Dr. Constantine Stephanidis, Professor at the Department of Computer Science of the University of Crete, is the Founder and Head of the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Laboratory, and the Founder and Head of the Ambient Intelligence (AMI) Programme of the Institute of Computer Science of the Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (ICS-FORTH). From January 2004 to November 2016 he served as the Director of ICS-FORTH. Since 2016, Prof. Stephanidis is a Distinguished Member of FORTH.

Since the late 1980s, the initiatives and research activities of the Founder and Head of the HCI Laboratory, Professor Constantine Stephanidis, have actively contributed to Research and Development activities in the wider interdisciplinary field of Human-Computer Interaction, fostering the development of an "Information Society for All", promoting inclusion and advocating for the positive impact of new technologies on society.

Highlights of his activities over the past 35 years are included below.

I. The Ambient Intelligence Program and its Research Facility

In 2004 Professor Stephanidis founded and since then he is leading the Ambient Intelligence Program of ICS-FORTH. This is a long-term horizontal interdisciplinary Research and Technological Development Programme, aiming to create and apply pioneering human-centric technologies and provide a platform for cooperative research towards developing and studying related technologies and assessing their impact upon the individual, as well as upon society as a whole. Moreover, the aim is to also provide a unique showcase for demonstrating the potential, added-value and benefits of these technologies in different aspects of everyday life.

The main objective of this research direction is to study Pervasive and Artificial Intelligence technologies and their application in every-day life situations, following the Human-Centric Design and Universal Access approaches. Throughout history, humans have continuously adapted to their surrounding environment, in order to survive, but also improve their quality of life. Today, Ambient Intelligence technologies have the potential to create intelligent environments, able to proactively adapt to humans, as well as to serve their needs and goals, in various activities of everyday life, integrating sensing capabilities, processing power, reasoning mechanisms, networking facilities, applications and services, digital content and actuating capabilities, all distributed in the surrounding environment. The underlying vision is to improve the quality of life of people through the creation and provision of safe, efficient and user-friendly technologies, which support and cater to the needs of each and every individual user, in a seamless, unobtrusive and invisible way.

Prof. Stephanidis is supervising the development of new software development frameworks and methods for the creation of applications, services, products and interactive systems that aim to provide natural, intuitive, and high-quality interaction with Intelligent Environments, through a variety of I/O devices and interaction techniques. The developed technological solutions adopt multi-disciplinary approaches and incorporate the recognition and monitoring of user interaction with the environment, distributed processing, reasoning mechanisms, computer networks, sensor and actuator networks, and multimodal interaction techniques. He is also supervising studies aimed at evaluating the impact of these technologies on the individual and society as a whole, as well as highlighting the potential and the benefits of such technologies in various aspects of everyday life.

The research activities are carried out within the Ambient Intelligence Building, a Research Facility constructed, under his supervision, with funding from the European Commission and designated as a flagship project of the European Union. It comprises simulation spaces (small-scale experimental environments that simulate realistic conditions of everyday life) that allow the development and evaluation of innovative applications and interactive systems that include: a house, a classroom, a recreational space, an exhibition, a greenhouse, and a “white-room”. The infrastructure of each space consists of a combination of modern equipment available in the market and specialized objects that are technologically enhanced through specific hardware and specialized software, the latter responsible for transforming the simulation space into an integrated intelligent environment, adaptable to the specific needs of each individual user and context of use. Thus, integrated pilot solutions can be tested in a laboratory environment (in vitro), before they can be transferred and applied in real life settings (in vivo).

II. He coordinated and edited White Papers, which were published in the international literature as the roadmap and RTD agenda towards an "Information Society for All" and which were used by international organizations, government agencies and the industry:

• Toward an Information Society for All: An International R&D Agenda. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 10 (2), 107-134. White Paper (1998).
• Toward an Information Society for All: HCI challenges and R&D recommendations. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 11 (1), 1-28. White Paper (1999).
• Seven HCI Grand Challenges.International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 35 (14), 1229-1269. DOI: 10.1080/10447318.2019.1619259. White Paper (2019).

III. In the context of the Lab's recent research activities in the field of Human Centered Design of Artificial Intelligence Technologies, he actively contributed to the writing of the White Paper:

• Six Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence Grand Challenges. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 39:3, 391-437. DOI: 10.1080/10447318.2022.2153320. White Paper (2023).

