been developed. In order to maximize the power efficiency of the converter,

the quantification of the power losses of each system component is carried out through

analytical equations and an optimization algorithm is applied, which dictates the design

parameters (component values) of the system, so as to obtain maximum efficiency.

Therefore, the power losses are minimized, decreasing the weight, size and cost of the

converter, designed to be installed in the back of the photovoltaic panel, and most

importantly achieving the maximum possible energy generation from the solar panel to the

electrical grid. The main advantages of AC-PV modules are a power efficiency similar to

traditional systems and an effectiveness (production of energy per volume) much greater.


AC-PV modules are oriented to the user who wants to effortlessly and safely install a few solar

panels to any building’s rooftop. For this reason, every panel has an integrated single phase

power electronics inverter, which implements MPPT control and anti-islanding protection.

Thus, maximum power generation is achieved, even with partial shadows, and the system is

easily upgradable at any time and more reliable. The developed power inverter ensures that

the maximum power available is transferred to the electrical grid, rendering the investment

of the installation of the solar panels more worthy and increasing the profit margin.

Depending on the preference, the user can purchase the power inverter pre-connected to

the solar panel or can purchase the products separately. In any case, the only installation


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requirement is the connection of the power inverter to the solar panel on one side and to

any ac plug on the other side.

Market Analysis

The technology of AC/PV modules is targeted to the users who do not want to invest on the

construction of larger scale PV plant, but prefer to install a small amount of PV panels to the

roofs of existing buildings (due to cost or area limitations). This modern approach has been

developed the last two decades, as originally only large scale PV systems were considered

profitable.

As such, not only several companies have been established in the last decade, which

specifically produce micro-inverters for AC-PV modules, but also existing large scale solar

inverter manufacturers have realised products for AC/PV modules (i.e. ReneSola-China,

Enphase-USA, Power One-USA, ExelTech-USA).


Collaboration with industry is proposed. Since this product is in a laboratory level, a full

industrialisation process is needed.

Profile (team and background)

Team:

Dr.-Ing. Emmanuel Tatakis, Professor, UP

Dr. Ing. Nikolaos Papanikolaou, Assistant Professor, DUTh

Dr. Ing. Anastasios Kyritsis, Researcher, CRES

Dr. Ing. Anastasios Nanakos, RDD Power Electronics Engineer, Dyson Ltd

El. Eng. Georgios Christidis, PhD Candidate, UP

Key publications

1. Kyritsis Anastasios: "Optimal design of a high frequency single phase converter for the

connection of low power photovoltaic systems to the low

voltage grid", University of Patras, ECE Dept., LEMEC, No. 211, January 2009.

2. Nanakos Anastasios: "Optimal design of the flyback current source inverter for use in ac-

pv modules", University of Patras, ECE Dept, LEMEC,

No. 297, October 2012.

3. Kyritsis A.Ch., Tatakis E.C., Papanikolaou N.P., "Optimum Design of the Current-Source

Flyback Inverter for Decentralized Grid-Connected

Photovoltaic Systems", IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, March 2008, Vol. 23, No 1,

pp. 281-293.


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4. Nanakos A.C., Tatakis E.C., Papanikolaou N.P., "A Weighted-Efficiency-Oriented Design

Methodology of Flyback Inverter for AC Photovoltaic Modules", IEEE Transactions on

Power Electronics, July 2012, Vol. 27, No 7, pp. 3221 - 3233.

5. Kyritsis A.Ch., Papanikolaou N.P., Tatakis E.C., "Enhanced Current Pulsation Smoothing

Parallel Active Filter for Single Stage Grid-connected

AC-PV Module", 13th International Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference (EPE-

PEMC 2008), Poznan (Poland), September 1-3, 2008, paper on CD, No 0326.


Please include a relevant picture or drawing in high resolution including a short description

of the picture in one sentence.

Flyback inverter topology diagram

Measured efficiency of an 100W developed power inverter, compared to the calculated

one, after the application of the optimization algorithm


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Organisation name: VLSILAB




website):

Electrical and Computer Engineering Department,

University of Patras, GREECE

www.vlsi.ece.upatras.gr

Department: Electrical and Computer Engineering Department,


Contact Person: Vassilis PALIOURAS

Position: Associate Professor


Mobile phone: +30 6945 890629

Title: A system for the design and verification of FEC hardware

Summary

A system that substantially accelerates the design of reliable telecom equipment is

introduced. Achieving spectacular acceleration of design time, the introduced system

facilitates efficient design-space exploration, allowing the development of high-quality

sophisticated products within short project schedules. Targeting Wi-Fi applications, point-to-

point links and connectivity in Internet of Things, the introduced system targets design houses

active in such areas.


Contemporary and next-generation wireless, wired and optical telecommunication systems

rely on sophisticated forward error-correction (FEC) schemes to facilitate operation at

particularly low Bit Error Rate (BER), below 1E-12. The ever increasing demand for high

information throughput rate, combined with requirements for moderate cost and low-power

operation, renders the design of FEC systems a challenging task.

http://www.vlsi.ece.upatras.gr/

mailto:[email protected]


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Several modern FEC schemes are based on iterative decoders due to the implementation

efficiency. Yet, due to the non-optimal behavior of such decoders, detailed

characterization is crucial especially in low-BER applications. However, the characterization

of FEC schemes at low BER is a computationally intensive task which is not practical using

only software simulation due to excessive simulation time. An even more complicated task

is error-correction code design itself.

In addition to code design, verification of operation at low BER requires the use of design

and verification strategies capable of proving correct operation of hardware, thus rendering

FPGA prototyping a necessity.

We have designed and implemented a complete hardware-software system that utilizes

special-purpose hardware and embedded software techniques to facilitate high-speed FEC

system characterization. The developed system relies heavily on custom hardware, such as

noise generators, to accelerate computations by several orders of magnitude. Furthermore,

embedded software applications executed on processors embedded in the system, allow

effective monitoring and profiling of rare events, which is the essence of characterization at

low BER. Detailed operation information becomes available for further study in wide-spread

tools such as matlab.

Notably the particular system has allowed our team to design and verify several FEC systems

in collaboration with the industry in the context of several research projects that have

successfully met industrial real-world specifications for wireless point-to-point communication

links and WiFi applications. Two related US patents were granted to us in 2014 for such

systems, two other US patent applications are pending.

Several versions and prototypes of the developed system have been implemented and

extensively tested on various platforms including Virtex-5, Virtex-6, and Virtex-7 family

devices.


A main issue in contemporary system design is the optimization and verification of complex

systems composed of diverse IP blocks developed in-house or coming from third parties. The

physical description available for each constituent IP may vary. Specific substantial effort is

required for the verification of commonly-used IP blocks which are implementation-efficient,

yet theoretically sub-optimal and may operate below expectation under circumstances too

rare to reliably simulate with software tools. Such is the case with iterative decoders based

on LDPC codes, which may exhibit a sharp degradation of corrective capabilities at low

noise exhibiting the so-called error floor. Furthermore operation of a telecom system at low

BER may be dominated by design discrepancies which may manifest themselves under very

rare conditions, too rare to identify under usual verification procedures, yet enough to fail


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product specifications. The introduced system allows for prototyping and optimization since

it

◦ Accelerates the simulation of the FEC subsystems, or other IP of interest, by several orders

of magnitude

◦ Allows the exploration of BER performance of iterative decoders near the error floor,

◦ Allows for practically error-free hardware design,

◦ Essentially improves error-correction capability and product quality by facilitating design

space exploration.

The approach taken by the introduced system outperforms existing approaches based on

software-model simulation (Matlab), HDL simulation (ModelSim) and Hardware simulation

(FPGAs).

By relying on optimized hardware accelerators for processing and using embedded

software for monitoring and I/O, the described system outperforms conventional hardware-

in-the-loop solutions.

The described system has been extensively used as in-house tool in several R&D projects

related to hardware design for telecom applications and has facilitated innovation by the

group, as consolidated by two US patents granted in 2014 to our team, while two US patent

applications are currently pending.

Market Analysis

Embedded systems form a trillion dollar market. The growth rate in embedded systems is

more than 10% annually, while by year 2020 over 40 billion devices are expected to be

deployed worldwide. Connectivity is a highly required feature of an embedded system and

its importance is expected to grow in the advent of technologies such as the Internet of

Things. Most current embedded system designs include some form of connectivity,

commonly wifi-based. In addition the design of embedded system products is usually subject

to short time-to-market and requirement for conformance to several established and

emerging standards. Optimization and verification of embedded hardware for telecom and

for error correction in particular is a necessity for every company active in this market.

Our extensive design experience and our joint R&D projects with industrial partners have

evinced the importance of verification in the design cycle of the particular type of IP blocks.

The benefits achieved by adopting the introduced technology are very clear: better quality

of products available in a shorter time-to-market, which allows the companies that use this

technology to better place themselves in the market. The technology has proven its

usefulness in several joint R&D projects and two involved companies have already expressed

their interest in this technology.


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The described technology has well exceeded the maturity level of an in-house university tool

due to its active use in research projects under real-world specifications and schedules.

Hardware blocks already developed adhere to industrial quality standards and this is an

asset towards commercialization. We expect that the commercialization of this technology

can be more efficiently achieved by a spin-off company following an agreement with the

university. Commercialization is expected to include the extension of the functionality of the

system to cover additional already-identified verification scenarios. Furthermore extension

of the number of supported technology platforms is expected to be required. Finally the

integration of the technology to design flows existing in industrial sites is also required. An

effort of six person years by experienced engineers is expected to suffice for the

development of a commercial product.


The team is composed of Vassilis Paliouras, Associate Professor, ECE Department, two post-

doc researchers and five PhD students, as well as a number of master-level students and

undergraduates working on diploma theses. The team has extensive background on

hardware for telecom applications, low-power design, digital hardware architecture and

embedded software, areas where research is carried out by the team, funded by European

and national schemes, and contracts with the industry.

Vassilis PALIOURAS is an associate professor at the Electrical and Computer Engineering

Department, University of Patras, Greece. His research interests are in the areas of VLSI

architectures for signal processing and communications, low-power digital design and

computer arithmetic. He has published more than 110 research articles in international

journals, conferences, and book chapters and has edited three books. He is advisor to five

PhD students, and has supervised 23 masters’ and 18 diploma theses. Dr. Paliouras has

received the IEEE CASS Guillemin - Cauer best-paper award for the year 2000. Dr. Paliouras

has served as the general co-chair of International Workshop on Power and Timing

Modeling, Optimization and Simulation (PATMOS 2004). He has also served as technical

program chair of PATMOS 2005, the IEEE Workshop on Signal Processing Systems

Implementation (SiPS) 2005, and technical program co-chair of IEEE International

Conference on Electronics Circuits and Systems (ICECS) 2010 and a European liaison for IEEE

ISCAS 2012, Korea. He has served in editorial boards of journals and technical program

committees of numerous conferences in the areas of signal processing, circuits, systems, and

communications.



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PowerPC or

MicroBlazeDDR2

Ethernet

PHY

Custom IP

PLBv46

Other

Peripherals

ESPV-F

LA

N/In

tern

et

Hardware interface

FPGA device

One possible instance of the described technology for the optimization and verification of

IP blocks for embedded communications hardware.


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Organisation name: UNIVERSITY OF PATRAS




website):

Assist. Prof. Christos Makris

Computer Engineering & Informatics dept.

+302610960482

Department: Computer Engineering & Informatics dept.

Contact Person: Christos Makris

Position: Assistant Professor


Mobile phone: +30 6932878054

Title: Tools for efficient web information retrieval

Summary

Searching information is one of the most important tasks in modern societies. The last years

the people which seek information from search engines are raised and in the near future the

majority of the people will search their information using search engines. Now the most

search engines use complicated queries or more recently try to answer to user questions.

The next step for search engines is to communicate with people like the way that people

communicate each other.

Our set of tools pushes the search engines to this direction. Particularly we have created a

web site analyzing tool for the content and the structure of the websites. Also, a tool has

been developed for storing the user behaviour and for the creation of profiles for the users.

Additionally, semantic knowledge bases (like Wordnet and Wikipedia) have been utilized

for the annotation of the websites in order to classify them in different categories. In the field

of web search engines we have developed an add on tool for personalizing their results

according to the user behaviour. This tool is combined with the tool that analyzes the

behaviour of a user. Also, in order to address the problem of redundant information in search

results and generally to the web documents a tool was developed that remove redundant

information from search results combining the documents to new extended documents that

do not contain redundant information. Finally we constructed a tool that utilizes the results

of a search engine and answers efficiently natural language questions. A future combination

of our tools will replace the classic way of submitting queries with communication through



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natural language. The proposed tools could apply to a variety of applications of information

seeking. The tools also can work over all the modern search engines as add on in their

mechanism.

Moreover our set of tools considers the problem of web page usage prediction in a web site

by modeling users’ navigation history with Weighted Suffix Trees. The user’s navigation

prediction can be exploited either as an on-line recommendation system in a web-site or as

a web-page cache system. The methods proposed have the advantage that demands a

constant amount of computational effort per one user’s action and consumes a relatively

small amount of extra memory bytes. These features make our methods ideal for an on-line

working environment.


Software for analyzing website content and structure (content mining).

Software for analyzing user behavior (profiles).

Software for semantic annotation of text documents(using Wikipedia, Wordnet knowledge

bases)

Software for personalization of search engine's results.

Software for removing redundant information from web pages.

Software for answering natural language questions.

Software for analyzing web page usage by users (usage mining).

Software for modeling and analyzing weighted sequences

Software for online web page recommendations.


Better Web search results

Personalized Web Search Experience

Integration with Social networks

Integration to existing platforms like MS Sharepoint, CMS platforms, CRM platforms,

Wiki platforms.

Market Analysis

The web tools are trying to transform the traditional way of retrieving information into modern

machines that communicate with people with a human manner. Consequently the

targeting market is the search engines and secondly companies with very large volume of

information which will use the tools in order to organize and search efficiently their data.


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Initially the proposed tools can be added to the mechanisms of existing systems in order to

improve their search process. Next out tools could create a new interactive system that

efficiently search data using semantic tools and knowledge bases like WordNet and

Wikipedia replacing the classical way of submitting queries with a system that interacts with

the users. There are other approaches that exist now and partially try to search data with a

smarter way like Siri of Apple and search engine Wolfram Alpha. Both approaches try to

answer questions of the users effectively.


The combination of the searching tools will create a new interactive system that will help

users to search their information needs efficiently. The searching tools will be available as

services in 12-24 months together with a prototype of the total system. Next after 1,5-2 years

the whole system will be available in the market. The development of the proposed needs

2 or 3 full time engineers for developing initially the tools as services and then developing a

whole product that incorporates with the previous services.

The best way for developing the proposed idea is through the cooperation with a search

engine which will accelerate the whole process.


Christos Makris [email protected]

Athanasios Tsakalidis [email protected]

Evangelos Theodoridis [email protected]

Yannis Plegas [email protected]

Andreas Kanavos [email protected]

The Host Organization is the University of Patras, Department of Computer Engineering and

Informatics, and in particular the Graphics, Multimedia and GIS laboratory. The Graphics,

Multimedia and GIS laboratory was established in 1994. It involves 4 faculty members (one

of them Assistant Professor Christos Makris is the Principal Investigator of the proposal), 15

doctoral researchers and academics, a number of PhD candidates, graduate and post

graduate students.

The primary activities of the laboratory include the following:

the theoretical research conducting in areas such as Web 2.0, Semantic Web,

knowledge management, Web Engineering, Web Services, Information Retrieval,

Data Structures and Algorithms, Computational Geometry, Expert Systems, e-

Learning, e-Commerce, and Bioinformatics.

the development of related applications and tools within the frameworks of EU

research projects such as IST, INTERREG II, MARIE CURIE, ESPRIT, RACE, AIM, STRIDE,

Basic Research Actions in ESPRIT, ESPRIT special Actions, Telematics Applications,

ADAPT, HORIZON, INTERREG II, LEONARDO DA VINCI, SOCRATES, Telematics Transport,


| P a g e 2 6

as well as projects funded from the National General Secretariat for Research and

Technology of Ministry of Development.

(more than 50 completed and ongoing projects).

the support of the Computer Engineering & Informatics Department’s

undergraduate education in the areas of: Data Structures, Advanced Data

Structures and Graphics, Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems, Models and

Analysis of Computer Systems, Principles of Programming Languages and Compilers,

Internet Technologies, Simulation of Information Systems.

the support of the Computer Engineering & Informatics Department's postgraduate

education in the areas of: Theory of Basic Data Structures, Management of

Multimedia in Databases, Information Retrieval.





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website):

Professor Nikolaos Avouris,

ITLAB HCI Group, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Department, University of Patras, Ypatias Str., GR-26500, Rio

Patras, Greece

Phone: 0030-2610-996898


Website: http://hci.ece.upatras.gr

Department: ITLab Human Computer Interaction Group, Electrical and

Computer Engineering

Contact Person: Dr. Christos Katsanos

Position: Post-doctoral researcher


Mobile phone: 0030-6944366955

Title: MEDIAMIS: Methodology for the Cost-Effective Design of Usable Website Information

Architectures

Summary

MEDIAMIS is a new methodological process that supports effective design/evaluation of

usable information-rich websites. It provides increased efficiency, increased scalability in

terms of website content and size, reduces required resources and is simple to learn and

apply. MEDIAMIS can be used to optimize and systemize the design/evaluation of a usable

website information architecture. The proposed process covers the market need of

providing usable websites in competitive prices.


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A prime objective of websites’ practitioners is people to be able to access, find and use

the provided information and services easily. The great appeal of the web has led to rapid

development cycles of websites and the need for constant change and update of their

content. As a result, established user-centered design techniques, which are necessary to

ensure website usability and good overall user experience, are often not implemented

because of time and cost constraints, and the increased complexity in the analysis of data

collected [1-3]. Consequently, there is an urgent need to optimize and systematize the

process of website design.

This proposal describes MEDIAMIS (Methodology for the Efficient Design of Information

Architectures based on Models of Interactive Search), the result of a more than five years

research with more than 9 research publications [4-12], including publications in the top

venues of the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) field. MEDIAMIS addresses the problem of

cost-effective design of websites that enhance findability of information during users’ web

browsing. It is a tool-based approach to design or evaluate the information architecture of

a user-friendly website. Information architecture of a website greatly affects its usability and

overall quality of the user experience [13]. The central idea of the proposed approach is that

the content of a website must be structured and interlinked in a way that supports easy

navigation, while using the fewest possible resources in time and cost. It should be underlined

that research [14, 15] demonstrates that even a perfect search engine cannot compensate

for poor information architecture of a website.

MEDIAMIS aims at the systemization and optimization of the information architecture

design process. The method is inspired by established HCI techniques, such as card sorting

[16], and recent psychological cognitive models of user’s web navigation behavior [17]. The

latter suggest that following information scent is the fundamental process involved in

interactive search behavior. Information scent is defined as a user’s imperfect perception of

the value, cost, or access path of information sources obtained from proximal cues, such as

hyperlinks. The contribution of the proposed approach is that it supports the effective and

efficient design of an information architecture that facilitates this scent-following behavior.

MEDIAMIS is addressed to web practitioners and deals with the design or evaluation of a

website’s information structure and labeling system. In the context of the proposed

methodology, two original tools have been designed and developed to fully support the

application of the proposed process: a) AutoCardSorter (Automated Card Sorting Tool), and

b) ISEtool (InfoScent Evaluator Tool).

The applicability of the proposed methodology and the effectiveness and efficiency of

the associated tools were examined through six experimental studies [4-12]. These studies

compared both quantitatively and qualitatively the results of the proposed methodology

against the ones derived from established user-centered design approaches, such as card

sorting, and against observed and subjective user data. It was found that the proposed

methodology lead to a substantial efficiency gain, without expense in the quality of results.

MEDIAMIS Phase 1: Cost-effective structural design of websites with the AutoCardSorter tool


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AutoCardSorter, addresses the problem of reasonable content structuring (structural

navigation) and helps in creating semantic relationships between related pieces of content

across levels of a hierarchy (associative navigation links). To this end, it uses a novel algorithm

that first calculates semantic similarity among webpages, then applies clustering algorithms

to form groups of webpages and finally employs mathematical heuristics to produce the

website structure, simulating an open Card Sorting study [16]. Card Sorting is the main HCI

method used to elicit conceptual structures from participants and organize the content

provided in a website in a way that increases findability. In a typical application of the

method, 15–20 participants are asked to sort a stack of index cards, each containing a small

description of the concepts to be grouped (e.g. webpages), into groups that make sense

to them. However, the method is demanding in terms of time and human resources and can

be daunting for both the participants and the designer when designing or evaluating large

sites [16]. AutoCardSorter is offered as an automated alternative to Card Sorting and can

achieve proper structuring of a website, even when there are strict time and cost constraints

or lack of the required expertise.

In a typical usage scenario of AutoCardSorter, the designer provides descriptions of the

content items to be grouped (e.g. webpages of a site) (Fig. 1a), and specifies the

parameters of the algorithm employed by the tool; that is which semantic similarity and data

clustering algorithm is going to be used (Fig. 1b). Next, AutoCardSorter runs an algorithm that

first creates a matrix of the semantic similarities of each content–item’s textual description

to another, and then applies the selected clustering algorithm to produce groupings of

semantically close items. The tool also implements mathematical techniques, such as

Eigenvalue analysis, to determine the statistically-optimal number of categories. The output

of the tool is an interactive dendrogram, in which the horizontal axis measures the semantic

distance between groups of content–items; the more left a group is produced the more

semantically closer its member are (Fig. 1c). The designer can cut off the dendrogram at

various levels to produce different groupings by either dragging a vertical, red line or by

specifying explicitly the desired number of categories (Fig. 1d). In both cases, the tool

reorganizes the results in real–time to present the groupings produced in different colors

Four independent research studies [5, 7, 10] provided support for the validity and

efficiency of AutoCardSorter. The studies compared the widely used open Card Sorting

method and AutoCardSorter in the design or redesign of the information structure of

websites for various domains and sizes. For each website, the tool-based method was first

applied, followed by a Card Sorting experiment with 18 to 34 participants. The quality of the

results produced by AutoCardSorter was compared against the results of the Card Sorting

studies. In all cases, it was found that AutoCardSorter produced groupings of webpages that

were significantly similar (p<0.01) to the ones produced by human participants, and website

structures that were from 87% to 100% similar to the ones produced by designers after

analyzing card sorting data. In addition, the total time required to design the website

structure using each approach was also compared. It was found that the tool-based

approach was on average 17 times faster compared to a typical Card Sorting study,

providing at the same time highly similar results.


