The CREXDATA project demonstrates its strong academic impact, with a series of successful theses completed across partner universities and research institutes. Eleven master’s and three PhDs theses highlight the project’s commitment to advancing cutting-edge research in data assimilation, explainable AI, and crisis management technologies.
At the Technical University of Crete (TUC), several students have produced high-quality theses directly contributing to CREXDATA’s research objectives. Two standalone master’s theses were successfully completed by Michail Theologitis and Dimitrios Banelas, each addressing key computational and data-driven challenges within the project. TUC also celebrates three integrated master’s theses, stemming from its five-year diploma programme, by Georgios Lamprinakis, Ioannis Safranoglou, Georgios Frangias, and Kostas Charalampakis. Their results add valuable insights into predictive modelling, system resilience, and real-time data processing.
Looking ahead, the momentum at TUC continues, with two additional theses expected by March. Ourania Ntouni and Alexandros Stavroulakis are preparing to present their final work, further enriching the project’s academic output.
The National Research Council of Italy (CNR) also reports significant academic achievements. Elonora Cappuccio has completed a national PhD thesis on Artificial Intelligence, “Design and development of explanation User Interface: Interactive visual Dashboards and Design Guidelines for Explainable AI”.
Additionally, two master’s theses from the University of Pisa broaden CREXDATA’s work in explainable and generative AI. Alessandro Carella explores “Interactive visual interfaces for synthetic neighbourhoods and rule-based explanations” in his Master degree on Data Science and Business Informatics, University of Pisa. 2025. Riccardo Galarducci presents “Generative XAI System Providing Explanations for Image Classifier Targeting Psoriasis Lesions Severity” a generative XAI system aimed at explaining psoriasis lesion severity classification for his master’s degree on Data Science and Business Informatics, University of Pisa.
Ilona Láng-Ritter from the Finish Meteorological Institute (FMI) also defended her PhD thesis titled “Windstorm Impacts on the Electrical Grid: Meteorological and Non-Meteorological Drivers,” underscoring the project’s contributions to climate-related risk analysis.
Periklis Mantenoglou from the Demokritos National Centre for Science Research, was partly funded by CREXDATA for his PhD on “Reasoning over Complex Temporal Specifications and Noisy Data Streams”.
The University of Paderborn also counted with three master’s theses on decision support systems, handling complexity in engineering systems to address how digital and model-based tools can support better decisions and understanding in complex technical and organizational systems. Dennis Sakara focused on developing a decision support system to help select appropriate methods in innovation processes, Tamer Tevlik Özenirler examined how ML simulation can support planning and deployment of rescue robots in hazardous environments and Thomas Hesse investigated the relationship between test results and requirements to support validation and decision making.
Together, these accomplishments highlight the project’s vibrant academic ecosystem and its growing influence on next-generation AI and data-driven resilience research.
More details on the theses are available below: