National Advisory Boards
João Dias
João Dias holds a degree (2009), a master's degree (2011), and a Ph.D. (2017) in Computer Science from the University of Beira Interior. He is currently the Chairman of the Board of Directors of inKlusion Entertainment, SA, of which he's been a partner and co-founder since 2013. He's also an invited Auxiliary Professor of the Computer Science department at the University of Beira Interior and Auxiliary Professor at IADE - Faculty of Design, Technology, and Communication. Also, at IADE, he accumulates the functions of Coordinator of the Creative Technologies Degree and Member of the Pedagogical Council of the European University. He is the author and co-author of dozens of papers published in international conferences and journals. Several of these studies have been awarded prizes of scientific merit. He is a member of numerous reviewing boards and editors of several international and indexed conferences and journals.
Dina Batista Periera
Manager of UBIMEDICAL at University of Beira Interior (UBI), incubator for health and life sectors. Among other duties, she is responsible for the creation and scale up of new startups coming from UBI, as well as the organization and management of international projects with other stakeholders from incubators, universities, companies, and for attracting and managing the clinical studies at the Coordination Centre for Clinical Trials of UBImedical. She is Researcher at CEG-IST - Centre for Management Studies /IST-University of Lisbon (since 2013) and NECE- Research Centre in Business Sciences/University of Beira Interior (since 2018), where her major interests are in the fields of entrepreneurship and innovation. Dina is an expert evaluator fore Horizon Europe, member of the EIT Food RIS Council, Mentor of the EIT Health Mentoring and Coaching Network (MCN) and of BGI - Building Global Innovators. She is co-founder of a startup called NeuroSoV specialized in the area of neurosciences.
Andrej Flogie
Andrej Flogie is an esteemed figure in the field of educational science, specifically focusing on the didactics of science and technology education. He is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, University of Maribor, Slovenia. His significant role extends to being the Anton Martin Slomšek Institute Director in Maribor, Slovenia. This institute is renowned for its comprehensive educational approach, encompassing a high school, a music and ballet school, a Montessori primary school, a Montessori kindergarten, and student dormitories.
Andrej Flogie has contributed extensively to various research areas. Still, his recent focus has been mainly on teaching and learning processes, cognitive science, and the creation and development of intelligent learning environments. His work emphasises integrating information technology in education, leveraging networking, knowledge-based systems, interactive multimedia, and artificial intelligence to enhance educational delivery. He has authored chapters in educational books, including discussions on the application of artificial intelligence in education, aiming to address the challenges and opportunities it presents in this field.
His contributions to the field of education, especially in integrating advanced technologies and innovative teaching methodologies, are well-acknowledged, making him a significant figure in the evolution of modern educational practices.
Alan Bukovnik
Alan Bukovnik embarked on his academic journey at the Maribor Agricultural School, which laid the foundation for his lifelong commitment to education and public service. His pursuit of higher education continued at the High Administrative School, where he graduated in 2002, adeptly balancing his studies with work responsibilities. Later, he attained a Master of Science in State and European Studies from the Faculty for State and European Studies in Kranj in 2014 and subsequently began doctoral studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences in Ljubljana.
In 2002, Alan's commitment to community service propelled him to run for mayor of the Municipality of Radlje ob Dravi. His dedication and leadership resonated with the community, leading to his election and subsequent service for four terms. Alan's political career expanded as he served as a member of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia from 2008 to July 2012, managing mayoral responsibilities simultaneously with his legislative role.
As a visionary leader, Alan Bukovnik has been influential in actualising numerous initiatives, consistently working to enrich people's lives, especially those who started their careers. His approach, characterised by hard work, fairness, and integrity, is dedicated to fostering a welcoming and progressive environment for the coming generations. Building trust within the municipality, forming diverse partnerships, and championing developmental projects are the cornerstones of his strategy for the community's prosperous growth.
Alan firmly believes in capitalising on opportunities that will guide the future of his community in a positive direction, always with a keen awareness of the strong bonds that unite and strengthen his society.
Svenja Bedenlier
Svenja Bedenlier is a junior professor for e-learning in higher education and adult education at the Department of Education and the Institute for Learning Innovation of the Friedrich-Alexander-Universiy in Nuremberg, Germany, since March 2020.
