ETIA project Team
- The people behind ETIA
ETIA brings together expertise across causal discovery, automated machine learning, artificial intelligence, software engineering, product development, entrepreneurship, innovation policy, technology transfer and intellectual property.
The team combines long-standing academic research in causality with practical experience in building, validating and commercialising advanced AI and machine learning technologies.
- Project leadership
Prof. Ioannis Tsamardinos
Project Coordinator
Prof. Ioannis Tsamardinos is the Coordinator of ETIA and a leading researcher in causal discovery and automated machine learning.
He has published more than 150 scientific works and has participated in numerous national, European, US-funded and industrial research projects. His work has received several distinctions, including best paper awards and a NASA Group Achievement Award.
Prof. Tsamardinos has also been awarded both an ERC Consolidator Grant and an ERC Proof of Concept Grant, which provided important foundations for the development of ETIA.
Alongside his academic work, he has extensive entrepreneurial experience. In 2013, he founded JADBio, a University of Crete spin-off focused on automated machine learning and biomarker discovery. Through this work, he has gained experience across product development, business strategy, fundraising, intellectual property, commercialisation, sales, marketing and company building.
His role in ETIA brings together more than two decades of research in causal discovery with first-hand experience in transforming deep-tech research into commercial software.
Dr. Giorgos Papoutsoglou
Product, Operations and Business Development
Dr. Giorgos Papoutsoglou holds an MSc and PhD in Computer Engineering from the Technical University of Crete.
His academic work has focused on AI and machine learning at the intersection of causal discovery, molecular biology, bioinformatics and single-cell data, contributing to more than 20 research publications.
In recent years, he has also built substantial experience on the commercial side of AI technology. At JADBio, he has served as Head of Product and Services and as Chief Operations Officer, working across product management, sales, services, customer engagement and consulting.
Within ETIA, he contributes expertise in product strategy, operations, business development and the translation of advanced AI research into practical tools and services.
- Scientific and technical team
Sofia Triantafillou
Causal Discovery and Inference
Sofia Triantafillou is an Assistant Professor of Statistics at the University of Crete.
She holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Crete and has held academic and research positions at Northwestern University, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Pittsburgh.
Her research focuses on causal discovery and causal inference. She has developed methods in areas including logic-based causal discovery, causal effect estimation, causal feature selection, causal model selection and the evaluation of causal assumptions.
Her work contributes directly to the scientific foundations of ETIA and its efforts to make causal modelling more robust, flexible and applicable to complex real-world data.
Konstantina Biza
Automated Causal Discovery
Konstantina Biza is a researcher specialising in automated causal discovery.
Her doctoral research at the University of Crete focuses on automating causal discovery and developing new causal discovery algorithms. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Biology from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and a master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Crete.
Her work has received recognition through academic awards, including the University of Crete’s “Professor Zoi Dimitriadi” Best Student Paper Award for research related to ETIA.
She has also participated in industrial research projects with Huawei as part of her doctoral work.
Within ETIA, she contributes expertise in causal discovery algorithms, model selection and automation.
Nikolaos Gkorgkolis
Causal AI and Deep Learning
Nikolaos Gkorgkolis is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Crete with expertise in deep learning and causal modelling.
He holds an MSc in Computer Engineering from the University of Patras and a PhD in applied Deep Learning from Wright State University.
His current research includes the development of Large Causal Models in collaboration with Huawei, with applications in causal model validation, root-cause analysis and optimal decision-making.
This work contributes directly to the development of ETIA’s causal modelling and reasoning capabilities.
George Paterakis
Software Engineering and AI Agents
George Paterakis holds an MSc from the Computer Science Department of the University of Crete.
His research and engineering experience includes imputation methods, time-series forecasting, bias mitigation and explainable AI.
Since 2024, he has worked at JADBio as a Machine Learning Engineer, with responsibilities spanning full-stack development, continuous integration and delivery, cloud engineering, SaaS and on-premises environments, and algorithm development.
He has also worked on the use of AI Agents as a means of improving the explanation and interpretation of automated machine learning results.
Within ETIA, he contributes expertise in software engineering, AI agents, deployment infrastructure and the development of user-facing AI systems.
- Innovation and technology transfer
Dr. Antonios Angelakis
Innovation, Technology Transfer and IP
Dr. Antonios Angelakis is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science of the University of Crete, specialising in technology and innovation policy.
His areas of expertise include innovation systems, technology transfer, intellectual property rights, spin-offs, digital transformation, deep tech and AI policy.
He acts as a liaison between ETIA and the University of Crete’s Innovation and Knowledge Transfer Unit, supporting activities related to intellectual property, commercialisation, stakeholder engagement and the creation of a future spin-off company.
Dr. Angelakis has also contributed to regional and European innovation policy, including participation in the European Commission’s high-level Fit for Future Platform.
- Join the community
Join the Community
The ETIA project is building an open community of researchers, developers, industry experts and curious minds working to make causal discovery more accessible, robust and useful in the real world. Whether you want to contribute ideas, test the technology, explore new applications or simply follow the journey, there is a place for you here.
Join us in moving from correlation to understanding.