PARTNERS
Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (FORTH)
Role & Profile of key people
Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (FORTH)
The Institute of Computer Science (FORTH-ICS) and the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology
(FORTH-IMBB) are two of the six institutes constituting FORTH. In its thirty-year history, FORTH has established itself as a
renowned and highly competitive research organisation. According to the European research rankings (CORDIS data), FORTH
has been consistently ranked (2007–present) in the top 100 research and academic institutions in the EU.More than 70% of its
funding comes from participation in competitive European R&D programs. The Telecommunications and Networks Lab
(TNL) is actively involved in several areas, e.g., analysis and modeling of networks, mobile computing, Internet-of-Things,
Software Defined Networks and Software defined Radios. TNL consists of 3 faculty, 10 postdocs/researchers, and 13 graduate
students. FORTH-IMBB has an outstanding record of scientific achievements, a modern infrastructure and a broad range of
research, development and educational activities. IMBB researchers publish an average 100 research articles per year in
high-impact, peer-reviewed scientific journals, including Nature, Science, Cell, Neuron and others, have earned several scientific
distinctions and honors. The Neurophysiology and Behvioral Lab (NBL) investigates the mechanisms of single neurons and
neuronal networks involved in cognitive functions, their adaptations in animal models of neur
Role & Profile of key people
Professor Maria Papadopouli (g. female, Ph.D. Columbia University, October 2002) is a Professor in the Department of
Computer Science at the University of Crete, a Research Associate at FORTH-ICS. She has been a visiting Professor Fulbright
Scholar at CSAIL at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), MC-RISE Visiting Researcher at Harvard, and Visiting
Professor at the School of Electrical Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Before that, from July 2002
-June 2006, she was a tenure-track Assistant Professor at the UNC-Chapel Hill. She has been the recipient of IBM Faculty
Awards, Google Faculty Award, and Comcast Innovation Fund. She is an expert in network analysis and modeling with
extensive experience in analyzing measurements from real-world complex systems.
Prof. Papadopouli acts as the coordinator for neuronsXnets.
Prof. Kiki Sidiropoulou (g. female, Ph.D. Rosalind Franklin University, 2003) is an Assistant Professor of Neurophysiology at the Dept of Biology of the University of Crete and a Collaborating Researcher at FORTH-IMBB. Dr. Sidiropoulou has been a Marie-Curie fellow at UCLA (2010-2012), has received a NARSAD young investigator award (2013) and has been a visiting scientist at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), as part of a collaboration with Dr. Diomedes Logothetis. She has published 28 original scientific publications, many of them in high impact journals (PNAS, Nature Neuroscience, Cell Metabolism), 1 literature review, 1 book chapter and 1 monograph in Greek on the ‘Basic principles of Neurobiology”.
Emmanouil Froudarakis is a Lead Researcher at the at the IMBB-FORTH. He is an expert in recording and analysis of neural population activity with multiphoton microscopy from the cortical circuits and he has an extensive experience in high-throughput behavioral training of mice. He has extensive collaborations, such as the large-scale international imaging, modeling, and machine-learning collaboration collaboration, the MICrONS (Machine Intelligence from Cortical Networks) project, funded by IARPA, whose goal is to learn principles from the mouse brain and apply them to advance the algorithms used in machine learning. His team focuses is elucidating the computational principles behind object recognition, by combining state of the art recording techniques, computational models and behavioral training.
Prof. Kiki Sidiropoulou (g. female, Ph.D. Rosalind Franklin University, 2003) is an Assistant Professor of Neurophysiology at the Dept of Biology of the University of Crete and a Collaborating Researcher at FORTH-IMBB. Dr. Sidiropoulou has been a Marie-Curie fellow at UCLA (2010-2012), has received a NARSAD young investigator award (2013) and has been a visiting scientist at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), as part of a collaboration with Dr. Diomedes Logothetis. She has published 28 original scientific publications, many of them in high impact journals (PNAS, Nature Neuroscience, Cell Metabolism), 1 literature review, 1 book chapter and 1 monograph in Greek on the ‘Basic principles of Neurobiology”.
