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I am an Associate Professor at Utrecht University. My research focuses on collaborative and crowd systems, their potential and their applications. I develop methods that help people work together, coordinate their efforts and innovate at scale and efficiently, online or within physical spaces. My approach is interdisciplinary, combining insights from computational science (machine learning, agent-based modelling, mathematical optimization) and social sciences (personality testing, team building).
At Utrecht University I lead the Collaborative Technologies Lab, and coordinate the Computing Science Master's and Information Sciences Honors Bachelor's programs. I also serve as Open Software fellow, part of the Open Science Team of the Faculty of Science, and as vice chair of the Ethics Review Board of the Faculties of Science and Geosciences. Prior to joining UU I worked as a Senior Researcher at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), where I coordinated the European H2020 project CROSSCULT. In the past I have also collaborated with the Human-Computer Interaction Institute of Carnegie Mellon University as a visiting researcher, and with INRIA Nancy-Grand Est and the Public Research Center Henri Tudor as a postdoctoral fellow. I hold a Ph.D. and an Electrical and Computer Engineering degree from the National Technical University of Athens. I am part of the ERCIM and Marie-Curie alumni networks. |
News
07/2025 Our paper, titled "Transdisciplinary complexity science: deepening system understanding for sustainability" has been accepted by Nature Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. Congratulations to all my co-authors and a special thanks to Lynn de Jager and Brian Dermody!
07/2025 Our paper, titled "Beyond 'Just' Text: Can an AI-Generated Graphic Novel Enhance the Reading Experience of Non-Native English Readers?" has been accepted by Mensch und Computer 2025. Congratulations to my co-authors Alice Vitali, Isaac Alpizar-Chacon, Christina Schneegass, and Tilman Dingler!
06/2025 Our new pre-print, titled "A Hierarchical Integer Linear Programming Approach for Optimizing Team Formation in Education" is out! In this paper, we introduce a new modular mathematical optimization method for forming student teams that enhances practicality and can be adapted to various educational settings. Many thanks to my co-authors Aaron Kessler, Tim Scheiber, and Heinz Schmitz!
04/2025 Our symposium, titled "Transdisciplinary perspectives on the role of artificial intelligence in supporting team processes and outcomes" has been accepted at the INGRoup conference. Congratulations to my co-organisers Heleen Kerstholt and Catarina M. Santos, co-presenters Fieke Sluijs and Rianne van Lambalgen, and all the authors honoring us with their presence!
04/2025 Our work titled "Enhancing the formation of game development teams: towards a creative-friendly algorithm approach" has been accepted at the INGRoup conference. Congratulations to my co-author Pedro Zambon!
01/2025 Our project, titled "TeamMeUp: Assessing the potential of computational matchmaking for the game development sector" has received funding support from the NWO Take-off grant. Based on optimization algorithms and social sciences, TeamMeUp will explore the potential of computational team formation to help address the games industry’s problem of inefficient talent coordination.
11/2024 Our paper, titled "Prompting for Products: Investigating Design Space Exploration Strategies for Text-to-Image Generative Models" is now published as open source by Design Science. Congratulations to my co-authors Leah Chong, ,I-Ping Lo, Jude Rayan, Steven Dow, and Faez Ahmed!
10/2024 Our project, titled "Teacher Support for Integrating GenAI Practices in Programming Courses," has been funded from the UU Utrecht Education Incentive Fund. The project will develop educational resources to help university instructors incorporate best practices for using GenAI in their programming courses. It builds on last year's fUSO project, which explored students' and teachers' perspectives on GenAI in programming education. Congratulations to my team of (co-)PIs: Christian Köppe, Hieke Keuning, and Isaac Alpizar Chacon!
09/2024 Our paper titled "Students’ Perceptions and Use of Generative AI Tools for Programming Across Different Computing Courses" has been accepted by the 24th International Conference on Computing Education Research (Koli Calling '24) conference. Congratulations to my co-authors Hieke Keuning, Isaac Alpizar-Chacon, Lauren Beehler, Sergey Sosnovsky, Christian Köppe, and Imke de Jong!
