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The conference will be organized by the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), which is the leading Greek institution in artificial neural networks.

The National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) is the oldest and most prestigious educational institution of Greece in the field of technology, founded in 1836.

Research is carried out in about 100 laboratories belonging to the various Departments. NTUA employs about 1,800 researchers in more than 700 R&D projects supported by National and European Union funds.

The Institute of Communication and Computer Systems (ICCS) is a private law body associated with the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) of NTUA, established in 1989.

Two NTUA Laboratories of the Computer Science Department, the Image, Video and Multimedia Systems Laboratory (IVML) and the Intelligent Systems Laboratory (ISLab) will collaborate for organising the conference. The leaders of these two laboratories, Prof. S. Kollias and Prof. A. Stafylopatis, have been collaborating the last 18 years in the field of artificial neural networks and computational intelligence. In particular:

The Image, Video and Intelligent Multimedia Systems Lab (IVML) was established in 1988. Courses given in the framework of the undergraduate and postgraduate syllabus of NTUA by IVML members include Image and Video Analysis and Technology, Computer Graphics, Neural Networks, Intelligent Computer Systems and Man Machine Communication. Twenty graduate students have obtained their Ph.D working in IVML, while ten are pursuing their Phd in it. The members of the Lab are active members of the research community having published 100 journal articles and 200 international conference contributions. The most important areas of R&D activities performed or supported by IVML include:

Knowledge Based Adaptive Image and Video processing and analysis
Artificial neural network, fuzzy and neurofuzzy technologies
Content-based semantic retrieval of multimedia information
The MPEG-7 , MPEG-21 standards and Semantic Web technologies
Intelligent Human Computer Interaction and Intelligent agents
Face, Emotion and Biometric Analysis and Recognition
MPEG-4 and Natural - Synthetic Hybrid Coding, Augmented Reality
Applications in Cultural Heritage, Surveillance, Communications, Medicine.

IVML has been involved in sixty R&D projects. Thirty of them have been funded by the European Commission and the rest of them by Greek organisations. Forty-eight of them have been completed, while twelve are in progress. In particular:

IVML participates in the design and implementation of intelligent semantic analysis and retrieval of multimedia content, following the MPEG (4,7,21) and Semantic Web standards. The leader of the Lab, Prof. Stefanos Kollias has been one of the experts that the EC has used for defining the framework of Semantic Content Analysis and its perspective for 2012. IVML has recently completed the IST project FAETHON, dealing with unified intelligent (neurofuzzy) content-based access to heterogeneous audiovisual data (2001-2004). IVML participates in the 6th framework IP ACEMEDIA on semantic-based adaptive multimediaanalysis systems (2004-2008), in the NoE MUSCLE on intelligent adaptive multimedia analysis (2004-2008), in the NoE Knowledge-Web on semantic Web technologies (2004-2008) and in the IP Ask-IT on knowledge-based assistance for mobility-impaired people (2004-2008). Moreoevr, IVML participates in the accepted for funding FP6 projects in the area of semantic multimedia analysis NoE K-Space, IP Mesh, X-Media, Strep Bohemie. Prof. S. Kollias and Dr. G. Stamou have co-edited a new book on Multimedia and Semantic Web, published by Wiley in June 2005. Moreover IVML has been a member of W3C and participates in leading the new Task Force on Multimedia Annotation and the Semantic Web of the W3C Working Group on Best Practices. IVML has been leading the TMR project PHYSTA (1998-2001) on principled hybrid systems, dealing with the development of hybrid systems using symbolic techniques from the artificial intelligence field and sub-symbolic techniques from the computational intelligence field, with application to the problem of emotion recognition. Emotion analysis also constitutes the scope of the IST ERMIS project in which IVML is a partner (2001-2004). Morever, IVML is one ofthe WP leaders of the HUMAINE NoE on Emotion Recognition Systems (2004-2008). IVML participated in the IST project ORESTEIA (2001-2003), developing hybrid intelligent artefacts for human computer interaction, in the framework of the Disappearing Computer Initiative of the European Commission. Since 1989, IVML has leaded or participated in a variety of projects related to theory and applications of neural networks and intelligent techniques, being a Managing Node of the NEURONET Network of Excellence (1994-2000) and of the EUNITE Network of Excellence on Adaptive Intelligent Systems (2001-2004). It should be mentioned that the ESPRIT Project Applications of Neural Networks for Industry in Europe (ANNIE), 1988-1991, in which ISLab and IVML participated was one of the first projects in Artificial Neural Networks funded by the EC.

