During the week of September 12, 2016, ACT welcomed over 200 incoming study abroad students from more than 20 universities across the United States.  The cohort includes students for the ninth year of cooperation with the N.U.in Program from Northeastern University.  The majority of this year's cohort are STEM majors, reflecting a growing trend across the US of students in the Science and Technology fields seeking opportunities to study abroad.  The vast majority of the incoming class of study abroad students will remain with ACT for the duration of one semester before returning to their home school.  The semester long program offers students rigorous academics, ample opportunities to engage in service to the community, cultural excursions, resume-building enrichment activities and workshops.  The multi-national makeup of ACT's student body offers an rich environment for cross-cultural exchanges of ideas and ACT welcomes the shared knowledge and experience of the incoming study abroad class by offering three places on the Student Government Association (SGA).  

George Papadimitropoulos, an ACT Computer Science major, participated in the Athens Drone GP (http://athensdronegp.gr/adgp/).   George won two first places in the Racing and Freestyle competition categories.  He competed with a quad-copter that he designed, constructed and developed.

George is working with his fellow classmates on Drone construction and development at the American College of Thessaloniki, ACT.

Fpv Drone racing first appeared in 2014 in Australia and quickly spread as a sport around the world.  World and National competitions are very popular and are acquiring an even larger following every year.

In Fpv Drone racing, specialized pilots fly drones in a 3D racing track with speed up to 150 km/hr.  The racing Drones are constructed by the pilots themselves or their racing team, targeting speed, agility, and robustness criteria.  The pilots fly the drones with the use of goggles which receive live-feed from the drone’s on-board camera.

ACT Professor of Philosophy Dr. Vincent Müller was interviewed for the techemergence.com a media and market research firm focused on artificial intelligence and machine learning.

What is intelligence? For some researchers, it may be quite possible to create an intelligent machine ‘in a box’, something without physical embodiment but with a powerful mind. Others believe general intelligence requires interaction with the outside world, inferring information from gestures and other features of functioning in an environment. Dr. Vincent Müller is of the belief that intelligence may involve more than just mental algorithms and may need to include the capacity to sense rather than just run a program. Professor Müller focuses on cognitive systems as an approach to AI, and in this episode he talks about what this means and implies, how this approach is different from classical AI, and what this might permit in the future if the field is developed.

The research team of Prof. Vincent C. Müller and Dr. Alexandre Erler at ACT – American College of Thessaloniki is writing on characteristic cases of ethical issues of DiDIY, such as gun control (handguns & drones), human organ printing, synthetic biology and biohacking, employment and customisation as well as education. Their work is part of the European H2020 project "Digital DIY" (www.didiy.eu) which brings together 7 European institutions, from design to business, to research for 30 months with an overall budget of 2,1mil€.

You can listen to the conversation using the following link http://techemergence.com/is-embodied-intelligence-a-necessity-for-flexible-adaptive-thinking-a-conversation-with-vincent-muller/

TechEmergence is a media and market research firm focused on artificial intelligence and machine learning. It covers business and research developments, as well as industry interview and consensus polls of artificial intelligence experts and AI-savvy executives. Every week they discuss progress and predictions in emerging technologies with researchers at top universities, startup founders and technology investors.

It was an emotional and joyful evening for ACT’s graduating undergraduate and graduate students celebrating the successful completion of their studies. During the 2016 Commencement ceremony which took place on campus, at ACT’s open amphitheater, certificates and diplomas were awarded to all graduates, as well as awards given to students who excelled in academia, but also in sports and other extracurricular activities offered by the non-profit educational organization. As every year, ACT also awarded the Philip and Marjorie Ireland Humanitarian & Public Service Award. This year, the prize was awarded to non-profit NGO A 21 for its work against human trafficking, sexual exploitation and forced labor.

The commencement speech this year was given by Marina Hatsopoulos, a successful US entrepreneur and angel investor of Greek descent, who is also Chairperson of the Board and investor in Levitronix Technologies, the worldwide leader in magnetically-levitated motor technology. Using Greece, Aristotle and Alexander the Great as points of reference in her speech, Ms. Hatsopoulos addressed the graduating students with disarming directness, sharing with them the valuable experience she gained throughout her professional career.

“One of the most fulfilling sources of happiness is having an impact and making change in the world around you. Stay and do that. Greece needs clear-minded, well-educated youth to do nothing less than help steer it on a new course. In just a blink of an eye, your generation will be leading the world, and you’ll know these people: the politicians, entrepreneurs, journalists, artists and teachers who shape lives and countries. You can even be one of them. Forget about the American Dream. You should create the Greek Dream” urged Ms. Hatsopoulos.

Four unique days full of creativity, cooperativeness and familiarity with the business thinking had the opportunity to experience pupils who attended from the 21^st till the 24^th of June Young Business Creators, a new and innovative program of Anatolia College.
The Entrepreneurship Hub of the Anatolia School of Business in cooperation with Anatolia elementary conducted Young Business Creators, based on the method of Jacobson Institute for Youth Entrepreneurship of the University of Iowa, whose expertise and instructional materials were adopted by the Anatolia College.

