Advances in Artificial Intelligence-Empowered Decision Support Systems: Papers in Honour of Professor John Psarras

GEORGE A. TSIHRINTZIS received the Diploma of Electrical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece (with honors) and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He is currently a Professor in The University of Piraeus, Greece and, during 2016-2020, he served as Head of its Department of Informatics. From 2008 to 2022, he served as the Director of the Graduate Program of Study in “Advanced Computing and Informatics Systems” of the Department. During the period 2016-2020, he was a Member of the first Administration Council of the University of Piraeus. Currently, he is serving again as a Member of the Administration Council of the University of Piraeus for a four-year term (2022-2026). His current research interests include Artificial and Computational Intelligence, Machine Learning, Pattern Recognition, Decision Theory, and Statistical Signal Processing and their applications in Internet-of-Things Technologies, Multimedia Interactive Services, User Modeling, Knowledge-based Software Systems, Human-Computer Interaction and Information Retrieval. He has authored or co-authored over 350 research publications in these areas, which have appeared in international journals, book chapters, and conference proceedings. He has served as the principal investigator or co-investigator in several R&D projects. He has (co-)edited over 40 international volumes. He is the editor-in-chief of the Intelligent Decision Technologies Journal (IOS Press). During 2012-2022, he was the editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Computational Intelligence Studies (Inderscience). He has been the editor-in-chief of the Engineering Section of SpringerPlus. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of the Learning and Analytics in Intelligent Systems book series (Springer 2019-) and the Artificial Intelligence-Enhanced Software and Systems Engineering book series (Springer 2022-). He has guest (co-)edited 17 special issues of international journals. He is a co-founder of the Information, Intelligence, Systems and Applications (IISA) conference series, technically sponsored by IEEE and currently in its 15th edition. He has organized and chaired over 40 international conferences. He has received best paper awards from several international conferences, and he has been a keynote speaker of several international conferences.

MARIA VIRVOU is a FULL PROFESSOR, HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT, DIRECTOR OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES and DIRECTOR OF THE SOFTWARE ENGINEERING LAB in the Department of Informatics, University of Piraeus, Greece. She received a B.Sc. Degree in Mathematics from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, a M.Sc. Degree in Computer Science from the University College London (UCL), U.K. and a Ph.D. Degree in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence from the University of Sussex, U.K. funded by a scholarship obtained from the Greek State Scholarship Foundation. She is AUTHOR/CO-AUTHOR of over 350 research papers published in international journals, books and conference proceedings and of 7 books and monographs in Computer Science published by Springer and other publishers. She is currently CO-EDITOR of the Springer book series “Learning and Analytics in Intelligent Systems” and "Artificial Intelligence-Enhanced Software and Systems Engineering". She has been EDITOR of over 20 collections of papers in conference proceedings or books, published by major academic publishers, such as IEEE, Springer and IOS Press. She has also been EDITOR-IN-CHIEF of the SpringerPlus Journal (Springer) for the whole area of Computer Science and an ASSOCIATE EDITOR of many other journals. She was GENERAL CO-CHAIR of the yearly conference series of International Conference on Information, Intelligence, Systems and Applications, technically sponsored by IEEE. She has been the GENERAL CHAIR / PROGRAM CHAIR of over twenty (20) International Conferences. She has been the PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR or CO-INVESTIGATOR of numerous national / international research projects. She has supervised 12 Ph.D. alumni and many of them currently hold academic positions in universities. She has been teaching under-graduate and post-graduate courses in Educational Software, Software Engineering and Mobile Software, Human Computer Interaction, Programming Languages and Compilers, Software Personalization Technologies, User Modeling, Adaptive Tutoring Systems. She has been a recipient of many best paper awards and an invited keynote speaker in international conferences. She has received an honorary award by UNESCO in honour and recognition of her outstanding scholarly achievements and contributions to the field of Computer Science. She received the 1st Research Award from the Research Centre of the University of Piraeus for high quality international journal publications among Faculty Members of the University of Piraeus for the years 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 respectively.

HARIS DOUKAS is a Professor in the School of Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece. He holds a (five-year) Diploma in Mechanical Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) and a Ph.D. in decision support systems for energy policy and management, from the ECE School, NTUA. His scientific and research expertise includes the development of decision support systems for energy and climate policy. He has more than two decades of working experience in the design of energy and climate policies and programs for the promotion of renewables, energy efficiency and management at a regional, national and European level. Moreover, he participates as a specialist, in respective initiatives beyond Europe, such as in the countries of the Mediterranean basin and the Arab states of the Gulf. In the above-mentioned fields, he has authored or co-authored more than 200 scientific publications in international peer-reviewed journals, as well as the textbooks "Multiple Criteria Decision Models for Energy and Environmental Systems" and "Energy Management and Environmental Policy" (in Greek) and "Multicriteria Portfolio Construction with Python" (in English). He has co-edited the open access Book "Understanding Risks and Uncertainties in Energy and Climate Policy: Multidisciplinary Methods and Tools for a Low Carbon Society". He has presented numerous papers and keynote addresses in international conferences, while he has authored or co-authored chapters in books and articles in technical magazines and the daily and weekly press. Dr. Doukas is an Editor in Chief of the “Energy Sources, Part B: Economics, Planning, and Policy”, Associate Editor of the “Operational Research International Journal (ORIJ)” and a member of the editorial board of several scientific journals in the areas of energy policy and operational research. For his work, Dr. Doukas has received numerous awards by the State Scholarship Foundation (IKY), the NTUA, the AUTH, the Technical Chamber of Greece (TCG), the Hellenic Operational Research Society (HELORS) and the World Renewable Energy Congress (WREC). He has been elected and is currently serving as Mayor of Athens, Greece for a five year term from January 1, 2024 through December 31, 2028.

LAKMHI C. JAIN, PhD, ME, BE(Hons), Fellow (Engineers Australia) is with the KES International, Shoreham-by-Sea, UK. Professor Jain’s career is characterized by his solid commitment to research, education, and mentorship, as he has been a distinguished professor at numerous universities. His research works encompass Automated Information System Design; Modelling, Design, and Implementation of Knowledge-based Intelligent Information Systems; Intelligent Agent Learning, Coordination, Collaboration, and Web-based Agents. He has authored/co-authored/edited/co-edited more than 500 volumes. He is the Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the international scientific journals "International Journal of Knowledge-based Intelligent Engineering Systems" (IOS Press, 1997-) and "Intelligent Decision Technologies" (IOS Press, 2007-). He is the Co-Founder and/or Chief Editor of several scientific series for publishing houses such as Springer, Elsevier, IOS Press, among others. He is the Co-Founder and Chair of the Steering Committee for four significant international conferences: the International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems (KES), Agents and Multi-Agent Systems - Technologies and Applications (AMSTA), Intelligent Interactive Multimedia Systems and Services (IIMSS), and Intelligent Decision Technologies (IDT). He has been an Invited Speaker at numerous important international conferences in Europe, Asia, and Australia. He is the Founder of the research professional organization "Knowledge-based and Intelligent Engineering Systems International," a global community of over 5,000 researchers aimed at collaboration, knowledge exchange, and research dissemination in the fields of Artificial and Computational Intelligence and their applications, such as Complex Systems, Systems Security, Educational Technologies, Healthcare Technologies, Autonomous Systems, and Vehicles, Intelligent Agents. In September 2023, he received a Doctorate degree (Honoris Causa) from the Department of Informatics of the University of Piraeus.