Emmanouil Froudarakis is a Lead Researcher at the at the IMBB-FORTH. He is an expert in recording and analysis of neural population activity with multiphoton microscopy from the cortical circuits and he has an extensive experience in high-throughput behavioral training of mice. He has extensive collaborations, such as the large-scale international imaging, modeling, and machine-learning collaboration collaboration, the MICrONS (Machine Intelligence from Cortical Networks) project, funded by IARPA, whose goal is to learn principles from the mouse brain and apply them to advance the algorithms used in machine learning. His team focuses is elucidating the computational principles behind object recognition, by combining state of the art recording techniques, computational models and behavioral training.
University of Liège (ULiège)
Role & Profile of key people
University of Liège (ULiège)
Established in 1817, the University of Liège (ULiège) is one of Belgium’s leading universities. It hosts more than 27,000 students, with 25% being international. As the public university of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, ULiège encompasses 11 faculties covering the humanities, health sciences, and science and technology. With 39 bachelor’s and 194 master’s programs, ULiège offers one of the most diverse educational selections in Belgium.
ULiège operates across three cities in Wallonia: Liège, Gembloux, and Arlon. Its programs hold several international quality accreditations, including EQUIS, AACSB, EUR-ACE, and the Conférence des Grandes Écoles. The university maintains partnerships with over 1,000 teaching and research institutions worldwide, driving robust research in fields such as biotechnology, life and medical sciences (human and veterinary), agronomy, space and engineering sciences, and environmental studies. ULiège’s active collaborations with public and private sectors have led to the creation of nearly 110 spin-off companies.
As a major employer in Wallonia, ULiège employs nearly 5,700 staff, including 640 academic members and 2,900 in teaching and research roles. In partnership with the CHU of Liège, the university supports approximately 12,000 direct jobs across the provinces of Liège, Namur, and Luxembourg.
Role & Profile of key people
Dr. Demertzi is a tenured FNRS Research Associate (Chercheuse Qualifiée), directing the Physiology of Cognition Lab at ULiège. Her expertise is in cognitive and clinical neuroscience. Her research contributes to the knowledge about the human mind, even when this cannot be communicated overtly. With her team they investigate the human mind at rest, behaviorally, and in altered states, via brain-body interactions using high- and low-tech methodologies. She has previously conducted research in physiological, pathological, pharmacological conditions and in extreme environments, like space travel. Her work has been published in high-impact journals (e.g. Science Advances, PNAS, Brain, JNeurosci, Neurosci Consc). She has featured as a neuroscientist in the National Georgraphic’s Special Issue “The Brain” (2022). In 2020, she received the Scientific Award in “Patient Care in the AI Era 2020” by the AstraZeneca Foundation and has delivered a TEDx talk (2019). As from 2024, she serves as Co-Editor-in-Chief for Neuroscience of Consciousness (Oxford University Press).
University of Zürich (UZH)
Role & Profile of key people
University of Zürich (UZH)
The University of Zurich (UZH) is a Cantonal university dedicated to higher learning and research. UZH is one of
the leading research universities in Europe, devoted to both scientific research and teaching. Two thousand lecturers
in 140 special institutes provide the broadest range of subjects and courses available from any Swiss seat of higher
education. With 24,000 students and 1,900 graduates every year, Zurich is also Switzerland’s largest university. UZH
provides academic services, works with the private sector and considers itself part of a national and global network
for the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge. The UZH team members belong to the Institute of
Neuroinformatics (INI): a joint institute of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ) and the
University of Zurich (UZH). It was founded in 1995 under the directorship of Profs. R. Douglas and K. Martin to
carry out experimental, theoretical and applied research with the aim of discovering key principles by which the brain
is built and works, and to use this knowledge in practical applications where possible.
Role & Profile of key people
Dr. Indiveri (M), received the M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Genoa, Italy in 1992.
Subsequently, he was awarded a doctoral postgraduate fellowship within the National Research and Training
Program on “Technologies for Bioelectronics” from which he graduated with “summa cum laude” in 1995. He also
obtained a Ph.D. degree in computer science and electrical engineering from the University of Genoa, Italy in 2004,
and the “Habilitation” certificate in Neuromorphic Engineering from ETH Zurich, Switzerland in 2006. Indiveri
carried out research on neuromorphic vision sensors as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Division of Biology at
the California Institute of Technology, and on neuromorphic selective attention systems as a postdoc at the Institute of
Neuroinformatics of the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich. His current research interests lie in the study of real
and artificial neural processing systems, and in the hardware implementation of neuromorphic cognitive systems,
using full custom analog and digital VLSI technology. Indiveri is a member of several Technical Committees (TCs)
of the IEEE Circuits and Systems society and a Fellow of the European Research Council. He has received 3 ERC
grants: one Starting, one “Proof-of-Concept”, and one consolidator.