The Intelligent Systems Laboratory constitutes a centre for research, development and education in the fields of Computational Intelligence (Neural Networks, Fuzzy Systems, Evolutionary Computation, Hybrid Systems), Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning. The Laboratory has developed rich research and educational activities during the last decade.The research group is one of the first in Greece to work on the theory and applications of neural networks and has significant contribution at national and international level in the areas of computational intelligence and parallel/distributed processing.

During the period 1996-98 the director of the Laboratory was coordinator of the "Neuron" Human Network, a national network funded by the Greek General Secretariat of Research and Technology that aimed to promote contact and cooperation of researchers in the field of neural networks. The activities of the Intelligent Systems Laboratory concern the application of computational intelligence in classification and diagnosis, scheduling and optimization, control and navigation tasks, as well as in data mining and knowledge discovery. For many of the above topics the members of the Laboratory have developed their own algorithms and software implementations, using both conventional and parallel hardware.

The research group has extensive experience related to the use of intelligent techniques in biomedical applications (compression of medical images, cytological diagnosis, electrocardiogram analysis, classification of ultrasound images etc) and applications of educational multimedia systems (text characterization and classification, information mining, intelligent search based on user preference profile, intelligent agent architectures etc). Current research activities of ISLab also involve the development and implementation of hybrid intelligent systems, allowing the effective synergy of subsymbolic and symbolic processing through combination of neural networks with fuzzy logic and conventional artificial intelligence techniques (e.g. rule-based systems).

The research group of the Intelligent Systems Laboratory has a rich publication record largely recognized in Greece and internationally. During the last years, more than 100 refereed papers of the group have appeared in international journals and conference proceedings. The research activities of the Laboratory have been beneficial for the educational tasks through the support of diploma theses and the dissemination of results to undergraduate activities.

The laboratory is responsible for teaching two courses (one undergraduate and one graduate) on neural networks and computational intelligence, which include a laboratory part based on the use of advanced software tools. The recent advances in computational intelligence, with application in several disciplines, imply an increasing demand for highly skilled engineers with solid theoretical and practical background in related topics.

The Intelligent Systems Laboratory has actively participated in many national and European Union funded research projects, including Applications of Neural Networks for Industry in Europe (ANNIE), 1988-1991 (ESPRIT), Knowledge Processing and Learning Systems on Multitransputer Architectures, 1990-1992 (ESPRIT), Novel Neural Networks, 1993-1996 (Human Capital and Mobility), NeuroNet, 1994-1998, and NeuroNet II, 1998-2001 (ESPRIT Network of Excellence), Principled Hybrid Systems: Theory and Applications (PHYSTA), 1998-2001 (Training and Mobility of Researchers), Multimedia Organisation for Developing the Understanding and Learning of Advanced Technology in European Schools (MODULATES), 1998-2000 (ESPRIT Educational Multimedia), Cultural Journeys inthe Information Society (CJIS), 1998-2001 (INCO), Modular Hybrid Artefacts with Adaptive Functionality (ORESTEIA), 2001-2003 (IST), A Wearable Platform for the Monitoring of Health Condition and Sport Performance of Athletes and the real-time Prevention of Sport Injuries (DROMEAS), 2001-2004 (IST). In most of the above projects ISLab and IVML had a close and successful collaboration in designing and implementing intelligent systems in a variety of tasks and applications.