Research News

Dr. Niakaris, Provost of the Hellenic American University, will present her work: “A Comprehensive Approach to Program Assessment”, in the poster session of the NECHE conference in December. Annual program assessment is part of Hellenic American University’s commitment to teaching and learning as reflected in the New England Commission of Higher Education Standard 6. Each year, in addition to student evaluations, one program is selected on a rotation basis for a broader assessment, which is conducted by the Provost. This assessment draws on input from faculty, students, external reviewers, and classroom observations.

In March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 program assessment for the Informatics and Engineering Division needed to be conducted online. As a newly appointed Interim Provost, and with the approval of the Academic Directors’ group, I took on the responsibility for conducting the annual program assessment. This new role provided an opportunity to question the effectiveness of program assessment in an online environment in regard to student focus groups, virtual classroom observations with the use of a checklist, post lesson discussions with instructors, and input from external reviewers. The poster presentation will address issues relating to the organization of online program assessment, limitations of observation checklists, and use of reflective practice in giving feedback to instructors.

Dr Kalliopi Koundouri, art historian and adjunct faculty member will present her paper at The Multiple Antiquities of Greek Modernity (19th - 21st centuries) International Conference, 24-26 September 2020, Panteion University, Athens, Greece.

Dr Panayotis Kalozoumis (Assistant Professor in the Division of IT and Engineering) has had his new paper on "Coherent population oscillations and an effective spin-exchange interaction in a PT-symmetric polariton mixture", published in in the international, peer-reviewed journal Europhysics Letters. The results contribute to the field of quantum technologies, interfacing with the concepts of quantum simulations and quantum computing. This work was done in collaboration with the Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser in FORTH and in particular with  Theoretical Quantum Optics and Technology group. 

Dr Dimitris Zoakos (Adjunct Faculty member in the Division of IT and Engineering) published his new work “Giant gravitons on the Schrödinger pp-wave geometry” in the international, peer-reviewed Journal of High Energy Physics. The paper falls within the field of string theory and presents a set of new results about the giant graviton solution of a family of supergravity backgrounds.

Dr Kalliopi Koundouri, art historian and adjunct faculty member, has had her paper on “A particular kind of monumentality in the work of Mark Rothko, ” which she delivered at the International Conference “On Monumentality” organized by the Hellenic Open University (March 2019), selected for publication; it will be out this September. Also, her paper “Which Athens? Between past and present. A hybrid city in the making” will be presented at The Multiple Antiquities of Greek Modernity (19th - 21st centuries) International Conference, 24-26 September 2020, Panteion University, Athens, Greece.