BRUKER
Role & Profile of key people
BRUKER
Right from the beginning, which is now more than fifty years ago, Bruker has been driven by a single idea: to provide
the best technological solution for each analytical task. Today, worldwide, more than 6,500 employees in over 90
locations on all continents are focusing their efforts on this permanent challenge. Bruker’s high-performance
scientific instruments and high-value analytical and diagnostic solutions enable scientists to explore life and materials
at molecular, cellular and microscopic levels. In close cooperation with our customers, Bruker is enabling innovation,
productivity and customer success in life science molecular research, in applied and pharma applications, and in
microscopy, nano-analysis and industrial applications. In recent years, Bruker has also become a provider of
high-performance systems for cell biology, preclinical imaging, clinical phenomics and proteomics research, clinical
microbiology, and for molecular pathology research. Being one of the world’s leading analytical instrumentation
companies, Bruker is strongly committed to further fully meet its customers’ needs as well as to continue to develop
state-of-the-art technologies and innovative solutions for today’s analytical questions.
Role & Profile of key people
Romina Macco is the EMEA Applications and Service Manager for the Bruker Fluorescence Microscopy Unit.
Before joining Bruker in January 2015, Romina has spent more than 10 years doing scientific research, and she
achieved a PhD in Molecular Medicine, section Neuroscience, at San Raffaele Scientific Institute, in Milan, Italy.
Part of her PhD has been done at Harvard University, in Boston, where she gained experience in two-photon
microscopy and live imaging of the mouse brain.
Michel Biocco is the sales product specialist in Fluorescence Optical Microscopy in Europe and Latin America. Before joining Bruker in September 2015, he has spent 8 years working in sales for high-end fluorescence imaging systems (confocal, super resolution &multiphoton imaging platforms). He has an engineering degree in Optics and Electronics from IFIPS (Polytech Paris-Sud) and worked for 3 years in R&D at SAGEM as an engineer
Michel Biocco is the sales product specialist in Fluorescence Optical Microscopy in Europe and Latin America. Before joining Bruker in September 2015, he has spent 8 years working in sales for high-end fluorescence imaging systems (confocal, super resolution &multiphoton imaging platforms). He has an engineering degree in Optics and Electronics from IFIPS (Polytech Paris-Sud) and worked for 3 years in R&D at SAGEM as an engineer
IBM Research GMBH
Role & Profile of key people
IBM Research GMBH
IBM Research – Zurich is one of IBM’s 12 research labs, which includes 3,000 scientists on six continents. IBM
Research – Zurich was established in 1956 and is home to world-class scientists representing more than 45
nationalities. Cutting-edge research and outstanding scientific achievements—most remarkably two Nobel Prizes in
1986 and 1987—are associated with this lab. The spectrum of research activities ranges from exploratory research in
areas such as quantum systems, neuromorphic computing and nanoscience – as the basis for future computing
technology, to cloud computing and storage, cognitive computing and systems, systems biology, cybersecurity and
privacy and most recently blockchain. In 2011, a new facility for collaborative nanoscale research was opened on the
IBM campus — the Binnig and Rohrer Nanotechnology Center. The Center is part of a strategic partnership in
nanosciences with ETH Zurich, one of the world’s foremost science and engineering universities. Also located at the
lab is the IBM Research Think Lab – Zurich. This think-tank and briefing center provides a unique place in Europe to
gain insights from IBM researchers, industry and trend experts, in order to tackle today’s and tomorrow’s challenges.
Role & Profile of key people
Dr. Evangelos Eleftheriou (male) is responsible for the neuromorphic computing activities of IBM Research – Zurich. He has
long-standing experience and knowhow in PCM technology, i.e., physics of PCM, device technology, and system integration.
