HERON Inaugural Event – Highlights
The recent HERON Kick-Off Event was a great success, bringing together representatives from all sectors of the Greek Government, the European Commission, Academia, and Industry, marking a strong start for this key initiative in research and innovation for robotics and artificial intelligence technologies in Greece.
The event was opened by HERON’s Director and Scientific Coordinator, Prof. Petros Maragos, who presented a brief introduction to HERON and welcomed several high-level representatives of the Greek government who addressed the audience, including:
- Christos Dimas, Minister of Infrastructure and Transport
- Dimitrios Papastergiou, Minister of Digital Governance
- Stavros Kalafatis, Deputy Minister of Development
- Anastasios Gaitanis, Secretary General of Research and Innovation
The event was also honoured by the presence of key representatives from the European Commission who gave short presentations:
- Francesca Cervelli, Policy Officer, DG Research & Innovation, European Commission
- Mina Wilkki, Head of Department C, ‘Future Society’, European Research Executive Agency, who joined us remotely
The insightful speeches given by government and EU officials were followed by presentations by Prof. Ioannis Emiris, HERON’s Project Coordinator and Director of Athena RC, by Prof. Petros Maragos, and by the leaders of the two international partners of HERON:
- Darwin Caldwell, Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), Italy
- Tamim Asfour, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany
The event was moderated by Dr. Gregory Yovanof, HERON’s Executive Manager.
The program concluded with a panel discussion, moderated by Prof. Evangelos Papadopoulos, HERON’s Deputy Director, featuring the following five distinguished guests from Academia, Industry, and Government:
- Zoe Doulgeri, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
- Michael Dritsas, Policy Officer, Ministry of Economy and Finance
- Konstantinos Konstantinidis, Athens Medical Center, Chairman of Robotics Surgery
- Evangelos Theodorou, Theodorou Group
- Kimon Valavanis, University of Denver, USA
who shared perspectives on the future of research and innovation for Robotics in the AI era, in Greece and Europe.
HERON’s Inaugural Event created valuable momentum for the project’s ambitious goals, fostering new and meaningful interactions among key stakeholders and setting a promising tone for future collaborations.
Photos from the event can be found below:
A short video of the event can be found bellow: