team members
katerina pastra, Head
eirini balta
Senior research associate
Eirini is a Senior Computer Engineer with an MSc in Language Technology, currently finishing a PhD in Cognitive Psychology, at Panteion University. Her research career spans more than 15 years and a number of R&D projects in academia. She is a longterm collaborator in the Lab, focusing on Embodied Knowledge Representation and in particular, on developing algorithms for the automatic detection of basic level concepts.
Konstantinos Chaldeopulos
PhD Candidate
Konstantinos is a PhD Candidate on Vision-Language Models for cognitive and robotic applications at the National Technical University of Athens. He holds an MSc in Artificial Intelligence and has worked as an NLP Engineer at HP, where his role focused on creating Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines. His current research explores the transfer learning abilities of human visual saliency prediction models.
IOANNIS CHALKIADAKIS
Postgraduate Intern
Ioannis is a Data Scientist currently pursuing an MSc in Data Science and Machine Learning at the Hellenic Open University. He also holds an MEng in Civil Engineering from the University of Patras. He has held an Archimedes.ai postgraduate internship for developing a Verbal Deception Detection model for real life, high stake criminal cases, which is currently followed up with an ILSP internship for Multimodal Deception Detection.
artemis chardouveli
Postgraduate Intern
Artemis is a Computational Linguist currently finishing an MSc in Language Technology. She has substantial working experience in Clinical Operations and Quality Assurance Testing, including cases of leveraging machine learning for early detection of neurodegenerative and psychiatric diseases based on speech. In the Lab, she holds an Archimedes.ai internship for exploring the use of LLMs in Robotic Action Planning.
Konstantina Gasteratou
Graduate student
Konstantina holds two BAs, in Foreign Languages, Translation & Interpreting (Ionian University) and in Spanish Language & Literature (NKUA), and is currently pursuing an MSc in Language Technology. She has experience in linguistic data annotation and Digital Humanities through her internship at ILSP/Athena R.C. Her ongoing research focuses on Embodied Learning with an emphasis on how Large Language Models can handle unpredicted situations through creative and commonsense‑driven reasoning.
anna eleftheriou
graduate student
Anna is a French Language and Linguistics graduate, with an MSc in Language Technology. She has substantial experience in translating multiword terms. Her ongoing research focuses on Embodied Concepts and in particular on their translation challenges from Greek to English and French and what these may denote for the definition of Embodiment.
Christina Kalafati
graduate student
Christina is a Computational Linguist with a B.A. in Linguistics from the Institute of Mediterranean Studies of the University of the Aegean. She is currently finishing a MSc in Language Technology. Her research focuses on context-aware large language models, and translation accuracy in general purpose LLMs, as compared to human translation performance.
Eleni Karadimou
graduate student
Eleni is a Computational Linguist, currently finishing an MSc in Language Technology. Her ongoing research focuses on developing Inclusive Language Recommender systems.
Lefteris Kapernaros
graduate student
Lefteris holds an MSc in Language Technology and is a graduate of the Department of Audiovisual Arts at the Ionian University. His research focuses on the automatic detection and classification of semantic relations, using annotations that integrate multimodal information. During his studies, he has also gained programming experience in creative coding, particularly in sound synthesis and experimental graphics.
Giorgos Kordonis
graduate student
Giorgos is a Senior Software Engineer with a long industrial experience, currently working in Qualco while also pursuing an MSc in Language Technology. In this framework, he focuses on implementing a Minimalist Grammar of Action API for unified access to Cooking Action Datasets in AI and Robotics.
Eleftheria Molou
Graduate student
Eleftheria is a Computational Linguist, currently finishing her MSc in Language Technology at the University of Athens, where she also studied for a BA in Philology with a specialization in Linguistics. She has completed an internship at the “Athena” Research Center, working on the Greek Hate Speech project. Her current research involves replication of affordance related behavioural experiments with LLMs.
