Our Team

Established in May 2021, MetaMind Innovations is the first spin-off of the University of Western Macedonia. Co-founded by Prof. Panagiotis Sarigiannidis, Director of ITHACA Lab, together with PhD students and academic colleagues, MetaMind Innovations leverages its deep tech expertise in Cybersecurity, Artificial intelligence, Big data, and Smart Applications to deliver smart and custom solutions for critical infrastructure and Internet of Things ecosystems. MetaMind Innovations works for industries, public authorities, hospitals, energy production, transmission, and distribution stakeholders, food and animal producers, farmers, and individuals who need state-of-the-art Next Generation Internet of Things solutions.

Founders

Panagiotis Sarigiannidis

Associate Professor

Prof. Panagiotis Sarigiannidis is the Director of the ITHACA lab (https://ithaca.ece.uowm.gr/), co-founder of the 1st spin-off of the University of Western Macedonia: MetaMind Innovations P.C. (https://metamind.gr), and Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the University of Western Macedonia, Kozani, Greece. He received the B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece, in 2001 and 2007, respectively. He has published over 220 papers in international journals, conferences and book chapters, including IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials, IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Internet of Things, IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting, IEEE Systems Journal, IEEE Wireless Communications Magazine, IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society, IEEE/OSA Journal of Lightwave Technology, IEEE Access, and Computer Networks. He has been involved in several national, European and international projects. He is currently the project coordinator of three H2020 projects, namely a) H2020-DS-SC7-2017 (DS-07-2017), SPEAR: Secure and PrivatE smArt gRid, b) H2020-LC-SC3-EE-2020-1 (LC-SC3-EC-4-2020), EVIDENT: bEhaVioral Insgihts anD Effective eNergy policy acTions, and c) H2020-ICT-2020-1 (ICT-56-2020), TERMINET: nexT gEneRation sMart INterconnectEd ioT, while he coordinates the Operational Program MARS: sMart fArming with dRoneS (Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation) and the Erasmus+ KA2 ARRANGE-ICT: SmartROOT: Smart faRming innOvatiOn Training. He also serves as a principal investigator in the H2020-SU-DS-2018 (SU-DS04-2018), SDN-microSENSE: SDN-microgrid reSilient Electrical eNergy SystEm and in three Erasmus+ KA2: a) ARRANGE-ICT: pArtneRship foR AddressiNG mEgatrends in ICT, b) JAUNTY: Joint undergAduate coUrses for smart eNergy managemenT sYstems, and c) STRONG: advanced firST RespONders traininG (Cooperation for Innovation and the Exchange of Good Practices). His research interests include telecommunication networks, internet of things and network security. He is an IEEE member and participates in the Editorial Boards of various journals, including International Journal of Communication Systems and EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking.

Thomas Lagkas

Assistant Professor

Dr. Thomas D. Lagkas is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science of the International Hellenic University. He has been Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer at the Computer Science Department of the International Faculty of The University of Sheffield – CITY College from 2012 to 2019. He also served as Research Director of the Computer Science Department of CITY College and Leader of the ICT Track of the South-East European Research Centre. Furthermore, he has been Adjunct Lecturer at the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering of the University of Western. Moreover, he has been Laboratory and then Scientific Associate at the Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki. Ηe also worked as Programmer undertaking related projects as free-lancer. In 2002, he graduated with honors from the Department of Informatics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and he was awarded PhD on Wireless Networks from the same Department in 2006. He has been scholar of the Aristotle University Research Committee, as well as postdoctoral scholar of the National Scholarships Institute of Greece. In 2012, he completed his MBA studies at the Hellenic Open University, and he received a postgraduate certificate on Teaching and Learning from The University of Sheffield in 2017. His research interests are in the areas of IoT communications with more than 100 publications at a number of widely recognized international scientific journals and conferences. Dr. Lagkas is IEEE Senior Member and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in UK. He also participates in the Editorial Boards of the IEEE IoT Journal, the Elsevier Computer Networks Journal, the Springer Telecommunication Systems Journal, the EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking (published by Springer), and the MDPI Telecom Journal. Moreover, he actively participates in drafting research funding proposals, as well as in the implementation of the corresponding EU projects (namely, ELECTRON, TERMINET, SDN-microSENSE, INCIDENCE, eROBSON, SmartROOT, JAUNTY, FuseGI, ARRANGE-ICT, et al.)

Anastasios Lytos

Software Engineer

Anastasios Lytos holds a diploma in Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering from the University of Western Macedonia. During his studies, he gained twice a scholarship from the Engineers’ and Public Contractors’ Pension Fund (TSMEDE). His research interest involves the exploitation of the current Machine Learning techniques in Text Mining problems, the successful modeling of Natural Language and the optimization of algorithms. He participates as a software engineer in national and EU-funded projects.