Nikolaos Liappas

Nikolaos Liappas is an Early Stage Researcher working for the group of Life Supporting Technologies (LST) within the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) under the scientific supervision of Associate Prof. María Fernanda Cabrera-Umpiérrez. His research addresses the topic of virtual reality enabled adaptive interfaces for cognitive rehabilitation and training, targeted for People with Mild Cognitive Impairment. As a graduate from National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, with a Ptychion degree in Informatics and Telecommunications, he has undertaken several placements within leading organisations such as Vodafone Greece and the European Commission. He has over of two years working experience in the field of computer science, in both IT companies and research laboratories, within different international environments including six countries. His final thesis will lead him towards a PhD degree in Biomedical Engineering.

Non-pharmacological interventions have proved to be more effective than pharmacological drug alternatives mediations regarding Dementia and AD´s disease. Managing the quality of life of individuals with MCI is challenging and risky, especially for the family related caregivers. The most common issue of people with MCI is that they are unable to perform instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), including simple things such as cooking meals, bathing, etc., and more memory dependent functions like managing their finances. In addition, caregivers sometimes must cope with even more stressful situations when the individuals suffer from anxiety or apathy. At this point, emerging technologies in combination with assisted living can be the key element to improve the quality of life and extend/prevent this chronic disease cycle. Assisted living is in favor of providing great support to MCI people due to the fact that it can support the needs of those people.

Nikolaos Liappas is doing research on identifying the needs of MCI people and proposing interventions based on emerging technologies.

Current proposed Interventions include: Virtual Assistant Interface to support the following needs: social company, independence from caregivers and clinics (since most patients prefer to stay at home), and most importantly to instruct them in daily activities.

Virtual Reality for Cognitive Training: Improve cognitive performance and also simulate virtually daily activities such as cooking, bathing, etc.

The expected results include: MCI / AD patient and new interface/interaction technology analysis. Cognitive models and VR based monitoring and interaction mechanisms. VR interaction and cognitive performance analysis algorithms and adaptation methods. System usability and performance validation.

ACROSSING project is taking shape After the first training event that took place in Thessaloniki (Greece), all ESRs and tutors started to establish some dissemination policies for an efficient and efective public engagement and dissemination. The main goals of the dissemination activities are to reach a broader and varied audience and to generate interest