The University of Cyprus (UCY) is the largest university and main research organization in Cyprus. Founded in 1989, UCY has grown into a leading academic institution, consistently ranked among the top universities worldwide. In Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings it is placed in the 401-500 range and the 55th position worldwide among universities under 50 years old. According to QS World University Rankings, UCY is ranked 452 (2025).
The Department of Computer Science hosts around 20 faculty members, 40 researchers, and more than 550 undergraduate and postgraduate students. Highly research-oriented, the department has participated in approximately 230 projects with more than €30 million in funding over the last decade. It is also a member of the European Research Consortium in Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM), reflecting its strong international reputation.
Within UCY, the Laboratory for Internet Computing (LInC) of the Department of Computer Science leads the university’s participation in the AI-DAPT project. Established in 2002, its main goal is to conduct research and create new ideas and tools that can help solve real-world problems in Internet Computing. LInC has a strong track record in EU-funded research and specializes in areas such as distributed computing systems (cloud/edge, energy efficiency, green datacenters), natural language processing (NLP), applied machine learning (ML), knowledge management, big data analytics, and social network analysis. So far, LInC has trained and employed over 80 researchers at the post-doctoral, PhD, and MSc levels. The scientific output of LInC includes over 220 publications, many of which have appeared in top scientific journals and peer-reviewed conferences, with several of them having received best-paper awards.
UCY Roles in AI-DAPT
AI-DAPT aims to transform how data and AI pipelines are designed, executed, and managed by introducing automation, explainability, and human-in-the-loop intelligence.
The UCY plays an important role in this vision by leading Work Package 1 (WP1) on Automated AI Pipeline Lifecycle Management Framework. In this role, UCY coordinates the project’s foundational activities, including the elicitation of user needs, the development of user stories and usage scenarios and the consolidation of the AI-DAPT research agenda. WP1 also establishes the scientific basis for hybrid science-AI models and defines the lifecycle of data/AI pipelines. Additionally, it specifies both technical requirements and legal and societal constraints. Through this leadership, UCY ensures that the rest of the project developments build on solid, user-driven, and ethically aligned foundations.
In addition, UCY makes key contributions to WP2, WP3, and WP4, leveraging its expertise in big data analytics, cloud/edge computing, and AI models to strengthen the technical backbone of the project. UCY is also directly responsible for developing three of AI-DAPT’s platform components: the Data Harvester, which enables efficient data collection via APIs, streaming, batch uploads and direct database ingestion; the Data Valuation Engine, which provides automated assessments of data quality and bias detection in datasets used for training, validation, and deployment; and the Notification Engine, which supports real-time event monitoring and ensures users receive real-time notifications about platform-related activities.
Key Personnel
The AI-DAPT effort at UCY is led by the LInC, under the leadership of Prof. Marios Dikaiakos and Prof. George Pallis. Together, they bring experience in Internet computing, distributed systems, cloud/edge/fog computing, AI/ML, GenAI and big data analytics. The UCY team combines senior researchers, post-doctoral fellows, and PhD candidates. This dynamic team reflects UCY’s strength in integrating research excellence and human capital to drive the success of AI-DAPT.
Prof. Marios D. Dikaiakos is Professor of Computer Science at the University of Cyprus. He is the Founding Director of the LInC and serves as Chair of the University’s Entrepreneurship Council. He also served as Founding Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship of the University (2015-2021) and Head of the Computer Science Department (2010-2014). He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Princeton University (1994). His research interests include internet computing, cloud/edge infrastructures, HPC, large-scale distributed systems, computational disinformation analysis, AI applications in infrastructure, entrepreneurship, education, and data science for societal impact. His academic work includes over 200 publications in leading scientific venues, the direction of many research projects funded by the EU and the Republic of Cyprus with a total budget of over €5M, and the supervision of 8 PhD graduates and 14 post-doctoral associates. He established the annual Innovation & Entrepreneurship Forum at the University of Cyprus (2015-today) and has served as General Chair and/or Program Chair in several scientific conferences and as a program committee member in numerous others. He is Associate Editor of the Computing Journal (Springer).
Prof. George Pallis received his BSc (2001) and PhD (2006) from the Department of Informatics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He is currently Professor at the Computer Science Department, University of Cyprus, and Associate Director of the LInC. His research focuses on Distributed and Internet Computing, with emphasis on Big Data Analytics and Cloud/Edge/Fog Computing. He co-directs the Data Science MSc programme and has led projects funded by the EU, national bodies, and industry (e.g., Google), attracting over €5.5M in funding. He has published 100+ papers (h-index: 30, 5600+ citations) in top venues (e.g., IEEE TKDE, ACM TOIT, INFOCOM) and contributed to two DIN standards. He has held key roles in major conferences (e.g., General Chair of IEEE/ACM SEC 2024, PC Co-chair of CloudCom 2018) and received multiple best paper/demo awards. Former Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Internet Computing (2019-2023), he is currently EIC Emeritus, Associate Editor for Springer’s Computing Journal, Associate Editor in IEEE Reliability Magazine and Adcom member of IEEE Reliability Society. He is listed among the World’s Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University and is a Golden Core Member of the IEEE Computer Society.
George Ioannou is a PhD candidate in Computer Science at the University of Cyprus. He received a Master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Bristol in 2021, where his academic excellence earned him a year abroad at the Singapore University of Technology and Design. His thesis, titled “Deep Learning for the Detection of European Wildlife from Challenging Camera Trap Imagery”, developed the first end-to-end pipeline for processing a large-scale European motion-sensor camera dataset. George has taught as a Teaching Assistant at the University of Bristol for MSc Data Science and MSc Computer Science courses, and served as course director for multiple MSc Data Science courses at the University of Cyprus, receiving outstanding student evaluations. His research focuses on Big Data Analytics, Computational Social Science, and Large-scale Human Mobility Data Analysis.
Joanna Georgiou is a researcher and a Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science at the University of Cyprus. She holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science (2021) and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science (2019), both from the University of Cyprus. She has contributed to several Horizon Europe projects, including AI-DAPT, RAINBOW, and ICARUS. Her research interests include Distributed Systems and Internet Computing, with an emphasis on Edge Computing, Benchmarking, and DevOps. Her academic work includes publications in leading international conferences such as IEEE EDGE, CloudCom, and ISCC, earning best paper and best student paper awards. In parallel with her research, Joanna has extensive teaching experience. She has served as a Lecturer at the University of Nicosia, teaching courses on software development and data science tools, and as a Lab Instructor at the University of Cyprus, delivering courses in big data analytics and mobile computing.
Charalambos Lambri is a Ph.D. student in Computer Science at the University of Cyprus, while simultaneously holding the position of Project and Lab Manager and Researcher at LInC. He has a diverse educational background, with a bachelor’s degree in Business and Public Administration, Operations Management (2019), and a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science with a specialization in Artificial Intelligence (2023). During his career, he has worked in multiple administrative positions at the University of Cyprus as a special scientist and student assistant (financial and human resources activities). In recent years, he has been working as a researcher on EU and RIF projects (HoloCIM, AI-DAPT, and ATHENA). His research interests include Financial Forecasting, Deep Learning, Hybrid AI Models, AI in Business Operations and Management, Business Decision Making and Human Resources.
Looking Ahead
For UCY, AI-DAPT is more than a research project, it is an opportunity to shape the future of AI pipelines with an emphasis on trust, explainability, and sustainability. AIDAPT’s outcomes will directly enrich UCY’s MSc programmes in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, support PhD student research, and foster collaborations with SMEs, startups, and international partners, ensuring the sustainability and broad uptake of AI-DAPT’s innovations across Europe.