From October 2012 to May 2019, she worked as a research assistant at the Chair for Knowledge Transfer and Learning with New Technologies at Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg. Here she was involved in the projects "Gelingensbedingungen aktivder Lehr-Lernsettings mit digitalen Medien an Hochschulen - ActiveLeaRn" and "Digitale Bildungsarchitekturen. Open learning resources in distributed learning infrastructures - EduArc" and researched the topics of digitalisation and internationalisation in the higher education context. From June 2019 to March 2020, Svenja Bedenlier was the Internationalisation Officer at the FernUniversität in Hagen. As part of her doctorate on the topic of the internationalisation of higher education institutions and its impact on academics and researchers, she spent research stays in Turkey and Colombia. Between 2007 and 2012, she studied the Bachelor of Education / Gender Studies and the Master of Education (Lifelong Learning / Educational Management) at the Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg and the Marmara University in Istanbul.
Hendrik Drachsler
Hendrik Drachsler is Professor of Educational Technologies and Learning Analytics and affiliated with the German Leibniz Institute for International Educational Research (dipf.de), the Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main, and the Open University of the Netherlands. He is the Scientific Director of studiumdigitale, the central research and innovation unit for technology-enhanced learning, at the Goethe-University with over 40.000 students.
His research interests include Learning Analytics, Personalisation technologies, Recommender Systems, Educational data, mobile devices, and their applications in the fields of Technology-Enhanced Learning and Health 2.0. Hendrik is an elected board member of the board of the European Association of Technology-Enhanced Learning (EATEL). From 2015 - 2020 he was elected board member of the Society of Learning Analytics Research (SoLAR).
In the past, he worked as a principal investigator and scientific coordinator of various national and EU projects (e.g., patient-project.eu, LinkedUp-project.eu, laceproject.eu, safepat.eu, sheilaproject.eu), and was responsible for a consortium budget of over 15 million euros research grants and 3.2 million euros for his research group. Hendrik has regularly chaired international scientific conferences (e.g. LAK16, EC-TEL17, EC-TEL18, LAK20). He is Associate Editor of IEEE's Transactions on Learning Technologies (TLT), and is Special Issue Editor of the Journal of Computer Assisted Learning (JCAL). He authored various highly cited articles on Technology-Enhanced Learning.
Dr. Alexis Komselis
Alexis is an entrepreneurship educator, researcher, and practitioner. He has co-created VentureGarden, a project supporting aspiring entrepreneurs, in Athens and Southern Greece. Alexis is active in the entrepreneurial ecosystems for over 20 years. He teaches theroretical and practical courses at Alba's MSC in Entrepreneurship.
Grigorios Chondrokoukis
Grigorios Chondrokoukis is a Professor in Information Systems Management at the Industrial Management and Technology Department of University of Piraeus. He studied Business Administration at the Graduate School of Industrial Studies of Piraeus (1985), received his MSc degree in Information Technology (Computer Science) from Birkbeck College London University (1986) and pursued his Doctoral Thesis in Design and Development of Group Decision Support Systems for small groups, at the Technology and Production Systems Department of University of Piraeus (obtained his PhD in 1992). He taught at the University of Hertfordshire, the Hellenic Naval Academy and the School of Further Education and Training of the Hellenic Police Force, and he is an External Examiner at the University of Wales in IT Departments.
Yannis Psaromiligkos
Yannis Psaromiligkos is professor at the Department of Business Administration, Division of Informatics and Decision Sciences, University of West Attica. The University of West Attica was created in 2018 by the merger of the former “Piraeus University of Applied Sciences” and the former “Technological Educational Institute of Athens”. Yannis Psaromiligkos before 2018 was professor at the Department of Business Administration, Division of Informatics and Quantitative Methods, Piraeus University of Applied Science (TEI Piraeus), Greece, by September 2013. From April 1999 until September 2013 he was a professor at the General Department of Mathematics, Division of Informatics, ΤΕΙ Piraeus, Greece, where he was Head of the Department for the last three years (2010-2013) and Director of the Division of Informatics for two years (2008-2010). He holds a BSc degree in Mathematics, an MSc degree in Computer Science and Operational Research from University of Athens and a PhD degree in Computer Science (Software Engineering) from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Greece (with Greek State Scholarship Foundation from 1987 to 1992).
Nikolas Kairinos
Nikolas Kairinos is an award-winning innovator with four decades of experience in AI. By the time he was 23, Nikolas was investing in companies, taking them public and selling them on. 34 years of entrepreneurship and 29 years of corporate finance & investment banking enables Nikolas to understand the problems caused by the relative lack of new ideas in AI and EdTech over the last 30 years.
As a serial entrepreneur, Nikolas is recognized for his vast publication history and public speaking reputation in the field of AI. Nikolas specializes in EdTech but has a background in mobile app creation, lead generation and hospitality sector marketing. He has a solid grasp over the technical and strategic dimensions of a start-up and bridges the divide that is often present between technologists and businesspeople.
As the CEO & Founder of Soffos Inc, and founding Partner of Fountech Ventures, Nikolas’ company locations span Texas and Arizona in the USA, London in the UK, Limassol in Cyprus and other EU satellite offices. Nik’s previous roles include
· CEO & Founder – Brillisoft LLC.
· Chief Investment Officer – NML Capital Ltd.
· Managing Director of various organizations in South Africa - actively involved in mergers and acquisitions.
Christos Roushias
Dr Christos Roushias, a Teacher Trainer-Educator (specialized in educational technology) at the Cyprus Pedagogical Institute (CPI), holds a B.A. Honors degree in Educational Sciences from the University of Cyprus, an M.A. degree in Science Education, an M.Ed. and an Ed.D. degree in Instructional Technology & Media, all three from Teachers College, Columbia University, NY. He has served as a research fellow & technology coordinator at the Urban Science Education Center, as well as a partner in various ICT & Science Education projects at Teachers College, Columbia University.
He has published and presented articles in various international conferences and attended numerous ICT-related seminars. He has worked for the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport and Youth and the CPI for more than twenty years, as an educational technology advisor for schools, as an ICT in Education projects officer, and as a teachers’ professional development trainer-educator, in the field of integrating new educational technologies in the Cyprus education system and curricula.
Dr Roushias has also served as a Senior Lecturer of Educational Technology, at a private university in Cyprus and as a representative of the Ministryin various committees and working groups of the European Schoolnet. His research interests combine the development of teachers’ digital competence and their professional learning and development, with a special focus on the integration of AR and VR technologies in the teaching and learning process.
Maria Solomou
Maria Solomou is an Experience Design professional with a diverse background in Business, Experience & Technology, including game design, user experience design, training and development, design thinking, entrepreneurship, learning organizations and management. She has a Ph.D. from Indiana University, Bloomington (U.S.A) in Learning Sciences and Instructional Systems Technologies and an MBA from the University of Cyprus. She has worked with clients and partners in the USA and Europe, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, universities, financial institutions, technology companies, consulting agencies, etc.
Maria’s work positions include:
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Senior Manager, PwC's Experience Center
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General Projects Coordinator & Head of L&D at CARDET
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Special Scientist at the Cyprus University of Technology
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Co-Chair of JUnior REsearchers conference (JURE2015)
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Game Designer & Researcher at Arizona State University
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Lead Game Designer at Indiana University-Bloomington
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Digital Consultant at MacArthur Foundation, Arizona
ENTER EdTech project has formed 6 National Advisory Boards (NAB) in the six partner countries (i.e., Greece, Cyprus, Portugal, Germany, Slovenia, and Finland) consisting of at least 2 members in each country. The NAB members are experienced EdTech specialists, investors/consultants, academics/researchers, adult trainers, all with expertise in the EdTech and entrepreneurship sectors. The role of the NABs is to provide feedback and suggestions on training and consulting methodologies, processes and outputs developed and also assist in the sustainability and exploitation of the project results.
Heini Karppinen
Heini Karppinen works as COO of HundrED. She is also managing director and co-founder of Edtech Finland and board member and cofounder of European Edtech Alliance. Previously Heini has also worked as CEO of an edtech startup Mehackit, and she is a certified Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) Specialist.
Jaakko Skantsi
Mr. Skantsi has expertise in Finnish education, education consultation and international collaboration from ECEC to Higher Education, both public and private side. Mr. Skantsi has worked as a counsellor of Science and Education helping to build bridges between Finnish Higher Education Institutes and prospective local partners as well as providing information on research possibilities for the stakeholders in Finland and abroad. Currently he works as a programme director for Education Finland, a governmental education export programme which offers through its members Finnish educational know-how and learning solutions globally.
