KIOS Research and Innovation Center of Excellence

On 23 June 2026, KIOS Research and Innovation Center of Excellence and Digital Innovation Hub Cyprus - Diginn brought together businesses, public organisations, and infrastructure bodies at the University of Cyprus for a workshop on Smart Digital Solutions for Modern Organisations and Businesses.

KIOS researchers showcased innovative technologies — from Digital Twins and AI-powered planning tools to smart infrastructure management platforms — that can be directly applied by organisations and businesses in Cyprus.

Participants also learned about the free digital transformation support services offered through DiGiNN and Pharos-CY, two European projects co-funded by the European Commission and the Deputy Ministry of Research, Innovation, and Digital Policy.

On 16 June 2026, KIOS Research Lecturer Dr. Andreas Kasis took part in a high-level policy panel at the Open Source and the European Union | Cyprus – OFE Capital Series in Nicosia, organised by OpenForum Europe and ELLAK Cyprus as part of the Cyprus Open Digital Futures Week.

The panel explored how Cyprus can build its open source ecosystem across academia, research, public administration, and industry. Dr. Kasis shared KIOS' perspective on Open Science — including how to balance openness with intellectual property, innovation, and commercialisation to maximise the impact of research.

From detection and tracking to fail-safe systems — KIOS Research and Innovation Center of Excellence researchers made a strong contribution to this year's International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS 2026), held in Corfu, Greece, on 15–18 June, contributing four presentations across two specialised sessions.

In the session "UAS Applications I: Detection, Tracking and Counter UAS", the team presented work on predictive control for coordinated search and tracking of maritime targets, a topology-aware spatiotemporal handover framework for continuous multi-UAV tracking, and rogue drone detection and tracking using vision and rangefinder measurements, while in the session "Reliability, Fail-Safe Systems and Airworthiness", also presented an onboard transformer-based, physics-informed system for UAV trajectory prediction and state classification in GNSS-denied environments.

Knowledge sharing took centre stage at KIOS on 17 June as we hosted the 1st session of our new Show & Tell series — an initiative designed to foster informal collaboration and knowledge exchange across our research teams.

A full house of researchers gathered to explore three interesting topics:
🔹 "Twin It to Win It: One Step Ahead of Disaster" by Dr. Balaji V Venkatasubramanian, Research Associate.
🔹 "When Vehicles Talk: 5G, Big Data, and the Future of Smart Mobility", by Panayiotis Chrysanthou, Software Engineer.
🔹 "Identifying Crime-as-a-Service Infrastructures: A Collaborative Approach with Okta" by Michael Photiades, PhD Student.

This is just the beginning. We look forward to many more sessions that bring our teams together, spark new ideas, and strengthen the collaborative spirit at KIOS Research and Innovation Center of Excellence.

As energy systems grow increasingly interconnected, securing them becomes ever more critical. COCOON Cooperative Cyber Protection for Modern Power Grids, an EU-funded Horizon Innovation Action project coordinated by KIOS Research and Innovation Center of Excellence at the University of Cyprus, is rising to that challenge — delivering a practical cyber-physical systems solution for converged Electrical Power and Energy Systems (EPES) by bridging secure networked systems.

The project was recently showcased at the IVI Summit 2026 at Maynooth University — an annual gathering bringing together experts on digital transformation, data, and AI from research, technology, finance, and the public sector — by KIOS PhD student Michael Photiades.

As European aviation continues to evolve in response to emerging technologies, sustainability objectives, and growing security challenges, collaboration between policymakers, industry, and research organizations is essential to building a safer, smarter, and more resilient aviation ecosystem.

In this context, the KIOS Research and Innovation Center of Excellence participated in the European Aviation Strategy Summit and Exhibition, hosted by the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the EU 2026 in Nicosia on 14–15 June 2026.

The KIOS team showcased its innovative hardware and software solutions for drone and counter-drone technologies, highlighting research and innovation of Eu-funded projects EUSOME, COLLARIS2, FEDORA, REACTION and ProtecDOME that support the safe integration of emerging technologies and strengthen the resilience of critical aviation infrastructure.

The event provided an excellent opportunity to engage with European stakeholders, exchange ideas, and explore future collaborations in the field of aviation innovation.

The KIOS Research and Innovation Center of Excellence team was at the IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR 2026) in Denver, Colorado — one of the world's leading venues for computer vision and AI research.

Dr. Christos Kyrkou, Research Lecturer, presented work on a compact computer vision model bringing stronger AI capabilities to small devices like smartphones, drones, and IoT sensors, while Mehmet Demirel, Research Associate, introduced a diffusion-based method for generating labelled annotations with minimal supervision — with promising applications in medical imaging, satellite imagery, and industrial inspection.

Both contributions were carried out within the framework of the GuardAI project.

It was an honour to see the KIOS Research and Innovation Center of Excellence expertise represented on the European stage.

Our Research Assist. Prof. Demetris Eliades joined Cetaqua - Water Technology Centre 's 20th anniversary celebration in Barcelona, delivering a presentation on the European roadmap for water resilience.

The event, held at the Museu de les Aigües de Cornellà de Llobregat, brought together leading authorities, researchers, and innovators to reflect on two decades of transformation in the water sector — and on the priorities that will shape its future.

Water resilience is a defining challenge of our time. The KIOS Research and Innovation Center of Excellence is committed to contributing the science and innovation it demands.