Speaker: Prof. Emeritus Günter Schmidt, Saarland University, Germany
Title: Online Algorithms in Finance
Date: 2026-04-23
Time: 15:00 - 16:30 (EEST)
Location: (Hybrid) FORTH Central Building, Orphanoudakis' Room + Teams
Host: G. Tzagkarakis and G. Tsagkatakis, FORTH-ICS
Teams Link

Speaker: Giorgos Roussakis, ICS-FORTH, Greece
Title: Thoughts on Two Problems: EV Price Forecasting, and Duality Gap in Zero-Sum Games
Date: 2026-03-26
Time: 14:00-15:00 (CET)
Location: Online
Host:Themis Palpanas, UPC

Speaker: Eirini Nikoloudi, Civil Engineer in Department of Environmental Infrastructure, Region of Crete
Title: Event Management and Response Planning for Smart Water Systems
Date: 2026-03-19
Time: 12:00-13:30 (EET)
Location: Online Link
Meeting ID: 396 163 967 837 76
Passcode: FP3xM3Xs
Host: George Tzagkarakis, FORTH

Abstract: The water industry worldwide has a pressing need to better manage interruptions to water supply caused by various failure events, such as pipe bursts, equipment failures or water treatment work shutdowns. One way of doing this is by making use of the increasingly available real-time sensor data collected in water distribution systems, as well as by using hydraulic models in real-time. In this presentation we will develop, test/validate and demonstrate a new response methodology to support decisions made by control room operators when dealing with various failure events in a water distribution system. As an integral part of this work, an interactive decision-support tool is developed, which aims to guide/support operators in identifying an effective response solution in near real-time (i.e. usually required up to 1 hour after the event detection/localisation). This tool is used to test and validate the proposed response methodology. The results obtained from the case studies, demonstrate that the proposed response methodology works well and that it has a potential to improve water utilities’ current practice.

Short bio: Eirini Nikoloudi currently works at the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter. Eirini does research in Civil Engineering. Their current project is 'Response and post-event management in smart water systems'.

Online Link

Speaker: Pınar Yolum, Professor of Trustworthy AI, Utrecht University, Netherlands
Title: Operationalizing Trust for Human-AI Collaboration
Date: 2025-12-09
Time: 11:00-12:30 (EET)
Location: Online Host: George Tzagkarakis, FORTH

Abstract: Feeling uncertain about the next stage of your career is common, whether you are just embarking on doctoral research, preparing for your thesis defence, or eyeing a move into industry or vice-versa. This seminar is honoured to welcome Mr Yannis Chronis and Mr Nikos Myrtakis, working as Assistant Professor and Applied Scientist respectively, to identify your personal strengths, develop effective networking and personal branding strategies, and provide an in-depth analysis of how to plan your career. It goes beyond theorectical frameworks through case studies, bridging academic research with industry expertise. After their presentations, a moderated discussion along with an interactive Q&A session will assit you in transforming your research compentencies into a strategic career vision.

Short bio: Pınar Yolum is Professor of Trustworthy AI at Utrecht University, where she leads the Responsible AI research group within the Department of Information and Computing Sciences. Her research focuses on multiagent systems and human–AI collaboration, with an emphasis on trust, commitments, and privacy. Pınar serves on the Editorial Boards of Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, ACM Transactions on Internet Technology, and IEEE Internet Computing. She is the program leader of the AI Master's program at Utrecht University, co-founder of the Open-Source Global Justice Investigations Lab, and a member of the Executive Board of the Hybrid Intelligence Consortium. She regularly contributes to activities to promote women participation in computer science. She is an enthusiastic reader and a restless skier.

