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title: About Me
subtitle: Research Assistant Professor - CYENS Centre of Excellence
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<p align="justify"> My research interests lie in the area of bio-inspired artificial intelligence, focusing on reinforcement learning, neural networks (deep learning) and evolutionary computation. I obtained a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the <a href="https://www.ucy.ac.cy/en/" target="_blank">University of Cyprus</a> (2007), an M.Sc. in Intelligent Systems Engineering from the <a href="https://www.birmingham.ac.uk" target="_blank">University of Birmingham</a>, U.K. (2008), and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Cyprus (2015). I worked as a post-doctoral researcher and research engineer at <a href="https://www.inria.fr/en/centre/nancy" target="_blank">Inria Nancy - Grand-Est</a>, France, team <a href="https://team.inria.fr/larsen/" target="_blank">LARSEN</a> (2015-2018), on the ERC-funded <a href="https://www.resibots.eu" target="_blank">ResiBots</a> project. I held research associate positions at the University of Cyprus (2015-2019) and at the <a href="http://rise.org.cy/en-gb/home/" target="_blank">Research Centre on Interactive Media, Smart Systems and Emerging Technologies</a> (RISE), Cyprus (2019). Currently, I am leading the "Learning Agents and Robots" (LEAR) Multidisciplinary Research Group at RISE which focuses on creating software and robotic agents that learn to solve tasks and adapt to dynamic environments.
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<!-- <p align="justify"> I am currently leading the <a href="http://lear.cyens.org.cy" target="_blank">"Learning Agents and Robots" (LEAR)</a> research group at the <a href="http://www.cyens.org.cy" target="_blank">CYENS Centre of Excellence</a> and I am also an associate research fellow at the <a href="https://www.ucy.ac.cy/en/" target="_blank">University of Cyprus (UCY)</a>. I received a BSc in Computer Science from UCY (2007), an MSc in Intelligent Systems Engineering from the <a href="https://www.birmingham.ac.uk" target="_blank">University of Birmingham</a>, UK (2008), and a PhD in Computer Science from UCY (2015). During my <a href="/publications/2015_vassiliades_phd_thesis.pdf" target="_blank">PhD</a> studies, I investigated approaches for adaptation in dynamic environments, spanning the fields of single- and multiagent reinforcement learning, as well as neuroevolution, neural plasticity and neuromodulation in artificial neural networks. I worked as a post-doctoral researcher and research engineer at <a href="https://www.inria.fr/en/centre/nancy" target="_blank">Inria Nancy</a>, France, team <a href="https://team.inria.fr/larsen/" target="_blank">LARSEN</a> (2015-2018), on the ERC-funded <a href="https://www.resibots.eu" target="_blank">ResiBots</a> project, on algorithms for efficient damage recovery in robotics. I was a research associate at UCY (2015-2019) and CYENS (2019) before forming the LEAR group. My research interests lie in the areas of artificial intelligence and robotics, currently focusing on creating software agents and robots that continually acquire, retain and improve a diversity of skills. I have published several articles in top-tier conferences and journals on topics related to reinforcement learning, continual learning, robot learning, neural networks, evolutionary algorithms, multiagent learning, and machine learning applications.
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<p align="justify"> I am a Research Assistant Professor at the <a href="http://www.cyens.org.cy" target="_blank">CYENS Research and Innovation Centre of Excellence</a> in Cyprus where I co-direct the "Cognitive Artificial Intelligence and Robotics" (CAIR) research team, and I am also an adjunct lecturer and associate research fellow at the <a href="https://www.ucy.ac.cy/en/" target="_blank">University of Cyprus</a> (UCY). My research explores how software agents and robots efficiently learn, plan and acquire diverse skills in complex environments, often by integrating multimodal sensory data. I received an MSc in Intelligent Systems Engineering from the <a href="https://www.birmingham.ac.uk" target="_blank">University of Birmingham</a>, UK (2008), and a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from UCY (2015). I have done post-doctoral work at <a href="https://www.inria.fr/en/inria-centre-universite-lorraine" target="_blank">Inria</a>, France (2015-2018) working on algorithms for efficient <a href="https://www.resibots.eu" target="_blank">damage recovery in robotics</a>. I have secured more than 2M euros in funding through national, European and industrial projects, and have contributed as a reviewer and author in top-tier conferences and journals on topics related to artificial intelligence, robotics, machine learning, neural networks, and evolutionary algorithms.
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