Moreover, he has also focused on ultra-low power AI computing systems. He and his team have demonstrated artificial synapses and
spiking neurons using phase-change materials and have showed that the inherent stochasticity of these neurons enables
population-based computation. They have also demonstrated an all-PCM SNN architecture implementing temporal correlation
detection. Recently, they introduced the concept of in-memory computing and its application to deep learning inference and training.
They showed the first ever real-time demo of a PCM-based ANN inference engine, using about 0.5M PCM devices, at NeurIPS 2019.
The latest work on deep networks incorporating spiking neural dynamics opens a new avenue for the widespread adoption of SNNs.
Dr. Eleftheriou has authored or co-authored about 250 publications and holds over 180 patents.
Dr. Angeliki Pantazi (female) received her Diploma and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and ComputerTechnology from the University of Patras, Greece. Since 2006, she is a Research Staff Member in IBM Research – Zurich and currently she is managing the Neuromorphic Computing and I/O Links group. She was named IBM Master Inventor in 2014 and became a senior member of the IEEE in 2015 and a Fellow of IFAC in 2019. She was a co-recipient of the 2009 IEEE Control Systems Technology Award, the 2009 IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology Outstanding Paper Award and the 2014 IFAC Industrial Achievement Award. In 2017, she received an IBM Corporate Award and the IEEE CSS Transition to Practice Award. She has contributed in several control-related projects in data storage systems and in particular magnetic tape storage. Recently, her research is focusing on neuromorphic technologies combined with phase-change memory concepts. She has published 100 refereed articles and holds over 40 granted patents.
Dr. Angeliki Pantazi (female) received her Diploma and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and ComputerTechnology from the University of Patras, Greece. Since 2006, she is a Research Staff Member in IBM Research – Zurich and currently she is managing the Neuromorphic Computing and I/O Links group. She was named IBM Master Inventor in 2014 and became a senior member of the IEEE in 2015 and a Fellow of IFAC in 2019. She was a co-recipient of the 2009 IEEE Control Systems Technology Award, the 2009 IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology Outstanding Paper Award and the 2014 IFAC Industrial Achievement Award. In 2017, she received an IBM Corporate Award and the IEEE CSS Transition to Practice Award. She has contributed in several control-related projects in data storage systems and in particular magnetic tape storage. Recently, her research is focusing on neuromorphic technologies combined with phase-change memory concepts. She has published 100 refereed articles and holds over 40 granted patents.
Neurocom Luxembourg SA
Role & Profile of key people
Neurocom Luxembourg SA
Neurocom Luxembourg S.A. is an IT software and services provider delivering mission-critical software solutions that
are ideal for handling huge volumes of data and providing super-fast processing, at the highest accuracy, security and
reliability. It designs, develops, customizes and maintains integrated software systems, as well as, it provides advanced
information technology services. It offers innovative, highly competitive, value adding system and software solutions,
mainly required by telecom and finances. It is acting primarily in the area of big data analytics and telecom BSS/OSS
development, addressing the needs of organizations with huge volume of data and complex procedures. During the last
years, Neurocom Luxembourg is differentiating and advancing its products and services portfolio towards the needs of
next generation telecom providers, as well as towards the needs of other sectors like finances, transport and sports, aiming
specially to assist organizations and service providers to a) extract knowledge from crowd, customers and usage data
which is an essential element for organisations to monitor operations and apply proactive planning b) develop enabling
and framing products for convergent services and IoT applications within the emerging business models in a data-driven
economy.
Role & Profile of key people
Dr. Christos Tsalidis holds a PhD with title “Integrated Measurement of Software Quality Characteristics in
Programming Languages” from University of Patras as well as a BSc in Computer Engineering and Informatics. He has
worked intensively, from 1995 till today, into the design and development of stock market exchange platforms for order
routing, management and message exchange. Furthermore, he designs and implements Natural Language Processing
Systems (lexicons, proofing tools, information and knowledge management platforms, data cleansing algorithms and
systems) for more than 20 years. He has published extensively in international scientific journals and has also participated
in many national and European R&D projects (Iatrolexi, MetaOn, Parmenides, Pyramid, Graspin) and cooperated with
research institutes and academic organizations in Greece (Demokritos, I.L.S.P, National and Kapodistrian University of
Athens, C.T.I., Technological Educational Institute of Piraeus, University of Patras). He is also a visiting professor in
Greek universities and technological educational institutes (Technological Educational Institute of Piraeus, Aegean
University, University ofPatras) taking a number of lectures. Since 2016 and until March 2019, he has been the technical
coordinator of Neurocom Luxembourg’s activity in the EC Project VINEYARD.
