Team

Jahna Otterbacher, Coordinator

Open University of Cyprus

Information Retrieval, Human-Computer Interaction, Artificial Intelligence

Jahna Otterbacher holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, USA is an Assistant Professor at the Open University of Cyprus (OUC), Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences. Jahna also coordinates the Cyprus Center for Algorithmic Transparency (CyCAT) at the OUC. In addition, Jahna holds a concurrent appointment as team leader of the Transparency in Algorithms Group at RISE (Research centre on Interactive media, Smart systems and Emerging technologies), in Nicosia, Cyprus. Jahna’s research has been published in journals such as the ACM Transactions on Internet Technology (ACM TOIT) and Knowledge and Information Systems, as well as in top-tier international conferences such as the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems and the AAAI Conference on Human Computation and Crowdsourcing (HCOMP). She has served as a contributor to the Harvard Business Review, where she writes about the social implications of Big Data practices and analytics.

Paper by Jahna:

Competent Men and Warm Women: Gender Stereotypes and Backlash in Image Search Results

Loizos Michael

Open University of Cyprus

Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Theoretical Computer Science

Loizos Michael holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University, USA is an Associate Professor at Open University of Cyprus, where he founded and directs the Computational Cognition Lab. His research focuses on the principled study of cognitive processes associated with individual or collective intelligence — such as learning, reasoning, sensing, communication, cooperation — and how those are used by humans and other organisms in everyday life. Emphasis is placed on the development of computational models for various aspects of cognitive processes, and the analysis of the formal implications that such models have.

Paper by Loizos:

Intelligent Assistants, Personalization, and Transparency for Large Corporations

Styliani Kleanthous

Open University of Cyprus

Human Computer Interaction

Styliani Kleanthous holds a Ph.D. from the University of Leeds, UK. She is a senior researcher at CyCAT and the Transparency in Algortihms group at RISE LTD. Styliani’s main research interests and expertise are concentrated in the area of User and Community Modelling, Personalization and Adaptive Systems. She specializes in exploiting psychological and social theories for modelling user preferences, for designing intelligent interaction and adaptive user support. She has published over 30 papers in journals and scientific conferences, co-organised a number of international workshops and has given numerous presentations. Since 2004 she has been involved in different UK and EU-funded research projects for establishing requirements, modelling users and providing adaptive support for collaboration, learning, medical data analysis and identifying innovation networks.

Paper by Loizos:

Intelligent Assistants, Personalization, and Transparency for Large Corporations

Vasiliki Poulaki, Project Manager

Open University of Cyprus

Project Management

Vasiliki Poulaki is the Project Manager for CyCAT at the Open University of Cyprus (OUC). She has worked for 15 years in the Ministry of Citizen Protection of Greece, as an officer responsible for the collation, analysis and dissemination of all-sources of information. She also served as First Secretary at the Embassy of Greece in Nicosia, where she coordinated communication and information sharing with counterparts. She graduated from University of Cyprus, Panteion University in Athens with degrees in Turkish Studies, European and International Studies with specialization in International Law and Diplomacy, while she obtained the LCCI Level 3 Certificate in Public Relations. She currently attends the OUC’s MSc in Social Information Systems and works part-time at International Relations, Development and Communications Unit of the University.

Paper by Loizos:

Intelligent Assistants, Personalization, and Transparency for Large Corporations

Michalinos Zembylas

Open University of Cyprus

Educational Theory, Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies

Michalinos Zembylas is a Professor of Educational Theory and Curriculum Studies at the Open University of Cyprus. He is also Honorary Professor at Nelson Mandela University in the Chair for Critical Studies in Higher Education Transformation. He has written extensively on emotion and affect in relation to social justice pedagogies, intercultural and peace education, human rights education and citizenship education. His recent books include: Psychologized Language in Education: Denaturalizing a Regime of Truth (with Z. Bekerman), and Socially Just Pedagogies in Higher Education (co-edited with V. Bozalek, R. Braidotti, and T. Shefer). In 2016, he received the Distinguished Researcher Award in “Social Sciences and Humanities” from the Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation.

Paper by Loizos:

Intelligent Assistants, Personalization, and Transparency for Large Corporations

Michael Rovatsos

University of Edinburgh

Artificial Intelligence

Michael Rovatsos is a Reader at the School of Informatics of the University of Edinburgh and Director of the Bayes Centre, the University’s innovation centre for Data Science and AI. He has a track record of over 90 publications in AI (mostly in multiagent systems, automated planning, and adaptive online collaboration platforms) , and has been involved in externally funded projects worth over £17m, out of which he has personally held £2.5m as PI. His current work focuses on developing fair resource allocation algorithms, conducting empirical research into users’ perceptions of algorithmic fairness, and developing AI-assisted methods for the ethical self-regulation of online platforms. He is an Associate Editor of the Knowledge and Information Systems Journal, was recently Blue Sky Track Co-Chair of the AAMAS 2018 conference, and is Conference Coordinator for ACM SIGAI. He obtained his PhD in Informatics from the Technical University of Munich in 2004.

