Michail Giannakos

About

Michail (Michalis) Giannakos is a professor of interaction design and learning technologies at the Department of Computer Science of NTNU, and Head of the Learner-Computer Interaction lab. His research focuses on the design and study of emerging technologies in online and hybrid education settings, and their connections to student and instructor experiences and practices. Giannakos has co-authored more than 150 manuscripts published in peer-reviewed journals and conferences (including Computers & Education, Computers in Human Behavior, IEEE TLT, Behaviour & Information Technology, BJET, ACM TOCE, CSCL, Interact, C&C, IDC to mention few) and has served as an evaluator for the EC and the US-NSF. He has served/serves in various organization committees (e.g., general chair, associate chair), program committees as well as editor and guest editor on highly recognized journals (e.g., BJET, Computers in Human Behavior, IEEE TOE, IEEE TLT, ACM TOCE). He has worked at several research projects funded by diverse sources like the EC, Microsoft Research, The Research Council of Norway (RCN), US-NSF, the German agency for International Academic Cooperation (DAAD), and Cheng Endowment; Giannakos is also a recipient of a Marie Curie/ERCIM fellowship, and the prestigious «Young Research Talents» grant from the Research Council of Norway. He was one of the outstanding academic fellows of NTNU (2017-2021).

Current and previous positions

2020–present Professor/Head of the Learner–Computer Interaction Lab, Dept. of Computer Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

2023–2024 EAISI Visiting Professor, Eindhoven AI Systems Institute, Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), the Netherlands

2022–2023 Honorary Professor, UCL Knowledge Lab, University College London (UCL), The UK

2017–2020 Associate Professor, Dept. of Computer Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

2014–2017 Senior Lecturer (førstelektor in Norwegian), Dept. of Computer Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

2013–2014 Assistant Professor, Dept. of Computer Science, Old Dominion University (ODU), Norfolk, VA, USA

2013 Marie Curie/ERCIM Fellow (1 year), Dept. of Computer Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

2012. Richard T. Cheng Research Fellow (visiting research fellowship - 6 Months), Centre for Real-Time Computing, VA, USA

Research

Awards and Recognition:

2023 EAISI Visiting Professor, Eindhoven AI Systems Institute, Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), the Netherlands
2022 Honorary Professor, UCL Knowledge Lab, University College London (UCL), The UK
2022 IDC Best Paper Award
2020 ITiCSE Top 5 papers in 25 Years Award (1 of the top 5 WG papers on the 25 years of ACM ITiCSE’s life)
2019 Best Paper Award Nominee at EC-TEL’19
2018 Best Demo Award at LAK’18
2018 ACM Recognition of Service Award 2018
2017 Outstanding Academic Award (NTNU’s promising young scientists 2017-2020)
2017 Best Paper Award at IEEE ICALT’17
2016 RCN Young Research Talent grant, The Research Council of Norway (RCN)
2013 ERCIM “Alain Bensoussan” Fellow
2012 Richard T. Cheng Research Fellow

My major recent research projects include:

International

Empowering Children’s STEM Learning Through Embodied Interaction, A Research Collaboration between UC Berkeley and NTNU, Role: PI for NTNU (managing the project together with Prof. Abrahamson from UC Berkeley), funded by Peder Sether Center (2023-2024).
STEAM Learning Ecologies (SLEs), Role: PI for NTNU, funded by Horizon Europe (2022-2025).
Surrounded by Science: Learning paths towards science proficiency (SURROUNDEDbySCIENCE), Role: PI for NTNU, funded by Horizon 2020 Science with and for Society (SwafS) programme (2021-2025).
Learning science the fun and creative way: coding, making, and play as vehicles for informal science learning in the 21st century (COMnPLAY-Science), Role: Coordinator, funded by Horizon 2020 Science with and for Society (SwafS) programme (2018-2021).
“Learn to Machine Learn” (LearnML), Role: PI for NTNU, funded by Erasmus + (2019-2022).
An Academia-Industry Knowledge Alliance for enhancing Online Training Professionals’ Competences in Educational Data Analytics (Learn2Analyze), Role: PI for NTNU, funded by Erasmus + (2018-2021).