The intensive summer program was held in the ACT premises and 26 pupils attended it from the fifth and sixth grade from the elementary school.  During the six-hour courses and through team work, young entrepreneurs learned step - step how to "build" their small businesses and manufacture their products and as important representatives of "modern entrepreneurship" presented them during the program.  On the last day, children were informed by businessmen of Thessaloniki, they presented their products to their parents and were given participation diplomas.                         

The amount raised from the sale of the products was donated to the NGO Desmos to cover needs in equipment and supplies of a newly established Centre for Refugee Accommodation in Oreokastro Thessaloniki.                                                                                 

On Wednesday, June 22, 2016, in Bissell Library of ACT- American College of Thessaloniki the Awards Ceremony of the winners and finalists of the 3^rd Business Plan Competition «John and Mary Pappajohn Business Plan Awards» took place, organized by Anatolia School of Business of ACT. In this year's competition 139 ideas were submitted, among which the five winning teams were emerged. The winners were awarded five prizes amounting to 4,000 euros each which were given by the Greek origin businessman John Pappajohn.

The teams that were awarded are:

The S.A.R.M Project:  The team developed a new type of concentric rotary internal combustion engine, called SARM, smaller in size and weight compared to the modern commercial engines and with less consumption – because its exhausts contain up to 80% less NOx. The almost zero vibration levels ensure smooth operation in applications such as exoskeletons and drones.

e-troufa:  A special category of mushrooms, the truffle, is the entrepreneurship interest of the team which is already commercially active in the Greek market. The aim of the team is to bring to the world the Greek truffle as a famous domestic brand, promote its cultivation, produce truffle products and expand sales mainly abroad.

Best Back Seat:  The Best Back Seat is an augmented reality application that creates a panoramic view with the help of six camera system.  Later the view is upgraded, with the inclusion of information about the surrounding area. In this panorama, vehicle passengers can be navigated with the help of virtual reality glasses enjoying the unobstructed view of the route and taking information about their place of transit.

Turnand:  The first product of the Greek manufacturer of intelligent peripheral products for mobile devices is an innovative case which allows the conversion of a smartphone mobile into a game console, an idea which was born by the founders of the company while playing with an old GameBoy. The goal of the company is to enter the American market through the crowd funding platform.

Recording, digitization and management of water networks and sewerage: The business idea is to list the installed underground utility networks of Greece, through advanced surveying methods (GPR) which sweep the subsoil via electromagnetic waves. Then the digitization and display of such networks is done on the bases of Geographic Information Systems (G.I.S.).  The integrated view of the location and information of the water networks makes easier its management, maintenance and operation.

Twenty five distinguished doctors, scientists, ethicists, and policy analysts participated in a cutting edge research workshop, held from 24 to 26 May 2016 at Brocher Foundation, Geneva, to discuss for the first time the developments and the ethical challenges of 3D bioprinting. Among them Prof. Vincent Müller and Dr. Alexandre Erler of the American College of Thessaloniki (ACT) who delivered a lecture under the title “Human body in the age of mechanical reproduction: Some ethical concerns of 3D bioprinting”.

3D bioprinting is a developing technology relying, as its name indicates, on the principles of 3D printing (also known as ‘additive manufacturing’). It involves the ability to build bones and various kinds of human tissue, and might ultimately give us the ability to build whole organs, layer by layer, in a digitally controlled manner, using cells as raw material. Despite initial successes and high medical hopes for 3D bioprinting, it is not free of ethical challenges.

Prof. Vincent Müller (www.sophia.de), Professor of Philosophy at ACT, and Dr. Alexandre Erler, Research Fellow at ACT, discussed the potential of these technologies for enhancing humans, e.g. making them stronger, more intelligent, less susceptible to disease or more beautiful. On the other hand, the technologies can be used for medical therapy, e.g. in producing organs that cannot be found from human donors, in replacing damaged body parts such as heart valves or arteries, for drug-testing on artificial tissue rather than animals. The arising question is if there is a plausible borderline between use for ‘enhancement’ and use for ‘therapy’.

The digital Do-It-Yourself (DiDIY) revolution allows individuals, enthusiastic ‘Makers’, creative designers and educators to make a virtually endless variety of things, often from their home: from mobile phones, spare parts, clothing, artwork, or prosthetic limbs, to guns or biological weapons. The research team of Prof. Vincent C. Müller and Dr. Alexandre Erler at ACT is writing on characteristic cases of ethical issues of DiDIY, such as gun control (handguns & drones), human organ printing, synthetic biology and biohacking, employment and customisation as well as education. Their work is part of the European H2020 project "Digital DIY" (www.didiy.eu) which brings together 7 European institutions, from design to business, to research for 30 months with an overall budget of 2,1mil€.

"News from the Recent Quake"

A Poetry Reading by
Doug Babington
"From Letter - Writing to Poetry: Thessaloniki 1978 - 1980"