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Fig. 1. Using AutoCardSorter to identify the information architecture of a web site dealing

with traveling and tourism issues.

MEDIAMIS Phase 2: Cost-effective production of semantically appropriate hyperlink labels

using ISEtool

ISEtool, facilitates the production of semantically appropriate hyperlink labels for the

typical goals of a website. The overall aim is to produce a website that supports the scent-

following user behavior that is common in all recent models of goal-directed web

navigation. The tool supports an iterative evaluation process and offers a number of options

to the designer which can be easily parameterized. A study [18], involving web designers,

supported the flexibility, ease of use and overall usability of ISEtool.

In a typical usage scenario, the designer provides a textual description of a user goal,

specifies the URL of a webpage, and selects a semantic similarity algorithm as the

computational model of information scent (Fig. 2a). Next, ISEtool runs an automated analysis

that combines a Web data extraction algorithm with the selected semantic similarity

algorithm to compute the information scent for all the links of the page. The Web data

extraction algorithm collects the labels of all textual hyperlinks and the alternative texts (i.e.

ALT tags) of all graphical hyperlinks. If text equivalents are unavailable in the source code of


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the webpage, ISEtool asks from the designer to optionally provide such a textual description

for the graphical hyperlinks. Next, the tool computes the semantic similarity between each

available textual description for a link in the currently evaluated webpage and the provided

textual description of a typical user goal.

Fig. 2. Using ISEtool to simulate user’s scent-following web navigation behavior and resolve

navigability problems

The output of the tool is presented as a tabular report, including all the collected and

calculated attributes of the links in the currently evaluated webpage (Fig. 2c). The evaluator

can sort the results for any of these attributes. The default color coding in this tabular report

visually groups the links into five scent–levels (weak, low, moderate, adequate, high), but it

can be easily adjusted by the designer to serve different purposes. In addition, the tool

displays an embedded browser (Fig. 2b), which combined with the possibility to exclude any

link from the output (Fig. 2d), can allow the designer to take also into account the visual

layout of the webpage while interpreting the results. This embedded browser is synchronized

with the tool’s tabular report; that is when a link is selected in the tabular report it is auto-

focused and highlighted in the browser. The evaluation process is iterative and the user of

the tool can choose any of the available links as the next step (Fig. 2e). Finally, it is worth

mentioning that the tool offers a number of additional options to the evaluator, such as

exporting the results in various formats and visualizing the simulated user trail.

Two validation studies [6, 8, 9] comparing the results of ISEtool with data derived from

human participants were conducted. In the first study, the scent–ratings collected in the

context of a study investigating the minimum number of raters required to reliably evaluate

information scent were compared to the scent values produced by ISEtool. The dataset

used was derived by 101 participants, who were asked to rate the semantic relevance of all

the links in eight experimental webpages for eight associated goal descriptions on a 1–5

scale (1=poor relevance, 5=high relevance). The webpages presented navigation menus of

actual websites related to specific tasks (e.g. buy a specific object). A high degree of

correlation (r = 0.58, averaged across the tasks) was found between ISEtool scent values and

scent–ratings of participants. In the second study, 54 University students were asked to

perform the same tasks on the same websites and their behavior was monitored. Correlation


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analysis indicated a very high degree of correlation between the ISEtool identified scent

level of the correct link and the observed participants’ success ratio (r=0.922, p=.001),

average time to select the first link (r=−0.777, p=.023), average self-rated confidence in the

selection of the first link (r=0.923, p=.001), and number (r=−0.853, p=.007) and duration

(r=−0.798, p=.017) of eye–observations on the links. The attention distribution and focusing

patterns recorded using a 17’’ Tobii T60 eye tracker provided further support for the validity

of ISEtool (Fig. 3). In webpages that ISEtool classified as having higher scent levels, attention

was mainly focused in the area containing the correct link, indicating a focused and

efficient search. As ISEtool identified lower scent levels, attention was distributed across the

rest of the available links, thus indicating an increasing level of uncertainty. This uncertainty

was also depicted in other measures of participants’ behavior. For instance, for the last three

weaker scent tasks, the success ratio was on average 25%, whereas in the rest five higher

scent tasks it was 70%.


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Fig. 3. (a) Heatmaps of participants’ total duration of fixations for each webpage. (b)

Representative gaze–plots of participants’ sequence of fixations in each webpage.

References

[1] Brajnik, G. (2000). Automatic web usability evaluation: Where is the limit? In Proc. of

Sixth Conference on Human Factors & the Web. Austin, TX. Available at:

http://www.tri.sbc.com/hfweb/brajnik/hfwebbrajnik.html.

[2] Brinck, T., Hofer, E. (2002). Automatically evaluating the usability of web sites. CHI '02

extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems (pp. 906-907).

Minneapolis, Minnesota: ACM

[3] Chi, E.H., Rosien, A., Supattanasiri, G., Williams, A., Royer, C., Chow, C., Robles, E.,

Dalal, B., Chen, J. & Cousins, S., (2003). The bloodhound project: automating

discovery of web usability issues using the InfoScent simulator. In Proceedings of CHI

2013. Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA: ACM, pp. 505-512.


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[4] Katsanos C., Tselios N., Goncalves J., Juntunen T., Kostakos V. (2014). Multipurpose

public displays: Can automated grouping of applications and services enhance user

experience?, International Journal of Human Computer Interaction, 30, 1-13.

[5] Katsanos C., Tselios N., Avouris N. (2010). A survey of tools supporting design and

evaluation of websites based on models of human information interaction.

International Journal on Artificial Intelligence Tools, 19(6), 755-781.

[6] Katsanos C., Tselios N., Avouris N. (2010). Evaluating website navigability: validation

of a tool-based approach through two eye-tracking user studies. New Review of

Hypermedia and Multimedia, 16(1&2), p.p. 195-214.

[7] Katsanos C., Tselios N., Avouris N. (2008). Automated semantic elaboration of web

site information architecture. Interacting with computers, 20(6), 535-544.

[8] Katsanos C., Tselios N., Avouris N. (2009). Are ten participants enough for evaluating

information scent of web page hyperlinks?. In Proceedings of Interact 2009, LNCS

5726, Part I (pp. 419-422), Uppsala, Sweden: Springer Verlag.

[9] Tselios N., Katsanos C., Avouris N. (2009). Investigating the effect of hyperlink

information scent on users’ interaction with a web site. In Proceedings of Interact

2009, LNCS 5727, Part II (pp. 138-142), Uppsala, Sweden: Springer Verlag.

[10] Katsanos C., Tselios N., Avouris N. (2008). AutoCardSorter: Designing the information

architecture of a web site using latent semantic analysis. In Proceedings of CHI 2008

(pp. 875-878), Florence, Italy: ACM Press, April 5-10, 2008

[11] Tselios N., Katsanos C., Avouris N. (2007) Beyond user centered design: A web design

approach based on information foraging theory. In Proceedings of INTERACT 2007

workshop, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 10-14 September 2007

[12] Katsanos C., Tselios N., Avouris N., (2006). InfoScent Evaluator: A semi-automated tool

to evaluate hyperlinks’ semantic appropriateness of a web site. In Proceedings of

OZCHI 2006 (pp. 373 – 376). Sydney: ACM Press.

[13] Morville, P., 2005. Ambient findability: What we find changes who we become 1st

ed., O'Reilly Media.

[14] Wu, S. & Miller, C.S. (2007). Preliminary evidence for top-down and bottom-up

processes in web search navigation. In CHI 2007 extended abstracts. San Jose, CA,

USA: ACM, pp. 2765-2770.

[15] Teevan, J., Alvarado, C., Ackerman, M.S. & Karger, D.R. (2004). The perfect search

engine is not enough: a study of orienteering behavior in directed search. In Proc of

CHI 2004, Austria: ACM, pp. 415-422.

[16] Spencer, D. (2009). Card sorting: designing usable categories. Brooklyn, N.Y.:

Rosenfeld Media.

[17] Pirolli, P. (2007). Information Foraging theory: Adaptive interaction with information

(1st ed.). Oxford University Press, USA.

[18] Dickinson, M. (2007). A real world evaluation of two LSA-based usability tools for

website navigation. MsC Thesis. University of Teesside.


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Information architecture is a critical aspect of user experience with a website. MEDIAMIS

optimizes and systemizes the design and evaluation of a usable website information

architecture. To this end, it combines rigorous research findings on modeling of users’ web

navigation behavior with innovative algorithms implemented in the form of two software

tools, entitled AutoCardSorter and ISEtool, that support the application of the proposed

process.

Research studies [1-3] have demonstrated a substantial efficiency gain in the use of

MEDIAMIS, without expense in the quality of obtained results. In specific, it was found that

MEDIAMIS requires on average 17 times less time to produce the information structure of a

website and 9.5 times less time to produce semantically-appropriate hyperlink labels,

compared to established used-based techniques. This increased efficiency offered by

MEDIAMIS is even more important when designing or evaluating large sites, where existing

approaches are not able to tackle the complexity of the information spaces. Thus, MEDIAMIS

is a scalable approach. It is also cost-effective in terms of human resources required, given

that it does not require participants for user testing studies, as the competitive approaches

require. MEDIAMIS is also easy to learn and use, and does not require specific know-how or

expertise.

Currently, there are no related patents or patent applications.

References

[1] Katsanos C., Tselios N., Goncalves J., Juntunen T., Kostakos V. (2014). Multipurpose public

displays: Can automated grouping of applications and services enhance user

experience?, International Journal of Human Computer Interaction, 30, 1-13.

[2] Katsanos C., Tselios N., Avouris N. (2010). Evaluating website navigability: validation of a

tool-based approach through two eye-tracking user studies. New Review of

Hypermedia and Multimedia, 16(1&2), p.p. 195-214.

[3] Katsanos C., Tselios N., Avouris N. (2008). Automated semantic elaboration of web site

information architecture. Interacting with computers, 20(6), 535-544.

Market Analysis

The proposed process targets the web development industry, ranging from web

freelancers to large web development companies. Today, many web development

companies have well-trained and skilled professionals and offer excellent services. However,

with competition getting fiercer by the day and there being a proliferation of websites,

effective practices for providing usable websites are also becoming necessary. MEDIAMIS is

such a cost-effective and efficient approach, and can provide a competitive advantage

for a web development company.