National

Cross-Analytics Driven Design to Enhance Learning Experience (Xdesign), Role: PI, funded by the Norwegian Research Council (2018-2019).
Future Learning: Orchestrating 21st Century Learning Ecosystems using Analytics, Role: PI, funded by the Norwegian Research Council (2016-2020).

Institutional

SWELL – Sustainable Built Environments for better Health and WELL-being, Role: WP leader, funded by the Interdisciplinary Sustainable Initiatives at NTNU (2022-2025).
Learning technologies and analytics research, Role: PI, funded by NTNU's Outstanding Academic Fellows Programme (2017-2021).
Adaptive Learning Analytics to Support Information Technology Education (Adapt-IT), Role: PI, funded by NTNU’s Excellent Education program (NTNU Toppundervisning) (2017-2021).

Publications

Updated track record and bibliometric indicators of my work can be found in my scholar profile; downloadable ePrints of my publications can be found in both my RG profile and my national CRISTIN profile.

Below you can find some recent indicative publications of my work.

2025

Giannakos, Michail; Horn, Michael; Cukurova, Mutlu. (2025) Learning, design and technology in the age of AI. Behaviour and Information Technology
Editorial
Kshitij, Kshitij; Lee-Cultura, Serena Glyn; Papavlasopoulou, Sofia; Giannakos, Michail. (2025) Multimodal Effort Profiles and Children's Performance: Cognitive, Physiological and Physical Dimensions. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning (JCAL)
Academic article
Cosentino, Giulia; Anton, Jacqueline; Kshitij, Kshitij; Gelsomini, Mirko; Giannakos, Michail; Abrahamson, Dor. (2025) Exploring children's embodied interactions through digitally facilitated enactment: A case study when math education MOVES. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
Academic article

2024

Di Mitri, Daniele; Limbu, Bibeg; Schneider, Jan; Iren, Deniz; Giannakos, Michail; Klemke, Roland. (2024) Multimodal and immersive systems for skills development and education. British Journal of Educational Technology (BJET)
Editorial
Giannakos, Michail; Azevedo, Roger; Brusilovsky, Peter; Cukurova, Mutlu; Dimitriadis, Yannis; Hernandez-Leo, Davinia. (2024) The promise and challenges of generative AI in education. Behaviour and Information Technology
Academic article
El Shemy, Ibrahim; Jaccheri, Maria Letizia; Giannakos, Michail; Vulchanova, Mila Dimitrova. (2024) Participatory design of augmented reality games for word learning in autistic children: the parental perspective. Entertainment Computing
Academic article
Niforatos, Evangelos; He, Tianhao; Vourvopoulos, Athanasios; Giannakos, Michail. (2024) Democratizing EEG: Embedding Electroencephalography in a Head-Mounted Display for Ubiquitous Brain-Computer Interfacing. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction
Academic article
Chatzidaki, Eleni; Papavlasopoulou, Sofia; Gijlers, Hannie; Eysink, Tessa, H.S.; Giannakos, Michail. (2024) Science Chaser app: A gamified learning journey into STEM activities. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
Błachnio, Agata; Przepiórka, Aneta; Gorbaniuk, Oleg; Abreu, Ana Maria; Bendayan, Rebecca; Ben-Ezra, Menachem. (2024) Measurement invariance of the Facebook intrusion questionnaire across 25 countries. International Journal of Psychology (IJP)
Academic article
Lee-Cultura, Serena Glyn; Kshitij, Kshitij; Giannakos, Michail. (2024) Multimodal Teacher Dashboards: Challenges and Opportunities of Enhancing Teacher Insights Through a Case Study. IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies
Academic article
Cosentino, Giulia; Anton, Jacqueline; Kshitij, Kshitij; Gelsomini, Mirko; Giannakos, Michail; Abrahamson, Dor. (2024) Hybrid teaching intelligence: Lessons learned from an embodied mathematics learning experience. British Journal of Educational Technology (BJET)
Academic article
Zhang, Feiran; Papavlasopoulou, Sofia; Motland, Julie Holte; Giannakos, Michail. (2024) A Review of Empirical Studies on Gamification in K-12 Environmental Education: Is This Chocolate-Covered Broccoli?. IEEE conference proceedings
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
Lillehaug, Barbara Wasson; Giannakos, Michail; Blikstad-Balas, Marte; Uppstad, Per Henning; Langford, Malcolm; Bøhn, Einar Duenger. (2024) Implementing Learning Analytics in Norway: Four Central Dilemmas. Journal of Learning Analytics
Academic article
Zhang, Feiran; Brynildsrud, Hanne; Papavlasopoulou, Sofia; Kshitij, Kshitij; Giannakos, Michail. (2024) Where inquiry-based science learning meets gamification: a design case of Experiverse. Behaviour and Information Technology
Academic article