Vasiliki moutzouri
REsearch Associate
Vasiliki is a Computational Linguist with an MSc in Language Technology and extensive work experience as a SEO Analyst and Digital Copywriter/Copyeditor. She is a research associate at the Academy of Athens, focusing on multimedia dictionaries. She has conducted a large-scale systematic review on Cooking Action Datasets in AI and Robotics, and her current research explores the reusability of Goal-Directed Action Datasets and the use of language in Human-Robot Interaction.
FaY Poylou
Graduate student
Fay is a Computational Linguist, currently finishing her MSc in Language Technology. She works in Ampersand (&) Learning & Technology as an instructor of robotics and STEM for primary and secondary education students. She has undertaken an Internship in ILSP/Athena R.C. on computational morphology (Universal Dependencies). Her ongoing research is related to Embodied Learning and in particular to the automatic detection of cognitive load in spontaneous speech.
Maria SPilioti
graduate student
Maria is a professional translator currently finishing her MSc in Language Technology. She has substantial working experience as Localization Project Manager delivering multilingual projects in fast-paced, global environments. Her ongoing research focuses on the use of images in machine translation pipelines.
Aggelos sotirchos
Research Associate
Aggelos is a Product and Systems Design Engineer, with a Master in Science Degree in this subject, from the University of the Aegean. His research focuses on Embodied Cognition and Cognitive Complexity. In the Lab, he is exploring the hypothesis that basic level categorization applies also to action-related concepts.
Iro Tyrokomaki
graduate student
Iro is a Computational Linguist, currently finishing her MSc in Language Technology. Her ongoing research focuses on Verbal Categorisation and Rosch’s Basic Level theory and in particular, she is exploring the hypothesis that basic level categorization applies also to feature-related concepts.
aleksandra Saivanidou
graduate student
Alexandra is a Speech Engineer in Vodafone, currently finishing her MSc in Language Technology. She has worked as a research assistant at the Psycholinguistics & Neurolinguistics Lab of the University of Athens, in projects related to Aphasic discourse and language features in Autism, as well as on children’s language, rythm and cognitive abilities. She has also been an intern in ILSP/Athena R.C. working on a Modern Greek Hate Speech project. Following up along these lines, her ongoing research focuses on employing cognitive methods for the automatic detection of misogynistic memes.
Andreas Lekkas
graduate student
Andreas is a Business Analyst in the Telecommunications Industry. His current research focuses on the use of Generative AI for developing dynamic non-player character (NPC) dialogue scripts based on a player’s in-game actions or responses.
aleksandra rousopoulou
graduate student
Alexandra is a Computational Linguist currently finishing her MSc in Language Technology. She has substantial working experience as an IT service logistics supervisor. Her research experience involves development and annotation of Question-Answering Datasets. Her ongoing research focuses on the use of Generative AI for Knowledge Acquisition in Robotics.
- Argiro Vatakis (2008-2016) – Associate Professor of Psychology at Panteion University
- Panagiotis Dimitrakis (2008-2017) – CTO in SentiGeek.
- Maria Lada (2008-2017) – Professor of Greek Philology at PIERCE College, American College of Greece
- Giorgos Karakatsiotis (2009-2013) – Co-Founder and Lead Engineer in LightBuzz.
- Dimitris Mavroeidis (2010-2017) – Head of Artificial Intelligence Innovation at Profile Software.
- Vassiliki Efstathiou (2013-2017) – Data Science Manager at Kpler/MarineTraffic.
- Paschalis Veskos (2013-2016) – Head of Space Industry projects at Software Competitiveness International S.A.
- Lorenzo Gregori (2017, Visiting PostDoc on Multimodal Knowledge Representation) – Researcher at the University of Florence, Italy.
- Eleni Antonakaki (2022-2023, Graduate Student on Detecting Verbal Deception) – Digital Copywriter in Sheepfish.
- Athina Savvinidou (2022-2023, Graduate Student on Misogyny Detection) – Product Manager and Computational Linguist at Novelcore.
- Andriana Dagla (2024-2025, Graduate Student on Annotation of Datasets for Verbal Deception Detection)