Paper by Loizos:

Intelligent Assistants, Personalization, and Transparency for Large Corporations

Alan Hartman

University of Haifa

Information Systems

Alan Hartman is a senior lecturer at the University of Haifa, Department of Information Systems and an adjunct professor at the Afeka Academic College of Engineering. He completed his Ph. D. in mathematics at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He joined the IBM Haifa Research Lab in 1983. His industrial research focused on storage technology, mathematical optimization, hardware and software verification, and model based engineering. In parallel, he continued his mathematical research into combinatorics. He spent almost 3 years at the IBM India research lab in Bangalore serving as the Services Science, Management, and Engineering (SSME) focal point for the IBM India Research Laboratory. He has held visiting positions in the Mathematics Department at the University of Toronto and at Telstra Research Labs. He has also coordinated and managed several European Commission research projects. He has published over 70 research papers and book chapters and holds 17 patents.

Paper by Loizos:

Intelligent Assistants, Personalization, and Transparency for Large Corporations

Veronika Bogina

University of Haifa

Information Systems

Veronika is a PhD student at the University of Haifa, Department of Information Systems. She works on Temporal Aspects in User Modelling and Recommender Systems. Veronika has an experience as a software engineer at Search Technology Group at IBM Haifa Labs.

Paper by Loizos:

Intelligent Assistants, Personalization, and Transparency for Large Corporations

Fausto Giunchiglia

University of Trento

Language Diversity

Fausto Giunchiglia is a Professor of Computer Science, University of Trento, ECCAI fellow, member of the Academia Europaea. Fausto studied or had positions at the Universities of Genoa, Stanford, Edinburgh. His research is on knowledge management with a focus on managing diversity. He holds around 10 Best Paper Awards, gave more than 50 invited talks in international events; chaired more than 10 international events, among them: WWW 2021, KSEM 2018, ODBASE 2008, IJCAI 2005, Context 2003, AOSE 2002, Coopis 2001, KR&R 2000, FLOC 1999; he sits as editor or on the editorial board member of around 10 journals, among them: Journal of Data Semantics, Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multi-agent Systems, Journal of applied non Classical Logics, Journal of Software Tools for Technology Transfer, Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research. He was member of the IJCAI Board of Trustees (01-11), President of IJCAI (05-07), President of KR, Inc. (02-04), Advisory Board member of KR, Inc., Steering Committee of the CONTEXT conference.

Paper by Loizos:

Intelligent Assistants, Personalization, and Transparency for Large Corporations

Tsvi Kuflik

University of Haifa

Information Systems

Prof. Tsvi Kuflik is a Professor and former head of the Department of Information Systems at the University of Haifa, Israel. His main areas of research are Ubiquitous User Modelling and Intelligent User Interfaces. For over than ten years Tsvi is leading a research group at the University of Haifa, focusing on “Active Museum” – applying novel computing and communication technology for supporting museum visitors. Prof. Kuflik is the author of over 200 referred publications in journals and conferences and in addition to being a co-organizer of the series of PACTH workshops during the past seven years. Experience with workshop/conference organization: General co-chair of IUI 2017, 2014, PC co-chair of UMAP 2014, chair of international information systems conferences held in Israel – NGITS 2006 and NGITS 2009, co-organizer of a series of workshops on Ubiquitous User Modeling co-located with ECAI 2006, UM 2007, IUI 2008, and personalization in cultural heritage, co-Organizer of the RecTour workshops series co-located with RecSys over the past three years, workshops co-chair of IUI 2009 and IUI 2010 and a member in the program committee of numerous national and international conferences.

Paper by Loizos:

Intelligent Assistants, Personalization, and Transparency for Large Corporations

Jo Bates

University of Sheffield

Information Studies

Jo Bates is a Senior Lecturer in Information Politics and Policy based at the University of Sheffield Information School. My research examines two interrelated factors (1) the socio-material factors that constitute how data are produced, used and move between different people and organisations, and how particular cultural constructs come to take on substance in data through the activities of practitioners, and how and why efforts are made to institutionalise specific forms of data practice in the form of data policies and legislation, and (2) the actual and potential socio-material consequences of these emergent forms of data practice and governance.

Paper by Loizos:

Intelligent Assistants, Personalization, and Transparency for Large Corporations