Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Community
Professor Keravnou has been actively involved in the Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (AIM) community since the mid eighties. She served as member of the Program Committees for the AIME biannual conferences, as PC Chair for the AIME97 conference in Grenoble and as Organizing Committee Chair for the AIME03 conference that was hosted in Cyprus. During the period 2003-2005 she served as Chairperson of the Board of the Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Europe.
The areas of research she is mostly known for are competent expert systems, deep expert systems, time representation and temporal reasoning in medicine and temporal clinical diagnosis. In particular, the special issue on deep models for medical expert systems and the two special issues on temporal reasoning in medicine of the Artificial Intelligence in Medicine journal that she was invited to guest-edit are considered by the community as landmarks.
As a result of her work in temporal reasoning in medicine, as well as the work of Professor Yuval Shahar (Beer Sheva University) in the same area, the two were invited to write the chapter on temporal reasoning in medicine, for the first ever Handbook of Temporal Reasoning in Artificial Intelligence. This collection, edited by Michael Fisher, Dov M. Gabbay and Lluis Vila, and published by Elsevier in 2005, is considered to be the primary reference work in the area of temporal reasoning in AI.
The new book on “Temporal Information Systems in Medicine” authored by Professor Carlo Combi (University of Verona), Professor Elpida Keravnou-Papailiou and Professor Yuval Shahar (Beer Sheva University), and published by Springer (2010) represents the attempts, of the three authors, over the last decade to cover as comprehensively as possible the engineering of information systems for medically-related problems and applications with time as the centre point. This is a rapidly growing multi-disciplinary field of research impinging on the work of a number of research communities (database systems, Artificial Intelligence, AIM and medical informatics, communities). The book which is unique in its perspective is forwarded by one of the AIM community pioneers, Professor Jim Hunter (Aberystwyth University) who says “This book provides an excellent starting point for anyone wishing to understand the current state of the art and has been written by three of the most respected researchers in the field.”. The book is already receiving positive reviews.
Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Journal
A major sign of recognition of her early research contributions in medical expert systems was the invitation by Professor Kazem Zadeh (University of Münster) to join the international editorial board for a new journal on the rising field of AI in medicine, and also to contribute a paper for the inaugural issue of the journal. She is honoured to be involved with the journal Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (as Associate editor) since its launch in 1989 and to see it establishing itself as a premier publication forum for its area (5-year impact factor: 2.447). She guest-edited or co-guest-edited nine special issues of the journal and has published a number of her articles in this journal.
Intelligent Data Analysis in Medicine and Phramacology (IDAMAP) Workshop Series
In 1996 Professor Nada Lavrac (Jozef Stefan Institute, Slovenia) invited Professor Keravnou to start together a series of workshops on Intelligent Data Analysis in Medicine and Pharmacology with a prime aim to bring together researchers from the machine learning and temporal reasoning in medicine fields, and to co-chair the first IDAMAP workshop in August 1996. This series has been going strong, for the last fifteen years, attracting increasing attention and broadening its scope with new areas. The IDAMAP workshop series has resulted in a number of influential publications starting with a seminal book volume based on the inaugural workshop (Lavrac N., Keravnou E.T., and Zupan B. (editors) (1997), Intelligent Data Analysis in Medicine and Pharmacology, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 310 pages).
Doctoral graduates at the University of Cyprus
Professor Keravnou supervised the first PhD graduate of the Department of Computer Science of the University of Cyprus. She was Eleni Christodoulou who graduated in 1999. Since her PhD, Eleni Christodoulou has pursued a joint career in industry and academia. Most notably, she was a member of the DITIS research team. This project received an eHealth award ranking it among the best 20 e-Health projects in the European Union (out of 179 EU projects) and was presented at the e-Health Ministerial conference 2003. In addition, DITIS was ranked seventh amongst over eighty products at the World Summit Award (WSA) Competition, October 2003.
Professor Keravnou has also supervised another PhD student of the Department of Computer Science of the University of Cyprus, Hariklea Kazeli, who obtained her PhD degree in 2006. Dr Kazeli developed an intelligent hybrid decision support system for the management of water resources for the needs of the Water Development Department (WDD) of Cyprus. The routine use of this system by the WDD will have a major impact on the serious water shortage problem of Cyprus. Hariklea’s research was funded by a European project (MEDWATER) and a Cyprus Research Foundation grant (NHREYS). It is worth noting that during her PhD studies Hariklea Kazeli received the first prize in the International Scientific Research Contest for Young Researchers in the Second Symposium for Water Management. Presently Hariklea Kazeli pursues a joint career in industry and academia.
Development of Higher Education in Cyprus
The admission of the first students at the University in Cyprus in September 1992 marked the commencement of higher education in Cyprus. Since then two other state universities have been established (the Open University of Cyprus and the Cyprus University of Technology). In addition, four private universities have been registered and given probationary license to operate following recommendations of the Evaluation Committee for Private Universities (ECPU). Professor Keravnou’s involvement in the development of higher education in Cyprus, both public and private, and the consolidation of the various institutional frameworks is widely recognized by the academic community of Cyprus, the state that has entrusted her with major educationally-related responsibilities and the broader society of Cyprus. She was amongst the first members of academic staff appointed at the University of Cyprus, and since then she has held a number of academic administrative positions (following election/re-election) of increasing responsibility (Departmental Chair, Dean and Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs). In addition, she served on the Preparatory Committee for the establishment of the Open University in Cyprus, and she has recently completed a two year term (2009-2010) as President of the Governing Board of the Cyprus University of Technology, having the dual responsibilities and duties of Rector and University Council Chair. This last role was particularly challenging given the crucial developmental state of the Cyprus University of Technology in the period leading to its autonomy and the delivery of its first graduates to the society, as well as the need to establish and pursue its longer term strategic goals and developmental plans in an increasingly competitive scene. Regarding the development of private higher education in Cyprus, Professor Keravnou has had and continues to have a noticeable impact, both by having served a five-year term as a member of the Council for Educational Evaluation-Accreditation (SEKAP), which is responsible for the external quality assurance of private colleges of tertiary education, and by currently serving a second five-year term as a member of the ECPU. The establishment of three private universities in Cyprus in 2007 (and a fourth one in 2010), has more than doubled the number of university places for study in Cyprus and has created many new opportunities for academic and research staff. In this connection, Professor Keravnou’s vision for the future is focused on the further development of the state universities (by exploiting synergies and avoiding duplication) and on increasing the national funding for research on the basis of clearly defined strategic goals.
Overall societal impact
In addition to her standard academic duties of teaching and research and her special University administration duties outlined above (Departmental Chair, Dean, Vice-Rector, University President), Professor Keravnou has, or has had, various other educationally-related duties with major impact on the broader society of Cyprus: Chairperson for the Cyprus Council for the Recognition of Higher Education Qualifications (KYSATS), Bologna Expert, National Academic Contact Point for Recognition, Member of a Specialist Committee for Educational Reforms, Vice-Chair of the ad hoc Committee for unifying and modernizing the legislation for Higher Education in Cyprus, Consultant to the Ministry of Education and Culture on matters regarding the preparation of legislation for the establishment of a National Quality Assurance and Accreditation Agency for Higher Education in Cyprus.
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1996: Promoted to Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Cyprus