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Our Team

The team subtitle.

Researcher & Designer
Vily Mylona

I am a researcher for Open Lab Athens and a 3D designer at the Disinfaux Collective. I hold a Diploma in Urban and Regional Studies from the University of Thessaly and a MSc in Urban Planning and Policy Design from the Polytechnic School of Milan. Currently, I am a PhD candidate in Architecture, National Technical University of Athens and, for the last three years, I have worked as an urban planner in several projects.

My research interests focus on critical geography, participatory design and planning, migration studies, ethnography and the digital visualization of socio-spatial relations.

Designer & creative practitioner
Clara Crivellaro

I am Senior Research Fellow in Digital Local Democracy. My fellowship explores the interplay between technologies, democratic practices and social justice; it aims to design tools and participatory processes to democratise digital innovation with a particular concern for equity and civic participation in social digital innovations.

I am currently Principal Investigator for Not-Equal, the EPSRC Network+ on Social Justice through the Digital Economy (2018-2021). I am Co-Investigator for the H2020 Generative European Urban Commons, gE.CO (2019-2022) and a founding member of OLAthens.

My research interests include Participatory Design, and co-creation, service design, tools and place-based participatory processes to activate communities and to support political engagement with technology and broader social issues in and of place. I am currently involved in projects that explore HCI and food justice; HCI, place-making and youth activism; AI and sexual health online information seeking practices; trade unions in the digital era; the design of tools to support critical digital literacy.

Before starting the research fellowship, I was a post-doc at Open Lab working on the EPSRC funded MyPlace project. I obtained my PhD in Computing at Newcastle University. My thesis explored the role of technology and design to support forms of social activism in the everyday politics of place.

Before joining academia, I worked as a Socially Engaged Art practitioner on various initiatives and projects in the cultural sector. I have an MA in Curatorial practice and a BA in Arts & Design.

Associate Professor of Human-Computer Interaction and Digital Civics
Vasilis Vlachokyriakos

I am a Reader (Associate Professor) of Human-Computer Interaction and Digital Civics at Newcastle University, School of Computing and a co-founder of Open Lab Athens (with Clara Crivellaro and Patrick Olivier). My previous research has involved a set of experiments into participatory methods in digital systems. In general, my work centers on designing novel digital infrastructures for civic participation through novel place-based, participatory and action-led research methods aiming at the development of cooperative decision-making and service provision (i.e. CSCW and PD research and practice).

As part of this research agenda, I am a co-investigator for the H2020 “Generative European Commons Living Lab” (Ge.CO Living Lab), a co-investigator of the EPSRC Digital Economy Research Center (DERC) and of our newly awarded EPSRC Centre for Digital Citizens – Next Stage Digital Economy Centre; while also been the principal investigator of Open Lab Athens for the H2020 “Digital Disruptive Technologies to co-create, co-produce and co-manage Open Public Services” (CO3) project.

I am also a Program Committee member of several conferences inclduing the ACM CHI and CSCW conferences (here) and Participatory Design conference (here).

For more information see Open Lab at Newcastle University, my scholar and Newcastle university profiles

Researcher & Developer
Yannis Efthymiou

I am researcher for Open Lab Athens. I’ve studied Statistics at the University of Piraeus and have an MSc in Sociology from the University of Crete. I am a Full-Stack Software Developer and have worked with various NGOs and grassroots communities in Greece. Currently, I participate in the H2020 research project “Generative European Commons Living Lab”(gE.CO Living Lab). My research interests revolve around Participatory Action Research, Research Software Development, Digital Security, Data Science, Machine Learning, Feminism and Urbanism.

Researcher & Designer
Giannis Zgeras

I am working as a researcher for Open Lab Athens. I have studied Architecture in Democritus University of Thrace and I completed my MSc in Sociology in School of Social Sciences at University of Crete. During my studies, I have worked as a freelance graphic designer for organizations and private businesses and in several art projects. I have also been involved in a research project of the Transformable Intelligent Environment Laboratory of Technical University of Crete related to education, architecture and digital fabrication.

My interests are in the fields of critical urbanism, participatory design, education, technology and the analysis of knowledge production as a result of social relations.

Researcher & Developer
Gregory Tsardanidis

I am a researcher for Open Lab Athens and an Interaction Designer and Developer for Sociality Collective. I participate in the H2020 research project “Digital Disruptive Technologies to co-create, co-produce and co-manage Open Public Services” (CO3). I have studied in Athens University of Economics and Business and the University of Amsterdam.

My work has so far centered in designing and developing digital tools for communities, organizations and private businesses and user research over technology acceptance particularly regarding blockchain. I am also a member of the greek node of FairBnB.