Consortium

University of Luxembourg

The University of Luxembourg (LUX) ranked 12th in the 2020 Times Higher Education Young University Ranking, 3rd worldwide in the International Outlook category, and 4th overall among Millennial Universities (founded in the 21st century). The university now has 2089 employees, 900 PhD candidates under an employment contract, 268 professors, and 6700 students from over 129 different countries. The SYMBIOTIK project is inline both with LUX’s strategic focus on data-science as well as with the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) priorities, in particular “Trusted data-driven economy and critical systems” and “Fundamental tools and data-driven modelling and simulation”.

Principal Investigator: Luis A. Leiva. Luis is a professor of Computer Science of the Faculty of Science, Technology, and Medicine. He leads the Computational Interaction group and is affiliated with the Interdisciplinary Lab for Intelligent and Adaptive Systems (ILIAS). He is also the co-founder of Sciling, an SME-Instrument funded agency specialized in B2B Machine Learning solutions where he served as CTO for five years. His research interests lie at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Machine Learning. He currently serves as Associate Editor of the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, one of the flagship journals in HCI.

AEGIS IT Research GmbH

AEGIS IT Research (AEGIS) is a research and development company based in Germany developing and managing innovative IT solutions for numerous business sectors. It is based on a highly effective professional team consisting of talented researchers and top-class IT experts from all over the world. This team empowers the company with a strong, diverse skillset which helps AEGIS offer innovative products and high-tech business solutions to the market. AEGIS’s main areas of expertise include Digital Forensic Investigations, adaptive Big Data visualization systems, Geographical Information Systems, secure embedded platforms, access control and network security systems, privacy preserving systems, enterprise web applications and the complete lifecycle of IT systems (design, development, deployment, optimisation and maintenance). AEG’ Advanced Visualization Toolkit (AVT) has been specifically tailored to support processes of digital forensics. Via advanced, dynamic and interactive visualisations the toolkit facilitates the analysis of heterogeneously produced security incidents (alarms, events, etc) in order to increase situational awareness and help operators to quickly reach the root cause of security related incidents. Our participation in the project will give us the opportunity to further enhance the service with CPS-based adaptive dashboards, which could prove to be a key enabler for reduced times of forensics investigation as well as real-time monitoring.

Principal Investigator: Michalis Vakalellis. Michalis is a Business and Innovation manager at AEGIS. He holds a BSc in Management and Business Administration from Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece, a MSc in Management and Economics of Telecommunication Networks from National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, and a MSc in Information Systems from Hellenic Open University, Greece. He has been working as a business consultant with extended experience in the telecommunications and consulting industry with great expertise in analysis, design, management & improvement of business procedures, and exploitation potentials. Since 2015, Michalis has been a certified ISO 27001 lead auditor in the field of Information Security Management Systems.

Université Catholique de Louvain

The Universtié Catholique de Louvain (UCL) is at the forefront of innovation and excellence in education and research, with more than 30,800 students of 127 different nationalities and a staff of about 5,800 teachers, researchers, and administrative and technical collaborators. UCL is responsible for the education of nearly one out of two French-speaking academics in Belgium and proposes courses in all possible disciplines. UCL will participate in this project with the Louvain Interaction Laboratory, a group conducting research, development, and consultancy services in the area of Engineering Interactive Computing Systems (EICS), which is located midway between Software Engineering (SE) and HCI. This lab is also active in the area of Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI), Web Engineering, and Model-Driven Engineering of Information Systems. Towards implementing this goal, the research team blends expertize from Computer Science, Civil Engineering, and Management Sciences.

Principal Investigator: Jean Vanderdonckt. Jean is a Full Professor of Computer Science at the Université Catholique de Louvain and the Director of the Louvain Interaction Laboratory. He holds a PhD in Computer Science (1998), a MSc in Computer Science (1989), and a MSc and aggregation in Mathematics (1987). He has been a Visiting Associate Prof. at Stanford University (2000) and is an invited professor at the Polytechnic Univ. of Valencia. He has 35 years of experience in user interface engineering. He was President of Louvain School of Management Research Institute from 2011 to 2016. He is an ACM Distinguished Scientist and Speaker. He received the IBM Belgium Award, the Brian Shackel Award, the ITEA Research Excellence Award, and Fulbright-Hayes, NATO Advanced Fellowships.