05/2024 Our paper titled "From Explainable to Interactive AI: A Literature Review on Current Trends in Human-AI Interaction" has been accepted for publication by the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. Congratulations to my co-authors Muhammad Raees, Inge Meijerink, Vassilis-Javed Khan, and Konstantinos Papangelis!
05/2024 Our paper titled "Cad-Guided Generative Models: A Pathway to Feasible and Innovative Engineering Designs" has been accepted by the IDETC-CIE 2024 : International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference. Congratulations to my co-authors Leah Chong, Jude Rayan, Steven Dow, and Faez Ahmed!
01/2024 Happy to welcome Dr. Pedro Santoro Zambon to our research lab. Funded by EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Pedro's GameDevUp project will study algorithm-assisted team formation for the game development cultural and creative sector.
12/2024 Happy to welcome Ms. Heleen Kerstholt to our research lab. Heleen will work on AI-Enabled Teamwork with applications on education and business.
11/2023 Our workshop "Past meets Future: Workshop on Human-AI Interaction for Digital History and Cultural Heritage" has been accepted at IUI 2024! Congratulations to my co-organizers Kurt Luther, Vikram Mohanty, Benjamin C. G. Lee, and I am looking forward to lots of fruitful discussions at the intersection of ICT and Cultural Heritage.
09/2023 Our paper titled "Optimizing Team Formation in Educational Settings" was accepted at HCOMP 2023, Works-in-Progress and Demonstrations track. Congratulations to my co-authors Aaron Kessler, Tim Scheiber, and Heinz Schmitz!
08/2023 Our paper titled "Archaeological trails and contemporary art: Soundscapes for visually impaired visitors" with Angeliki Antoniou and Jeff Love has been accepted to the 1st International Workshop on Accessibility and Multimodal Interaction Design Approaches in Museums with People with Impairments, at the ACM International Conference on Mobile Human-Computer Interaction - MobileHCI 2023.
08/2023 Our paper titled "TONIC: A teamwork simulator and digital twin for organizational innovation challenges", was presented at the 16th International Conference on PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments (PETRA '23) conference, and is now available online by the ACM Digital Library. Congratulations to my co-author
05/2023 Our 1st International Workshop on Accessibility and Multimodal Interaction Design Approaches in Museums for People with Impairments has been accepted at the Mobile HCI 2023 conference. Looking forward to discussing new emerging technologies that improve cultural inclusion!
04/2023 Our project "Generative Artificial Intelligence in Programming Education" received funding from Utrecht University's Education Incentive Fund (Utrechts Stimuleringsfonds Onderwijs USO). The project will explore the implications of generative AI tools, with emphasis on Copilot and ChatGPT, on programming education. Congratulations to all my talented core project team colleagues, namely Hieke Keuning, Sergey Sosnovsky, and Matthieu Brinkhuis.
01/2023 Our article titled ''Tasks of a Different Color: How Crowdsourcing Practices Differ per Complex Task Type and Why This Matters'' has been accepted to the 2023 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2023) conference. Congratulations to my amazing team of co-authors Yihong Wang, Konstantinos Papangelis, Vassilis-Javed Khan, Michael Saker, Alan Chamberlain, Yong Yue, and Hai-Ning Liang.
09/2022 Our article titled "Self-Organization in Online Collaborative Work Settings" is now pushed by the SAGE/ACM Collective Intelligence journal. Congratulations to my co-authors Federica Lucia Vinella, Faez Ahmed, Costas Papastathis, Konstantinos Papangelis, Vassilis-Javed Khan, and Judith Masthoff.
07/2022 Thrilled to see our paper titled "The Dawn of Crowdfarms" featured in the August '22 issue of the Communications of the ACM! Congratulations to all my co-authors: Yihong Wang, Konstantinos Papangelis, Vassilis-Javed Khan, Michael Saker, Yong Yue, and Jonathan Grudin.
04/2022 Our project "Crowd-AI Teams for Engineering Product Design" has been awarded funding by the MIT-Netherlands Lockheed Martin Seed Fund. The project will explore novel ways of Human-AI collaboration for product design. Congratulations Faez Ahmed, I am looking forward to collaborating towards cutting-edge research!
