Hellenic Innovation Network - Podcasts

Please join us for a conversation between Constantinos Daskalakis, Professor, EECS, MIT and Fotini Christia, MIT Professor of Political Science and Director, MIT Sociotechnical Systems Research Center (SSRC). They will discuss artificial intelligence, machine learning, data science, and their implications for education and society. Professor Daskalakis will describe his plans to create an institute of artificial intelligence in Athens for researchers from Greece and abroad, while Professor Christia will explore thoughts about the ethics of machine learning, and its applications in the social sciences. This dialogue between two young Greek academics promises to open our eyes to coming advances in technology that will impact Greece and the world.

Ηear from Dr. George Scangos, CEO of Vir Biotechnology, about how Vir combines immunologic insights with cutting-edge technologies to treat and prevent serious infectious diseases, one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Vir is tackling the world’s largest and most serious infectious diseases, infections that are evasive, challenging, or insufficiently addressed by current approaches, including hepatitis B, influenza A, SARS-CoV-2, HIV, and tuberculosis.

Speaker:

Dr. George Scangos, CEO, Vir Biotechnology & Former CEO, Biogen

Moderator:

Anna Protopapas, CEO Mersana Therapeutics

Greece is not simply the land of sunshine and holidays. With the European Investment Fund enabling a €300 million investment in Greek startups, opportunities are taking off in tech entrepreneurship. Six venture capitalists investing in Greek startups will share their experiences in a fast-paced roundtable, demonstrating the opportunity for Greece to create jobs and demonstrating the opportunity for Greece to create jobs and become a regional technology hub supporting successful startups and leading to more and larger exits such as the latest ones of Instashop and Softomotive. Assuming work-from-home remains common post-Covid, Greece could attract non-Greeks as well, which would accelerate the learning curve of the local ecosystem.

Speakers:

Apostolos Apostolakis, Venturefriends

Alexandra Choli, Metavallon

Dimitris Kalavros-Gousiou, Velocity Partners

Katerina Pramatari, Unifund

George Tziralis, Marathon

Marco Veremis, Big Pi

Moderator:

Dean Dimizas, Cambridge Associates

Greece has pushed through the first wave of startups in IT, enabled by low barriers to entry, and now is shifting toward larger opportunities in deep tech. Commercializing university research offers the potential for greater returns, as demonstrated by top US universities, but the path is longer and less clear. Building a strong business from core technology is a massive challenge, and driving it to exit is even harder. Yorgos Koutsoyannopoulos, Co-Founder/Former CEO of Helic will discuss its formation out of the National Technical University of Athens to address the issue of  electromagnetic crosstalk caused by closer proximity of high-frequency circuits. Vic Kulkarni, Vice President at Ansys, will discuss their reasons for acquiring Helic and expanding its research and development center in Athens, with a stated goal of increasing employment over 2-3 years from 50 to 200, mostly scientists and engineers.

Speakers:

Yorgos Koutsoyannopoulos, Co-Founder/Former CEO, Helic

Vic Kulkarni, Vice President, Strategy, Ansys Electronics & Semiconductor BU

Moderator:

Dora Varvarigou, NTUA Professor (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science) and Chairwoman of the Board of the Water Utility in Athens

Retail has seen dramatic shifts over the last few years, with the advent of technology and e-commerce, but nothing has upended it more than Covid, which has led to massive changes, both temporary and permanent. George Bousis will discuss the impact on his company, Raise, which is the largest gift card exchange and mobile prepaid wallet in the world. The discussion will be moderated by Niko Bonatsos from General Catalyst, who is on the Board of Directors of the Hellenic Innovation Network.

Speaker:

George Bousis, Founder, Raise.com

Moderated by:

Niko Bonatsos, Managing Director, General Catalyst

Agriculture, an industry that goes back thousands of years, has traditionally been a key sector of the Greek economy. Today, Greek startups are using innovations in technology to improve crop productivity and post-harvest quality, thereby opening up opportunities for the Greek economy to diversify beyond services and tourism. We will hear from two venture-backed startups that were started in Volos, Greece. The discussion will open with an introduction by Christos Dimas, Deputy Minister of Research & Technology of Greece, who will discuss where Greece stands today in terms of research and innovation, and where it is heading.

Speakers:

Christos Dimas, Deputy Minister of Development and Investments-Research, Innovation and Technology, Hellenic Republic

Sotiris Bantas, Centaur

George Varvarelis, Augmenta

Fotis Fotiadis, Better Origin

Moderated by:

Apostolos Klontzaris, Flagship Pioneering

From the early successes of Greek startups like Athena Semiconductors (acquired by Broadcom) and BugSense (acquired by Splunk) to the latest $360M acquisition of InstaShop by Delivery Hero last week, the Greek startup community is realizing the viability of its businesses to reach strong exits in the international markets. Exits don’t happen overnight, however, and the journey is one of highs and lows. Join us as we hear from a group of Greek entrepreneurs who have navigated the inevitable challenges and thrills of growing a startup in order to ultimately sell their businesses.

Speakers:

Aimilios Chalamandaris, Innoetics

Conno Christou, Avocarrot

Cosma Pabouctsidis, Roboteq

George Sidiropoulos, Think Silicon

Moderated by:

Myrto Papathanou, Metavallon

"Covid-19 Genomics, Evolution, Mutation and Outlook"

Speaker: Prof. Manolis Kellis Ph.D., Professor, Computer Science, MIT

Moderated by Dr. Katia Karalis MD, PhD, Executive Director for Biology, RGC, Regeneron, Inc

"The Current Health Crisis and Biomedical Research in Greece"

Speakers:

Dr. Stelios Papadopoulos Chairman of BIOGEN

Dr. Spyros Artavanis-Tsakonas Harvard Professor Emeritus of Cell Biology

Moderated by Stratos Efthymiou Consul General of Greece in Boston

“Cyber-Security Challenges"

Speaker: Alex Stamos Director, Stanford Internet Observatory

Moderated: Michail Bletsas Director of Computing & Research Scientist, MIT Media Lab