IV. He is one of the co-founders of the European Design for All e-Accessibility Network (EDeAN) and founder of the corresponding National Network GR-DeAN. He is also the senior editor of the EDeAN White Paper (2006), outlining a roadmap for possible relevant future European initiatives regarding the goal of "Design for All", digital accessibility and the inclusion of people with disabilities and the elderly in the "Information and Knowledge Society":

• White Paper: Promoting Design for All and e-Accessibility in Europe. Universal Access in the Information Society, 5 (1), 105-119 (2006).

V. He has published more than 800 articles in scientific archival journals, proceedings of international conferences and workshops, chapters in encyclopedias, edited books and handbooks, etc.

VI. He has played a leading role in the formation and development (nurturing) of the international research community in the area of Design for All and Universal Access, in the context of the interdisciplinary field of Human-Computer Interaction, through a series of initiatives:

• He is the Founder and organizer of international workshops and conferences:
  • ERCIM Workshop series ‘User Interfaces for All’ (1995 - 2006).
  • International Conference series on ‘Universal Access in HCI’ (since 2001), an affiliated conference of HCI International (of which he is the General Chair since 2007).
• He is the Founder (since 2000) and Editor-in-Chief of the Springer-Nature international journal Universal Access in the Information Society.
• He is the Managing Editor (since 2016) of the Taylor & Francis prestigious "International Journal of Human Computer Interaction".
• He wrote the monograph “Design for All”, included in the on-line Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction (Interaction Design Foundation).
• He is the Editor and chapter (co-)author of the Handbook "User Interfaces for All - concepts, methods and tools" (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2001), which reports the research activities and results of the Lab along with the international state of the art at the time of publication.
• He is the Editor and chapter (co-)author of the Handbook "The Universal Access Handbook" (CRC Press - Taylor & Francis Group, 2009), which reports the research activities and results of the Lab along with the international state of the art at the time of publication.>
• He is the lead Editor and chapter (co-)author of the book series "HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION: FOUNDATIONS AND ADVANCES” (CRC Press - Taylor & Francis Group, 2024, ISBN: 9781032750842). This is a collection of 6 books with a total of 90 chapters that provides a broad and extensive coverage of the interdisciplinary field of HCI. It addresses state-of-the-art theoretical and application-oriented aspects as well as best practices of HCI, along with cutting-edge technological advancements that aim to illuminate how on-going innovations reshape this field, redefine user interactions, elevate the overall user-experience and promote the overall technology user-acceptance. Methodological analysis and discussions on future directions empower readers in furthering their pursuit for knowledge in the HCI field. Collectively, the book series provides an invaluable resource for researchers, academics, students and practitioners.

VII. He has contributed to the European and international RTD Policy:

He has been actively contributing to the European Commission RTD Policy on Information Society, either as a member of EC experts’ committees, or as National Representative in Management Committees of successive RTD Framework Programmes in the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

Especially in the field of Universal Access, the work of the ERCIM Working Group “User Interfaces for All” and of the International Scientific Forum “Towards an Information Society for All”, which he founded and coordinated, had an extended influence on the research and the funded programs of the European Commission (COM(1999) 687 final) and of the European Council (eEurope: an Information Society for All, Lisbon, 2000), as well as of the National Science Foundation (nsf03612 Universal Access | NSF).

He was the Scientific Coordinator of the EC Coordination Action INTERLINK (2006-2009), which addressed large-scale, basic research problems in 'software intensive systems and new computing paradigms', 'ambient computing and communication environments' and 'intelligent and cognitive systems', under a human-centred perspective, and defined joint basic research agendas at the time for world-wide cooperation in these domains.

VIII. Participated as a Member of Expert Committees in International Organizations:

• Member of the Advisory Committee of the World Wide Web Consortium - W3C (1995-2001) and member of the W3C - Web Accessibility Initiative – WAI (1997 – 2001).
• Member of the Advisory Board of the Centre on Disabilities, California State University, Northridge, USA (1999-2001).
• Member of the ISO TC 159, Sub-Committee SC4, Ergonomics of Human System Interaction, Working Group WG5 (1997 – 1999).
• Member of the CEN TC224 WG6, “CENELEQ Technical Committee on Man-Machine Interface, Working Group on Machine Readable Cards” (1992 – 1993).
• Member of the European Telecommunications Standardization Institute - ETSI STC HF2 “Technical Committee on human factors for people with special needs” (1991 – 1996) and the Technical Committee Human Factors - STC HF 1.1 “Evaluation of Pictograms in Video telephony” (1991-1992).

