Partners

The eCrisis consortium consists of 5 partners from 3 European countries (Greece, Austria and Malta). Our partners act in the fields of education and ICT technologies.

The University of Malta (UoM) is the highest University in Malta. There are some 10,000 students including over 750 foreign/exchange students from nearly 80 different countries, following full-time or part-time degree and diploma courses, many of them run on the modular or credit system. UoM has been involved as coordinator and partner in numerous EU-funded projects under various Programmes including FP5, FP6 (37 projects) FP7 (49 projects), H2020 (8 projects), Lifelong Learning Programme, Culture 2000, Tempus, Research and innovation projects (24 projects in the last 2 years) and various other international and regional programmes and initiatives. The UoM team is represented by both the Institute of Digital Games (IDG) and Department of Intelligent Computer Systems (ICS) within the Faculty of ICT covering both e-Crisis aspects of serious game design and development (IDG) but also game-based teacher and student learning and game evaluation in Malta and in the associated countries of Greece and Austria.

The Institute of Digital Games (http://game.edu.mt), was established in 2013 and houses a multi-disciplinary research group with backgrounds from Computer Science (specifically AI and HCI), Interaction Design, the Arts, and the Humanities. The group performs basic and applied research, approaching games from a variety of perspectives, many of which focus on interaction design, serious and persuasive game design, AI, user (cognitive and affective) modelling, procedural content generation and player experience.

The Institute has already participated in several national and international research projects. IDG has been or currently involved in the H2020 CrossCult project, the FORETELL and the Go Go Gozo Erasmus+ projects and the following FP7 ICT projects: C2Learn (Creative Emotional Reasoning Computational Tools Fostering Co-Creativity in Learning Processes), SIREN (Social games for conflIct REsolution based on natural iNteraction), and iLearnRW (Integrated Intelligent Learning Environment for Reading and Writing). IDG coordinates the FP7 Marie Curie CIG projects AutoGameDesign (Autonomous Computational Game Designers) and REFLECT (Reflective Game Design) and has also been a partner at the FP7 MEDIA project EUCROMA (The European Cross Media Academy).

Members of the Institute of Digital Games are involved in the IEEE Computational Intelligence and Games Society, are members of the editorial boards of the most prestigious journals in the areas of games research and AI (e.g. IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing and the IEEE Transactions on Computational Intelligence and AI in Games), and have been in core organizational positions of the most respected conferences in game research (e.g. FDG, CIG). IDG has won several international awards for both academic publications and games designed (e.g. Villages Voices, Words Matter, and Iconoscope).

The Intelligent Computer Systems Department has its origins in the Department of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, which was formed in 1994 in response to a national initiative to strengthen support for teaching and research in IT. The Department of Artificial Intelligence, together with the Department of Computer Science, emerged as separate entities as part of the restructuring associated with the creation of the Faculty of ICT in 2007, and in 2009 the Department of Artificial Intelligence was renamed to the Department of Intelligent Computer Systems.

Intelligent Computer Systems (ICS) focuses mainly and is within the ambit of Artificial Intelligence (AI) which is concerned with getting machines to behave humanly: to solve complex, ill-specified problems; to learn and discover on the basis of experience; to perceive, to interpret, to classify, to speak, to hear, to hold conversations in English or Maltese. In short, AI studies the general problem of building intelligent artifacts that demonstrate human-like competence in determined areas. The boundary between AI and Computer Science tends to be fluid. There are areas – knowedge representation or data interpretation come to mind – which are thoroughly interdisciplinary. This is as it should be, since when AI discovers a new problem, it looks to Computer Science to extend the tools out of which solutions might be built.

UoM has three core roles in e-Crisis: i) project coordination and managment; ii) game design, development and authoring tools implementation; iii) game-based teacher empowerment and wide in-class evaluations in Malta. Further, UoM leads O2 and participates in all other intellectual outputs of the project given its breath of expertise with respect to the aims of e-Crisis.

