Ioannis Vlahavas

Ioannis Vlahavas is a Professor in the School of Informatics at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki since 2003, where he directs the Intelligent Systems Lab. He has held significant leadership roles including Chair of the School of Informatics (2003-2005, 2013-2017) and Dean of the School of Science and Technology at the International Hellenic University (2007-2016). His career spans over three decades with continuous contributions to artificial intelligence research and education.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Computer Science, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (1988)
• B.Sc. in Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (1982)

Professor Vlahavas's research focuses on foundational AI areas including Logic Programming, Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, Automated Planning, and Machine Learning. His work bridges theoretical frameworks with practical applications in autonomous systems, healthcare diagnostics, and financial modeling. He has pioneered methodologies in reinforcement learning and multi-agent systems, with particular emphasis on personality emulation in gamified environments and transformer-based architectures for complex real-world problems.

His recent publications reveal a strong trajectory toward deep reinforcement learning, transformer optimization, and low-resource language processing. Key application domains include autonomous driving (5 of 15 recent papers), biomedical text mining (particularly drug-drug interaction extraction), and personality modeling in gaming environments. There is notable cross-pollination between finance (portfolio theory applications, cryptocurrency trading) and AI methodology development.

Scientific Awards:

• EurAI Fellow (2017)

Professor Vlahavas has mentored numerous graduate students through PhD candidate programs and research projects. His leadership extends to organizing major international conferences including the 24th IEEE International Conference on Tools with AI (2012) and the 9th Hellenic Conference on Artificial Intelligence (2016). He serves on editorial boards and has guest-edited special journal issues on AI applications.

He directs the Intelligent Systems Lab at Aristotle University, which operates as a multidisciplinary research hub focusing on machine learning, natural language processing, and intelligent system applications across healthcare, transportation, and finance sectors. The lab maintains strong industry connections including RealMINT, the university spin-off where he serves as CEO.