Methodological workshops for supervisors
On January 29 and 30, 2026, we invite you to interdisciplinary methodological workshops addressed to supervisors and academic advisors of the ICT & Design Doctoral School. The workshops will cover, among other things, research tools and techniques, research methodology, and training in working in a multicultural environment. The classes will be conducted by two experts from abroad – Dr. Styliani Kleanthous and Prof. Jahna Otterbacher, representatives of renowned centers with recognized authority and experience in doctoral education and international cooperation.
Styliani Kleanthous (PhD, University of Leeds, UK) is an assistant professor at the Open University of Cyprus and co-director of the Cyprus Center for Trustworthy AI (CyCAT) at the Faculty of Science and Applied Sciences. Dr. Kleanthous has been involved in a number of funded research projects; she served as a work package leader (WP leader) in the EU-funded CyCAT project and as the principal investigator (PI) on behalf of OUC in the RIF-funded DESCANT project. She has also participated in numerous Erasmus+ projects over the years and currently coordinates the Erasmus+ AI4Everyone project. Her main research interests and expertise focus on the area of human-AI interaction. Dr. Kleanthous is a senior member of the program committees of several international conferences (including ACM IUI, ECTEL) and a member of the ACM UMAP Steering Committee. She was co-chair of the Doctoral Consortium at ACM UMAP 2024, a doctoral mentor at ACM UMAP 2025 and ACM AIES 2025, and co-chair of the ACM UMAP 2023 conference. She is also co-chair of the ACM IUI 2026 conference.
Jahna Otterbacher (PhD, University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, United States) is an associate professor at OUC, where she co-directs the Cyprus Center for Trustworthy AI (CyCAT). Prof. Otterbacher holds a parallel position at CYENS CoE, where she co-leads the Fairness and Ethics in AI–Human Interaction (fAIre) team.
Prof. Otterbacher has successfully served as coordinator of both European projects (e.g., CyCAT—a five-entity consortium) and national R&D projects (e.g., DESCANT—a three-entity consortium), as well as a mentor for young postdoctoral project coordinators (e.g., KeepA(n)I). In the Horizon Europe program, she acts as a reviewer and ethics auditor for proposals and projects.
With over 70 publications on various areas of human-centered data science to her credit, Prof. Otterbacher has received over 3,800 citations and has been included in Elsevier's list of most cited scientists in the field of AI, compiled on the basis of standardized citation metrics — as one of only five women in Cyprus to receive this distinction. Her team won the Best Demo Award at the AAAI Conference on Human Computation and Crowdsourcing (HCOMP 2020) for OpenTag: Understanding Human Perceptions of Image Tagging Algorithms.
In 2023, she chaired the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence Conference on Web and Social Media (AAAI ICWSM), which attracted around 200 participants and had a budget of US$200,000. Prof. Otterbacher has delivered seven keynote talks at international conferences, including the AAAI Conference on Human Computation and Crowdsourcing (HCOMP 2024) and the ACM Conference on User Modelling, Adaptation and Personalisation (UMAP 2023).
She is a member of the editorial board of Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence (AI for Human Learning and Behaviour Change panel) and section editor of Human Computation. Locally, she is an academic expert and speaker for the Mediterranean Institute for Gender Studies (MIGS) "She Experts" initiative, as well as an expert in the Working Group on the "National AI Strategy in Cyprus" (teams on ethical issues and AI education).