University General Hospital of Heraklion (PAGNI)
Role & Profile of key people
University General Hospital of Heraklion (PAGNI)
The University Hospital of Heraklion was founded in 1989 and disposes over 700 active beds. PAGNI is the major Hospital in the
area of Crete, Greece and as a University Hospital, it shares a long-standing affiliation with University of Crete, School of Medicine
and the Technological Educational Institute of Crete school of Health and social warfare and School of applied technology. About
50000 people are treated annually in the Hospital’s Care Clinics and approximately 170000 use Hospital’s Outpatient Department
every year. A wide variety of surgical procedures, including transplantations and the most up-to-date laparoscopic techniques, are
performed in its operating rooms. The Hospital is also in the forefront in implementing Management Information Systems. PAGNI
is working actively in the development and advance of research in the sector of medicine and other relevant sciences. In this direction
applies and develops research projects, scientific researches and collaborates with other relevant institutions as well as with
international organizations, scientific and research projects. The Department of Neurology at the PAGNI hospital has an active
Neurology Residency Program and also trains medical students in Clinical Neurology. The residency is designed to prepare
physicians for the independent and competent practice of neurology by providing training based on supervised clinical work with
increasing responsibility for outpatients and inpatients. Their training aims at bridging basic neurosciences with clinical neurology
with the residents being encouraged to develop the skills necessary to pursue an academic career in neuroscience and clinical
neurology.
Role & Profile of key people
Panayiotis Mitsias, MD, PhD, received his MD in 1984 from the School of Medicine, Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, and his
PhD in Neurosciences in 2008. Dr. Mitsias completed hisNeurology Residency Training in 1991 and Fellowship Training in Stroke
and Headache in 1993, both at Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, Michigan. He created, developed and directed the Henry Ford Center
for Stroke and Neurovascular Disorders from 2000-2017. He is a Professor of Neurology at Wayne State University, Detroit,
Michigan since 2011. Currently, he is the Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurology at UHH. In this capacity he
directs the clinical, education and research operations of the Department of Neurology. Dr. Mitsias is a senior clinical neurologist
with special clinical and research expertise in cerebrovascular disorders and headache. He is developing the Stroke Program of the
department, especially in regards to emergency management of stroke, in-hospital management and secondary stroke prevention. A
headache clinic is currently under development. Dr. Mitsias’ research interests are focused on: guiding acute stroke therapy with
advanced multiparametric MRI, thrombolytic management of acute stroke, analysis of clinical and advanced MRI aspects of stroke
recovery, and translational research on stroke recovery. His work has been funded by the NIH (R01 and P01 grants). In PAGNI a
stroke database is currently under development, which includes all needed data elements for the management of acute stroke.
Associated with this is an ongoing education effort on clinical and clinical research aspects of stroke, and several clinical stroke
research projects.
Cleanthi Spanaki (MD/PhD) received her MD in 1994 from the Medical School of the University of Crete, her MSc in Bioethics and her Ph.D. in Basic Neuroscience in 2004. Dr. Spanaki is a clinical neurologist who works at the UHH. She is in charge of the Movement Disorders Clinic, taking care of patients with extrapyramidal disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. More than 400 patients are registered with the clinic, the majority of them in the advanced stages of their diseases. Modern interventional treatments such as Deep Brain Stimulation, Duodopa, Apomorphine and Baclophen pumps are offered as therapeutic options to advanced complicated movement disorders’ patients for more than 10 years. Modern interventional treatments such as Deep Brain Stimulation, Duodopa, Apomorphine and Baclophen pumps have been offered as therapeutic options to advanced complicated movement disorders’ patients for more than 10 years.