IX. Contributed to the introduction of the interdisciplinary field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) into the University education:

In the early 1990s, he organized the teaching of the first courses in the scientific field of Human-Computer Interaction in Greek Universities (Computer Science Department of the University of Crete, and Department of Informatics and Telecommunications of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens).

Since then, this interdisciplinary area has been recognized as extremely important and dynamically developing, both in Greece as well as internationally (related courses are taught in all Departments of Informatics, in many of them as core courses). In the Computer Science Department of the University of Crete, two undergraduate courses and one course at postgraduate level are continuously taught until today.

He has supervised a long series of PhD (16), MSc (67) and BSc (123) theses in this field.

During the last decade, he is the responsible Professor for the Summer School on 'Human-Computer Interaction' organized annually by ICS-FORTH for students of the York University, Canada.

X. Invited as a Distinguished Lecturer in Universities of USA, in the context of "Keynote speeches from Distinguished Researchers ":

• Stephanidis, C. (1999). “Universal Design in the Information Society: A utopia or a challenge?”, Michael J. Ellis Distinguished Annual Lecture on Disability Science and Practice, University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign, USA, 23 April.
• Stephanidis, C. (2001). Universal Access in the Information Society: Achievements, Challenges and Promises. Distinguished Speaker Series 2000-2001, Institute for Software Research, University of California, Irvine, USA, 23 March.

XI. Invited Keynote addresses in major international conferences:

• Stephanidis, C. (2023, 27-28 September). Paradigm shifts towards an inclusive society: from the Desktop to Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. In the Proceedings of CHIGREECE '23: the 2nd International Conference of the ACM Greek SIGCHI Chapter. Article No.: 2, pp. 1–4. New York: ACM Digital Library. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3609987.3610109
• Stephanidis, C. (2023, 26 May). Inclusive Society: Digital Accessibility and Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. 9th International Scientific Conference of the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences (Greece), Heraklion, Crete, Greece, 26-28 May 2023.
• Stephanidis, C. (2020, 21 October). Interacting in a World of Graphics. 37th Computer Graphics International Conference, CGI 2020, Geneva, Switzerland, 20–23 October 2020.
• Stephanidis, C. (2019, 30 October). Building the intelligent classroom. XIV Latin American Conference on Learning Objects (LACLO 2019), San Jose Del Cabo, BCS, Mexico, 30 October - 1 November.
• Stephanidis, C. (2018, 5 September). Serious Games in Intelligent Environments. The 10th International Conference on Virtual Worlds and Games for Serious Applications (VS Games 2018), Würzburg, Germany, 5-7 September.
• Stephanidis, C. (2011, 4 October). Natural Interaction in Ambient Intelligent Environments. The 29th ACM International Conference on Design of Communication (ACM SIGDOC'11), Pisa, Italy, 3-5 October.
• Stephanidis, C. (2010, 24 June). Ambient Intelligence Environments for the Aging Population. The 3rd International Conference on Pervasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments (PETRA2010), Samos, Greece, 23-25 June.
• Stephanidis, C. (2009). Designing for All in Ambient Intelligence Environments. Key-note speech in the plenary session “The Technology Challenge: Technology Integration for an Enabling Environment”, in the context of the Tenth (10th) Conference of the Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe (AAATE 2009), Florence, Italy, 31 August – 2 September.
• Stephanidis, C. (2008). Universal Access and Ambient Intelligence: new research paths. In M. Lozano and J. A. Gallud (Eds.), Proceedings of the IX Congreso Internacional de Interacción Persona-Ordenador (Interacción 2008), Albacete, Spain, 9-11 June (pp. 13). Albacete, Spain: Universidad de Casilla-La Mancha.
• Stephanidis, C. (2006). Universal Access and Design for All in the evolving Information Society. CIRCUA@CWUAAT Workshop (theme "Universal access to ambient intelligence and ubiquitous computing"), in the context of the 3rd Cambridge Workshop on Universal Access and Assistive Technology (CWUAAT 06), Cambridge, United Kingdom, 10-12 April.
• Stephanidis, C. (2005). Universal Access to eLearning in the Information Society. 3rd Conference of the European Association for the Teaching of Academic Writing (EATAW), Athens, Greece, 22-24 June.
• Stephanidis, C. (2002). The Disappearing Computer: opportunities and challenges for Universal Access in the Information Society. In I. Aedo Cuevas, P. Diaz Pérez, & C. Fernández Llamas (Eds.), Proceedings of the III Congreso Internacional de Interacción Persona-Ordenador (Interacción 2002), Madrid, Spain, 8-10 May (pp. IV). Madrid, Spain: AIPO – Asociación Interacción Persona-Ordenador.
• Stephanidis, C. (2001). Human - Computer Interaction in the age of the Disappearing Computer. In N. Avouris, & N. Fakotakis (Eds), "Advances in Human-Computer Interaction I", Proceedings of the Panhellenic Conference with International Participation on Human-Computer Interaction (PC-HCI 2001), Patras, Greece, 7-9 December (pp. 15-22). Patras, Greece: Typorama Publications.
• Stephanidis, C. (2001). From User Interfaces for all to an Information Society for All: challenges and opportunities. In H. Oberquelle, R. Oppermann, J. Krause (Eds), Proceedings of the Conference on Human and Computer 2001, Bad Honnef, Bonn, Germany, 05-08 March (pp. 17-18). Stuttgart: B.G. Teubner. [Mensch & Computer 2001, Fachübergreifende Konferenz, Gemeinsame Factangung de German Chapter of the ACM und der Gesellschaft für Informatik (GI), fachausschluss Mensch-Computer-Interaktion, vom 5. bis 8. März 2001 in Bad Honnef (Bonn)].
• Stephanidis, C. (1997). User Interfaces for All: Developing Interfaces for Diverse User Groups. In A. Jameson, C. Paris, & C. Tasso (Eds.), Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on User Modeling (UM ’97), Chia Laguna, Italy, 2-5 June (pp. 443-444). Series: CISM International Centre for Mechanical Sciences. NR. 383. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.

