Dr. Vidakis Nikolaos

Dr. Nikolaos Vidakis was born in Heraklion, Crete and is an Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) of the Hellenic Mediterranean University (HMU) with the subject “Technologies of Interactive Learning Software”. He holds a PhD from the Technical University of Vienna, Austria. The title of his doctoral dissertation is “Supporting Task-Based and User-Oriented Design and Implementation for Interactive Systems”. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in “Computing in Business” from Northumbria University Newcastle, England in 1993. In the past he worked at (TU-WIEN Austria), the Minoan Lines SA (Heraklion) and the TEI of Crete. During his work at the Technical University of Vienna, the Minoan Lines SA and the TEI of Crete he participated in various research & technological-development projects which were mostly funded by the European Union. In the curriculum of the ECE department he is the academic responsible for teaching the courses: “Software Technology”, “Data and Information Visualization Systems”, “Game Design and Development” and “Flexible Software Development”. In the Postgraduate Program “Informatics Engineering” of the ECE department, he is the academic responsible for teaching the courses “Advanced Software Engineering and Big Data Modeling. To date, he has supervised the elaboration of more than 10 postgraduate theses, more than 50 undergraduate theses and more than 60 student internships in the above subjects. He is the Scientific Responsible of the research team entitled “Laboratory of Natural Interactive Educational Games and Environments (NILE-lab)” which operates within the institutionalized laboratory entitled “Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence and Systems Engineering” of the ECE department of HMU. He was a member of the iSTLab research laboratory from 2006 to 2016. He has participated as a lead researcher in a number of European and National research and development programs. He has organized and participated in the organization of international conferences and workshops. At the same time, he participates as a judge or member of organizing committees in international scientific conferences and journals. He has authored a large number of publications in international scientific books, journals and conferences, which have received more than 1000 heterogeneous citations. His research interests include are: Software Engineering, Games-based learning, Inclusive design, Educational Virtual environments / ecosystems, Assistive technologies, Interaction techniques, Multimodal Sensing and Natural User Interfaces, Serious Games and applications as well as their applications in education. In recent years he has developed an extensive network of universities and partnerships, mainly through the execution of projects and project proposals, in the areas of Software Technology, Pedagogical Learning, Comprehensive Design, Educational Virtual Environments / Systems, Multimodal detection and physical user interfaces and serious games and applications. Some of these partners are: University of Crete, Institute of Technology and Research (ITE), University of the Aegean, Regional Directorate of Primary and Secondary Education of Crete (RDPSEC), University of Nottingham Trent (NTU), United Kingdom. Kepler Universität Linz (JKU), Austria, University of Aalborg (AAU), Denmark, Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems, Germany, Legendary Games, SMEs, UK, Serious Games Solutions GmbH, SMEs, GERMany Italy, University of Reading (UK), UK, BSD, SME, Italy, LightAct, SME, Slovenia, OpenGroup, CO-OP, Italy, Fondazione Stella Maris (FSM), Institute, Italy, UNIVERSIDAD DE SEVILLA, (USA ), Spain, IES CAURA, (CAU), Spain, BUENAVENTURA MEDIA, SMEs, Spain.