04/2022 Our paper titled "The Impact of Digital Nudging Techniques on the Formation of Self-Assembled Crowd Project Teams" has been accepted at UMAP '22.
03/2022 Co-organizing the Group Modeling, Adaptation, and Personalization (GMAP) workshop of UMAP'22. The workshop aims to bring together the two communities of CSCW and UMAP to discuss ways of designing algorithms, whether for recommending group content or group formations, that are user-centric and steer away from purely top-down algorithmic decision-making.
03/2022 Join us at the Metaverse: The Vision for the Future Special Interest Group at CHI'22! Our aim is to provide a platform for HCI researchers to discuss the constantly changing space collectively known as the “Metaverse”.
12/2021 Our open access paper titled "Unleashing the Potential of Crowd Work: The Need for a Post-Taylorism Crowdsourcing Model", has just been published by the M@nagement journal! Congratulations to my co-authors Lionel P. Robert Jr. (UMICH) and Pierre-Jean Barlatier (EDHEC)!
07/2021 Invited panel member at the 3rd Summit on Gender Equality in Computing (GEC 2021), organized by the Greek ACM-W Chapter.
05/2021 View our CHI2021 paper "An Examination of the Work Practices of Crowdfarms" in the ACM digital library.
05/2021 Our paper "Browsing and Reusing the ESM Item Repository" has been accepted at the Society for Ambulatory Assessment Conference 2021
04/2021 Our paper "Reconsidering End-User Development Definitions" has been accepted at the 8th International Symposium on End-User Development (IS-EUD 2021). Congratulations to Nikolaos Batalas, Vassilis-Javed Khan and Panos Markopoulos!
02/2021 Where do Science, Technology and the Arts meet? Together with an interdisciplinary team of colleagues, we invite you to the virtual kickoff meeting of Utrecht University's Special Interest Group "AI in Cultural Inquiry and Art", with two presentations on the ‘’Algorithmic condition’’ (by Prof. Dr. Felicity Colman of the University of the Arts London) and ‘’AI + Cultural Heritage” (by Dr. Martin Lopes Nores from the University of Vigo).
01/2021 Together with an interdisciplinary group of UU colleagues, I am proud to cofound the UU Complexity of Sustainability Fund. The goal of the fund is to stimulate cooperation between researchers and stakeholders to accelerate sustainability transition. More information on how to apply here. Learn about the complexities of the transition to a more just and sustainable world by watching this video.
12/2020 The first volume of our Special Issue on "Culture Games" has been published by ACM's Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage. Explore the latest gaming technologies in the field of culture and discover several gaming genres of cultural heritage used in real life.
07/2025 Our paper, titled "Beyond 'Just' Text: Can an AI-Generated Graphic Novel Enhance the Reading Experience of Non-Native English Readers?" has been accepted by Mensch und Computer 2025. Congratulations to my co-authors Alice Vitali, Isaac Alpizar-Chacon, Christina Schneegass, and Tilman Dingler!
06/2025 Our new pre-print, titled "A Hierarchical Integer Linear Programming Approach for Optimizing Team Formation in Education" is out! In this paper, we introduce a new modular mathematical optimization method for forming student teams that enhances practicality and can be adapted to various educational settings. Many thanks to my co-authors Aaron Kessler, Tim Scheiber, and Heinz Schmitz!
04/2025 Our symposium, titled "Transdisciplinary perspectives on the role of artificial intelligence in supporting team processes and outcomes" has been accepted at the INGRoup conference. Congratulations to my co-organisers Heleen Kerstholt and Catarina M. Santos, co-presenters Fieke Sluijs and Rianne van Lambalgen, and all the authors honoring us with their presence!
04/2025 Our work titled "Enhancing the formation of game development teams: towards a creative-friendly algorithm approach" has been accepted at the INGRoup conference. Congratulations to my co-author Pedro Zambon!
