1. highlights
INNO
Science in Society death of 50,000 Athenians during the first
phase of the Peloponnesian War and became
According to a recent Eurobarometer sur- known as "the plague of Athens"), and
vey, 79% of Europeans are interested in culminating in the reconstruction of the
VATION
scientific and technological breakthroughs face of an 11 year-old victim of the plague.
and 75% believe that science and tech-
nology will create more opportunities for Recently, Myrtis was made a "Millennium
future generations. In our country, 37% Friend", acting as an ambassador for the
of Greeks say they are very interested in UN Millenium Development Goals - an
scientific discoveries and technological agreement between all 192 member states
RESEARCH & developments. However, opinions differ
on the role of science in everyday life.
to tackle, amongst other issues, the threat
of disease and epidemics.
ΤECHNOLOGY The main article of this issue is dedicated
to the relationship between the Greeks
and Science and to Greek organizations' i Myrtis
http://www.myrtis.gr/
initiatives to "communicate science" to
the public in a delightful and creative way.
The events "Science Society" and "Sunday
mornings" by the National Hellenic Research Greek "trading agents"
Foundation, the contest FameLab by British
Council and many other interactive exhi-
conquer Harvard!
bitions and events are presented in this
The Market Design category of the annu-
issue. Furthermore, Professor Frank Burnet,
al Trading Agent Competition - TAC 2010,
the first Professor of Science Communication
held at Harvard University in June, was
in the United Kingdom, speaks to "Innovation,
won by a team from the Electrical and
Research and Technology" about science
Computer Engineering Department at
"Green" project in Greece in our society.
the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
recognized among The team was awarded first place in the
"Best of the Best"
i
Eurobarometer Special competition for their project "software
Survey on Science & agents" - a sophisticated software pro-
LIFE-Environment projects Technology gram that executes electronic transac-
http://ec.europa.eu/public_opi tions automatically and autonomously,
A Greek project was among the five pro- nion/archives/eb_special_en.h
jects that were recently recognized as the and can take part in online auctions.
tm#340
"Best of the Best" LIFE-Environment pro-
jects by the European Commission. National Hellenic Research The TAC, which is held annually, is designed
Foundation to spur research on common problems,
"EnviFriendly - Environmental Friendly
http://www.eie.gr promote the definition of benchmarks,
Technologies for Rural Development" is
a scheme designed by a consortium of Frank Burnet standardize problem descriptions, and
Greek institutes coordinated by the http://www.frankburnet.com/ showcase current technologies. This year's
Prefecture of Laconia to develop ‘com- competition pitted software agents -
mon sense’ environmentally-friendly tech- developed by research groups, students
nologies to reduce agricultural pollution. and others from all over the world - against
The project developed an integrated man- each other in three challenging market
Myrtis comes back to life games: TAC Ad Auctions, TAC Market
agement plan for the Evrotas River Basin
and coastal zone, combining environ-
after 2,500 years Design and TAC Supply Chain Management.
mentally friendly technologies and socio- Amongst historic artifacts at the National
economic factors. The team, named Mertacor, not only won
Archaeological Museum of Athens found 1st place in the TAC Market Design game
recently the 11 year old Myrtis, the young but also came 3rd in the TAC Ad Auction
The "Best LIFE-Environment Projects" ini-
Athenian girl that lived and died during the and 6th in the TAC Supply Chain Management
tiative aims to improve the dissemination
5th century BC. Some 2,500 years later, games. Furthermore, the Greek research
of LIFE projects whose results could have
Myrtis comes "face to face" with the cit- team was asked to cooperate with Minnesota
a significantly positive impact on the envi-
izens of the 21st century, thanks to an inter- University and the Erasmus University of
ronment. The winners were selected from
national, multi-sectoral scientific collabo- Rotterdam in designing a new TAC game,
57 projects funded during 2009. While
ration employing state-of-the-art technology. "TAC Energy", based upon the idea of a
the initial technical assessment was car-
ried out by the LIFE Unit's External Assistance stock market for energy. The Mertacor
The exhibition "Myrtis: Face to Face with team consists of Labros Stavrogiannis,
Team, the final selection – namely, the
the past" is a travelling exhibition designed Kiriakos Hatzidimitriou, Andreas Simeonidis
five "Best of the Best" projects - was
to be transported to, and assembled in, and Periklis Mitkas. The name "Mertacor"
made by the EU Member States.
suitable places of reception, both in Greece is a variation of the Latin word "merca-
and abroad. The aim of this exhibition is tor", meaning "trader".
i
EnviFriendly to present to the public the various stages
http://www.envifriendly.tuc.gr/ involved in the reconstruction of Myrtis'
i
face, starting with the archeological exca- Mertacor
Best LIFE-Environment http://issel.ee.auth.gr/doku.p
Projects 2009 vation of the mass grave in the ancient
hp/software/mertacor
http://ec.europa.eu/environme cemetery of Kerameikos, through the study
nt/life/bestprojects/best2009- of the skeletal material it contained (in order Τrading Agent Competition
2010/index.htm to determine the disease that caused the http://www.sics.se/tac/
32 ΚΑΙΝΟΤΟΜΙΑ ΕΡΕΥΝΑ & ΤΕΧΝΟΛΟΓΙΑ Ι 06 - 07 / 2010