Our Team
The team subtitle.
Projects Administration
Lydia Themeli
Lydia Themeli is a professional with a solid educational background and extensive experience in academia and project management. She holds a Master of Arts in Contemporary European Studies (2003) from Bath University, UK, and Charles University, Czech Republic, as well as a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Economics (2002) from Deree College, the American College of Greece. Since 2004, Lydia has been a member MaDGIK Team of the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications at the University of Athens. Her roles have included research proposal writing, event organization, and technical and financial coordination and management of several EU and nationally funded projects focusing on Information and Communication Technologies and related topics. Lydia has also contributed to projects with institutions such as the “Athena” Research and Innovation Center, the Acropolis Museum, and Kaissariani Municipality. She has collaborated with Open Lab Athens in project management since 2019.
Professor of Human-Computer Interaction
Patrick Olivier
Patrick is an expert in human-computer interaction with particular research interests include the application of social and ubiquitous computing, the development of new approaches to interaction (including as novel sensing platforms and interaction techniques) and human-centred design methods.
Patrick coined the term Digital Civics, now a central focus of his research. Digital Civics is a cross-disciplinary area of research that explores ways technology can promote new forms of participation in the design and delivery of local services including education, public health and social care and town planning. For example, the App Movement Platform is a new kind of technology commissioing service that allows anyone to campaign for, design, and automatically generate location-based review systems for topics of concern to them.
Another key element of Patrick’s work is a commitment to the creation of open source software and hardware. Notable examples include the OpenMovement AX3 accelerometer which was designed for the largest study of physical activity ever conducted (over 100K participants) and is used by clinical researchers across the World. Another is Intake24, an online 24-hour dietary recall system which was developed for Food Standards Scotland. Initially aimed at a UK population, Intake24 now has Danish, Portuguese, New Zealand and Arabic versions, and is used in the Scottish Health Survey.
Before joining Monash in December 2018, Patrick was Professor of Human-Computer Interaction in the School of Computing, Newcastle University, United Kingdom where founded and lead Open Lab, Newcastle University’s centre for cross-disciplinary research in digital technologies. He was director of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Centre for Doctoral Training in Digital Civics (55 cross-disciplinary PhD students) and the EPSRC Digital Economy Research Centre a multidisciplinary five-year project involving 25 postdoctoral researchers.