about us
Our research lab runs within the Institute for Language and Speech Processing (ILSP), Athena Research Center. It is headed by Dr. Katerina Pastra and comprises a team of researchers with diverse backgrounds and seniority. The lab has a highly interdisciplinary specialization involving Embodied AI, and in particular Embodied Language Processing and Knowledge Representation & Reasoning for Cognitive Systems and Robotics. Its core activities comprise theoretical, experimental and computational research and development for exploration and modeling of fundamental mechanisms in human language and multimodal cognition, enabling thus the integration of language, perception and action in Artificial Intelligence systems.
Vision
- to develop cognitive systems/robots with Artificial General Intelligence for serving societal needs & improving the quality of our lives
Mission
- to develop human-centric and biology inspired intelligent technology;
- to highlight and harness the power of natural language as a key component in achieving human-level intelligence;
- to foster highly interdisciplinary research integrating methods, findings, skills and competences from Engineering/Computer Science, Humanities/Linguistics, Life Sciences/Neuroscience and Cognitive Psychology;
- to bring science to society through transfer of interdisciplinary knowledge and research practices to students of all levels of education and the general public.
Philosophy
- we consider the development of systems with human-level intelligence feasible primarily through exploration of human cognition;
- we view intelligent technology as a platform for exploring how the human brain works and a means for addressing grand societal challenges;
- we promote scientific excellence and research integrity adhering to the European Code of Conduct and the EU AI Act.
- we encourage initiative, innovation, and creativity;
- we believe in active collaboration, continuous learning, and interdisciplinary exploration;
- we value diverse outputs, practices and activities and believe that they maximise the quality and impact of research which should be assessed through peer review – based qualitative judgement and responsible use of quantitative indicators, as advocated in the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (COARA)
- we abide to the Barcelona Declaration for Open Research Information and provide our software and data resources freely to the public;
- we abide to diversity, equity and inclusion principles and strive for their wide adoption in Research Content and Environment, as in the case of taking the lead of the Greek Network of Gender Equality and Antidiscrimination Committees in Research Centers and independent Research Institutes (GEARnet)