The web development industry is a "$20.1B market in the US alone, and more than 16M

new websites are added every month” [1]. Web development has been a growing industry,


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and its growth is being continuously pushed by both demand (more business go online, more

people use online services) and technology. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics

[2] “employment of web developers is projected to grow 20 percent from 2012 to 2022, faster

than the average for all occupations. Demand will be driven by the growing popularity of

mobile devices and ecommerce”.

Currently, there are no known existing products, services or technologies that are directly

competitive. Existing user-based techniques to achieve usable information architectures of

websites, such as card sorting and user testing studies, are indirectly competitive. Compared

to user-based approaches, the proposed process is substantially more cost-effective, easier

to apply, more flexible and does not require specific know-how or expertise.

Both web freelancers and companies that are active in the web development industry

sector are expected to be interested in the proposed process.

References

[1] Market Analysis of the Web Design Industry (2013). Retrieved from

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/market-analysis-design-industry-180000355.html

[2] Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook

Handbook (2014-15 Edition). Web Developers, on the Internet. Retrieved from

http://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/web-

developers.htm


The development roadmap for the new product includes three stages: 1) Develop a web

service that implements MEDIAMIS, 3) Develop MEDIAMIS plugins/add-ons for popular web

development tools, and 3) Develop new, added-value MEDIAMIS functionalities. The

milestones for these stages are briefly sketched in the following. The new product requires

mostly investment in terms of personnel (2 software developers, 1 software usability engineer

1 business/market analyst, 1 manager), and some investment in terms of infrastructure (web

server, internet domain, internet bandwidth). The new product is expected to be available

in 6-8 months, given a budget of 120000-150000 euros.

The envisaged milestones for the stages of the product development are the following:

Stage 1: Develop a web service that implements MEDIAMIS

o Milestone 1: Produce the business plan

o Milestone 2: Implement module for user accounts management

o Milestone 3: Implement module for financial/pricing management

o Milestone 4: Implement service for cost-effective design/evaluation of

website structure


website labeling system


website structure and labeling system

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/market-analysis-design-industry-180000355.html

http://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/web-developers.htm

http://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/web-developers.htm


| P a g e 3 7

Stage 2: Develop MEDIAMIS plugins/add-ons for popular web development tools

o Milestone 1: Produce the business plan

o Milestone 2: Establish agreements with companies producing web

development tools

o Milestone 3: Implement MEDIAMIS plugins/add-ons for each established

agreement

Stage 3: Develop new, added-value MEDIAMIS functionalities

o Milestone 1: Functionality to construct user profiles from user-defined text

corpora

o Milestone 2: Functionality to simulate human attention allocation during web

browsing

The proposed product can be developed either as a spin-off company or a joint

development collaboration project with industry/investors.


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Dr. Nikolaos Avouris, Professor, University of Patras, Greece

He holds a PhD (1983) and an MSc (1980) from the University of Manchester, UK and a

Diploma in Electrical and Computer Engineering (1979) from the National Technical

University of Athens, Greece. He is a Professor of Software Technology and Human-

Computer Interaction in the Electrical and Computer Engineering and a founder and

Leader of the ITLAB HCI Group, University of Patras, Greece. Currently, he is also serving as

Deputy Rector for Research & Development for the University of Patras. His research interests

include Software Technology for Interactive Systems Design, Human-machine interaction in

industrial, educational, cultural and environmental fields. He has special interest and

experience in Distributed Intelligent Systems, collaborative systems, usability and accessibility

of interactive systems, mobile systems, web applications and services. Professor Avouris has

research and teaching experience in industry and academia for over 25 years; Leader or

principal investigator in many national and international funded research projects;

Coordinator of research networks; National Representative in IFIP TC13 (Human-Computer

Interaction); Author or editor of six books and of over 200 scientific journal and conference

papers. His research has attracted more than 2490 citations and he has an h-index of 27

(July 2014).

Dr. Christos Katsanos, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Patras, Greece

He holds a PhD (2010) in Human-Computer Interaction and Web Usability Engineering and

a Diploma (2004) from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, University of

Patras, Greece. Currently, he is a post-doctoral researcher of the University of Patras, an

adjunct Assistant Professor at the Technological Education Institute of Western Greece, and

a Senior Usability and Software Engineer at the Hellenic Open University. His main research

interests include Human-Computer Interaction, Human-Robot Interaction, information

architecture, Web usability and accessibility, and distance learning and education using

ICT. He has more than 25 publications in international and Greek journals and conferences,

including publications in influential journals and conferences of the HCI field, such as the CHI

conference (top publication venue in his research field). His research has attracted more

than 100 citations and he has an h-index of 7 (July 2014). He has participated as a research

engineer in more than 8 national and international funded research projects. He is a

reviewer in a number of academic journals and conferences. He has also accumulated

teaching experience by lecturing in both undergraduate and postgraduate courses, and

giving invited talks. He has distinctions in national innovation competitions, such as the

“Otenet Innovation 2006” and “Greece Innovates 2010”. He has received an award by the

Technical Chamber of Greece for graduating as the top of his class, and two awards from

the Greek National Institute of Scholarships (IKY) for his academic performance during his

undergraduate studies. He is a founding member of the ACM Greek SIGCHI, and a member

of the Technical Chamber of Greece since 1997.


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Dr. Nikolaos Tselios, Assistant Professor, University of Patras, Greece

He holds a PhD in Usability Engineering (2002) and a Diploma (1997) from the Electrical and

Computer Engineering Department, University of Patras, Greece. Currently, he is an Assistant

Professor in the Educational Sciences and Early Childhood Education Department at the

University of Patras and a Consulting Professor at the Hellenic Open University. Also, since

2009 he teaches Human Computer Interaction in the joint postgraduate program offered

by the Athens Technological Educational Institute and the University of Limoges. His main

research interests are Educational Technology, Human Computer Interaction, user interface

design and evaluation of educational software, usability evaluation methodologies, e-

learning, user/student modelling and intelligent user interfaces. He teaches four courses

related to usage of computers in education: ‘Introduction to computers’, ‘Advances topics

and uses of Informatics in education’, ‘Basic services and pedagogical usages of the

Internet’, ‘Design and evaluation of educational software’. He has over 80 publications in

international and greek journals and conferences with more than 730 citations and hirsch

index 13/i-10 index=18 (July 2014). He is a member of the HCI team of the Electrical and

Computer Engineering Department of University of Patras, the Technical Chamber of

Greece, ACM, Greek Artificial Intelligence Organization and Greek society of ICT in

Education.


| P a g e 4 0


Figure Caption: Overview of the proposed methodological process for the cost-effective

design of usable website information architectures


| P a g e 4 1


Organisation

name:


Organisation

contact

details (eg

address,

email, phone

number,

website):

Department of Computer Engineering and Informatics


Patras 26500

www.upatras.gr

http://xanthippi.ceid.upatras.gr/

http://xanthippi.ceid.upatras.gr/people/berberidis/index.php/Home

Department: Dept. Of Computer Engineering and Informatics

Signal Processing and Communications Lab

Contact

Person:

Kostas Berberidis

Position: Professor


Mobile

phone:

0030-6977-003510

Title: A handheld thermal imaging device for energy inspection of buildings

Summary

The developed prototype device is an innovative, low-cost, portable system, which

incorporates an infrared camera able to acquire thermal images, and state of the art image

processing algorithms for the detection of energy losses in buildings. The system offers a

robust and very fast alternative to conventional tools used for this purpose, offering its

operator the capability to conduct diagnostic tests in real time. The system is expected to

attract the interest of urban planning authorities, associations of civil engineers and private

businesses. Furthermore, its future widespread use could contribute to the optimization of the

procedures for quality certification of buildings and structures.

http://www.upatras.gr/




| P a g e 4 2


The main research results of the prototype device are:

1. A new hardware platform has been designed that integrates various separate

subsystems for the acquisition and processing of thermal images.

2. Efficient image processing algorithms, able to detect various abnormalities in the

thermal images, have been implemented.

3. An user-friendly interface through a touchscreen is provided

4. The results are provided in real-time without the need for additional off-line processing

using some specialized software e.g. on a personal computer.

5. The proposed technology is modular, versatile and extendable to accommodate

possible future needs. The capabilities of the platform can be easily extended through

software, for example, to accommodate the identification and detection of

additional failure cases caused by structural damages, such as water leakages.

The use of thermal images for building diagnostics is a well-documented issue. However, the

associated devices that are commercially available are expensive and they essentially

provide to the user only the thermal images. Then the user has to study / edit them in a

manual and off-line way. The proposed device aims at giving a high level of intelligence to

the diagnostic tools by supporting the end user to come to final conclusions faster by

providing real-time information. The key innovative features are:

1. The required processing is executed very fast, using the technology of Field

Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA).

2. The device is able to connect wirelessly to wireless sensor networks that are expected

to be installed into Smart Buildings of the future.


The lack of energy and vital resources constitutes one of the most important problems of

recent times having non-reversible negative repercussions for the environment on a global

scale. This problem has contributed to the formation of a comprehensive energy and

environmental policy of the European Union (EU) based on clear objectives and timetables,

aimed at saving water and energy resources and reducing CO2 emissions. The construction

of energy efficient buildings is considered a particularly difficult problem and has led the EU

to devise regulations concerning the certification of building installations through the

establishment of EU directives (COM 2002/91/EC) and imminent legislations on the reduction

of losses of water resources. In this context, one could assume that diagnostic tests

conducted for the inspection of buildings and civil structures offer a powerful tool for the

detection and potential elimination of energy losses.

However, the associated devices that are commercially available are expensive and they

essentially provide to the user only the thermal images. Then the user has to study / edit them


| P a g e 4 3

in a manual and off-line way. The proposed device aims at giving a high level of intelligence

to the diagnostic tools by supporting the end user to come to final conclusions faster by

providing real-time information. The key innovative features include:

1. Reduced cost as compared to standard thermal inspection devices

2. The proposed technology is modular, versatile and extendable to accommodate

possible future needs. The device can be easily extended to deal with other types of

defects, via software

3. The required processing is executed very fast, using the technology of Field

Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA).

4. The device is able to connect wirelessly to wireless sensor networks that are expected

to be installed into Smart Buildings in the future.

5. The end prototype system is expected to significantly improve the energy losses

detection as far as accuracy and speed in detection is concerned

Market Analysis

Hence, the potential target market is gradually increasing and the proposed portable and

innovative device is expected to attract the interest of the urban planning authority as well

as associations of civil engineers and private businesses interested in the conduction of “on-

the-spot” tests.


The actions that took place so far,aimed to drive the commercialization of an innovative

technology for inspecting energy losses in structures by developing a portable system for

conducting “on the spot” tests. More particularly they focused on the development and

extensive testing of a prototype system using methodology that includes industrial research

in the following sectors:

1. Design and implementation of a pre-industrial prototype incorporating a Field

Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) platform and Image Analysis and Decision

Making Hardware, adapted for handheld computers for the collection and

processing of infrared (IR) images in real time,

2. development and training of identification/recognition software for identification of

energy losses in buildings through the use of IR images,

3. development of fusion techniques for combining information from IR images with

data retrieved from wireless sensor networks in smart houses and fusing this

information with the IR processing data,

4. design of database and graphical user interface for handheld computer.


| P a g e 4 4

A pre-industrial prototype is now ready through which all the functionalities of the system are

able to be demonstrated.

Partners plan to demonstrate the pre-industrial prototype to potential investors able to fund,

through joint development collaboration, the development of the industrial product and all

the marketing processes until the final product is ready for the market. The development and

industrialisation process will include:

Revise Requirements and Specifications based on up-to-date state-of-the-Art

technology/systems/solutions.

Perform the required modifications both in hardware and software level based on

the updated specs.

Clearly identify the market figures

Extensive study of the product life cycle

Industrialisation of components, assembling and packaging

Marketing/promotion processes.

Alternatively, in the case that the first option fails and partners are not able to find an investor

willing to fund the proposed system, the creation of a spin-off company will be examined to

deal with the industrialisation of the device.


The laboratory of Signal Processing and Communications (SPCLAB) was founded in 1998 and

covers the educational and research activities of the department of Computer Engineering

and Informatics (CEID), at the University of Patras, in the wider area of signal processing and

communications. The SPCLAB team consists of 3 faculty members, 6 postdoctoral

researchers, 7 PhD students, while every year about 5 postgraduate and 10 undergraduate

students conduct their masters and final year theses, respectively. SPCLAB members

participate in a number of national and European research projects and they are active in

the international research community through publication of peer-reviewed papers in high-

impact journals and conference proceedings, participation in National, European and other

international evaluation boards, as well as participation in editorial boards of high-ranked

technical journals and in scientific and organizing committees of several scientific events.

SPCLAB has a strong collaboration with Research Unit 8 of the Computer Technology Institute

and Press “Diophantus”. More information about the SPCLAB and its activities can be found

in the following links:






| P a g e 4 5

SignalGeneriX Ltd is a Cypriot R&D company doing cutting edge research and

development in the fields of Digital Signal Processing (DSP) and Communications. The

company is based in Limassol but operates as expert providers of DSP and Communications

technologies realised both in hardware and software for a wide network of clients and

collaborators throughout Europe.

SignalGeneriX demonstrates long established experience in developing new products and

processes in Digital Signal Processing and Communications. The company is deeply

involved in Research and Development and has amassed a broad portfolio of intellectual

property rights covering core signal processing algorithms, telecommunication networks

wireless sensor applications and medical systems. Our range of products includes among

others low powered sensor nodes, smart antennas, intelligent power management, DSP

processes and advanced remote monitoring platforms, miniature ECG Data acquisition

hardware, wearable sensors, emergency telemedicine systems, patient activity detection

systems and hardware for rehabilitation robotics systems.

SignalGeneriX is actively participating in various National and European projects in its area

of expertise. The company is currently involved in ICT and Research for the benefit of SME/AG

projects in the area of wireless sensor networks, signal processing and telecommunications.

SignalGeneriX is focusing on the development of innovative IP and realising this into novel

hardware and software products. The company has recently secured a European patent

and also presented its scientific results in various international scientific conferences and also

produced scientific papers published in international books, transactions and journals. Some

of the ongoing projects include the WiserBAN IP ICT project where SignalGeneriX is applying

its expertise in DSP and hardware design, the SME/AG projects LYNCEUS, Chameleon and

Icyheart where it provides RTD work on signal processing, communications, image

processing and microelectronics. In addition to that SignalGeneriX also participates in

various National funded projects in its area of expertise.





| P a g e 4 6

FPGA Block Diagram


| P a g e 4 7

Figure 2. First Device Prototype (1: Ultrasonic sensor for measuring distance, 2: Thermal

Camera, 3: Temperature Sensor, 4: 2.8’’ LCD touchscreen)

Figure 3: Remote Wireless temperature Sensor Prototype


1

2

3

4


| P a g e 4 8

Organisation

name:


Organisation

contact

details (eg

address,

email, phone

number,

website):

Department of Computer Engineering & Informatics


26500 Patras, Greece



Department: Signal Processing and Communications Lab

Department of Computer Engineering & Informatics

Contact

Person:

Kostas Berberidis

Position: Professor


Mobile

phone:

0030-6977-003510

Title: Optical Density Sensor for monitoring algae growth in hatchery units

Summary

Automated monitoring and control of algae production in hatcheries, reduces significantly

the operational cost and increases the algae productivity. It heavily relies on the

performance of an optical density (OD) sensor, used for monitoring the algae growth. A

market research of commercially available OD sensors, was carried out, showing that the

direct use of a readily available OD sensor should be avoided, due to financial and

technical reasons. To keep the operational cost low and provide accurate monitoring of the

algae concentration, a novel automated flow-through OD sensor was developed.


A continuous algae production system is typically a closed system that provides with

phytoplankton in high concentrations the other components of a hatchery. In such a system,

having continuous knowledge or estimation of the concentration of the algae water





| P a g e 4 9

available in a hatchery can be of great importance, because, based on this knowledge,

the operator decides when and how much algae has to be harvested.

A novel flow-through sensor configuration for the estimation of the algal concentration in a

continuous algae production unit has been proposed and implemented. It is often assumed

that in such a system the dominant factor causing turbidity in the tank is the concentration

of the algal cells. This assumption might not be always realistic. For example, dead cells or

contamination in the culture are factors that affect the turbidity. For this reason, it would be

desirable to have some kind of diversity in the collected data, so that, during a processing

phase, the noisy effect of these factors is significantly reduced. Diversity can be obtained

either by measuring the effect of the same light source with multiple photosensors positioned

at different locations, or by making many independent measurements (using different light

sources and/or photosensor types) on the same sample, or by both strategies.

The operation of the proposed sensor is similar to the operation of a turbidity meter. Several

light sources emit beams of light into the algae. Then, photosensors read the response. In the

absence of reflection losses, when a weak beam of light passes through a dielectric sample,

the two processes most responsible for reducing the intensity of the transmitted beam are

absorption and scattering. The reduction in transmitted light intensity due to scattering is

called the sample’s turbidity. The Beer-Lambert or Lambert law describes the effects of both

absorption and turbidity on the transmitted light power. This law is written as:

PT = P0e −(α+τ)l

where PT =power of the light transmitted through the sample, P0=power of the light incident

on the sample, α =absorption coefficient per unit length, τ =turbidity per unit length, and l

=length of the light path in the sample.

The proposed sensor employs four (4) monochromatic LEDs of different spectra (blue at

470nm, green at 518nm, red at 630nm and infrared at 940nm), which are expected to lead

to exponential processes with different parameters, thus providing the desired diversity to

our measurements. Photodiodes (for the visible spectrum) and phototransistors (for the

infrared beam) are used as photo sensors, because they tend to vary their response in a

linear way with respect to the power of the excitation beam. The main parts of the sensor

are:

a cylindrical body with two groups of four sockets each. Each group is exactly

opposite to the other.

eight LED/phododiode covers. These covers provide waterproof attachments of the

LEDs and photodiodes on the sensor's body.

A specially designed driving circuit. This circuit provides power to the LEDs and the

photodiodes, and converts the output of the sensor to voltages. It comprises the

necessary calibration trimmers for fine tuning the power supply of the LEDs. This

electronic board also provides the means to control the sensor and serves as the

interface between the sensor and the controlling device (i.e. a computer).

A “Data Acquisition and Signal Processing Unit”, which comprises of (a) a computer

equipped with special purpose hardware (for analog data acquisition and digital


| P a g e 5 0

logic output) and (b) specially designed computer software. The signal processing

unit coordinates the procedure for reading correctly the sensor's output voltages, by

controlling the driving circuit board. It then converts the received voltages to an

estimation of the algal concentration, by passing the acquired voltages through the

signal processing subsystem. This subsystem can be re-trained, but during normal

operation it is fixed and operates automatically.

The proposed sensor is typically installed on a continuous algae production unit, cascaded

on the circulation flow. As the algae water flows through the sensor's body, it is beamed by

light at different spectra, and the response is read through the photosensors which are

located opposite. The whole process is performed by the driving circuit board, which also

ensures that the LEDs emit always light of the same power. A specially equipped computer

system controls the electronic board, by running the appropriate custom software. Each

measurement taken from the sensor results in a 4x1 vector of voltages, which are fed to the

signal processing unit, also implemented in software. The output of this unit is an estimation

of the algal concentration of the water that is flowing through the sensor at the time of the

measurement.

The signal processing unit is re-trainable. Training might be required in order to improve the

sensor's performance (i.e. reduce the estimation error). New training must also be performed

in order to support new species of algae. However, after the signal processing unit is

appropriately trained, the sensor's operation is completely automated.

The proposed sensor was tested under real outdoors conditions. Three experimental pilot-

scale trials (I, II, III) were performed at the Agricultural University of Athens facilities. An up-

scaled system for growing algae, equipped with the new sensor, was also installed and

tested at the facilities of Agrosaronikos S.A located in the Pyrgiakoni district, south of Salamis.

To ensure reliability of the cell concentration measurements provided by the developed OD

sensor, cell density was measured independently by hatchery staff members and members

of the research team.


A market search carried out systematically through the internet and representatives of

several companies showed that most of the commercially available sensors have been

designed for outdoors measurements in water environments and their specifications did not

meet the needs of photobioreactors used for the continuous production of algae. There are

a few commercial sensors which are able to measure the high cell concentration values

encountered in the restricted environment of the bioreactor’s main tank. They have a

relatively high cost though. Thus, in order to keep the cost of the overall system low, a new

sensor was designed, implemented and tested. This sensor was designed to meet the

technical requirements of the specific application. The sensor is able to provide very close

approximations of the Nannochloropsis sp. algae concentrations within the range of interest


| P a g e 5 1

for the given photobioreactor. An additional feature of the proposed design is that it can

be used for measurements in a wider field of algae species as well as for other tasks that are

common in a fish hatchery unit (e.g. measurement of algae concentration in a solution

which also includes rotifers and their waste). Moreover, the proposed sensor is highly

reconfigurable and easy to calibrate.


The laboratory of Signal Processing and Communications (SPCLAB) was founded in 1998 and

covers the educational and research activities of the department of Computer Engineering

and Informatics (CEID), at the University of Patras, in the wider area of signal processing and

communications. The SPCLAB team consists of 3 faculty members, 6 postdoctoral

researchers, 7 PhD students, while every year about 5 postgraduate and 10 undergraduate

students conduct their masters and final year theses, respectively. SPCLAB members

participate in a number of national and European research projects and they are active in

the international research community through publication of peer-reviewed papers in high-

impact journals and conference proceedings, participation in National, European and other

international evaluation boards, as well as participation in editorial boards of high-ranked

technical journals and in scientific and organizing committees of several scientific events.