Key Personnel:
Prof. Georgios N. Yannakakis (Institute of Digital Games)
Dr Antonios Liapis (Institute of Digital Games)
Dr Owen Sacco (Institute of Digital Games)
Dr Vanessa Camilleri (Department of ICS, Faculty of ICT)

Ellinogermaniki Agogi (EA) is an educational organization of private law, officially recognized by the state. Established in 1995, the Research and Development Department of EA provides the test bed for research applications for the design, development and implementation of the research activities in education. The R&D Department acts therefore as an interface between the pedagogical research, the technological innovation and the school community. It focuses on the design, implementation and support of pedagogical and technological innovations in educational practice, both through internal research as well as through collaborations with numerous educational, research and commercial institutions in Europe and the world. EA is an institutional member of EDEN (European Distance Education Network), of STEDE (Science Teacher Education Development in Europe) and of ECSITE (European Network of Science Centres and Museums) network, as well as a partner school of the German Schools-Excellence Network.

The work of the R&D Department which currently employs 15 full time researchers (7 PhD level, 8 MSc) focuses on the following areas, relevant to this proposal:
a) Development of methodologies and empirical classroom-based research to investigate processes of learning and knowledge acquisition in various subject matter areas (physics, mathematics, biology, history, etc.);
b) Comparative research on educational policy at national and European level;
c) Development of a model of and support for School innovation;
d) Design and implementation of short- and long-term professional development of teachers;
e) Cooperation and collaboration with Universities, research centers, museums and private companies for the development and testing of educational material and software;
f) Design of technology-supported learning environments.

EA has a very strong vision-generated interest and rich research and development activity in the fields of formal and informal learning with an emphasis on social inclusion, combined with innovative technical solutions, and game-based education, aiming to empower learners and teachers to thrive in the landscape of unprecedented challenges and opportunities in the 21st century. Under this approach, EA has taken up the challenge to embed pedagogical practice that effectively uses ICTs in every classroom to overcome barriers and support inclusion, as well as driving up student academic outcomes across the school. Moreover, a large range of previous projects were focused on developing and implementing technological tools which leverage both digital science repositories and informal learning.

Its work in EU projects over the last 15 years has established EA as a leading pioneer in innovative approaches to school education. Since its establishment, the R&D Department has coordinated and supported the participation of EA, either as coordinator or as partner, in more than 120 national and international collaborative research projects and networks (H2020, eContentPlus, ICT-PSP, SiS in FP7 and FP6, IST in FP5 and ICT in FP6, LLP-ICT, Socrates, Leonardo da Vinci, Erasmus+), the majority of which have been concerned with the fields of science and new technologies in education. However, the EA team has been continuously been involved in projects related to the rural development and social inclusion; to this end EA has actively participated in research projects that aimed at bringing innovation and change in rural communities and bridging the digital divide.

Under this perspective rural communities were contacted, encouraged and trained to fully exploit the ICT potential, building upon the local infrastructure to design and implement (human) networks that are robust and cost effective, while taking each community`s specific needs, environmental and socioeconomic conditions into consideration. The overall rationale was to develop and establish a specific infrastructure to rural and isolated communities to become a Learning Hub for the development of human capital for the whole area nearby.

In addition, EA has also a very strong and proven experience in actively extending the dialogue between scientific and the educational community, enforcing the collaboration between schools and research organizations, centers and museums, and helping young people to acquire better understanding of the role of science in society.

Key Personnel:
Dr Pavlos Koulouris
Mr. Elias Stouraitis
Ms. Dimitra Dimitrakopoulou

The Image, Video and Intelligent Multimedia Systems Lab (IVML, URL: http://www.image.ntua.gr) was established in 1988, as one of the Laboratories of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) in Greece. The members of the Lab (which are about 35, including research scientists, researchers, Ph.D students, programmers, and supporting staff) are active members of the research community having published more than 100 journal articles and 200 international conference contributions.

The most important areas of R&D activities performed or supported by IVML include face, body, emotion analysis, recognition and action; knowledge based multimedia analysis; uncertainty modelling, artificial neural networks, fuzzy and neurofuzzy technologies; artificial neural networks and computational intelligence; intelligent Human Computer Interaction and serious/educational/entertainment games.

