Keynotes

Keynote 1: Yannis Ioannidis, ATHENA Research and Innovation Center & National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

Title: Computer Science is Female
Summary: In this presentation, I will share the great experiences I have had in working with female colleagues, collaborators, and members of my team in research, teaching, service, administration, policy making, and other activities I have been involved in. I will also give some not so positive examples of cases that involved highly gender unbalanced groups. I will, then, try to reverse engineer my observations and explain why the presence of females in highly technical work environments is so important and/or why having gender balanced teams in such environments is so beneficial. Finally, I will attempt to outline some steps that we may take to increase the presence of females at all levels of computer science education and then in academic and industrial positions of authority and leadership.
Short bio: Yannis Ioannidis is the President and General Director of the ATHENA Research and Innovation Center as well as a Professor at the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He is also serving a 2-year term (2018-2020) as the Secretary/Treasurer of ACM. Yannis has served as the ACM SIGMOD Chair (July 2009-June 2013), following a 4-year term as Vice-Chair, and is or has been a member of several other executive bodies of professional organizations and Scientific Advisory Boards. In 2017, Professor Yannis E. Ioannidis received the 2017 ACM SIGMOD Contributions Award for his sustained leadership and dedicated service to the database community, especially as part of the SIGMOD Executive Committee and the VLDB Endowment.

Keynote 2: Maria Kordaki, Department of Cultural Technology, University of the Aegean

Title: Very few females in Greek Computing Education: Why is the landscape thus?
Summary: This talk attempts to provide a clear picture about the landscape of females in Greek Computing Education during the decade 2003-2012, in both; Tertiary and Secondary levels. The data are coming from the Hellenic Statistical Authority (EL.STAT) and reflect the number of females and males in Computing and STEM [Science (including Physics, Chemistry, Biology), Engineering and Math] Education in terms of: (a) secondary-level education schoolteachers, (b) tertiary-level undergraduate (freshmen, graduates) and graduate studies (master’s degree graduates and PhD’s) and (c) tertiary-level education faculty members (lecturers, associate professors, assistant professors and professors). Comparisons between the females’ and males’ representation in all the afore-mentioned levels of Computing and STEM Education will be also drawn. The analysis of the data shows that females are under- represented in comparison to their male counterparts in all Computing education levels. Females in Computing education are also under-represented compared to their female counterparts in the rest of the disciplines of STEM education with the exception of female Computing teachers at all levels of secondary education. To give some interpretations of the abovementioned results the main reasons for females’ under-representation in Computing education will be also presented using secondary data coming from the international literature as well as primary data emerging from case studies in Greek Computing departments as well as in secondary schools. Based on these interpretations, proposals for future research dimensions and suggestions for the treatment of the phenomenon of females’ under-representation in Computing education will be given.
Short bio: Mrs Maria Kordaki holds a PhD in Educational Technology, a Masters in Education, a Diploma in civil engineering and a Bachelor in Mathematics from the University of Patras, Greece. She is associate professor of Educational Technology in the Department of Cultural Technology and Communication, University of the Aegean, Greece. She has also been a collaborative professor in the Hellenic Open University since 2004 (14 years). During the last decade she has had also served as adjunct assistant Professor in the Dept of Computer Engineering and Informatics (10 years) and in the Department of Mathematics, University of Patras, Greece (4 years). Dr Kordaki has also rich experience in teacher education as a school advisor (12 years) and deputy of the teacher training center of the Western Greek region (5 years). Her research focuses on Gender and Computing as well as Gender and STEM education, technology-supported learning design, focusing on critical and creative thinking within various educational settings including: paper and pencil, online, blended, collaborative and technology-based learning as well as educational digital storytelling, digital game-based learning, Computer Science Education, and the use of social and constructivist learning theories in the design of educational microworlds. Professor Kordaki also serves on the editorial board of various international and national Conferences, and Journals. Finally, she has published over 220 scientific papers and 18 books. Her research works have received more than 1000 citations. A detailed curriculum of associate Professor Maria Kordaki is available at: http://www.ct.aegean.gr/data/Kordaki.pdf

