|
University of Cyprus (UCY, host organization)
The University
of Cyprus, located in Nicosia, Cyprus, is the
leading research University in Cyprus that aspires to
promote scholarship and education standards of excellence
through teaching and research. The University of Cyprus
and its Office of Sponsored Research have previous
experience in managing projects funded by the Cyprus
Research Promotion Foundation and the European Commission.
UCY has received successful competitive research funding
that has exceeded the 15 million Euro mark over the
1996-2008 period. Recently, UCY has revised its research
policy in order to increase the efficiency of the
University to utilize research funding and opportunities
and to better promote research initiatives in Cyprus.
Specifically, the host Electrical
and Computer Eng. (ECE) department has, in
2003-2008, received several million Euro in research
funding and its faculty has published around 90 journal
papers, 180 conference papers and 20 patents. Furthermore,
the available computing facilities in the host Department
of Electrical and Computer Engineering, in combination
with the expertise and competence of the project
coordinator in biosignal processing, particularly qualify
UCY for hosting the team.
Key people
Dr.
Georgios Mitsis is currently a Lecturer
at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
University of Cyprus. He obtained 2 M.S. Degrees in
Electrical Engineering and in Bioengineering, as well as
the Ph.D. Degree in Bioengineering from the University of
Southern California, Los Angeles CA. His research
interests are in dynamic systems modelling, with a
particular emphasis on nonlinear biological/ physiological
systems, and in biosignal and image processing. He has
extensive research experience in this field, both in
algorithm development for nonlinear signals/systems
analysis, particularly for the efficient estimation of
Volterra-type models, and in the study of several
physiological systems, including the cardiovascular,
respiratory, metabolic and nervous systems. Specifically,
he has studied the applications of various linear and
nonlinear approaches, such as differential equations,
impulse response, neural network and Volterra models in
the study of cerebral autoregulation, respiratory control,
glucose metabolism and control as well as neural encoding
in mechanoreceptors, using various experimental
modalities, such as functional magnetic resonanceimaging
(fMRI), transcranial Doppler ultrasound etc. He is
particularly interested in cerebrovascular physiology and
hemodynamics, and in functional brain imaging with EEG and
fMRI. With respect to EEG signal analysis, he is currently
collaborating with the Lab of Dr. Giandomenico Iannetti at
the Dept. of Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford,
UK, studying somatosensory evoked potentials and their
nonlinear properties for short inter-stimulus intervals.
Therefore, his research expertise fits the scope of the
present proposal very well. Previous to his appointment
as a Lecturer at UCY, he held research positions at the
Biomedical Simulations Resource, Los Angeles CA, the
Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the
Brain (fMRIB Centre) at the University of Oxford, UK and
the National Technical University of Athens. He has over
50 publications in international journals and conference
proceedings in the field of Bioengineering. He has
supervised 4 graduate students in the past and he is
currently supervising 4 undergraduate and graduate
students at the Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering. The project coordinator possesses outstanding
experience in participating in international research
projects and conducting research in the bioengineering
field. His scientific competence in the aforementioned
areas, together with his previous record in working within
multidisciplinary research groups in world renowned
research laboratories (USC Biomedical Simulations Resource
and Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of
the Brain - University of Oxford), will greatly benefit
this project.
Prof.
Charalambos D. Charalambous received the
B.S. degree in 1987, the M.S. degree in 1988, and the
Ph.D. in 1992, all in Electrical Engineering from Old
Dominion University, Virginia, USA. In 2003 he joined the
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
University of Cyprus, where he is a Professor. In 2005 he
was elected Associate Dean of the School of Engineering.
He was an Associate Professor at University of Ottawa,
School of Information Technology and Engineering from 1999
to 2003, and an adjunct Professor with McGill University
from 1999 to 2002. He has served on the faculty of McGill
University, Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, as a visiting faculty, from 1995 to 1999.