01/2025 Our project, titled "TeamMeUp: Assessing the potential of computational matchmaking for the game development sector" has received funding support from the NWO Take-off grant. Based on optimization algorithms and social sciences, TeamMeUp will explore the potential of computational team formation to help address the games industry’s problem of inefficient talent coordination.
11/2024 Our paper, titled "Prompting for Products: Investigating Design Space Exploration Strategies for Text-to-Image Generative Models" is now published as open source by Design Science. Congratulations to my co-authors Leah Chong, ,I-Ping Lo, Jude Rayan, Steven Dow, and Faez Ahmed!
10/2024 Our project, titled "Teacher Support for Integrating GenAI Practices in Programming Courses," has been funded from the UU Utrecht Education Incentive Fund. The project will develop educational resources to help university instructors incorporate best practices for using GenAI in their programming courses. It builds on last year's fUSO project, which explored students' and teachers' perspectives on GenAI in programming education. Congratulations to my team of (co-)PIs: Christian Köppe, Hieke Keuning, and Isaac Alpizar Chacon!
09/2024 Our paper titled "Students’ Perceptions and Use of Generative AI Tools for Programming Across Different Computing Courses" has been accepted by the 24th International Conference on Computing Education Research (Koli Calling '24) conference. Congratulations to my co-authors Hieke Keuning, Isaac Alpizar-Chacon, Lauren Beehler, Sergey Sosnovsky, Christian Köppe, and Imke de Jong!
05/2024 Our paper titled "From Explainable to Interactive AI: A Literature Review on Current Trends in Human-AI Interaction" has been accepted for publication by the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. Congratulations to my co-authors Muhammad Raees, Inge Meijerink, Vassilis-Javed Khan, and Konstantinos Papangelis!
05/2024 Our paper titled "Cad-Guided Generative Models: A Pathway to Feasible and Innovative Engineering Designs" has been accepted by the IDETC-CIE 2024 : International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference. Congratulations to my co-authors Leah Chong, Jude Rayan, Steven Dow, and Faez Ahmed!
01/2024 Happy to welcome Dr. Pedro Santoro Zambon to our research lab. Funded by EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Pedro's GameDevUp project will study algorithm-assisted team formation for the game development cultural and creative sector.
12/2024 Happy to welcome Ms. Heleen Kerstholt to our research lab. Heleen will work on AI-Enabled Teamwork with applications on education and business.
11/2023 Our workshop "Past meets Future: Workshop on Human-AI Interaction for Digital History and Cultural Heritage" has been accepted at IUI 2024! Congratulations to my co-organizers Kurt Luther, Vikram Mohanty, Benjamin C. G. Lee, and I am looking forward to lots of fruitful discussions at the intersection of ICT and Cultural Heritage.
09/2023 Our paper titled "Optimizing Team Formation in Educational Settings" was accepted at HCOMP 2023, Works-in-Progress and Demonstrations track. Congratulations to my co-authors Aaron Kessler, Tim Scheiber, and Heinz Schmitz!
08/2023 Our paper titled "Archaeological trails and contemporary art: Soundscapes for visually impaired visitors" with Angeliki Antoniou and Jeff Love has been accepted to the 1st International Workshop on Accessibility and Multimodal Interaction Design Approaches in Museums with People with Impairments, at the ACM International Conference on Mobile Human-Computer Interaction - MobileHCI 2023.
08/2023 Our paper titled "TONIC: A teamwork simulator and digital twin for organizational innovation challenges", was presented at the 16th International Conference on PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments (PETRA '23) conference, and is now available online by the ACM Digital Library. Congratulations to my co-author
05/2023 Our 1st International Workshop on Accessibility and Multimodal Interaction Design Approaches in Museums for People with Impairments has been accepted at the Mobile HCI 2023 conference. Looking forward to discussing new emerging technologies that improve cultural inclusion!
04/2023 Our project "Generative Artificial Intelligence in Programming Education" received funding from Utrecht University's Education Incentive Fund (Utrechts Stimuleringsfonds Onderwijs USO). The project will explore the implications of generative AI tools, with emphasis on Copilot and ChatGPT, on programming education. Congratulations to all my talented core project team colleagues, namely Hieke Keuning, Sergey Sosnovsky, and Matthieu Brinkhuis.