Online Link

Speaker: Rommert Dekker, Professor, Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) Erasmus University Rotterdam
Title: AI-driven Terminals Planning
Date: 2025-11-12
Time: 14:00-15:30 (EET)
Location: Fotakis Room, FORTH's Central Building, 1st floor
Host: George Tzagkarakis, FORTH

Abstract: In the rapidly evolving world of logistics and port operations, AI-driven Terminal Planning is transforming how ports optimize their workflows, resource allocation, and overall efficiency. This talk will explore the integration of artificial intelligence in terminal planning processes, highlighting key innovations such as predictive algorithms, real-time decision-making, and automated optimization techniques. By leveraging AI, terminals can enhance vessel scheduling, crane operations, cargo handling, and even reduce turnaround times. We will discuss real-world applications, challenges, and the future potential of AI in revolutionizing terminal operations, ultimately enabling smarter, more sustainable, and cost-effective port management.

Short bio: Rommert Dekker is a professor of operations research, quantitative logistics, and IT at the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE). Professor Dekker currently leads an industry-sponsored research program on service logistics. He has received numerous accolades for his research including ERIM's impact award which honours ERIM researchers who have successfully impacted management practice and the OR Society's Goodeeve medal for best applied paper. Professor Dekker began his career working at Shell Research. During his seven years at the company he published over 100 papers on topics including reverse logistics, service logistics, inventory control, maintenance optimisation, container logistics and transport optimisation. He was also co-founder of the well-known network for reverse logistics REVLOG.

Speaker: Leoni Winschermann, PhD Candidate
Title: Energy Flows - From electric vehicle schedules to network flows and back
Date: 2025-09-12
Time: 13:00-14:00 (EEST)
Location: Online
Host: Rommert Dekker, Erasmus University Rotterdam

Abstract: With the adoption of electric vehicles emerges a need for coordinated charging strategies to cater to the increased and often synchronized energy demand without violating physical infrastructure limits. Common charging strategies repeatedly solve a corresponding offline scheduling problem. In this talk, we start from a real-world use case in Utrecht, and continue to explore how schedules for electric vehicles relate to network flows. We further explore how algorithms that compute optimal schedules for electric vehicle charging actually extend a much larger class of optimization problems. Finally, we circle back to the application, and discuss the interplay between (deterministic) solutions and their application to electric vehicle charging, which comes with uncertainties about user behavior and charging demands.

Short bio: Leoni Winschermann is about to complete her PhD at University of Twente. In her work, she applies her mathematical background to problems related to the energy transition, with a special focus on coordinated charging for electric vehicles. The goal is to on the one hand develop provably optimal or (approximately) good algorithms, and on the other hand to validate their performance with real-world data and to take system users (and their concerns/interests) into account.

Speaker: Zeyu Wang, PhD Candidate
Title: From Dimensionality Reduction to Query Hardness Measurement: A Deep Dive into Approximate Nearest Neighbor Search
Date: 2025-07-16
Time: 15:00- 16:00 (EEST)
Location: Orphanoudakis Seminar Room - FORTH, Main Building, 1st floor
Host: George Tzagkarakis, FORTH-ICS, SPL

Abstract: Approximate Nearest Neighbor (ANN) search has become a foundational component in many data analysis and AI applications. In this presentation, I will first present a comprehensive overview of dimensionality-reduction techniques tailored for ANN, based on a recent survey and evaluation study. We will explore how these techniques—ranging from classic methods like PCA to advanced learned projections—help reduce the effort to calculate distance between vectors while maintaining high recall and speed in modern ANN indexes. In the second part, I will introduce a novel ANNS query hardness measure for graph-based indexes: Steiner-Hardness. Steiner-Hardness is the first measure that pays attention to the connections and topology in the graph-based indexes.. By drawing connections to Steiner Tree problems in graph theory, this metric provides an interpretable and efficient way to estimate how much effort is needed to answer a given query. Interesting future works that extend these projects will be discussed finally, which are expected to give a deeper and clearer understanding of the data distribution in high-d space and the performance of current indexing techniques.

Short bio: Zeyu Wang is a PhD candidate at Fudan University (China), and a visiting PhD student at Universite Paris Cite (co-advised by Prof Themis Palpanas).