From 1993 to 1995 he was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Idaho
State University, Engineering Department. He is currently
an associate editor of the Systems and Control Letters,
IEEE Communications Letters, and Technical Committee Chair
for the IFAC (International Federation on Automatic
Control) on Stochastic Systems, and from 2002 to 2004 he
served as an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on
Automatic Control. He was a member of the Canadian Centers
of Excellence through MITACS (the mathematics of
information technology and complex systems), from 1998 to
2001. In 2001 he received the Premier's Research
Excellence Award of the Ontario Province of Canada.
Charalambou's research group ICCCSystemS, Information,
Communication and Control of Complex Systems is interested
in theoretical and technological developments concerning
large scale distributed communication and control systems
and networks in science and engineering. These include
theory and of stochastic processes and systems subject to
uncertainty, communication and control systems and
networks, large deviations, information theory, robustness
and their connections to statistical mechanics, and large
scale distributed systems. His research received funding
from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council
of Canada, the Canadian Department of Defence, the
European Commission, the Cyprus Research Promotion
Foundation, and the University of Cyprus via Competitive
Fund programs.
Dr.
Manolis Christodoulakis received his BSc
in 2001 from the Department of Computer Engineering and
Informatics, University of Patras, and his PhD in 2005
from the Department of Computer Science in King’s College
London. Since July 2011 he is working as a Research
Associate at the KIOS Research Center and part-time
Lecturer at the Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, University of Cyprus. Previously, he worked
as a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Cyprus
(2009-2011), as a Lecturer at the University of East
London (2007-2009) and as a Teaching Assistant, Research
Associate and External Lecturer at King’s College London
(2001-2006). His research interests include the design and
analysis of algorithms — with emphasis on string
algorithms (pattern matching, locating repetitions and
regularities, etc.)—, the combinatorial analysis of
algorithms and data structures, and the theory of complex
networks. Manolis' research finds applications mainly in
the interdisciplinary field of bioinformatics, where
sequences of symbols (strings) represent for example DNA
or protein sequences, but also in other fields such as
computational music analysis and digital humanities. More
recently, he started working in the related field of
biomedical engineering, where he applies the theory of
complex networks to perform EEG signal analysis of
functional brain networks. He has co-authored and
participated in a number of funded research projects and
has published about 30 papers in refereed conference
proceedings, journals and book chapters. In recognition to
his research contributions, King's College awarded him
with the position of Honorary Visiting Research Fellow
between 2007-2010. Also, since 2008 he is a Fellow of the
Higher Education Academy, UK.
Maria Anastasiadou received her
undergraduate degree in Physics from the University of
Athens in 2009. She then joined the Faculty of Engineering
and Physical Sciences at the University of Surrey, UK,
where she earned a M.Sc in Medical Physics (2010). In 2011
she joined the KIOS Research Center for Intelligent
Systems and Networks at the University of Cyprus as a
graduate level researcher (Ph.D student). She currently
works on a funded project for the study of epilepsy,
multimodal detection and prediction of epileptic seizures.
Her current research interests include system
identification, pattern recognition and mathematical
models than can be used for the detection and prediction
of epileptic seizures by using EEG signal.
The Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics (CING)
The Clinical
Neurophysiology lab of the CING
serves the needs of the clinics in providing diagnostic
facilities for the investigation of central and peripheral
nervous system disorders. These evaluations are acquired
in the form of electrical waves that are recorded by the
stimulation of the peripheral (sensory organs), as well as
the central (brain and spinal cord) nervous system. They
include, among others, electroencephalography which
records brain electrical activity, evoked potentials,
which record brain activity resulting by stimulation of
the sensory organs, electromyography, which records
signals directly from muscle, and nerve conduction
velocities which record from the peripheral nerves.
