On Thursday 31 October 2019 an important collaboration between NCSR Demokritos and EY was celebrated during an evening held at Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center. The collaboration includes the launch of the Center of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence, which will be set up on campus at NCSR Demokritos in Agia Paraskevi in collaboration with EY Global.

Mr. Hans Jessen, EY’s Global Innovation Leader warmly welcomed guests during his opening speech.

Dr. Vangelis Karkaletsis, Director at the Institute of Informatics and Telecommunications, NCSR Demokritos highlighted the importance of this innovative collaboration in the domain of Artificial Intelligence which will help contribute to the efforts towards Greece’s National AI Policy, sharing the EU vision for a human-centric, trustworthy AI.

Dr. George Paliouras, Director of the newly created Center of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence, highlighted the importance of the highly skilled research group that will be the driving force of the Center, attracting talented scientists and experienced researchers from around the world with an ambitious development plan to build a team of more than 40 people in the first three years.

In the interesting panel discussion that followed, the role of Artificial Intelligence for the future of Greece was discussed, with the participation of Mr. Kyriakos Pierrakakis, Minister of State and Digital Governance, Mr. Christos Dimas, Deputy Minister for Research and Technology at the Ministry of Development and Investments, Mr. Vassilis Digalakis, Deputy Minister for Higher Education at the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs and Mr. Hans Jessen, EY’s Global Innovation Leader. The panel was coordinated by Niki Syropoulou, Director of Singularity University in Greece.