XII. In recognition of his contribution, he has received international awards and distinctions:

• In 1999, he received the ERCIM Information and Communication Science and Technology Award for his research work reported in the monograph: Designing for all in the Information Society: Challenges towards universal access in the information age" (38 pages).
• In 2000, he received the ERCIM Award for his achievements as the Founding Chair of the ERCIM Working Group “User Interfaces for All”.
• In 2010, he was elected member of the Informatics Section of the Academia Europaea (Τhe European Academy of Humanities, Letters and Sciences).
• In 2011, in Orlando, Florida, USA, he received the “CIRCUA Torchbearer Award” - in recognition of his Visionary Leadership and Outstanding Contributions to Science and the Information Society.
• In 2016, he was awarded by the Board of Directors of FORTH the honorary title of "Distinguished Member of FORTH".
• In 2023, he received the award of the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences (Greece) for his internationally recognized contribution to "the development of human-centered Artificial Intelligence and the configuration of Human-Computer Interaction structures".
• The research results of the Laboratory he supervises received numerous awards and distinctions at international conferences and exhibitions of technology and innovation.

XIII. He has taken over important administrative positions:

• From 2004 to 2016 he was Director of the Institute of Computer Science of FORTH and member of the Board of Directors of FORTH.
• From 2004 to 2015 he was member of the Board of Directors of the Science and Technology Park of Crete (STEP-C), serving as its President from 2003 to 2010.
• From 2006 to 2012 he was national representative and member of the Management Board of the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA). He had been involved in the establishment of the European Agency and its hosting in Crete (since 2002). He was member of the Inter-ministerial National Committee for ENISA (2006-2012) and member of the Steering Committee of four (4) ENISA-FORTH Summer Schools on NIS (2008-2011).
• From 2016 to 2020, he was member of the Management Board of the spin-off company FORTHnet, representing FORTH.
• Since January 2017, he is the President of the Council for Research and Innovation of the Region of Crete - the first to be elected to this position upon its establishment.
• Since May 2021, following nomination by the Prime Minister and approval by the Hellenic Parliament in April 2021, he is the President of the newly founded National Accessibility Authority.

XIV. He offered and continues to offer services to the state and the academic and research community, as:

• National representative in European Commission Management Committees of the R&D Framework Programmes in the field of Information Society Technologies (1989 -2015).
• Coordinator of the Task Force on Universal Access in the Information Society”, Hellenic Ministry of Economy and Finance. Editor of the Report prepared for the Ministry (2002-2004).
• Member of the Sectorial Scientific Committee of Informatics of the National Council for Research and Technology, Hellenic Ministry of Development (2008-2009).
• Coordinator of the five-member Task Force for the drafting of the Legislation for Research and Innovation (4310/2014) (2013-2014).
• Member of the National Council for Research and Technology (NCRT), Hellenic Ministry of Education (2014-2016).
• Member of the ESPA 2021-2027 Monitoring and Coordination Council (2021-2027).
• National representative of Greece at the 16th session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), of the UN (New York, June 13-15, 2023): (a) at the round table discussion of the session regarding the "Digital accessibility for persons with disabilities", (b) at the side event organized as part of the session of the Permanent Mission of Greece to UN and the European Parliament, (c) at the working breakfast organized as part of the session by the European Commission with the Swedish Presidency of the European Union.
• National representative of Greece at the 17th session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), of the UN (New York, June 11-13, 2024), at the round table discussion of the session regarding the "International cooperation to promote technology innovations and transfer for an inclusive future” for the introduction of the topic of "Digital Accessibility in the Context of Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence".

