Panayiotis Smeros

Computer Science Researcher (He/Him)

Hey there! Welcome to this corner of the internet where you can learn a bit about me!

I am Panayiotis, a computer scientist specializing in developing systems with societal impact within collaborative and interdisciplinary environments. I have eleven years of experience in Data Analytics, spanning research and development roles in Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning, and Semantic Web.

Currently, I work at the University of Bern (UniBE), applying Large Language Models (LLMs) to advance computational sociology. Previously, during my PhD at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), I developed models to combat scientific misinformation and support computational journalism, while leading a small team of students and software engineers. Early in my career, at the University of Athens (UoA), I focused on knowledge graph engineering with applications in earth observation.

Professional Experience

Natural Language Processing Researcher

University of Bern (UniBE)

As a researcher at UniBE, I specialize in developing innovative methods for modeling and analyzing the evolution of adolescent morality, which led to a publication at a top-tier conference (IC2S2). Highlights:

MoraLLM: A Large Language Model for Morality Quantification (Open-Source Software)
Modeling Meaning in Text Data for the Social Sciences (SNSF Project)

2023-

Machine Learning Researcher

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)

As a researcher at EPFL, I specialized in developing innovative methods for combating online scientific misinformation, which led to four publications at top-tier conferences (WWW, VLDB, CIKM, and ICWSM). Furthermore, I coordinated a team of four master’s students, two PhD candidates, and two software engineers on the development of a real-time news analytics platform for investigating the media landscape at scale. Highlights:

SciClops - SciLens - SciLander: Combating Online Scientific Misinformation (Open-Source Software)
NewsTeller: Real-Time News Analytics Platform (Proprietary Software)
Media Observatory (Initiative for Media Innovation)
Media in the Digital Age (Special Interest Group)
The Importance of Journalism for the Digital Information Behaviour of Young Adults (SNSF Project)

2016-2022

Semantic Web Researcher

University of Athens (UoA)

As a researcher at UoA, I specialized in developing innovative methods for geospatial and temporal retrieval and link discovery, which led to three publications at top-tier conferences (LDOW, ESWC, and AAAI). Highlights:

Silk: Linked Data Integration Framework (Open-Source Software)
Strabon: Semantic SpatioTemporal RDF Store (Open-Source Software)
LEO: Linked Open Earth Observation Data for Precision Farming (CORDIS - EU Project)
MELODIES: Maximising the Exploitation of Linked Open Data In Enterprise & Science (CORDIS - EU Project)
TELEIOS: Virtual Observatory Infrastructure for Earth Observation Data (CORDIS - EU Project)

2013-2015

Education

PhD Student

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)

Thesis: Combating Online Scientific Misinformation

Advisors: Karl Aberer, Carlos Castillo

2016-2022

MSc Student

University of Athens (UoA)

Thesis: Discovering Spatial and Temporal Links among RDF Data

Supervisor: Manolis Koubarakis

2011-2014

BSc Student

University of Athens (UoA)

Thesis: Storing RDF data and evaluating SPARQL queries using MapReduce

Supervisor: Manolis Koubarakis

2007-2011

Technical Skills

Programming Languages: Python, R, Java, Scala, C/C++, Prolog, Bash Scripting

Analytics, Statistics, Visualization: Tableau, Pandas, NumPy, Statsmodels, SciPy, Seaborn, Plotly, Matplotlib

Machine Learning & Natural Language Processing: PyTorch, Scikit-learn, SpaCy, NLTK, Transformers (LLMs)

Big Data & Distributed Computing: Spark, Hadoop, Kafka, PostgreSQL, PostGIS, MySQL, CUDA, MPI

Knowledge Graphs & Ontology Engineering: NetworkX, Neo4j, RDF, OWL, SPARQL, XML, Linked Data

Other Technical Skills: Prompt Engineering, AWS, Docker, Beautiful Soup

Version Control & Project Management: Git, SVN, MeisterTask, JIRA, Trello

Selected Publications

[IC2S2'24] P. Smeros, A. Edelmann. MoraLLM: Morality Quantification on Interviews Using Zero-Shot Classification. [pdf]

[ICWSM'23] M. Gruppi, P. Smeros, S. Adali, C. Castillo, K. Aberer. SciLander: Mapping the Scientific News Landscape. [pdf, bib]

[CIKM'21] P. Smeros, C. Castillo, K. Aberer. SciClops: Detecting and Contextualizing Scientific Claims for Assisting Manual Fact-Checking. [pdf, slides, bib]

[VLDB'20] A. Romanou, P. Smeros, C. Castillo, K. Aberer. SciLens News Platform: A System for Real-Time Evaluation of News Articles. [pdf, bib]

[WWW'19] P. Smeros, C. Castillo, K. Aberer. SciLens: Evaluating the Quality of Scientific News Articles Using Social Media and Scientific Literature Indicators. [pdf, slides, bib]

[AAAI'17] M.A. Sherif, K. Dreßler, P. Smeros, A.-C. Ngonga Ngomo. Radon - Rapid Discovery of Topological Relations. [pdf]

[LDOW'16] P. Smeros, M. Koubarakis. Discovering Spatial and Temporal Links among RDF Data. [pdf, slides]

[ESWC'13] K. Bereta, P. Smeros, M. Koubarakis. Representing and Querying the Valid Time of Triples for Linked Geospatial Data. [pdf]

Here is the full list of my publications, and my DBLP and Google Scholar profiles.

Academic Activities

Research Visitor: Data Science Group (University of Edinburgh, 2015), Agile Knowledge Engineering & Semantic Web Group (University of Leipzig, 2015), Database Architectures Group (Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica, 2013)

Teaching Assistant: Distributed Information Systems & Applied Data Analysis (EPFL, 2016-2020), Artificial Intelligence & Knowledge Technologies (UoA, 2011-2015)

Workshop Organizer: MEDIATE ’20-’22, LinkedGeo ’15

Scientific Reviewer: ICDE ’18-’21, COLING ’20, TWEB ’20, EDBT ’17-’20, CIKM ’19, WISE ’18-’19, ESWC ’13-’19, BigData ’17-’18, ISWC ’14, JWS ’13

Conference Attendee: IC2S2 ’24, ICWSM ’22, CIKM ’21, TTO ’20-’21, VLDB ’20, TheWebConf ’16-’19, AMLD ’17-’19, ESWC ’13-’15, RR ’14, RW ’14, EDF ’14