Who We Are
Principal Investigator
Assist Professor Evangelos Markakis was born in Heraklion, Crete in 1980. He holds a PhD in P2P Constellations in Broadband Networks from the department of Information & Communication Systems Engineering of the University of the Aegean in 2014. He has actively participated in no less than 20 EU FP5/FP6/FP7/Horizon2020 funded projects (IST/ICT/Health/ Security) and over 20 Greek funded research and Development projects. His current research projects are H2020-FORTIKA (GA740690), H2020 – SMILE (GA740931) and H2020-SPHINX. Evangelos is the Dissemination Manager for the H2020 FORTIKA and in the past he has worked as the Technical Manager for the HORIZON 2020 DRS-19-2014 “EMYNOS”. He has more than 60 publications in international journals, conference, and workshop proceedings, in the above areas. He is the Chairman of the Pan-European Emergency Application Consortium paving the way for supporting Emergency Communication Application in all European Member States. He is a Senior Member in EENA a Member of IEEE and IEEE ComSoc, editor of the IET Book on “Cloud and Fog Computing in 5G Mobile Networks: Emerging Advances and Applications” and the Demonstrators Co-Chair for the IEEE SDN-NFV Conference.
Research Associates
Dimitra Papatsaroucha,Research Associate, PhD Candidate
Dimitra Papatsaroucha has a B.Sc. in Computer Science and Biomedical Informatics from the University of Thessaly (UTH), and an M.Sc in Informatics Engineering from the Hellenic Mediterranean University (HMU). She is a Cybersecurity Associate Researcher and PhD Candidate in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of HMU and a Senior Research Project Manager, Lab Team Leader, and Proposal Writer in the R&D Pasiphae Laboratory of HMU. Her research addresses critical cybersecurity challenges, such as human vulnerability assessment, data privacy and secure data exchange, blockchain-based identity management, and AI-enhanced threat detection, making her a key contributor to the field of secure and decentralized digital infrastructures. She has contributed to various EU-funded research projects, including HORIZON EUROPE CL4-DATA-2021-01-02 TRUSTEE, for which she acted as the Deputy Technical Manager and where she played a crucial role in designing secure system architectures and developing use cases for privacy-preserving and decentralized digital ecosystems. She has presented her findings at international conferences, including the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Conference (EMBC) and the 21st International Conference on Distributed Computing and Artificial Intelligence (DCAI ’24), where she contributed to studies on data security and AI-driven applications. In the past she has acted as a host volunteer for the IEEE Conference on Network Function Virtualization and Software Defined Networks, an invited Program Committee Member at CyberHunt 2024, and an invited Peer Reviewer for ACM Transactions on Internet Technology (TOIT). She is also a member of the Mataroa team of volunteers, acting as an Information Technology Instructor for the Coding Bees Programme of Google.org that brings technology closer to women.
Xenofon Vourakis,Research Associate
Xenofon Vourakis has a B.Sc in Computer Science from the University of Crete (UOC). He is currently working as a Research Associate in the Pasiphae Lab R&D laboratory of the Hellenic Mediterranean University (HMU) and taking part in several EU-funded research projects. His main interests are full stack development, IoT and Cyber-Security.He is currently working as a DevOps Engineer, Software Developer & Project Manager
Zoi Zachopoulou,Project Manager
Zoi Zachopoulou has a Bachelor in Product and Systems Design Engineering with Intergrated Master from the University of the Aegean. She is currently working as an Associate Researcher and Dissemination and Communication Manager in the R&D laboratory Pasiphae Lab of the HMU.
Stavroula Psaroudaki, Software Developer
Stavroula Psaroudaki holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the Democritus University of Thrace (DUTH) and is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Bioinformatics at the University of Crete. She is working as an Associate Researcher at the PASIPHAE Laboratory of the Hellenic Mediterranean University (HMU). Her interests lie in the broader areas of computer science and bioinformatics.
Ioannis Kefaloukos,Research Associate,M.Sc
Ioannis Kefaloukos has a M.Sc in Informatics Engineering from the Hellenic Mediterranean University (HMU). He is currently working as an Associate Researcher in the R&D laboratory Pasiphae Lab of the HMU, acting as the Deputy Project Lead in several EU-funded research projects, such as SPHINX H2020, SHAPES H2020, PQ-REACT, and COBALT. His research is mainly focused on network security and systems security on critical infrastructures, internet of things, SDN/NFV, and cloud/fog/edge computing technologies. He also led the cybersecurity effort for the Hellenic Mediterranean University back in 2019, while also acted as a TPC & Reviewer for the IEEE CAMAD and NFV-SDN 5GSecAI conferences.
Manos Rompogiannakis,Research Associate,M.Sc
Manos Rompogiannakis has a Bachelor of Engineering with Integrated Master in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Technical University of Crete (TUC). He is currently working as an Associate Researcher in the R&D laboratory Pasiphae Lab of the HMU a member of the Back-end Development Team and DevOps Engineering Team, while taking part in several EU-funded research projects.
Pantelis Tsagkarakis, Software Developer
Pantelis Tsagkarakis is a computer science professional with a Bachelor of Science degree from the Computer Science Department in Heraklion. He is currently pursuing his Master of Science degree at the Computer Science Department at UoC, while also working as a researcher in the PASIPHAE Lab of HMU.
Konstantina Pityanou,Research Associate,M.Sc
Konstantina Pityanou received her B.Sc. degree in Informatics Engineering – Software Engineering from Technological Educational Institute of Crete in 2019. In 2022 she received her M.Sc. degree in Informatics Engineering from the Hellenic Mediterranean University in Crete. She currently works as an Associate Researcher in the R&D Pasiphae Lab at the Hellenic Mediterranean University, and participates in EU-funded research projects, such as the 101070214 Eu-funded Research Project TRUSTEE and 101008701 Eu-funded Research Project Emerge.
Marios Choudetsanakis, Research Associate,M.Sc
Marios Choudetsanakis has a B.Sc. in Mathematics from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), and an M.Sc in Applied Statistics from the Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB).He is working as a Backend Developer and Associate Researcher in the R&D laboratory Pasiphae Lab at HMU . His main research interest is in Quantum communications and in Homomorphic Encryption for AI.
Stamatios Kostopoulos,Research Associate,M.Sc

Stamatios Kostopoulos has a B.Sc in Informatics Engineering from the Technical Educational Institute of Heraklion. He is a M.Sc student in Informatics Engineering of Hellenic Mediterranean University (HMU) and is currently working as an Associate Researcher and Developer in the R&D laboratory Pasiphae Lab of the HMU.
MSc Students
Emmanouil Toutoudakis,Research Associate,M.Sc

Dimitrios Sygletos,Research Associate,M.Sc Student
Dimitrios Sygletos holds a B.Sc. in Informatics Engineering from the Technical Educational Institute of Heraklion. He is currently pursuing an M.Sc. in Informatics Engineering at the Hellenic Mediterranean University (HMU). Dimitrios works as an Associate Researcher and Developer at the Pasiphae Lab, the R&D laboratory of HMU. His interests in the cybersecurity domain include software development and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Aggelos Vogiatzis, M.Sc

Evangelos-Polynikis Nikas,DevOps,M.Sc Student
Evangelos-Polynikis Nikas has a B.Sc in Computer Engineering from the Technical Educational Institute of Heraklion. He is a M.Sc student in Informatics Engineering of Hellenic Mediterranean University (HMU) and is currently working in the R&D laboratory Pasiphae Lab of the HMU as a Software Developer & DevOps Engineer.
Scholarship
