ISL Social Contribution
The ISL’s collaborations with social/institutional/industry stakeholders enable the use of relevant actions in the educational process. The two-way interconnection of the ISL with society and its various productive and cultural institutions is a high priority, which becomes even more important, as Neapolis University is the only university in the province of Pafos, Cyprus.
Indicative activities
The Intelligent Systems Laboratory, provides talks to schools in Cyprus in order to challenge stale thinking and stimulate debate and to inspire students to be more ambitious in developing and pursuing their academic passions. The last 3 years, in the context of its social offer, ISL has organized more than 50 robotics workshops in various schools in Cyprus. At the same time, ISL participates as a scientific committee in the competitions of the Robotex Pancyprian Robotics Competition and WRO Competition. The aim of those workshops and competitions is to upgrade the educational robotics sector, to introduce robotic technology into the educational process, to upgrade STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) and to promote new forms of learning. The objectives of the competitions are to attract STEM students, to develop transversal skills, interdisciplinary analysis and problem solving, to develop a communication spirit, team spirit and collaboration among students and academics.
Photos of our visits to schools in Cyprus. Lectures on Robotics and Educational Robotics
The last two years, the Intelligent Systems Laboratory has participated as an organizer of the International Conference on Distributed Computing in Sensor Systems, mentoring the International Workshop on Intelligent Systems for the Internet of Things workshop. The ISIoT workshop aims at bringing together researchers and practitioners designing and deploying systems that apply intelligent technologies in IoT. We are pleased to have worked with 20 academics and researchers serving as TPC members, all of them established scientists in their respective fields, from all over the world.
The Intelligent Systems Laboratory organizes open scientific lectures on a wide range of scientific subjects. Speakers are either guest scientist or are drawn from across the University, and lectures frequently showcase new research and recent academic publications.
Professor Panos Razis talks about physics, CERN, and the universe’s secrets.
Mindset Talks 2 – Metaverse – a deep dive into the future of the internet
The Intelligent Systems Laboratory, twice a year, organizes “Computer Science Open Days”. These open days aim at strengthening the link between high-schools and the Intelligent Systems Laboratory, through several actions: inform the high-school students about disruptive technologies, present the latest research achievements, invite them to interact with laboratories’ equipment, and discuss with them.
Moreover, the Intelligent Systems Laboratory demonstrates its continued support for the local community of Pafos and its educational structures. More precisely, the ISL, within the framework of its efforts to enhance the promotion of new Information Technologies, financially supported several Private Training Centers who won the Robotex 2017, 2018 and 2019 Cyprus Competition. With its financial support, the Intelligent Systems Laboratory gives the opportunity to the young “inventors” and the future scientists to participate in a world-class competition. The benefits gained by such missions, both for our City and our Country, but above all for the participating students, are enormous.
Supporting financially Private Training Centers who won the Robotex 2017, 2018 and 2019 Cyprus Competition
One week before the big travel to Estonia for the Robotex International Competition, the Intelligent Systems Laboratory welcomes the teams who would participate in the competition for a Friendly Educational Robotics Tournament. The faculty members of ISL are at participants’ disposal, for technical, scientific and any other advice. It is worth mentioning that the event is open for teams from all over Cyprus and everyone can attend the tournament games. Cyprus Computer Society continuously supports the friendly tournament.
Friendly Educational Robotics Tournament
Finally, it is worth noting that over the past 3 years, ISL has offered 10 scholarships to students who have excelled in STEM competitions.