Keynote 3: Geraldine Fitzpatrick, Human Computer Interaction Group, TU Wien

Title: On super chickens, red threads and small actions that can have a big impact
Summary: The path for women in computer science can be challenging. But we also have more power than we think to make choices, where even small actions and simple choices can have a big impact. We can do this for ourselves by defining and owning our own paths, becoming more aware of our strengths and the red thread that gives coherence and meaning to our work. We can also do this collectively, recognizing that all our efforts build on work with and by a huge number of colleagues, and learning to become a super colleague, not a super chicken, and choosing kinder, more compassionate, and more solution-focussed ways of engaging.
Short bio: Geraldine Fitzpatrick (Geri Fitz) is a full professor and head of the Human Computer Interaction Group at TU Wien, and an ACM Distinguished Scientist and an ACM Distinguished Speaker. She holds a BInfTech (Hons) and a PhD in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, both from University of Queensland.
She is also a trained executive/personal coach, group facilitator/trainer, and meditation teacher, and brings an evidenced-based approach to this work through a Masters in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Practice from UEL.

Keynote 4: Aristotle Tympas, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

Title: Invisible mechanisms of reproduction of gender stereotypes in computing: Findings from the humanities
Summary: A wealth of studies by computing professionals and their societies have shown that biases in regards to the number and role of women have yet to disappear, despite the absence of legal/visible barriers that discourage women from considering (and managing to have) a successful career in computing. Recent research on the issue from the perspective of the humanities suggests that these biases are strongly linked to invisible mechanisms of reproduction of gender stereotypes. Aristotle Tympas will introduce to relevant findings by a Greek team of researchers, who have been studying computing advertisements in various media (e.g. home technology periodicals). The research of this team covers several decades, from the introduction of mainframes after the 1950s and home/personal computers by the early 1980s to the emergence of the internet, the web, cyberspace, social media and technologies of handling big data.
Short bio: Aristotle Tympas (tympas@phs.uoa.gr) (PhD in History, Technology, Society, 2001, and Msc in Technology and Science Policy, 1995, both from the Georgia Institute of Technology; Diploma in Chemical Engineering, Aristotelio University, 1989) is a professor at the History and Philosophy of Science Department, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA). A specialist in the study of computing and related technologies from the perspective of history and the rest of the humanities and the social sciences, he has written books and articles that pay attention to the gender-technology relationship (recently: Calculation and Computation in the Pre-Electronic Era, Springer, 2017, and Analog Labor, Digital Capital, Angelus Novus, 2018, in Greek). He currently serves as chair of the management committee of the ‘Tensions of Europe: Research Network on History, Technology and Europe’ (ToE), vice-president of research of the European Inter-University Association on Society, Science and Technology (ESST), president of the Scientific Council of the Greek Documentation Centre (EKT), and director of the new graduate program ‘Science, Technology, Society—Science and Technology Studies’ that is offered jointly by his home department and NKUA’s Department of Informatics and Telecommunications.

Professional Development Track

Talk 1: Magda Constantelou, IBM Human Resources Director for Greece and Cyprus

Title: Why do soft skills matter in the hiring and career development process?
Summary: As emerging digital trends transform the business world, new technological and digital skills are considered necessary and crucial to have, more than ever before. At the same time, it appears that the so-called 'soft skills' play an increasingly important role in the workplace as they facilitate the co-operation between the members of a team and contribute to the career development and advancement of a professional. In a recent survey of Linked in's professional social platform, 57% of business leaders think soft skills are more important than hard skills. But what are the skills and capabilities that fit into 'soft skills', why are they important to the company and how can we improve them?
Short bio: Mrs. Magda Constantelou is the IBM Human Resources Director for Greece and Cyprus. She joined IBM in 2001 and during her career she held important HR positions both at local and European level until 2013 where she took over the Human Resources Division of the company for both countries. Before IBM, she worked in different roles in the Banking and Energy sectors. She holds a Bachelor Degree in business management from Athens University of Economics and Business and an MA degree in Organizational Behavior from Lancaster University in UK.

Talk 2: Effi Psychogiou, Tech Cloud Customer Success Senior Director, Oracle ECEMEA

Title: TBA
Summary: TBA
Short bio: Effi Psychogiou is Oracle’s Tech Cloud Customer Success Senior Director for South Europe and Russia since 2015. She started her cooperation with Oracle UK in 1993 as a Product Developer, and since 1996 she is part of Oracle Hellas’ team having served in various positions like Technology Sales Consultant & Manager, Strategic Sales Initiatives Manager for EE & CIS, Enterprise Architecture & Cloud Director and Big Data Business Development Director for ECEMEA. She started her career in BICC Information Systems and Services UK as a Software Engineer. She holds a BSc (Hons) Computer Science with Digital Electronics from Kings College London, University of London and an MSc Data Communications, Networking and Distributed Systems University College London, University of London.