Speaker: Christos Panourgias, PhD candidate
Title: Learning DTW-Preserving Embeddings for Scalable and Accurate Time Series Applications
Date: 2025-07-16
Time: 14:00- 15:00 (EEST)
Location: Orphanoudakis Seminar Room - FORTH, Main Building, 1st floor
Host: George Tzagkarakis, FORTH-ICS, SPL

Abstract: Data series are central to numerous scientific and industrial applications, including medical signal analysis, financial forecasting, and sensor-based monitoring. A core challenge in working with such data lies in measuring similarity between sequences that may vary in length, exhibit temporal shifts, or contain local distortions. Traditional similarity measures like Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) provide effective alignment but incur high computational costs that limit their scalability. In response, research has increasingly focused on learning representations and distance functions that can approximate alignment-aware similarities while enabling efficient computation. Approaches leveraging deep neural encoders together with computationally efficient similarity measures have shown significant promise, allowing models to capture complex temporal dynamics in fixed-length embeddings and accelerate tasks such as retrieval, clustering, and classification.

Short Bio: Christos Panourgias received his B.Sc. degree in Applied Mathematics from the University of Crete in 2022 and completed his M.Sc. studies in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Vision at the University of West Attica in 2024. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in the diNo group at Université Paris Cité where his research focus is on scalable techniques for data series analysis and representation learning with deep learning approaches.

Speaker: Elise Bonzon, Associate Professor, LIPADE, Université Paris Cité
Date: Wednesday, 23-07-2025
Time: 15:00 - 16:15 (EEST)
Location: Online Seminar
Title: Computational Argumentation for Multi-Agent System
Host: George Tzagkarakis, FORTH-ICS, SPL

Abstract:Computational argumentation plays a crucial role in enabling effective reasoning and decision-making in multi-agent systems. This talk will introduce the core concepts of computational argumentation and its application in multi-agent environments. We will examine different argumentation semantics, such as Dung's abstract framework, gradual semantics, and ranking approaches, and explore how these frameworks can be leveraged to enhance agent interactions and problem-solving. Additionally, we will discuss the use of computational argumentation in online debate platforms, showcasing how they facilitate structured discourse and decision-making in complex, distributed systems.

Short Bio: Elise Bonzon is an associate professor at Université Paris Cité, where she works in the LIPADE lab within the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Group. She received her PhD from the University of Toulouse, with a focus on game theory, particularly Boolean games. Her research primarily focuses on artificial intelligence and multi-agent systems, with a special emphasis on the interactions between agents. She aims to deepen the understanding of how agents interact to achieve shared goals, with particular attention to argumentation and persuasion as key mechanisms in these processes. Through this work, she seeks to improve the effectiveness of multi-agent interactions in complex environments.

Speaker: Rommert Dekker, Professor, Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) Erasmus University Rotterdam
Date: Friday, 04-07-2025
Time: 14:00 - 15:00 (EEST)
Location: Online Seminar
Title: Optimising Batteries on Energy Markets
Host: George Tzagkarakis, FORTH-ICS, SPL

Abstract: As the Dutch “Salderingsregeling”, by which electricity use can be compensated by solar production at other moments, is about to finish on Jan 1st, 2027, there is an increased attention to store surplus electricity in batteries. At the same time there is increased volatility in the electricity markets as there are many periods with zero energy prices and higher prices in evenings. This gives arbitrage opportunities for batteries. Finally batteries can be used to stabilize the grid.

In this presentation we cover both probabilistic forecasting of Day-Ahead (and possibliy Balancing market) prices as well as optimizing battery operating strategies under known and partially unknown information. We present work from several MSc students on these problems.

Short Bio: Rommert Dekker is a professor of operations research, quantitative logistics, and IT at the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE). Professor Dekker currently leads an industry-sponsored research program on service logistics. He has received numerous accolades for his research including ERIM's impact award which honours ERIM researchers who have successfully impacted management practice and the OR Society's Goodeeve medal for best applied paper. Professor Dekker began his career working at Shell Research. During his seven years at the company he published over 100 papers on topics including reverse logistics, service logistics, inventory control, maintenance optimisation, container logistics and transport optimisation. He was also co-founder of the well-known network for reverse logistics REVLOG.