2023

Mylonas, Georgios; Hofstaetter, Joerg; Giannakos, Michail; Friedl, Andreas; Koulouris, Pavlos. (2023) Playful interventions for sustainability awareness in educational environments: A longitudinal, large-scale study in three countries. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction
Academic article
Cosentino, Giulia; Giannakos, Michail. (2023) Multisensory Interaction and Analytics to Enhance Smart Learning Environments: A Systematic Literature Review. IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies
Academic article
Giannakos, Michail; Cukurova, Mutlu. (2023) The role of learning theory in multimodal learning analytics. British Journal of Educational Technology (BJET)
Academic literature review

2022

Vesin, Boban; Mangaroska, Katerina; Akhuseyinoglu, Kamil; Giannakos, Michail. (2022) Adaptive assessment and content recommendation in online programming courses: On the use of Elo-rating. ACM Transactions on Computing Education
Academic article

Part of book/report

Chatzidaki, Eleni; Papavlasopoulou, Sofia; Gijlers, Hannie; Eysink, Tessa, H.S.; Giannakos, Michail. (2024) Science Chaser app: A gamified learning journey into STEM activities. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
Zhang, Feiran; Papavlasopoulou, Sofia; Motland, Julie Holte; Giannakos, Michail. (2024) A Review of Empirical Studies on Gamification in K-12 Environmental Education: Is This Chocolate-Covered Broccoli?. IEEE conference proceedings
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper

Teaching

During the last years, I have been involved in teaching the following courses:

and modules:

I also supervise project and master thesis topics within interaction design and learning technologies. Current project and master thesis topics are available on IDIs repository. I usually propose research projects in the context of national and international research, and co-supervise them in collaboration with colleagues from IDI and abroad, as well as with stakeholders and industry partners such as Kinems, SENSEi, Vitenparken Ås.

The master theses I have supervised at NTNU can be found at NTNU Open.

Supervision

I currently supervise the following PhD students and postdocs:

Giulia Cosentino (main supervisor)
Andrew Pulsipher (main supervisor)
Ibrahim El Shemy (co-supervisor)
Gul Sher Ali (co-supervisor)
Anahita Golrang (co-supervisor)
Dr. Eleni Chatzidaki (mentor)

I have supervised/mentored the following PhD students and postdocs:

Main PhD supervisor for Dr. Serena Lee-Cultura (2018-2023), next employer Principal IT Analyst at Equinor
Postdoc mentor (ERCIM funded) for Dr. Feiran Zhang (2022-2023), next employer researcher at IDI/NTNU
Postdoc mentor (Swiss-NSF funded) for Dr. Evangelos Niforatos (2019-2020), next employer A/prof at TU Delft
Main PhD supervisor for Dr. Katerina Mangaroska (2017-2021), next employer A/prof at USN
Postdoc mentor (ERCIM and EU funded) for Dr. Zacharoula Papamitsiou (2018-2021), next employer researcher at SINTEF Digital
Postdoc mentor (ERCIM and NFR funded) for Dr. Kshitij Sharma (2018-2021), next employer A/prof at IDI/NTNU
Postdoc mentor for (EU funded) for Dr. Dimitra Christidou (2019-2021), next employer Senior Curator at the National Museum
Co-supervisor (2012-2015) and Postdoc mentor (2016-2017) for Dr. Ilias Pappas next employer A/prof at the U. of Aagder
Postdoc mentor for Dr. Boban Vesin (2017-2018), next employer A/prof at USN
Main PhD supervisor and postdoc mentor for Dr. Sofia Papavlasopoulou (2015-2021), next employer A/prof at IDI/NTNU

Språkvelger

Michail Giannakos