Talk 3: Natalia Manola, Managing Director, OpenAire

Title: TBA
Summary: TBA
Short bio: Natalia Manola is a research associate in “Athena” Research and Innovation Center and in the University of Athens, Department of Informatics & Telecommunications. She holds a Physics degree from the University of Athens, and an MS in Electrical and Computing Engineering from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. She has several years of employment as a Software Engineer and Architect employed in the Bioinformatics commercial sector. She is the managing director of OpenAIRE (www.openaire.eu) since 2009, a pan European e-Infrastructure supporting open access in all scientific results, the coordinator of OpenMinTeD (www.openminted.eu) an infrastructure on text and data mining, and is now involved in the implementation of HELIX, the Greek e-Infrastructure for research. She has expertise in Open Science policies and implementation, and she currently serves in the EOSC Executive Board and the Open Science Policy Platform, an EC High Level Advisory Group to Commissioner Moedas to provide advice about the development and implementation of open science policy in Europe. Her research interests include the topics of e-Infrastructures development and management, scientific data management, data curation and validation, text and data mining complex data visualization, and research analytics. Natalia has also served in the EC Future Emerging Technology (FET) Advisory Group (2013-2017).

Talk 4: Thalia Andriopoulou, HR Manager, ATOS

Title: We Are Atos-Gender Diversity
Summary: TBA
Short bio: Thalia Andriopoulou, is a member of the Atos family the past 10 years. After completing her Bachelor degree in Business Administration and Management she continued her academic career with a Master Degree in Industrial Psychology. Currently and after an accelerating career with various global and local roles she holds the role of HR Manager Greece & Global Diversity Spoc for Unify. She has proven her excellent managerial & communication skills, capability to work effectively and efficiently under pressure, both on her own initiative and in a team environment. Her discipline and determination to meet deadlines of demanding projects is one of her known virtues.

Talk 5: Evgenia Vagianou, Deree - The American College of Greece

Title: Soft skills and the misconceptions that hinder the involvement of women in computing and technology.
Summary: A discussion about the experience of women as students, researchers, academics, and professionals in computing related fields. The facts about women’s involvement and contribution and the impact of stereotypes and culture. When does the challenge begin? How self-awareness of soft skills can influence the mindset of young women. Observations on a technology classroom. The importance of role models and educators.
Short bio: Evgenia Vagianou is the Head of the Information Technology department at the American College of Greece, founder of the Project-Based Learning Workgroup, and faculty of Information Technology in the School of Liberal Arts & Sciences, teaching in the pathway of Software Development Her main research interest is in external representations, as they relate to problem solving and the learning process. Her current research span threshold concepts in learning programming, teaching and learning practices and curriculum development for virtual learning environments, and factors of the overall student experience that significantly contribute to the learning process. Professor Vagianou has lead several in-house technology projects, and has also served as the Head of the Computer Information Systems department at Deree from 2008 to 2010, and Director of Academic Computing from 2010 to 2012.

Panel
Title: Women with Distinctions, Women in Senior Technical Positions
Panel Participants:

• - Vana Kalogeraki is an Associate Professor at the Department of Informatics at Athens University of Economics and Business and the Director of the Computer Systems and Communications Laboratory (CCSLab) leading the Distributed Systems research. She has been working in the field of distributed and real-time systems, distributed sensor systems, peer-to-peer systems, crowdsourcing, resource management and fault-tolerance for over 20 years and has authored and co-authored over 180 papers in reputable journals and conferences proceedings, including co-authoring the Object Management Group (OMG) CORBA Dynamic Scheduling Standard. She was invited to give keynote talks at PerFoT2018, MoViD 2015, DNCMS 2012, SN2AE 2012, PETRA 2011, DBISP2P 2006 and MLSN 2006 in the areas of Internet of Things, Participatory Sensing Systems and Sensor Network Middleware. She has delivered tutorials and seminars on peer-to-peer computing. Prof. Kalogeraki has served as the General co-Chair of SEUS 2009, the General co-Chair of WPDRTS 2006 and as a Program co-Chair of Middleware 2019, MDM 2017, ICCCN 2017, DEBS 2016, MDM 2011, ISORC 2009, ISORC 2007, ICPS 2005, WPDRTS 2005 and DBISP2P 2003, as well as Track co-Chair and PhD Forum Chair and as program committee member on many other IEEE/ACM conferences. She was awarded a Marie Curie Fellowship, best paper awards at the ACM International Conference on Distributed and Event-Based Systems (DEBS 2017), the 24th IEEE International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium (IPDPS 2009) and the 9th IEEE Annual International Symposium on Applications and the Internet (SAINT 2008), a best student paper Award at the 11th IEEE/IPSJ International Symposium on Applications and the Internet (SAINT 2011), a best technical paper award at ACM PETRA 2018, an IBM best student paper award runner-up, a UC Regents Fellowship Award, UC Academic Senate Research Awards and a research award from HP Labs. She has been an Associate Editor for the Ad hoc Networks Journal, the Computer Standards & Interfaces Journal and the Peer-to-Peer Networking and Applications Journal. Her research has been supported by an ERC Starting Independent Researcher Grant, the European Union, joint EU/Greek "Aristeia" grant, a joint EU/Greek “Thalis” grant, NSF and gifts from SUN and Nokia. She received her PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2000. Previously she has held positions as an Associate and Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science at the University of California, Riverside (2002-2009) and as a Research Scientist at Hewlett-Packard Labs in Palo Alto, CA (2000-2002).
• - Mema Roussopoulos is an Associate Professor of Computer Science and head of the Distributed Systems Research Group at the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications at the University of Athens in Athens, Greece. She completed her PhD in Computer Science and was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University. She was an Assistant Professor of Computer Science on the Gordon McKay Endowment at Harvard University in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. She was also a faculty member at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Crete and an Associated Researcher at the Institute of Computer Science at FORTH. Her interests are in the areas of distributed systems, networking, mobile computing, and digital preservation. She is a recipient of the NSF CAREER award from the National Science Foundation, the ERC Starting Grant Award from the European Research Council, and the Best Paper Award at ACM SOSP 2003.
• - Androula G. Nassiopoulou is the Head of the Nano4NPS research group at NCSR Demokritos, Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Athens, Greece. She holds a Physics diploma from the University of Athens, MSc and PhD from the University of Paris XI, France, and “Habilitation to Direct Research” (Doctorat d’Etat) from the University of Reims, France. She directed the Institute of Microelectronics of NCSR Demokritos for 12 years, contributing to establish it as a National Centre of Excellence in its field and founding member of the European Institute of Nanoelectronics (SINANO). She also served as Vice President of NCSR Demokritos for 3 years, member of the Board of management of NCSR Demokritos for 12 years, member of the Board of Management of the European Institute of Nanoelectronics (SINANO) for 3 years and the President of its General Assembly for 6 years. Her current research interests are in the field of nanostructures for Nanoelectronics, Photonics and Sensors. In November 2018 she was the recipient of the UNESCO medal for outstanding contribution to Nanoscience and Nanotechnologies in a ceremony held at UNESCO premises in Paris. She was the only woman among the 10 award recipients.

• - Geraldine Fitzpatrick (Geri Fitz), is a full professor and head of the Human Computer Interaction Group at TU Wien, and an ACM Distinguished Scientist and an ACM Distinguished Speaker. She holds a BInfTech (Hons) and a PhD in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, both from University of Queensland.
  She is also a trained executive/personal coach, group facilitator/trainer, and meditation teacher, and brings an evidenced-based approach to this work through a Masters in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Practice from UEL.

• - Effi Psychogiou is Oracle’s Tech Cloud Customer Success Senior Director for Eastern-Central Europe, Middle East and Africa (ECEMEA) since 2015. She started her cooperation with Oracle UK in 1993 as a Product Developer, and since 1996 she is part of Oracle Hellas’ team having served in various positions like Technology Sales Consultant & Manager, Strategic Sales Initiatives Manager for EE & CIS, Enterprise Architecture & Cloud Director and Big Data Business Development Director for ECEMEA. She started her career in BICC Information Systems and Services UK as a Software Engineer. She holds a BSc (Hons) Computer Science with Digital Electronics from Kings College London, University of London and an MSc Data Communications, Networking and Distributed Systems University College London, University of London.

• - Sofia Anagnostou is a Digital Expert and People Manager at Unify, Atos Greece. She holds a MSc in Computer and Electrical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens and an MBA from the Athens University of Economics and Business. She has worked at Unify since 2004, as Software Engineer and Senior Software Engineer in the Openscape Voice product, leading several projects. She has served as mentor and Scrum Master through the years and contributed in the organization’s agile transformation, holding the Professional Scrum Master certification(PSM1). She was the mentor of the winning team during the First Atos Hackathon for Women in 2018.