Multimodal evoked potentials are performed on patients
with suspected multiple sclerosis; nerve conduction
studies and electromyographyare performed on patients with
neuromuscular symptoms, electroencephalography and Video
scalp EEG is used to evaluate epileptic and other
paroxysmal disorders. Note that CING possesses the
infrastructure for intracranial EEG recordings in the
context of presurgical evaluation, therefore we will
compare between scalp and intracranial recordings whenever
possible. The laboratory is also involved in research to
develop new or improved neurodiagnostic methods for
various neurological disorders. The laboratory staff has
extensive experience in the performance of these
procedures and the interpretation of the waveforms
obtained. Several publications in peer-reviewed journals
report on the research findings and activities which
include among others the following: Study of rare
neuromuscular diseases in the Eastern Mediterranean
Region; Formulation of diagnostic criteria for
Mitochondrial encephalomyopathies; Role of utrophin in
disease modification in Duchenne muscular dystrophy;
Evaluation of new methods in diagnosing peripheral
neuropathy; Optimization of Quantitative EMG; Central and
peripheral nervous system plasticity recorded
electrophysiologically; Single-fiber electromygraphy
findings in relation to the orbicularis oculi muscle;
Polysomnographic findings in patients with vagus nerve
stimulation implants; B12 deficiency polyneuropathy and
quantitative sensory testing findings; Vestibular evoked
neurogenic responses in patients with neurological and
otological disorders.
Key people
Dr
Savvas Papacostas is Director of the Clinical
Neurophysiology Lab of CING since 1994, where he is
also a Senior Consultant Neurologist. He is an Adjunct
Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of
Rochester, NY. His main interests include EEG, evoked
potentials and other evaluation procedures for the
functional state of the central nervous system. He has
extensive research experience in the field of evoked
sensory signals. He teaches neurophysiology, neuroanatomy
and neuropharmacology at the Dept. of Psychology, UCY. Dr
Papacostas monitors patients with intractable and
drug-resistant epilepsy, including their pre-surgical
evaluation and their intra-operative monitoring during
brain surgery to cure or palliate their seizures. He is
also in charge of the behavioral neurology clinic of the
CING, where he evaluates patients neuro-degenerative
disorders.
Dr. Eleftherios Papathanasiou is a
member of the International Society of Vestibular
Research, the International Brain Research Organization,
the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology
and the European Neurological Society. He has been working
as a clinical Neurophysiologist for 16 years, including
appointments at Loyola University Medical Center and Hines
Veterans Administration Hospital in Chicago, IL.
Institute of Communication and Computer Systems
(ICCS-NTUA)
ICCS
is an independent research institute associated with the
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (SECE) of
the National Technical University of Athens. It was
established in 1989 in order to carry out research in
telecommunications and computer systems and techniques,
software and hardware engineering, control systems and
biomedical engineering. The Microwaves
and Fiber Optics Laboratory (MFOL) (est. 1985) is
part of ICCS and carries out research in the areas of
microwave, fiber optics, millimeter waves,
telecommunications, sensor systems, biomedical engineering
and wireless technologies. Specifically, in the areas of
biomedical signal and image processing, MFOL/ICCS is
involved in the following areas: diagnostic and
therapeutic techniques based on non-ionizing radiation,
modelling and development of microwave hyperthermia
systems, medical signal and image processing techniques,
application of chaos theory and fractals to biological
data and telemedicine. MFOL/ICCS has developed several
systems (prototypes) currently used in clinical
environments, including hyperthermia systems, a
non-ionizing radiation diagnostic system, a novel
mammography system, a system for registration and fusion
of medical images from different modalities etc. MFOL/ICCS
has participated in a number of National and EU funded
projects (Telematics, Esprit, SMT, ISIS) and supports an
extensive postgraduate education programme (M.S. and Ph.D.
Degrees).
Key people
Dr. Irene S. Karanasiou received the
Diploma and Ph.D. degrees from the National Technical
University of Athens (NTUA), Athens, Greece, in 1999 and
2003, in Electrical and Computer Engineering. Since 1999,
she has been a Researcher with the ICCS, NTUA. Her
research interests include brain imaging, EEG/ERP
measurement and analysis, bioelectromagnetism, and the
development of biomedical integrated systems.
|
|