Cleanthi Spanaki (MD/PhD) received her MD in 1994 from the Medical School of the University of Crete, her MSc in Bioethics and her Ph.D. in Basic Neuroscience in 2004. Dr. Spanaki is a clinical neurologist who works at the UHH. She is in charge of the Movement Disorders Clinic, taking care of patients with extrapyramidal disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. More than 400 patients are registered with the clinic, the majority of them in the advanced stages of their diseases. Modern interventional treatments such as Deep Brain Stimulation, Duodopa, Apomorphine and Baclophen pumps are offered as therapeutic options to advanced complicated movement disorders’ patients for more than 10 years. Modern interventional treatments such as Deep Brain Stimulation, Duodopa, Apomorphine and Baclophen pumps have been offered as therapeutic options to advanced complicated movement disorders’ patients for more than 10 years.
ProMetronics
Role & Profile of key people
ProMetronics
ProMetronics is a high-tech startup company from Berlin, funded by the city of Berlin; It has won a prize to participate in
the founders workshop Adlershof with its innovative technology for the use of AI in industrial production. The founding
team is internationally oriented and combines many years of scientific expertise in nano-scale research and metrology with
AI data processing evaluation and utilization, as well as engineering and entrepreneurial spirit. ProMetronics technology is
ground-breaking and brings a revolutionary increase in efficiency for correlating physical properties of surfaces, particles
and tissues with the meta-function that defines the performance of materials and products. By combining
nano-measurement technology and AI, ProMetronics aims to drive the digital transformation of high-tech production sites
in the direction of Industry 4.0 with new standards.
Role & Profile of key people
Dr. André Kempe, CEO, is a physical analytics expert and experienced in the study of materials, hard and soft matter on
the nano scale. Trained in material research on early life forms Kempe has published around 15 papers in the context of the
origin of life. Using the scientific approach of surface research he worked for industrial customers since 2012 and has
elaborated measuring solutions for 34 different commercial projects. He thereby specialized in establishing scientific
methods for industrial applications. At ProMetronics he is responsible for project design and material analysis. Dr. Kempe
holds a Doctor of Science (PhD) from LMU Munich and a Diploma in Geosciences from LMU Munich.
Ioannis Karakatsanis, CTO, is a specialist in systems integration for cognitive computing. He has worked extensively with IBM Watson in medical applications and designed numerous cross-market software platforms utilizing neural networks. He is an expert in designing and integrating applications that utilize artificial intelligence and autonomous hardware processes. At ProMetronics he is responsible for directing development and integration of deep learning algorithms providing predictive models and control feedback loops for industrial applications. Ioannis Karakatsanis holds a Diploma in Electrical Engineering with medical and robotics technology specialization from the RWTH in Aachen, Germany.
Milos Markovic, CSO, MSc, PhD, senior Audio engineer and consultant, with more than 10 years of experience in Acoustics, Audio signal processing (3D audio) and Machine (deep) learning. Worked with leading research groups (Cambridge University, Technical University Munich) and pursued collaborations between industry and academia (Fraunhofer Institute, Nvidia, Intel). He has participated in several commercial product development projects related to spatial sound processing and machine (deep) learning during corporate employment in R&D departments of leading international companies in audio technologies, including Huawei Technologies and Harman International. He was active member of more than 10 research, industrial and EU funded projects like Bridget (Bridging the gap for Enhanced broadcast, EU FP7 project) and Beaming (Being in Augmented Multi-Modal Naturally-Networked Gatherings, EU FP7 project) holding positions as technical contributor and work package leader. Mr. Markovic has participated in the Standardization activities through participation in MPEG working group for development of spatial audio standards (MPEG-H).
Ioannis Karakatsanis, CTO, is a specialist in systems integration for cognitive computing. He has worked extensively with IBM Watson in medical applications and designed numerous cross-market software platforms utilizing neural networks. He is an expert in designing and integrating applications that utilize artificial intelligence and autonomous hardware processes. At ProMetronics he is responsible for directing development and integration of deep learning algorithms providing predictive models and control feedback loops for industrial applications. Ioannis Karakatsanis holds a Diploma in Electrical Engineering with medical and robotics technology specialization from the RWTH in Aachen, Germany.
