Networking and new collaborations for "Athena" RC at the 86th Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF)
Actions, applications, talks and presentations
28-09-2022
Networking, new targeted partnerships and extroversion were the main characteristics of our participation in the 86th Thessaloniki International Fair this year, which concluded with more than 210,000 visitors, 1500 exhibitors, 19 international and national participations and 343 companies.
The stand of "Athena" RC at the pavilion of the General Secretariat for Research and Innovation constituted a pole of attraction for TIF visitors, as well as for important institutional representatives who had the opportunity to get to know some of our representative projects and actions and to see some relevant applications.
The stand of "Athena" RC at the pavilion of the General Secretariat for Research and Innovation constituted a pole of attraction for TIF visitors, as well as for important institutional representatives who had the opportunity to get to know some of our representative projects and actions and to see some relevant applications.
This year, visitors of our stand measured their individual carbon footprint with the PSLifestyle app, got to know the EIT Climate-KIC Hub Greece and visited the Climate Innovation Window (CIW) platform developed by the BRIGAID CONNECT initiative. They also saw how the Maritime ClimAccelerator research and innovation accelerator for start-ups can assist them and learned about the innovative services of the NEANIAS project that aspire to answer many Atmospheric, Underwater and Space Challenges. They downloaded the Urbana app on their cell phone to find guidelines for urban farming practices and learned how “FRESQO” - Freshness REcording System for fish Quality Observation is the fish they eat.
They also learned about Amnesia, an open-source software designed to achieve guaranteed irreversible anonymization of personal data, and saw the tools used by the MORE project to analyze windmills & photovoltaics data in real time. They virtually traveled to Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, with MYTHOTOPIA; they were also transported mentally to Eleusis, using the myELeusis application as their companion and completed their journey through time with WARMEST, which records damages to cultural heritage monuments. Finally, they drove a vehicle in city conditions in a simulator with the help of CPSoSAware software and saw how artificial intelligence can facilitate our communication through EASIER, a multilingual machine translation system for users of various sign languages.
In addition to projects and applications, our participation in this year's TIF provided the opportunity for networking, recovering its pre-pandemic dynamics. "An important element of our presence at TIF this year is the opportunities it offered for networking with research centers, government bodies, as well as large companies, thus, contributing to the transfer of technology and research results to society. The staffing of the Technology Transfer Office in "Athena" RC and our active participation in the Science Agora network is another example towards this direction", emphasized Ioannis Emiris, General Director of "Athena" RC.
The Deputy Minister of Development and Investments, Christos Dimas, the Secretary General of Research and Innovation, Athanasios Kyriazis and Michalis Dritsas, Director of the Office of the Deputy Minister of Development and Investments visited our stand and had the opportunity to see our innovative applications and services, guided around by I. Emiris.The Deputy Minister of Rural Development and Food, George Stilios, was also informed about our actions by our research groups, with his interests focusing, of course, on precision agriculture projects and the use of Artificial Intelligence Technologies in the adaptation to climate change.
Alexis Tsipras, Leader of the Official Opposition, with Alexis Haritsis, Head of Development and Investments of SYRIZA - PS, also visited our stand; they have been hosted by Vassilis Katsouros, Vice-President of ATHENA RC and Director of the Institute for Language ad Speech Processing.
In addition to the visits made to our stand, our teams gave talks throughout the exhibition. Participants had the opportunity to get informed about our important projects, while the Robotics Unit of "Athena" RC gained the interest of the audience while presenting its achievements so far and its future plans.
During this year's TIF, new collaborations were also announced for the newly established Women's Innovation Unit of "Athena RC". Action "Health has Gender: Strengthening Health Literacy in Primary & Secondary Education as a Tool for Promoting Equality" will be implemented with the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs, while the project "Inclusion and Strengthening of Women's Employment in Sectors of the 4th Industrial Revolution" will be implemented with the cooperation of DYPA - Public Employment Service.
Special attention should be given to I. Emiris' participation in the discussion organized by the Ministry of Development and Investments, the Elevate Greece initiative and the Hellenic Development Bank – HDB, regarding new financial tools for technology transfer. I. Emiris was a representative of the Science Agora network that participates in shaping the field.
We renew our appointment for the next TIF with even more innovative ideas.
Here, you can visit photographic material from our participation.