Dr. Stavroula-Evita Fotinea is Research Director at the Institute for Language and Speech Processing (ILSP) of ATHENA Research Centre, currently acting as Deputy Head of the Department of Embodied Interaction and Robotics. Her research interests span along the domains of Analysis and Processing of Greek Sign Language (GSL), dynamic GSL synthesis using avatar signers, GSL recognition, human-machine interfaces with emphasis in assistive applications for communication via sign language and rehabilitation targeted human-robot interaction, text to speech synthesis, prosodic modelling of the Greek language and dialog systems.

She received her Diploma in Electrical Eng. in 1992 and the Ph.D. in 1999 from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), School of Electrical and Computer Engineering-ECED.

She has acted as Scientist in Charge (or depity co-ordinator) of 15+ national and European projects in the areas of SL technologies, assistive robotics, STEAM education, speech technologies and spectroscopic imaging, the most recent being EASIER, i-MuSciCA, MOBOT, i-Walk and SL-ReDu, and participated as a researcher in many others.

She has served as Acting Director (2018-2019) and Deputy Director (2019-2021) of ILSP, she is an elected member of the Institute’s Scientific Council, and a member of the Board of Directors of Athena RC as elected representative of the Center’s researchers. She also serves as a member of the steering committee of the M.Sc. Programme Language Technology organized by UoA and ILSP.

She is co-organizer of international academic events (special sessions, workshops, conferences) and event series including the biannual Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages in the framework of the LREC conferences, this year running its 10th edition, workshops and invited sessions on assistive interfaces in the framework of UAHCI/HCII and PETRA conference series, the 9th Int’l Gesture Workshop “Gesture in Embodied Communication and Human-Computer Interaction Workshop” (GW 2011), the LREC-2000 and Eurospeech97.

She is the author of over 120 scientific articles spanning the area of HCI/HRI, assistive technologies and signal processing in books and scientific refereed journals as well as international refereed conferences. She also acts as a reviewer in related scientific journals and international conferences.