IVML has been involved in more than ninety R&D projects. Half of them have been funded by the European Commission and the rest by Greek organisations. Eighty of them have been completed, while twelve are in progress; one of the latest projects in the field, Siren, has produced a game which reached the final stage in three serious games competitions, received a design award from Intel and won the European Learning Game of the Year award from the Games and Learning Alliance Network of Excellence.

Key Personnel:
Prof. Stefanos Kollias
Dr. Kostas Karpouzis
Dr. Amaryllis Raouzaiou
Ms. Charline Hondrou

The University of Vienna is one of the largest universities of Central Europe. Traditionally it has strong international relations in research and teaching and continually expands them. 63.000 students are currently enrolled at the University. The university’s research efforts rely on approximately 6100 scientists. From the University of Vienna the Department for Education, Faculty for Philosophy and Education will participate in the project.

The Department of Education is divided into four sections and eight research units, offering a diverse curriculum that spans the full range of educational research.

Sections and research units: • Educational Philosophy and Research (Philosophy of Education, Educational Research and Theory)
• School, Education and Society (Historical and Comparative School and Empirical Research, Empirical Education Research)
• Education, Biography and Media (Education, Counselling and the Life Course, Media Education)
• Education and Development (Special Needs and Inclusive Education, Psychoanalysis and Education)

The Department for Education, Faculty of Philosophy and Education has comprising expertise in the cooperation in international research projects and in the presentation of project results in congresses, exhibitions and papers. Developing, implementing and assessing innovative pedagogical training methodologies for students is on of the core activity of the department.

For the purpose of the Project two research units will take core responsible in the project. The unit «Media Education» and the unit «Special Needs and Inclusive Education». Project staff is also affiliated with the Centre of Teacher Education, in which 12.500 pre-service teachers are currently enrolled and app. 50 schools are certified partners. The established internal expertise for Media Education, Inclusive Education and Teacher Education renders a perfectly fit assemble for the core UNIVIE work packages and tasks.

Key Personnel:
Prof. Gottfried Biewer
Prof. Christian Swertz
Dr. Michelle Proyer
Mag. Gertraud Kremsner
Mag. Alexander Schmoelz

St Ignatius College (SIC) is an educational institution within the Ministry of Education and Employment, made up of 8 schools under the principalship of a College Principal. These schools are 2 secondary schools, 5 primary schools and 1 Learning Centre. Each school has its own head of school. The College Principal works in collaboration with the heads of school within a networking environment of teamwork and support. The college office also has a psychosocial team made up of a Social Worker and a Social Support Worker; a College Prefect of Discipline; A Career Advisor and a Trainee Career Advisor; a Psychology Assistant; A Counselor and 2 trainee counselors; a college support officer, 2 clerks and 2 general hands.

In line with article 51 of the Education Act, The College Principal endeavors to:

(a) create opportunities so that the Heads, teachers and other staff in schools may contribute to and exchange ideas, experiences and good practice and collaborate on common educational programs, projects, activities and initiatives;
(b) mentor and support the Heads of schools both when required to act in such manner and when it is so required of me;
(c) collaborate with the officers of the Directorates and with local and foreign higher education institutions, in the initial training and continuous professional development of teachers and staff of the schools;
(d) preside over the Council meetings of Heads of school and in the drawing up of the Council agenda;
(e) nurture a spirit of collegiality in the running of the College as a network of schools while developing a common ethos and identity;
(f) identify the training needs of school staff and plan staff development opportunities which may be achieved at College level in collaboration with the college schools;
(g) ensure an exchange of experiences of the School Development Plans and policies and practices with the participation of the school community as required;
(h) ensure that the national policies within the ‘Respect for All’ Framework, are well understood by all the teaching and non-teaching staff, and that they are being effectively followed;
(i) encourage and facilitate the development of exchanges and projects in partnerships with other schools in Europe and in any other country;
(j) ensure that parents become partners and active.

Key Personnel:
Ms Maria Pace