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
Ioannis Tsamardinos, Prof.
Principal Investigator
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.
Giorgos Papoutsoglou, PhD
Business development, IP & Attracting Investments Manager
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.
Kleanthi (Klio) Lakiotaki, PhD
Robustness, Validation, Dissemination & Communication Manager
Dr. Kleanthi (Klio) Lakiotaki holds a PhD in Informatics from Université Paris Dauphine and the Technical University of Crete, where she developed multi-criteria recommender systems, as well as a degree in Physics and an MRes from the University of Crete. She has spent more than a decade applying machine learning to biomedical data, first at FORTH and then with the Mens X Machina group at the University of Crete. Her work spans automated machine learning for omics and GWAS data, pharmacogenomics, and the BioDataome and Datascope resources. She also brings experience in technology transfer and project management from the Technical University of Crete. In ETIA, Klio leads Technical Robustness, Quality Assurance and Validation on real-world use cases, along with Marketing, Communication and Dissemination, making sure ETIA is reliable and proven in practice and that the world knows about it and trusts it.
Glykeria Fragkioudaki
Project Administration, Financial Administration & HR Manager
Glykeria Fragkioudaki is an environmentalist holding an MSc in Environmental Biology. For the past ten years she has worked with the MxM team, supporting the administration and management of several research projects, and building extensive experience in European research funding, financial management and project coordination. In ETIA, she is responsible for Project Administration, Financial Administration and Human Resources, overseeing financial planning and reporting, deliverables and compliance with EIC requirements, and recruitment and onboarding.
- Scientific advisors
Sofia Triantafyllou, Prof.
Scientific Advisor
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.
Antonis Aggelakis, PhD
Scientific Advisor
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.
- Science & development team
Grigoris Maravelias, PhD
Science & Development team
Grigoris Maravelias, PhD, is an astrophysicist specialising in observational astronomy, massive stars and stellar populations, with a strong interest in the application of machine learning and deep-learning methods to astrophysical research. He holds a PhD in Astrophysics from the University of Crete and has held research positions in Greece, Czechia and Chile. He currently collaborates with the Institute of Astrophysics at FORTH, while also working through PeriAstron on research, science education and public engagement. His work combines astronomy, data analysis and computational methods to study complex stellar systems and develop new approaches for extracting insight from large scientific datasets.
Nikos Gkorgkolis, PhD
Science & Development team
Nikolaos Gkorgkolis is a postdoctoral researcher at University of Crete, working on the intersection of Deep Learning and Causality. He holds a B.Sc. in Mathematics and a M.Sc. in Computer Engineering from University of Patras and a Ph.D. degree in applied Deep Learning from Wright State University. Dr. Gkorgkolis has worked on several academic and industry-based research projects and published on top-tier scientific conferences and journals. In ETIA, he applies his expertise to the benchmarking and validation of the framework, while also being involved with the development of the causal engine and the agentic framework. In his free time, he plays guitar or performs with his band.
Konstantina Biza
Science & Development team
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.
Antonis Ntroumpogiannis
Science & Development team
Antonis Ntroumpogiannis is a PhD candidate at the University of Crete, where his research focuses on automating causal discovery. He holds a BSc in Computer Science and an MSc in Biomedical Information Technology and Computational and Cognitive vision and Robotics from the same university, with a master’s thesis on developing an automated causal discovery library. He has been doing research at the department since 2019, starting as an undergraduate. He has also taken part in industrial research projects with Huawei and Honda. Within ETIA he contributes directly with the automation of causality discovery and reasoning.
Zacharias Papadovasilakis
Data Scientist & AI Engineer
Zacharias Papadovasilakis is currently completing his Ph.D. in Medical Bioinformatics and holds an M.Sc. in Bioinformatics from the University of Crete and an integrated Bachelor and Master in Mechanical Engineering from AUTH. His research and hands-on experience includes automated machine learning, causal feature selection, high-dimensional biological data analysis, image classification and advanced architectures like RAG systems. Since 2019, he worked at JADBio as a data scientist, where his responsibilities spanned automating and extending GWAS pipelines, implementing and benchmarking novel algorithms, and delivering causal feature selection solutions for industry clients such as Honda. Within ETIA, he contributes expertise in Causal AI, autoML and high-dimensional data analysis.
Katerina Kampouraki
Frontend Engineering - GUI Interface
Katerina Kampouraki holds a degree in Computer Science from the University of Crete, with a focus on frontend development. Her experience includes building the FINS (Fish Information System), a production system deployed at ITE/FORTH serving over 50,000 records, as well as internship work at Biopix/FORTH on geospatial and interactive visualization tools using Leaflet, CesiumJS, Three.js and WebGL. Her broader technical background spans React, TypeScript, Angular, Node.js/Express and MySQL. Within ETIA, she contributes to the development of the GUI Interface, focusing on making causal models and their explanations accessible and intuitive for non-technical users.
Elias Rishmawi
Backend Engineering
Elias Rishmawi is a 4th-year Computer Science student at the University of Crete, with a particular interest in machine learning.
He was awarded the Stelios Orphanoudakis distinguished undergraduate scholarship in 2024 and the OTS scholarship in 2026, both given to top-performing students in the Department of Computer Science.
He previously interned as a Software Engineer before joining the team.
Within ETIA, he works as a Junior Software Developer, contributing to the development of the project’s AI agent.
George Paterakis
Software Developer
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.
- Advisory board members
Yannis Viniotis, Prof.
Advisory Board Member
Zan Claude Zenklusen, PhD
Advisory Board Member
Jean-Claude (JC) Zenklusen is a cancer genomics researcher with extensive experience in large-scale genomic research and data-driven cancer biology. He served as Director of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), one of the most ambitious cancer genomics programmes undertaken to date, and as Deputy Director of the Office of Cancer Genomics at the US National Cancer Institute. Earlier in his career, he contributed to the Human Genome Project and led major initiatives in neuro-oncology and cancer genomics. His work focuses on using genomic data to advance the understanding of cancer biology and support new approaches to cancer research.
Ekaterini Chatzaki, Prof.
Ambassador
Ekaterini Alexiou-Chatzaki is Professor of Pharmacology and Director of the Laboratory of Pharmacology at the Medical School of Democritus University of Thrace. Her work lies at the interface of biomedical research, data-driven innovation, precision medicine, and entrepreneurship, with a strong focus on translating research findings into clinically and commercially relevant applications. She is Founder and CEO of ABCureD, a university spin-off built on research generated by her team through the application of automated machine learning to biomedical data analysis. This experience has given her first-hand expertise in transforming academic research and AI-enabled discoveries into a translational product, spanning validation, intellectual property, business development, investment readiness, and engagement with clinical and industry stakeholders. She has coordinated and participated in national and European research and innovation projects and has extensive experience as an evaluator of European research and innovation programmes, including Horizon Europe and the European Innovation Council. Within ETIA, she brings expertise from biomedical case studies, AI-enabled data analysis, translational research, and research-to-market applications, contributing to the development of clinically and commercially relevant use cases and to the broader exploitation and translation of ETIA’s Causal AI technologies.
- Partners
- 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.