XV. Scientific Responsible in R&D projects and RTD contracts:

Since 1988, he has been engaged as the Scientific Responsible in more than 180 European Commission, nationally and industry funded R&D projects and RTD contracts.

Α. Scientific Responsible for the participation of the ICS-FORTH in the following collaborative European Commission funded projects:

• 5G EPICENTRE (Grant Agreement no. 101016521)
  01/01/2021 - 30/06/2024
  5G ExPerimentation Infrastructure hosting Cloud‐nativE Netaps for public proTection and disaster Relief
  https://www.5gepicentre.eu/
• TENSOR ( Grant Agreement no. 101073920)
  01/10/2022 - 30/09/2025
  Reliable biomeTric tEhNologies to asSist Police authorities in cOmbating terrorism and oRganized crime
  https://tensor-horizon.eu/
• CEASEFIRE (Grant Agreement no. 101073876)
  01/10/2022 - 30/09/2025
  Advanced versatile artificial intelligence technologies and interconnected cross-sectoral fully-operational national focal points for combating illicit firearms trafficking
  "https://ceasefire-project.eu/
• SHIFT (Grant Agreement no. 101060660)
  01/10/2022 - 30/09/2025
  MetamorphoSis of cultural Heritage Into augmented hypermedia assets For enhanced accessibiliTy and inclusion
  https://shift-europe.eu/
• FIDAL (Grant Agreement no. 101096146)
  01/01/2023 - 31/12/2025
  Field Trials beyond 5G
  https://fidal-he.eu/
• GreenInCities (Grant Agreement no.101139730)
  01/01/2024 - 31/12/2027
  Green in cities Demonstrating Holistic Data-driven Co-Creative Approaches in Nature-Based Solutions towards climate Adaptation and Mitigation

Β. Scientific Responsible for the participation of the ICS-FORTH in the following collaborative nationally funded projects:

• He is the Scientific Responsible and Coordinator of the flagship national project "Interconnected Smart Cities for Greece 2.0" (15 May 2023 – 14 September 2025). The project is funded by the Greek National Recovery and Resilience Plan, under the supervision of the General Secretariat for Research and Innovation of the Ministry of Development, with the participation of Greek Universities, Research Centres and major Greek cities. The project aims to develop a universal Internet of Things (IoT) platform, designed to efficiently collect and present data generated by diverse existing vertical smart city systems, ensuring semantic compatibility between data and services and fostering cities' modernisation though a new generation of products and services. https://www.smartcitiesecosystem.gr/
• Scientific Responsible of the project "Digital Services for the Transportations and Communications Division of the Region of Crete" (March 2016 – January 2021). The project was financed by the Public Investment Program and dealt with the development of digital applications for the management of appointments and waiting queues in the transport services of the Region of Crete and acted as a forerunner of the national project "Digital Transformation of Actions of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transportation", having developed the first e-governance services for driving license procedures implemented as a pilot in the Region of Crete. https://gdme.crete.gov.gr/
• Scientific Responsible of the project «Digital Transformation - Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport» (May 2021 – July 2025). The project is funded by the Greek National Recovery and Resilience Plan, under the supervision of the Ministry of Digital Governance and aims at the digital transformation and provision of e-government services for the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transportation. https://drivers-vehicles.services.gov.gr/
• Scientific Responsible of the project "Smart Cities" (2016 - 2021) funded by the Municipality of Heraklion. The project concerned the creation of the technological infrastructure to support an Open Data and Internet of Things Ecosystem for the city of Heraklion, as well as the development and installation of new innovative services to improve the quality of life of citizens and visitors, through actions related to Sustainable Mobility, the promotion of the wide use of the Municipality's information through open access (Open Data), Smart Entrepreneurship / Economy, the monitoring of environmental pollution, etc. https://smartcity.heraklion.gr/en/home/