The last event of the Committee "Greece 2021", before the end of the anniversary year, took place at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, in the presence of the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the Chairman of the Committee, Gianna Angelopoulou - Daskalaki.
This is the announcement of the creation of the "Archimedes" Unit at the "Athena" Research Center, for which the "Greece 2021" Committee worked systematically, implementing a proposal of the members of the Plenary, Christos Papadimitriou and Konstantinos Daskalakis.
In her speech, Ms. Angelopoulou pointed out that "the creation of this research institute was linked to our choice to include this research institute in the program coordinated by the Commission. Because our logic is that we can not only celebrate the 200th anniversary, a year of honor and memory, but this can also be a window to face the Greece of the future".
"We have the necessary human resources," added the President of the Commission, funding ". The Commission forwarded the proposal to the European Mechanism for Development and Sustainability, where an amount of € 21.000.000 was evaluated and approved, which will be allocated for the operation of the Unit for the coming years.
"I express the certainty that the new Unit of" Athena "will flourish and will succeed in bringing the change of example in Greece to a scientific area, which as difficult as it is for us non-experts, is of great importance for our future", stressed.
A discussion followed with the participation of the Prime Minister, the President and General Manager of the "Athena" Research Center, Giannis Emiri, the members of the Plenary Session of the "Greece 2021" Committee, Christos Papadimitriou, Konstantinos Daskalakis and Markos Veremis. The discussion was moderated by the Secretary General of Research and Innovation, Athanasios Kyriazis.
During the discussion, Konstantinos Daskalakis noted that algorithms make statistical analysis of data available on the Internet and that they will enter all areas of our lives, even in areas that at the moment we can not imagine. Christos Papadimitriou, for his part, pointed out that this unit will strengthen the extroversion of Greece in this field, with the aim of keeping young scientists in the country but also to strengthen cooperation with scientists from abroad and the Greek community. It will also act as a communication channel with corresponding research units abroad.
Giannis Emiris stressed that "" Archimedes "is a lever that goes ahead of us, it is an important addition that strengthens the research work of" Athena ". He also explained how "Archimedes" is going to affect the research ecosystem of the whole country.
The Prime Minister congratulated the Commission for this initiative and stressed that it is "an important dowry for the country. It is a vision of the leading minds of artificial intelligence which is being put into practice with the help of the "Greece 2021" Commission ".
The full greeting of the President of the Committee "Greece 2021":
I welcome you to the last event of the Committee "Greece 2021", on the subject of the official announcement of the creation of the "ARCHIMEDES" Unit at the "Athena" Research Center, with the object of research in the field of Artificial Intelligence, Data Science and Algorithms.
So Archimedes, one of the most important mathematicians and inventors of Antiquity, meets Athena, the goddess of wisdom and knowledge.
It was our choice. It was our choice to include this Research Institute in the program coordinated by the Commission. Because our logic is that we can not only celebrate 200 years, a year of honor and memory but this can also be a window to face the Greece of the future.
So what better than an organization that will serve the research in the specific fields under the guidance of Greek scientists who are authorities in their field, with global recognition.
Besides, in an unexpected way, the creation of such an organization on the occasion of the Greek bicentennial, has a special symbolic value. The commemoration of Lord Byron could never be missing from the commemorations for the Greek Revolution. He was unquestionably the most prominent of the Philhellenes, who left behind a great work inextricably linked to Greece. But what most people do not know is that he left behind an equally great daughter, Augusta Anta Byron, later Countess of Lovelace. A mathematical genius whose recognition is such that the International Day for the Achievement of Women in Mathematics, Science and Technology, bears its name - Ada Lovelace Day.
From the first moment that Christos Papadimitriou and Konstantinos Daskalakis, both members of the plenary of the Committee, today we have with us Markos Veremis, a third member of the Plenary, brought the idea for the establishment of the research institute, we did our best effort, to find a way to implement this. We allocated the necessary human resources and sought help from experts, in order to build a complete proposal, with the appropriate business plan and the planned feasibility and feasibility studies, which we sent to the Ministry of Development to seek ways of financing. From there it ended up in the European Mechanism for Development and Sustainability, where an amount of € 21.000.000 was evaluated and approved, which will be allocated for the operation of the Unit for the coming years.
The effort was therefore successful thanks to the cooperation and synergy of many: obviously professors Daskalakis, Papadimitriou and Selli, who failed to be with us, the executives and external collaborators of the Commission who worked on the proposal, the executives of the Ministry of Development and the Ministry of Finance who guided us throughout the preparation phase - Mr. Prime Minister, thank you very much - and shouldered its inclusion in the Greek Plan for Development and Sustainability and now the executives of the Athena Research Center established the unit and undertook all the necessary actions to start the program.
It is a bit ungrateful to say thank you, because they all joined forces not to meet the wishes or goals of the Commission, but to serve a common purpose. To achieve something whose fruits will be reaped by the whole society. So I will limit myself to share with you my joy for the happy ending and to express the certainty that the new Unit of ATHENS will flourish and will bring, Mr. Prime Minister, the change of Example that you are trying so hard for Greece, in a scientific region that the more difficult it is for us non-experts, the more important it is for our future.
A common denominator for thinkers and researchers is that they dare to open paths where no one else has stepped before. Or else, - I will mention Byron's daughter again - in the words of Anta Lovelace, "the more I study, the more dissatisfied my mind becomes."
This insatiable curiosity about the world founded Art and Science. Ideas, like talent, can come from anywhere. They can not, however, bloom just as easily everywhere. Life sometimes poses obstacles, and I am sure, despite the fact that I do not belong to those who play the Algorithms on the fingers, but I belong to the group of optimists, that the newborn ARCHIMEDES will help to remove these obstacles. I hope that the discussion that follows will enlighten us on how this will be done.
