About

“Individual commitment to a group effort–that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.”

 Vince Lombardi

Aristarchus Research Center (ARC) (former AHPC (Astrophysics and High Performance Computing Research Group)) is a multi-disciplinary research and innovation center which aims primarily to address the challenges of analysis and interpretation of the large and complex data sets of the modern era.

The center currently focuses on the application of advanced methods in Computer Science, Mathematics and Statistics for exploring data in Astrophysics and Neuroscience. The interests of members of ARC also encompass technology-enhanced education.

The center has a prestigious network of international collaborators and is directed by Prof. Andreas Efstathiou, Rector of European University Cyprus.


ARC Team

Professor Andreas Efstathiou
Head of the group / Faculty Member

Dr Andreas Efstathiou holds a BSc(Eng) degree in Mechanical Engineering and a PhD from Queen Mary & Westfield College, University of London. He held appointments at Queen Mary & Westfield College and Imperial College London before joining Cyprus College in 2001.

Associate Professor Vicky Papadopoulou Lesta
Faculty Member

Dr. Vicky Papadopoulou Lesta studied first at the University of Patras, where she received the Diploma in Computer Engineering and Informatics then pursed graduate studies in the same University, where she received the Master and Ph.D. degrees in 2001 and 2003, respectively.

Assistant Professor Ioannis Michos
Faculty Member

Ioannis Michos holds a B.Sc. (with distinction) in Mathematics from University of Ioannina, Greece; a M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in Pure Mathematics (Algebra) from the University of Manchester, England. He had been a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Paris VII in France, working on performance evaluation of discrete event systems. His research area is Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science: algebraic and enumerative combinatorics, (in particular combinatorics on words), algebraic (in particular spectral) graph theory and patterns in permutations and words.

Klea Panayidou
Klea Panayidou
Faculty Member

Klea Panayidou received a B.Sc MORSE at the University of Warwick, M.Sc in Applied Statistics at the University of Oxford (UK), and D.Phil in Statistical Science at the University of Oxford, UK. Klea Panayidou focuses on data analysis and machine learning modelling for Life and Physical Sciences. She has been a member of various interdisciplinary teams both in academia and in industry. Past work experience includes research fellowships: at the Department of Statistics and Data Science, Carnegie Mellon University (USA), at the Computational and Systems Biology, University of Pittsburgh (USA), and at the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Bern (Switzerland). Since 2020 Klea Panayidou is a faculty at the European University Cyprus where she currently holds the position of Assistant Professor at the School of Sciences. Her publications are included in international peer-reviewed journals.

Adjunct Associate Professor Vasilios Raptis
Faculty Member

Dr. Vasilios Raptis holds a Diploma in Chemical Engineering (National Technical University of Athens) as well as a M.Sc. in Polymer Science and a Ph.D. in Computational Chemistry (National Kapodistrian University of Athens). He has worked as a post-doctoral researcher and as an adjunct lecturer at universities and research centres in Greece and the U.K.. His research interests include, among others, quantum mechanical and classical molecular simulation methods for the prediction of properties of materials and other physicochemical systems; and the development of novel force-fields based on quantum mechanical computations and experimental data.

Phd (Cand.) Orestis Pavlou
Phd (Cand.) Orestis Pavlou
Researcher
Orestis Pavlou holds an MSc degree in Physics & Astronomy from the University of Amsterdam, as a member of the “Gravitation AstroParticle Physics Amsterdam” (GRAPPA) excellence program. His MSc research project involved the study of the emission of cosmic
Phd (Cand.) Charalambia Varnava
Phd (Cand.) Charalambia Varnava
Researcher
Charalambia Varnava is a Ph.D. Candidate in Computing/Computer Science in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering of European University Cyprus, working on the development of a new Bayesian method of analysis of spectral energy distributions for studying galaxy
Phd (Cand.) Michalis Papadopoulos
Phd (Cand.) Michalis Papadopoulos
Researcher

Michalis Papadopoulos is a PhD candidate in Computer Science in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering of European University Cyprus. He is also an Early Stage Researcher for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network (ITN) i-CONN (https://iconn.network/) and his research is funded by the European Commission, under their H2020 programme.

Phd (Cand.) George Pallaris
Phd (Cand.) George Pallaris
Researcher
George Pallaris is a PhD candidate at the Department of Multimedia and Graphic Arts of the Cyprus University of Technology, with research interest on Academic Makerspaces, Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence . He holds a BSc in Computer Science
Dr Evangelos Papaefthymiou
Dr Evangelos Papaefthymiou
Researcher

Evangelos Papaefthymiou holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics from the Department of Mathematics of Imperial College London (2014). His PhD work led to publications in top journals in the field of Applied Mathematics and he was awarded the Yael Naim Dowker Centenary Prize in Mathematics for the best thesis in the Department of Mathematics. Furthermore, he holds a Meng degree (5-years of studies, 2002-2007) from the Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering Department of the University of Patras.