Telefonica I+D

Telefónica I+D (TID) is the innovation company of the Telefónica Group. Telefónica I+D was founded in 1988 and it contributes to the Group’s competitiveness and modernity through technological innovation. To achieve this aim, the company applies new ideas, concepts and practices in addition to developing advanced products and services. It is the largest private R+D center in Spain with respect to activities and resources and is one of the most active companies in Europe in terms of European research projects in the ICT sector (Information and Communication Technology). It collaborates with technological leaders and numerous organizations in 42 different countries. The Telefónica I+D Research group follows an open research model in collaboration with universities and other research institutions, promoting the dissemination of their work both through publications and technology transfer. The board is constituted of a multi-disciplinary team with a variety of skills focusing on Fixed and Wireless Networking, User Modelling, Machine and Deep Learning, Distributed Systems, Multimedia Analysis, HCI and Mobile Computing, Network Economics, Security and Privacy. TID has extensive expertise in controlled experimentation methods and neurophysiological signal processing techniques, in technological and industrial environments. TID will provide its knowledge for identifying appropriate indicators of stress-related behaviors that are optimal in each of the considered use cases. Finally, TID will contribute by analyzing the behavioral data and validating them against laboratory measures using Machine Learning and signal processing techniques.

Principal Investigator: Ioannis Arapakis. Ioannis is a research scientist at Telefonica Research, Barcelona. Prior to that he was a research scientist at Yahoo Labs, where he was a member of the (1) User Engagement, (2) Web Retrieval and (3) Ad Processing and Retrieval groups. His research interests include Machine Learning (reinforcement learning, pattern recognition, predictive modelling, statistical inference, time series analysis), Information Retrieval (multimedia mining and search, user modelling, personalized search systems, recommender systems, evaluation and applications), and Human-Computer Interaction (experimental methods, user engagement, neuro-physiological signal processing). He has achieved many high-quality publications in top-tier venues and his research on IR has been awarded with a best paper award at SIGIR 2010. Furthermore, he has been involved in the management of several research projects under the FP7 and H2020 European funding schemes. Ioannis Arapakis will be the PI and his role in the project will serve to lead the research related to the analysis and modelling of behavioral signal processing tasks, the design, implementation and validation of the intelligent adaptive infovis systems, the design of the symbiotic adaptation framework, as well as other activities related to project management, evaluation of prototypes and demonstrators, and dissemination, exploitation, and standardization activities.

Sphynx Analytics Ltd

Sphynx Analytics Limited (SANL) is a subsidiary company of Sphynx Technology Solutions AG, which offers solutions and consulting services, in the areas of big data analytics with a focus on analytics for cyber security. Key innovative features of the analytics platform of the company include the realisation of a model driven data analytics approach in which analytics are embedded in the context of and driven by models that describe the decision making based on the evidence arising from it, and the execution of trustworthy analytics. SANL also offers consulting services and has expertise in providing customised big data analytics and cyber security solutions tailored to client needs as well as more general training on analytics, security assessment and cyber threat intelligence.

Principal Investigator: Konstantinos Fysarakis. Konstantinos is the CTO of Sphynx Analytics Ltd., working on enterprise security assurance, security analytics & also on operational security topics, such as incident response (particularly via machine-processable & executable playbooks). In the past he was the CTO of Sphynx Technology Solutions AG, as well as an R&D Engineer / Researcher for the Technical University of Crete (TUC), the Hellenic Aerospace Industry (HAI), the Telecommunication Systems Research Institute (TSI), the Foundation of Research and Technology – Hellas (FORTH), and the Hellenic Mediterranean University (HMU). At the latter he also taught Information Security -focused undergraduate and postgraduate modules for several years. Throughout his career he has been involved in over 20 research projects (FP7, Horizon & national), having attracted over 6M EUR in relevant Grants, and has authored/co-authored over 60 peer-reviewed journal and conference publications focusing on the Security, Privacy, Dependability and Sustainability of embedded systems and ubiquitous smart platforms (over 1600 citations, according to Google Scholar). He also enjoys working on Information Security Management topics, being an IRCA certified ISO 27001:2005 auditor.