SPCLAB has a strong collaboration with Research Unit 8 of the Computer Technology Institute

and Press “Diophantus”. More information about the SPCLAB and its activities can be found

in the following links:









| P a g e 5 2


| P a g e 5 3






website):

Assistant Professor Pantelis G. Nikolakopoulos

[email protected]

http://mdl.mech.upatras.gr

Department: Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics

Contact Person: Pantelis G. Nikolakopoulos



Mobile phone:

Title: Nanomagnetorheological fluid film journal bearing

Summary

The magnetorheological fluids are produced with the dispersion of iron

particles in a carrier fluid which is usually a lubricant. These fluids are able to

change their apparent viscosity under the influence of an external magnetic

field. A journal bearing system, able to generate a controllable homogenous

magnetic field which would polarize the iron particles of a

magnetorheological fluid has been developed and manufactured in the

Machine Design Laboratory of the University of Patras, under the program

Karatheodoris 2009 (C.923). The research objectives achieved to date

include the simulation of such a device, the calculation of its dynamic

characteristics and the successful execution of initial experiments. These

experiments show the potential of improvement of the load capacity and

the vibration control capability of such a bearing.


| P a g e 5 4

The added value of this research was the design of a journal bearing system

which would take advantage of the increased viscosity of the

nanomagnetorheological fluids.

The purpose of such a device is the wear correction and the vibrations

control of a journal bearing system and overall the safe operation of rotating

machinery for longer periods of time.

Candidate applications include the journal bearings of ships propeller's shafts

or internal combustion engines. In light of maintenance difficulty during mid-

sea operations, this type of bearings may permit the safe operation of

bearings which would otherwise suffer partial or complete failure of

operation.


The complete design, static and dynamic performance characteristics for

such a device can be provided by our Laboratory upon request. Our

research has shown that this type of bearings

1. can alleviate wear

2. can benefit the static performance of the bearing (higher minimum

lubricant thickness)

3. can achieve high damping and vibrations control. (relevant papers are

available)

The innovation lies both on the kind of the fluid used and the design of the

bearing itself.


The use of such a type of bearings would increase the time between

consecutive inspections, reduce the vibrations present in rotating

machinery, increasing the stability regions, and offer tolerance over

possible equipment wear which otherwise would be impossible.


| P a g e 5 5

Market Analysis

The target market is the shipbuilding and automotive industries. Additional

markets could be the aviation industry in the field of aeroengines.

Existing technologies include conventional journal bearings, magnetic

journal bearings and roller bearings. While the nanomagnetorheological

journal bearings may have higher manufacturing cost than the simple

journal bearings, they still have the benefits of a controllable device. The

magnetic journal bearings demand a sophisticated control system that

upon failure may cause significant damage to the supported system while

the manufacturing costs remain equally or even more substantial than

those of the nanomagnetorheological fluid journal bearing. The roller

bearing is a well known solution that provides reliable load carrying

capacity for a wide range of rotating machinery applications. The

nanomagnetorheological fluid film bearing can offer lower friction and

comparable stiffness along with the additional capability of vibrations

control. Cost comparisons between the two solutions depend highly on

the application.

Companies that are already active in the field of journal bearing and roller

bearing manufacturing include SKF and Federal Mogul. Additionally,

since this technology can be applied in marine engines, companies such

as Wartzila and MAN could be interested in such a technology. Suppliers

of smart lubricants are also interested and include the German firm BASF.

Since there are no commercial nanomagnetorheological fluid film

bearings there is no direct competition.


The first step is the definition of the requirements of the client concerning load

carrying capacity and dimensions limitations

The second step is the prediction of the static and dynamic performance of

the journal bearing, which currently available through validated

simulations

The third step is the detailed design of the nanomagnetorheological journal

bearing.


| P a g e 5 6

The fourth step is the manufacturing of the bearing along with preliminary

tests.

The development of the specific device may take up to 2 months. The most

preferable manner for the introduction of such a product would be the

creation of a spin-off company.


1. Pantelis Nikolakopoulos (Ass. Professor, University of

Patras,Greece)

Dr. Nikolakopoulos was born in Kalamata in 1967. He holds a Diploma in

Mechanical Engineering (1990), and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering

(1996), from the Department of Mechanical and Aeronautics Engineering of

the University of Patras, Greece. His research activities include hydrodynamic

lubrication of journal and thrust bearings, stability, misalignment, wear and

wear detection of journal bearings, tribology of artificial textured journal and

thrust bearings, Magnetorheological, Nano- magnetorheological and

Electrorheological fluids and its effects on rotor bearing systems,

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) of non Newtonian lubrication of journal

bearings and optimization of machine elements.

Career: Dr Nikolakopoulos has been a research scientist in several EU and

National funded research programs since 1990. He worked for almost 12

years in industry since 1997 as design engineer and technical manager on

military projects and as a project engineer and project manager on energy

projects. He is currently a Lecturer at the Department of Mechanical and

Aeronautics Engineering of the University of Patras, Greece (since 2008).

Other activities: He is a reviewer of the scientific journals of Tribology

International (Elsevier), of Journal of Tribology of ASME, of the Journal of

Engineering Structures (Elsevier), of the Journal of Alloys and

Compounds(Elsevier), of the Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical

Engineers, Part C, Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science, of the Journal

of Vibrations and Acoustics of ASME, of the Journal of Flow, Turbulence and

Combustion, of the Journal of Mechanism and Machine Theory (Elsevier) and

of the Journal of the Mechanical System and Signal Processing (Elsevier).


| P a g e 5 7

He has participated in 8 research projects funded by the EU and the Greek

Government: 89-ΠΣ-66: GGET& HELLENING BUREAU OF SHIPPING,

TEXTILE/STRIDE 269, 92-ΠΣ-80: GGET& HELLENING BUREAU OF SHIPPING, PENED

1991, PENED 1995, HERCULES, KARATHEOTHORIS 2009, TRIBOLOGICAL

OPTIMIZATION OF MARINE PROPULSION SYSTEMS (ARISTEIA 2011),

KARATHEODORIS 2013, and he is currently coordinator of a 1 project of basic

research funded by the Research Council of the University of Patras:

Tribological Design of Journal Bearing Using Nano-Magnetorheological Fluids

(KARATHEOTHORIS 2013).

Author activities: He has published 89 papers in international journals and

conferences (31 papers in international journals reviewed in full text, 58

papers in international conferences, in which 48 reviewed in full text and 10

papers reviewed in the summary, also he has 1 chapter in book (IUTAM

Symposium on Emerging Trends in Rotor Dynamics, Springer 2009, ISBN 978-

94-007-0019-2,DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-0020-8),and one Greek and

International patent. The international recognition of his work is supported

with over 300 citations. His key publications include:

2. Bompos Dimitrios (Ph.D Student), received his Mechanical and

Aeronautics Engineering Diploma from the University of Patras (2010). He

worked for the submersible pumps manufacturer KSP, in Argos, Greece. His is

a PhD student at the University of Patras. His research interests include

magnetorheological fluids, artificial texturing on journal bearings and metal

casting. He is author or co-author on two (2) journal papers and nine (9)

papers on international scientific conferences.

Key Publications:

1. P. G. Nikolakopoulos, C. A. Papadopoulos, “A study of Friction in Worn

Misaligned Journal Bearings under Severe Hydrodynamic Lubrication”,

Tribology International, (2008) 41 (6) pp 461-472,

(http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.triboint.2007.10.005). Top 25 Hottest Articles

2. K. Gertzos, P.G. Nikolakopoulos, A.C. Chasalevris, C.A. Papadopoulos,

“Wear Identification in Rotor-Bearing Systems by Measurements of Dynamic

Bearing Characteristics “, Computers and Structures, 89 (1-2), pp. 55-66, 2010.


| P a g e 5 8

3. Nikolakopoulos P.G., Papadopoulos C.I., Kaiktsis L.,

“Elastohydrodynamic analysis and Pareto optimization of intact, worn and

misaligned journal bearings”, Meccanica, Vol 46 (2011), pp. 577-588.

4. K.M. Saridakis, P.G. Nikolakopoulos, C.A. Papadopoulos, A.J.

Dentsoras, “Wear and Misalignment Identification on Journal Bearings by

using Artificial Neural Networks”, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical

Engineers, Part J, Journal of Engineering Tribology, January 2012; vol. 226, 1:

pp. 46-56 (one of the most read articles, February 2012).

5. Bompos, D.A., & Nikolakopoulos, P.G. (2011). CFD simulation of

magnetorheological fluid journal bearings. Simulation Modelling Practice

and Theory, 19(4), 1035-1060

6. Bompos, D.A., & Nikolakopoulos, P.G. (2014). Journal Bearing Stiffness

and Damping Coefficients Using Nanomagnetorheological Fluids and

Stability Analysis. Journal of Tribology (In print).

7. Bompos, D.A., Nikolakopoulos, P. G., Papadopoulos, C.I. & Kaiktsis L. (2011).

A Tribological CFD Study of Journal Bearings with Artificial Surface Texturing,

ECOTRIB 2011 Conference Proceedings,(2)725-730.

8. Bompos, D.A., & Nikolakopoulos, P.G.(2011).Molecular Dynamics

Simulation of Solid Particles of Nano Magnetorheological Fluids under Shear,

ECOTRIB 2011 Conference Proceedings,(2)845-850

9. Nikolakopoulos P.G.,Bompos D.A., Paouris L.I. (2012). A Study on

Metallic Plates Containing Holes and Cracks under the influence of Magnetic

Field, In proceeding of: The 14th International Congress on Mesomechanics,

At Budapest

10. Nikolakopoulos P.G.,Bompos D.A. (2013). Journal Bearings Wear

Correction using Magnetorheological Fluids, In proceeding of:68th STLE

Annual Meeting and Exhibition, Detroit 2013

11. Bompos, D.A., Nikolakopoulos, P. G. (2013). The Effects of

Nanomagnetorheological Fluids On the Rotor Bearing System Dynamic

Behavior, In proceeding of:68th STLE Annual Meeting and Exhibition, Detroit

2013.


| P a g e 5 9

12. Paouris L.I.,Bompos D.A. & Nikolakopoulos P.G. (2013).Simulation of

Static Performance of Air Foil Bearings using Coupled FEM and CFD

Techniques In proceeding of: ASME IGTI Turboexpo 2013, At San

Antonio,TX,US.

13. Dimitrios Bompos, Pantelis Nikolakopoulos,Experimental and

Analytical Investigations of Dynamic Characteristics of Magnetorheological

and Nano Magnetorheological Fluid Film Journal Bearing,GT2014-25219,

Presented at IGTI2014 , June 2014.



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website):

1.Professor Chris A. Papadopoulos

[email protected]

+30 2610 969426


2. Assistant Professor Pantelis G. Nikolakopoulos

[email protected]

+30 2610 969421


Department: Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics

Contact Person: Chris A. Papadopoulos

Position: Professor


Mobile phone:

Title: Hydromagnetic Bearings

Summary

The present invention describes a hybrid journal bearing, that comprises both an

electromagnetic part and a hydrodynamic part, wherein both parts are in a

common nutshell, are regulated by the same control system and are operating in

the same control volume, in which hybrid journal bearing

- the equilibrium point is eccentric,

- the electromagnets are placed internally, perimetrically at a specific

distance from the internal surface of the inner ring,

- the material of the bearings may be graphite, metal alloy, graphite/metal

alloy or Graphalloy and may have operating temperatures of up to 540οC,





| P a g e 6 1

- the hydrodynamic bearing operates as support to the magnetic bearing when there

will not be requirements of high temperatures and high speeds and will also operate as a

load and rotor reception mechanism in case of power failure in the supply of the magnetic

bearing.


The present invention/technology describes a hybrid journal bearing that can exploit the

advantages of both hydrodynamic and electromagnetic bearing components.

A hybrid journal bearing, which has the possibility of operating, simultaneously or selectively,

as hydrodynamic or as electromagnetic or as both. The hydrodynamic and

electromagnetic field of the hybrid journal bearing of the present invention operate

within a common nutshell. With the suitable controller, the new type of hybrid bearing,

described in the present invention, exploits the advantages of the hydrodynamic and

the electromagnetic bearing and it operates occasionally as hydrodynamic, or as

electromagnetic, or as hybrid (i.e. electromagnetic and hydrodynamic simultaneously).

By this way, the hybrid journal bearing that is described by the present invention, obtains

the optimum dynamic behaviour. It can, that is to say, operate as hydrodynamic

bearing, as hydrodynamic bearing with control of response via the operation of the

electromagnets of the bearing in cases of instability (oil whirl and oil whip), as

hydrodynamic bearing using the electromagnets as external parametric exciter used for

the recognition of the system and localisation of possible damage, as hydrodynamic

and electromagnetic simultaneously in order to increase the load carrying capacity

when this is necessary or as electromagnetic bearing only, without the participation of

hydrodynamic operation.


A hybrid journal bearing that is at the same time hydrodynamic and electromagnetic

according to the present invention, presents a lot of advantages. It develops the

advantages of the hydrodynamic oil field as well as of the electromagnetic one. The

hybrid journal bearing offer the possibility of wider range of rotational speeds of the axis

(higher than these of hydrodynamic or the magnetic journal bearing). The hybrid journal

bearing of the invention has the possibility of receiving higher external load W, because

part of the load can be received from hydrodynamic journal bearing (receipt of load Wh)

while the rest from electromagnetic journal bearing (receipt of load Wm). Also, it can

reliably operate in high, intermediate and low revolutions, it can withstand in shock

situations, avoiding high frictions in extreme situations of machine operation. The use of

lubricant is not essential for every case of operation, big consumption of electric power is

not essential, no problems are created in the shaft and in bearing, in case where electric

power is interrupted, or in case of instability, where rub situation of the shaft on the internal


| P a g e 6 2

part of the bearing is possible, because of the type of the material used for the

construction of the internal part of the bearing.

Market Analysis

The application of this particular invention with the use of the proposed hybrid journal

bearings in the industry (in electric power plants), in the shipping (as bearings in naval

engines), in the aeronautics (as bearings of the air turbines in airplanes), contributes in

the modern environmental objectives of wider modern society and in this light

contributes also in the needs of modern industry, in Europe and in all over the world.

Companies that are already active in the field of journal bearing and roller bearing

manufacturing include SKF and Federal Mogul. Additionally, since this technology can

be applied in marine engines, companies such as Wartzila and MAN could be interested

in such a technology.


The first step is the definition of the requirements of the client concerning load carrying

capacity and dimensions limitations

The second step is the prediction of the static and dynamic performance of the hydro

magnetic bearing, which currently available through validated simulations

The third step is the detailed design of the hydro magnetic bearing controller

The fourth step is the manufacturing of the bearing with the control unit along with

preliminary tests.

The development of the specific device may take up to 2 months. The most preferable

manner for the introduction of such a product would be the creation of a spin-off

company.


1. Chris Papadopoulos (Professor, University of Patras, Greece)

Dr. Chris Papadopoulos is a Professor of Machine Design and Computer

Aided Design in the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics of the University of

Patras (MEAD/UP), Greece. He obtained his Diploma in Mechanical Engineering (1979)

and his Ph.D. in the field of Dynamic Analysis of Cracked Rotors (1987), both from the

MEAD/UP. He served as Project and Consulting Engineer for Greek Industries in the

eighties.

He has been a Visiting Scholar in Mechanical Eng. Dept, Washington University St. Louis,

ΜΟ, USA, (1986-1987), and a Visiting Scientist in Joint Research Center, Ispra, Italy (2001-

2002). He is teaching (since 1980 up today) the courses of Machine Elements and Machine

Design, Computer Aided Design, Design of Smart Machines and Tribology in MEAD/UP. He

also offers a course of Rotordynamics in the post-graduate program.


| P a g e 6 3

Professor Papadopoulos has a wide range of research interests, primary involving

rotordynamics and structural dynamics, cracked structures, machine design, smart

machines and smart materials, computer aided design, diagnosis and prognosis,

autonomous underwater vehicles, lubrication. He is the author or co-author of over 90

scientific journal papers or conference presentations on above fields with over 1100

citations, as well as of three books (in Greek).

He supervised or took part in scientific committees of over 20 PhD's. He also took part in

over 30 research, educational or development projects. He is a reviewer in many

international scientific journals.

He is a member of Technical Chamber of Greece, of Hellenic Society of Mechanical and

Electrical Engineers (HSMEE), of American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and he

has been member of the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE). He is a

member of the Technical Committee for Rotordynamics of the International Federation for

the Promotion of Mechanism and Machine Science (IFToMM).

Personal Links: Google Scholar, Research Gate, Scopus

2. Pantelis Nikolakopoulos (Ass. Professor, University of Patras,Greece)

Dr. Nikolakopoulos was born in Kalamata in 1967. He holds a Diploma in Mechanical

Engineering (1990), and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering (1996), from the Department of

Mechanical and Aeronautics Engineering of the University of Patras, Greece. His research

activities include hydrodynamic lubrication of journal and thrust bearings, stability,

misalignment, wear and wear detection of journal bearings, tribology of artificial textured

journal and thrust bearings, Magnetorheological, Nano- magnetorheological and

Electrorheological fluids and its effects on rotor bearing systems, Computational Fluid

Dynamics (CFD) of non Newtonian lubrication of journal bearings and optimization of

machine elements.

Career: Dr Nikolakopoulos has been a research scientist in several EU and National funded

research programs since 1990. He worked for almost 12 years in industry since

1997 as design engineer and technical manager on military projects and as a project

engineer and project manager on energy projects. He is currently a Lecturer at the

Department of Mechanical and Aeronautics Engineering of the University of Patras,

Greece (since 2008).

Other activities: He is a reviewer of the scientific journals of Tribology International (Elsevier),

of Journal of Tribology of ASME, of the Journal of Engineering Structures (Elsevier), of the

Journal of Alloys and Compounds(Elsevier), of the Proceedings of the Institution of

Mechanical Engineers, Part C, Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science, of the Journal of

Vibrations and Acoustics of ASME, of the Journal of Flow, Turbulence and Combustion, of

http://www.iftomm.org/index.php?option=com_iftommmembers&view=memberslisting&list=2&tcpc=tc&tit=Technical%20Committees&Itemid=120#Technical_Committee_for_Rotordynamics

http://scholar.google.gr/citations?user=BhiXQOUAAAAJ&hl=el

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Chris_Papadopoulos2/?ev=hdr_xprf

http://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.url?authorId=55209587500


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the Journal of Mechanism and Machine Theory (Elsevier) and of the Journal of the

Mechanical System and Signal Processing (Elsevier).

He has participated in 8 research projects funded by the EU and the Greek Government:

89-ΠΣ-66: GGET& HELLENING BUREAU OF SHIPPING, TEXTILE/STRIDE 269, 92-ΠΣ-80: GGET&

HELLENING BUREAU OF SHIPPING, PENED 1991, PENED 1995, HERCULES, KARATHEOTHORIS

2009, TRIBOLOGICAL OPTIMIZATION OF MARINE PROPULSION SYSTEMS (ARISTEIA 2011),

KARATHEODORIS 2013, and he is currently coordinator of a 1 project of basic research

funded by the Research Council of the University of Patras: Tribological Design of Journal

Bearing Using Nano-Magnetorheological Fluids (KARATHEOTHORIS 2013).

Author activities: He has published 89 papers in international journals and conferences (31

papers in international journals reviewed in full text, 58 papers in international conferences,

in which 48 reviewed in full text and 10 papers reviewed in the summary, also he has 1

chapter in book (IUTAM Symposium on Emerging Trends in Rotor Dynamics, Springer 2009,

ISBN 978-94-007-0019-2,DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-0020-8),and one Greek and International

patent. The international recognition of his work is supported with over 300 citations.

Personal Links: Google Scholar, Research Gate, Scopus

Key Publications:

1. P. G. Nikolakopoulos, C. A. Papadopoulos, “A study of Friction in Worn Misaligned

Journal Bearings under Severe Hydrodynamic Lubrication”, Tribology International, (2008)

41 (6) pp 461-472, (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.triboint.2007.10.005). Top 25 Hottest Articles

2. K. Gertzos, P.G. Nikolakopoulos, A.C. Chasalevris, C.A. Papadopoulos, “Wear

Identification in Rotor-Bearing Systems by Measurements of Dynamic Bearing

Characteristics “, Computers and Structures, 89 (1-2), pp. 55-66, 2010.

3. Nikolakopoulos P.G., Papadopoulos C.I., Kaiktsis L., “Elastohydrodynamic analysis

and Pareto optimization of intact, worn and misaligned journal bearings”, Meccanica, Vol

46 (2011), pp. 577-588.

4. K.M. Saridakis, P.G. Nikolakopoulos, C.A. Papadopoulos, A.J. Dentsoras, “Wear and

Misalignment Identification on Journal Bearings by using Artificial Neural Networks”,

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part J, Journal of Engineering

Tribology, January 2012; vol. 226, 1: pp. 46-56 (one of the most read articles, February 2012).

6. Bompos, D.A., & Nikolakopoulos, P.G. (2014). Journal Bearing Stiffness and Damping

Coefficients Using Nanomagnetorheological Fluids and Stability Analysis. Journal of

Tribology (In print).

7. Michael G Farmakopoulos, Pantelis G Nikolakopoulos, Chris A Papadopoulos,DESIGN OF

AN ACTIVE HYDROMAGNETIC JOURNAL BEARING, Proceedings of the Institution of

Mechanical Engineers, Part J: Journal of Engineering Tribology July 2013 vol. 227 no. 7 673-

694.


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8. M.G. Farmakopoulos, P.G.Nikolakopoulos, C.A.Papadopoulos, “Design of an Active

Hydromagnetic Journal Bearing”, Proccedings of IFToMM-Rotordynamics-2010, September

12-15, Seoul, Korea.

9. Michael G. Farmakopoulos, Michalis D. Thanou, Pantelis G. Nikolakopoulos, Chris A.

Papadopoulos , Anthony P. Tzes,”A Control Model of Active Magnetic Bearings”, 3rd

International Conference of Engineering Against Failure (ICEAF III),26-28 June 2013, Kos,

Greece.

