Emmanouil Nikolaos Symiakakis is an architect and Ph.D. candidate at the School of Architecture, National Technical University of Athens. His doctoral research explores the restoration of the subterranean Ilissos River in Athens as a hybrid cultural and ecological infrastructure, connecting historical topographies, landscape memory, and climate adaptation. He holds two Master’s degrees from NTUA: in Architecture Engineering and Monument Conservation. As an architectural designer, he has collaborated with acclaimed offices such as Petras Architecture, Tense Architecture Network, and Kizi Studio, contributing to award-winning projects in residential, cultural, and public space design. His work has received several prizes in international competitions, including 2nd Prize for the transformation of Sarlitza Palace in Lesvos into a thermal and cultural complex (2022). As a researcher, Emmanouil has worked under Professor Elena Konstantinidou on projects that led to strategic plans for historic and cultural landscapes in Greece, such as Souli, Monemvasia, Corfu, and Koronisia. These interdisciplinary projects address the protection and sustainability of monumental sites and natural environments.

He will begin his Fulbright research residency at the Inclusive Infrastructure Design Lab at the University of Southern California (USC), under Professor Alexander Robinson, focusing on the Los Angeles River and its parallels with buried streams in Athens. This phase emphasizes design methodology and flood management on dense urban fabric. He will then continue at Virginia Tech’s School of Architecture + Design, collaborating with Professor Jenn Engelke on ecological strategies for ephemeral rivers in Mediterranean cities, using the Ilissos as a case study. By bridging design research with field-based case studies, Emmanouil seeks to contribute new spatial tools and adaptive strategies for the reintegration of lost rivers into contemporary urban environment.

Georgia Stamou is a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), with a strong focus on electronic subsea sensor systems. She received her Diploma in ECE from NTUA in 2022. To date, she has presented her work at four international conferences and published several articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Her research interests include the design and development of individual sensors and sensor systems, as well as the hardware and software required for the wired or wireless transmission of sensor data. She also has experience working as an Embedded Software Engineer in both research projects and industry settings. Her Ph.D. research focuses on developing an all-in-one, high-sensitivity, real-time underwater monitoring system. This system integrates custom-designed hydrophones and advanced data processing algorithms for the classification of underwater sound sources.

As a visiting researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), MA, U.S.A., she aims to advance her work in passive acoustic underwater sensing and apply machine learning algorithms to classify and analyze the collected acoustic data. MIT’s expertise in this field, along with its laboratory facilities and equipment, provides an ideal environment for the progression of her research.

Konstantina Morogianni holds a B.Sc. in Nutrition and Dietetics from Harokopio University and an M.Sc. in Nutrition and the Microbiome from the Medical School of Democritus University. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Clinical Dietetics at the Laboratory of Dietetics and Quality of Life at the Agricultural University of Athens, under the supervision of Prof. Kalliopi-Anna Poulia. Konstantina’s doctoral research focuses on nutritional aspects in Crohn’s disease (CD). Her initial goal for pursuing this Ph.D. was to delve deeper into the complex interactions of CD with diet, and to highlight the quintessence of nutritional care in disease progress, which is often neglected. Towards that direction, she has completed a pilot randomized controlled trial exploring dietary therapies for adult Crohn’s disease at Evangelismos General Hospital of Athens, driven by the fundamental patients' question: “What should I eat and what should I avoid?”. Konstantina has always been enthralled by the universality of science, and the Fulbright Foundation made it possible for her to collaborate with the global academic community.

As a Fulbright Visiting Research Student during her six-month academic visit, she will collaborate with Prof. James Lewis’s team at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research will focus on the body composition assessment with computed tomography and outcomes of surgery for Crohn’s disease. The aim of the project is to leverage novel imaging modalities developed at the host institution to assess body composition, including sarcopenia, among CD patients undergoing CD-related surgery. The project has great potential to advance preoperative care and our understanding of factors contributing to postoperative complications for patients with CD. A formal assessment of sarcopenia may facilitate early intervention. The potential benefits of the outlined initiative are broad and extend far beyond the enhancement of perioperative care in CD patients. The acquired expertise is likely to be the engine of leveraging National Healthcare System registries. Sarcopenia screening optimization via new technologies can advance preoperative care of all surgical patients and reduce surgery-related burden.

Konstantinos Diskos is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Crete, Department of Biology, under the supervision of Professor Kyriaki Sidiropoulou of the Neurophysiology and Behavior Laboratory. Konstantinos completed his B.Sc. degree in Biology from the University of Crete in 2019, and his M.Sc. in Molecular Biology and Biomedicine in 2021 at the University of Crete/ Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology. His passion about psychiatric disorders led him to pursue his Ph.D. in neuroscience. His research focuses on deciphering adaptations early in development in an animal model of schizophrenia with the aim to identify targetable mechanisms that will help minimize or prevent the emergence of schizophrenia-related symptoms prior to their emergence. To this end, he has identified significant adaptations in the GABA neurotransmitter system of the prefrontal cortex - a brain region significantly affected in schizophrenia - starting in the neonatal and adolescent periods in the MAM model of schizophrenia established at the laboratory of Prof. Sidiropoulou. Given that schizophrenia has a significant genetic component, Konstantinos aims to include in his Ph.D. a well-validated genetic animal model for schizophrenia, in which the genes affected exhibit high penetrance in the human population.