Milos Markovic, CSO, MSc, PhD, senior Audio engineer and consultant, with more than 10 years of experience in Acoustics, Audio signal processing (3D audio) and Machine (deep) learning. Worked with leading research groups (Cambridge University, Technical University Munich) and pursued collaborations between industry and academia (Fraunhofer Institute, Nvidia, Intel). He has participated in several commercial product development projects related to spatial sound processing and machine (deep) learning during corporate employment in R&D departments of leading international companies in audio technologies, including Huawei Technologies and Harman International. He was active member of more than 10 research, industrial and EU funded projects like Bridget (Bridging the gap for Enhanced broadcast, EU FP7 project) and Beaming (Being in Augmented Multi-Modal Naturally-Networked Gatherings, EU FP7 project) holding positions as technical contributor and work package leader. Mr. Markovic has participated in the Standardization activities through participation in MPEG working group for development of spatial audio standards (MPEG-H).
Harvard Medical School
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Role & Profile of key people
Harvard Medical School
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Dr. Smirnakis’ laboratory is affiliated with the Harvard Medical School, the Department of Neurology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the Department of Neurology at Jamaica Plain Veterans Administration (JP VA) Hospital. The
laboratory shares two locations, each of which is equipped with in vivo 2-photon microscopy systems, molecular biology
benches, a light proof psychophysical eye tracking area, Computer Analysis Facilities and access to fMRI scanning
facilities. The space of the laboratory is located on the thirteen floor of the Thorn building and the 2-photon imaging
facility is on the 11 floor (room 11122) of the BTM building of Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Approximately 750 ft2
are dedicated to the laboratory space of the PI at this location, which includes approximately 250-300 ft2 for a 2-photon
microscope room, 2 standard molecular biology benches for wet laboratory space, a shared room with culture/viral
injection hoods and for housing in vitro physiology setup, the office for the PI, a light-proof room for visual psychophysics
with eye-tracking and office/desk space for 6 postdoctoral fellows and trainees
Role & Profile of key people
Dr Smirnakis is an Associate Neurologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. His academic
appointment as an Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School is expected in the next 1-3 months,
following a recent move to Harvard Medical School from Baylor College of Medicine where he held the position of
tenured Associate Professor of Neuroscience and Neurology. Dr. Smirnakis’ training is in Physics and Systems
Neuroscience with expertise in neuroimaging, experimental systems neurophysiology, neural coding and plasticity. He is
also a clinical Neurologist having served as a Chief Resident of Neurology at the Partners Neurology Program, Harvard
Medical School. He is the recipient of several awards including an NEI K08 award, a Dana Foundation Award and an
Early Career Award from Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He has given more than 100 invited national & international
talks. Role: Dr Smirnakis will be involved in all aspects of the experimental and computational part of the project, and his
laboratory will be the site where the data for the proposal will be generated.
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Role & Profile of key people
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
The David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA (DGSOM) is one of the top ten medical schools in the country. DGSOM
engages the efforts of more than 2,768 clinical faculty, 2,000 full-time faculty and 1,000 active investigators, many recognized
with the highest national and international awards and honors. Constituting a critical mass of outstanding research in all areas
of basic, clinical, translational and population-based research, UCLA is ranked 10th in the United States in research funding
from the NIH, with over 615 active research awards totaling more than $256 million and has the fourth highest total research
dollars from all sources, over $1 billion annually. The DGSOM education and training currently encompasses 1,300 residents,
750 medical students and 400 graduate students working toward PhD degrees in health related sciences, with 661 active D-,
F-, K-, R- and T-series training and career development programs and single-awardee fellowship projects. There are nearly
168 endowed chairs. Despite opening its doors just over 50 years ago in 1955, the UCLA Hospital (recently named Ronald
Reagan Hospital) has been ranked “Best in the West” by U.S. News and World Report’s annual survey of the best hospitals in
America for 24 consecutive years.
Role & Profile of key people
Peyman Golshani, MD/PhD (UC Irvine 2002) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neurology at the David
Geffen School Medicine at UCLA. His laboratory focuses on discovering on how large populations of cortical neurons
coordinate their activity to drive attention, working memory, and decision making and in discovering how these coordinated
patterns become disrupted in models of neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disease. The laboratory is developing new
generation open-sourceminiaturized microscopes to study network dynamics in freely behaving mice. Over 350 laboratories
now use the microscopes and new wire-free and integrated electrophysiology devices are being developed.