10. Michael G. Farmakopoulos, Eleftherios K. Loghis,Pantelis G.

Nikolakopoulos,Nikolaos I. Xiros,,Chris A. Papadpoulos ,” MODELING AND CONTROL OF THE

ELECTRICAL ACTUATION SYSTEM OF AN ACTIVE HYDROMAGNETIC JOURNAL BEARING

(AHJB)”, Proceedings of the ASME 2014 International Mechanical Engineering Congress &

Exposition November 14-20, 2014, Montreal, Canada



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Other mature research

Versatile architectures for

cryptographic systems Athanasios Stouraitis

E-mail: [email protected]

Research Unit: DSP Laboratory


Multirate Teletraffic Loss Models Michael Logothetis




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School of Health

Sciences


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Transdermal administration of Sartans: Development

of a novel method for blood pressure regulation Dimitrios Alexopoulos, Professor


Departement: Medical School

Novel approach for the immunotherapy of Multiple

Sclerosis: Perspective for clinical Phase I studies Panagiotis Papathanasopoulos, Professor


Research Unit: Department of Neurology

Department: Medical School

Novel lead compounds with targeted

antitumorigenic function Stavros Taraviras


Research Unit: Stem Cell Laboratory, Department of Physiology

Department: Medical School


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School of Business

Administration


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Organisation name: UNIVERSITY OF PATRAS




website):

Assist. Prof. Christos Makris

Computer Engineering & Informatics dept.

+302610960482

Department: Computer Engineering & Informatics dept.

Contact Person: Christos Makris



Mobile phone: +30 6932878054

Title: Tools for efficient web information retrieval

Summary

Searching information is one of the most important tasks in modern societies. The last years

the people which seek information from search engines are raised and in the near future the

majority of the people will search their information using search engines. Now the most

search engines use complicated queries or more recently try to answer to user questions.

The next step for search engines is to communicate with people like the way that people

communicate each other.

Our set of tools pushes the search engines to this direction. Particularly we have created a

web site analyzing tool for the content and the structure of the websites. Also, a tool has

been developed for storing the user behaviour and for the creation of profiles for the users.

Additionally, semantic knowledge bases (like Wordnet and Wikipedia) have been utilized

for the annotation of the websites in order to classify them in different categories. In the field

of web search engines we have developed an add on tool for personalizing their results

according to the user behaviour. This tool is combined with the tool that analyzes the

behaviour of a user. Also, in order to address the problem of redundant information in search

results and generally to the web documents a tool was developed that remove redundant

information from search results combining the documents to new extended documents that

do not contain redundant information. Finally we constructed a tool that utilizes the results

of a search engine and answers efficiently natural language questions. A future combination

of our tools will replace the classic way of submitting queries with communication through

natural language. The proposed tools could apply to a variety of applications of information



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seeking. The tools also can work over all the modern search engines as add on in their

mechanism.

Moreover our set of tools considers the problem of web page usage prediction in a web site

by modeling users’ navigation history with Weighted Suffix Trees. The user’s navigation

prediction can be exploited either as an on-line recommendation system in a web-site or as

a web-page cache system. The methods proposed have the advantage that demands a

constant amount of computational effort per one user’s action and consumes a relatively

small amount of extra memory bytes. These features make our methods ideal for an on-line

working environment.


Software for analyzing website content and structure (content mining).

Software for analyzing user behavior (profiles).

Software for semantic annotation of text documents(using Wikipedia, Wordnet knowledge

bases)

Software for personalization of search engine's results.

Software for removing redundant information from web pages.

Software for answering natural language questions.

Software for analyzing web page usage by users (usage mining).

Software for modeling and analyzing weighted sequences

Software for online web page recommendations.


Better Web search results

Personalized Web Search Experience

Integration with Social networks

Integration to existing platforms like MS Sharepoint, CMS platforms, CRM platforms,

Wiki platforms.

Market Analysis

The web tools are trying to transform the traditional way of retrieving information into modern

machines that communicate with people with a human manner. Consequently the

targeting market is the search engines and secondly companies with very large volume of

information which will use the tools in order to organize and search efficiently their data.

Initially the proposed tools can be added to the mechanisms of existing systems in order to


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improve their search process. Next out tools could create a new interactive system that

efficiently search data using semantic tools and knowledge bases like WordNet and

Wikipedia replacing the classical way of submitting queries with a system that interacts with

the users. There are other approaches that exist now and partially try to search data with a

smarter way like Siri of Apple and search engine Wolfram Alpha. Both approaches try to

answer questions of the users effectively.


The combination of the searching tools will create a new interactive system that will help

users to search their information needs efficiently. The searching tools will be available as

services in 12-24 months together with a prototype of the total system. Next after 1,5-2 years

the whole system will be available in the market. The development of the proposed needs

2 or 3 full time engineers for developing initially the tools as services and then developing a

whole product that incorporates with the previous services.

The best way for developing the proposed idea is through the cooperation with a search

engine which will accelerate the whole process.


Christos Makris [email protected]

Athanasios Tsakalidis [email protected]

Evangelos Theodoridis [email protected]

Yannis Plegas [email protected]

Andreas Kanavos [email protected]

The Host Organization is the University of Patras, Department of Computer Engineering and

Informatics, and in particular the Graphics, Multimedia and GIS laboratory. The Graphics,

Multimedia and GIS laboratory was established in 1994. It involves 4 faculty members (one

of them Assistant Professor Christos Makris is the Principal Investigator of the proposal), 15

doctoral researchers and academics, a number of PhD candidates, graduate and post

graduate students.

The primary activities of the laboratory include the following:

the theoretical research conducting in areas such as Web 2.0, Semantic Web,

knowledge management, Web Engineering, Web Services, Information Retrieval,

Data Structures and Algorithms, Computational Geometry, Expert Systems, e-

Learning, e-Commerce, and Bioinformatics.

the development of related applications and tools within the frameworks of EU

research projects such as IST, INTERREG II, MARIE CURIE, ESPRIT, RACE, AIM, STRIDE,

Basic Research Actions in ESPRIT, ESPRIT special Actions, Telematics Applications,

ADAPT, HORIZON, INTERREG II, LEONARDO DA VINCI, SOCRATES, Telematics Transport,


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as well as projects funded from the National General Secretariat for Research and

Technology of Ministry of Development.

(more than 50 completed and ongoing projects).

the support of the Computer Engineering & Informatics Department’s

undergraduate education in the areas of: Data Structures, Advanced Data

Structures and Graphics, Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems, Models and

Analysis of Computer Systems, Principles of Programming Languages and Compilers,

Internet Technologies, Simulation of Information Systems.

the support of the Computer Engineering & Informatics Department's postgraduate

education in the areas of: Theory of Basic Data Structures, Management of

Multimedia in Databases, Information Retrieval.





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email, phone number, website):

Rio, Patras, Greece, 26504, +302610997120,

http://www.upatras.gr

Department: Department of Cultural Heritage Management

and New Technologies

Contact Person: Georgios Styliaras



Mobile phone: +306944592463

Title: HyperSea

Summary

HyperSea is an environment for collecting, organizing and presenting web

2.0 content. The environment allows a single user or many users to organise

their information sources in one large space, called Archipelago, which

can be authored and viewed with two-levels of detail. This decision was

made in order to keep the environment simple and inhibit users from

creating deep and complex hierarchies of data. Instead, HyperSea

encourages its users to represent deep hierarchies in space. HyperSea

extends the functionality of existing spatial hypermedia systems. The

environment can be used in education, for collecting and preparing

hypermedia content.


HyperSea is an environment for collecting, organizing and presenting web

2.0 content.

http://www.upatras.gr/



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In the first level of detail, the user sees an archipelago, which is divided into

individual islands. In the second level of detail, all explicit links among nodes

and structs belonging to different islands are also visible. These links are also

visible in the first level of detail as links between the islands, but the end

point of each link is placed inside the island metaphor. Information spaces

produced by the HyperSea environment provide users with alternative ways

to comprehend the content and its relations within this space.

In other words, HyperSea is a spatial hypermedia environment with features

aiming to meet the requirements of web 2.0 users. These features were

carefully selected based on research and design methodologies of spatial

environments. Our focus is on providing simplicity while performing powerful

operations and support the efficient exploitation of the user’s space.


HyperSea supports a hierarchical organization of information in several

spaces and the navigation capability among these spaces. Moreover, a

user can import and link new content in the environment from web 2.0

applications, web pages and local multimedia files. Content is recognized

automatically and appropriate metadata such as title and technical

properties (e.g. the duration of a video clip) are shown and stored.

Furthermore, all this content is formalized, structured and stored as an

ontology, which enables its reusability and extension by other users. Last but

not least, all these actions, even the most complex ones such as node

deletions and linkings, are performed by simple mouse or touchscreen

actions.

Market Analysis

HyperSea can be used in educational and cultural settings for collecting,

arranging and presenting hypermedia content from multiple sources. These

settings need new ways to present content especially through new

mediums that provide space as interaction means, such as tablets. There

are several tools and applications that provide some of the features of

HyperSea such as Cantos & Contos, Canyon, Clui, Cmaptools, CThru, Dipity

and Padlet but none of them provide in combination the features of

HyperSea.


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HyperSea is the outcome of some research work in hypemedia. It has been

evaluated in actual educational settings and results were encouraging.

Based on these results and by exploiting emerging technologies in

hardware, an advanced version may be implemented. It is estimated that

100000 euros are needed for a two-year period.

The system’s description can be found at Georgios D.P. Styliaras and Sotiris

P. Christodoulou. 2009. HyperSea: towards a spatial hypertext environment

for web 2.0 content. In Proceedings of the 20th ACM conference on

Hypertext and hypermedia (HT '09). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 35-44. Its

evaluation can be found here: Koutromanos, G., Styliaras, G. &

Christodoulou, S. (2014). Student and in-Service teachers' acceptance of

spatial hypermedia in their teaching: The case of HyperSea. Education and

Information Technologies. DOI: 10.1007/s10639-013-9302-8.

The following methodology is proposed:

- Requirement analysis: 4 months

- Redesign of the environments: 4 months

- Implementation: 12 months

- Evaluation and dissemination: 4 months

The development could be de carried out through a joint development

collaboration project with specialized software companies and

educational institutions.


Georgios Styliaras, Department of Cultural Heritage Environment and New

Technologies, University of Patras, Seferi 2, Agrinio, 30100, Greece,

http://www.culture.upatras.gr/cms/?page_id=157&lang=en

Sotiris Christodoulou, Technological Educational Institute of Messolonghi,

Nea Ktiria, 30200, Messolonghi, Greece,

http://www.tesyd.teimes.gr/msc/index.php/lectures/151


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George Koutromanos, Faculty of Primary Education, National and

Kapodistrian University of Athens, 20 Ippokratous, 10680, Athens, Greece,

http://www.koutromanos.gr



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Figure shows a screenshot while interacting with the HyperSea environment

for linking content related to the film Avatar.


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UNIVERSITY OF PATRAS

Research Committee

Innovation and Technology Transfer Office

University Campus, Rio, 26500

Tel.: 00302610996660, 00302610996635 / FAX: 00302610996677

http://research.upatras.gr

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