As a Fulbright Visiting Research Student, Konstantinos will visit the laboratory of Prof. Joseph A. Gogos at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center for Precision Psychiatry & Mental Health at Columbia University. There, he will conduct a portion of his doctoral research aiming to investigate the excitation and inhibition balance in the prefrontal cortex during early development in a robust genetic animal model for schizophrenia. The findings from the work at the Gogos lab will allow Konstantinos to assess whether the changes in the GABA neurotransmitter system in the prefrontal cortex early in development can be generalized to more than one schizophrenia animal models, significantly complementing his Ph.D. thesis. The results from this work could open new avenues for understanding the disease and applying new therapeutic strategies that are targeted to specific developmental periods.

Konstantinos Krommydas, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Western Macedonia, Greece, combines a strong academic foundation in mechanical engineering with advanced specialization in computational biomechanics and material science. Holding a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering and an M.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering, he has also served as R&D Engineer at PLiN Nanotechnology S.A., a biomedical start-up focused on translational research. His doctoral research investigates the response of piezoelectric scaffolds to mechanical stimulation, both computationally and experimentally, to better understand their role in promoting bone regeneration.

As a recipient of the prestigious Fulbright Foundation scholarship, Konstantinos will engage in a research initiative that bridges numerical modeling with experimental mechanobiology. Under the supervision of Prof. Konstantinos Michalakis at Boston University’s Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine, and Dr. Alireza Gholipour at Harvard Medical School, his project seeks to detect bioelectric signals generated during the mechanical loading of engineered scaffolds — signals believed to play a pivotal role in osteogenic signaling pathways. Towards this end, he plans to upgrade a commercially available dual-axis bioreactor, enabling real-time signal acquisition under dynamic conditions. The Fulbright Visiting Research Student program provides a unique platform for Konstantinos to access world-class facilities, collaborate with internationally renowned experts, and immerse himself in interdisciplinary research at the intersection of engineering and regenerative medicine. Beyond advancing his doctoral project, this collaboration is expected to foster enduring academic ties between U.S. institutions and the University of Western Macedonia. Aligned with the Fulbright mission, Konstantinos aspires to contribute to global scientific dialogue while supporting the internationalization and research growth of his home institution in northern Greece.

Panagiotis Gavriilidis is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, under the supervision of Professor George C. Alexandropoulos. He acquired his integrated Master’s (Hons) degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in July 2022. His research focuses on signal processing techniques for extremely large Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) systems, with emphasis on metasurface-based antenna architectures. In particular, he is studying their realistic modeling and performance analysis under near-field operation, aiming to understand their physical-layer capabilities and fundamental performance limits for the optimization of Sixth Generation (6G) networks. Within this context, as part of his Ph.D., he is contributing to two European Union Horizon-funded research projects.

As a Fulbright Visiting Research Student, he will spend five months at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, San Diego, collaborating with Professor Nuria González Prelcic. His project will explore the time-domain control of Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) and how this dynamic reconfiguration can shape the frequency response of wireless channels to enable enhanced connectivity and over-the-air computation.

Panteleimon is a Ph.D. researcher and cardiology resident (focus on electrophysiology and arrhythmology) at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. He holds an M.D. from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and an M.Sc. in Data Science from Stockholm University, Sweden. His academic and clinical interests lie at the intersection of cardiology, arrhythmias and artificial intelligence. Currently, his Ph.D. research focuses on developing AI models for the early prediction of cardiac arrhythmias using few-lead ECG recordings. He has authored over 30 peer-reviewed publications, while some of his research projects have been awarded in international events and congresses. He is also actively involved in academic societies, currently serving as a Nucleus Member of the European Society of Cardiology Working Group on e-Cardiology.

Through the Fulbright Visiting Research Student Program, he will spend four months conducting research at a U.S. academic institution, further developing and validating neural network architectures for arrhythmia prediction. His goal is to gain technical expertise, foster transatlantic collaborations, and eventually establish a multidisciplinary research hub in Greece that advances AI-driven solutions in cardiovascular medicine.

Stella Salta is a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Architecture, National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). Her work explores how artificial intelligence and machine learning can support new ways of thinking and working in architectural design. She holds a Master’s in “Data Science and Machine Learning” from NTUA’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (2025), and a Master’s in “Research in Architecture: Design – Space – Culture” from NTUA’s School of Architecture (2020), where she focused on algorithmic and generative design methodologies. She earned her Diploma in Architecture Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki as valedictorian in 2018. With a focus on bridging computational methods and architectural knowledge, her work explores emerging paradigms in design automation, spatial reasoning and the creative integration of AI in architectural practice. Her doctoral research investigates how qualitative and experiential spatial properties can be translated into quantifiable metrics and used to train AI models capable of generating architectural floorplan configurations. By combining graph-based machine learning with large language models, she explores how spatial reasoning can emerge both from data and natural language— revealing design as a dynamic interplay between human intuition and machine reasoning.

As a Fulbright Visiting Research Student, Stella will spend six months at the New York Institute of Technology, collaborating with Professor Matias del Campo within the ΑΙ Lab in Architecture and Computational Technologies. There, she will develop and test a pipeline that interprets spatial descriptions in natural language and translates them into generative 3D parametric models, integrating large-scale architectural datasets and configurational analysis. Ηer work seeks to establish frameworks that enhance design agency and enable post-human modes of collaboration between human and machine intelligences, engaging broader debates around computational creativity, architectural intelligence and the shifting boundaries of authorship in design.