01/2023 Our article titled ''Tasks of a Different Color: How Crowdsourcing Practices Differ per Complex Task Type and Why This Matters'' has been accepted to the 2023 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2023) conference. Congratulations to my amazing team of co-authors Yihong Wang, Konstantinos Papangelis, Vassilis-Javed Khan, Michael Saker, Alan Chamberlain, Yong Yue, and Hai-Ning Liang.
09/2022 Our article titled "Self-Organization in Online Collaborative Work Settings" is now pushed by the SAGE/ACM Collective Intelligence journal. Congratulations to my co-authors Federica Lucia Vinella, Faez Ahmed, Costas Papastathis, Konstantinos Papangelis, Vassilis-Javed Khan, and Judith Masthoff.
07/2022 Thrilled to see our paper titled "The Dawn of Crowdfarms" featured in the August '22 issue of the Communications of the ACM! Congratulations to all my co-authors: Yihong Wang, Konstantinos Papangelis, Vassilis-Javed Khan, Michael Saker, Yong Yue, and Jonathan Grudin.
04/2022 Our project "Crowd-AI Teams for Engineering Product Design" has been awarded funding by the MIT-Netherlands Lockheed Martin Seed Fund. The project will explore novel ways of Human-AI collaboration for product design. Congratulations Faez Ahmed, I am looking forward to collaborating towards cutting-edge research!
04/2022 Our paper titled "The Impact of Digital Nudging Techniques on the Formation of Self-Assembled Crowd Project Teams" has been accepted at UMAP '22.
03/2022 Co-organizing the Group Modeling, Adaptation, and Personalization (GMAP) workshop of UMAP'22. The workshop aims to bring together the two communities of CSCW and UMAP to discuss ways of designing algorithms, whether for recommending group content or group formations, that are user-centric and steer away from purely top-down algorithmic decision-making.
03/2022 Join us at the Metaverse: The Vision for the Future Special Interest Group at CHI'22! Our aim is to provide a platform for HCI researchers to discuss the constantly changing space collectively known as the “Metaverse”.
12/2021 Our open access paper titled "Unleashing the Potential of Crowd Work: The Need for a Post-Taylorism Crowdsourcing Model", has just been published by the M@nagement journal! Congratulations to my co-authors Lionel P. Robert Jr. (UMICH) and Pierre-Jean Barlatier (EDHEC)!
07/2021 Invited panel member at the 3rd Summit on Gender Equality in Computing (GEC 2021), organized by the Greek ACM-W Chapter.
05/2021 View our CHI2021 paper "An Examination of the Work Practices of Crowdfarms" in the ACM digital library.
05/2021 Our paper "Browsing and Reusing the ESM Item Repository" has been accepted at the Society for Ambulatory Assessment Conference 2021
04/2021 Our paper "Reconsidering End-User Development Definitions" has been accepted at the 8th International Symposium on End-User Development (IS-EUD 2021). Congratulations to Nikolaos Batalas, Vassilis-Javed Khan and Panos Markopoulos!
02/2021 Where do Science, Technology and the Arts meet? Together with an interdisciplinary team of colleagues, we invite you to the virtual kickoff meeting of Utrecht University's Special Interest Group "AI in Cultural Inquiry and Art", with two presentations on the ‘’Algorithmic condition’’ (by Prof. Dr. Felicity Colman of the University of the Arts London) and ‘’AI + Cultural Heritage” (by Dr. Martin Lopes Nores from the University of Vigo).
01/2021 Together with an interdisciplinary group of UU colleagues, I am proud to cofound the UU Complexity of Sustainability Fund. The goal of the fund is to stimulate cooperation between researchers and stakeholders to accelerate sustainability transition. More information on how to apply here. Learn about the complexities of the transition to a more just and sustainable world by watching this video.
12/2020 The first volume of our Special Issue on "Culture Games" has been published by ACM's Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage. Explore the latest gaming technologies in the field of culture and discover several gaming genres of cultural heritage used in real life.