Dr. Marina Toumpouri is the Team Leader of the 3D / Software Development Team at CYENS Centre of Excellence. She brings two decades of interdisciplinary experience in digitization, digital humanities, and cultural heritage management, with a particular focus on documentation, preservation, and knowledge transmission. At CYENS, she plays a key role in shaping and delivering research and innovation initiatives that bridge traditional humanities scholarship with cutting-edge technology across the cultural and creative sectors.

Dr. Toumpouri holds a Bachelor’s degree in Musicology from the University of Lorraine, a Master’s degree (D.E.A.) in Art History from the University of Strasbourg, and a Ph.D. (Doctorat) in Art History from the University of Lille, with a specialization in Byzantine Manuscript Studies. 

Her research is dedicated to the integrative application of emerging technologies, such as Mixed and Extended Reality (MR/XR), 3D modelling, interactive media, for cultural heritage documentation, digital storytelling, and public engagement. She explores how these tools can be used not only for the safeguarding of heritage assets, but also for reactivating them as living, participatory resources. She is particularly interested in the development of immersive and narrative-driven experiences that facilitate the interpretation of complex historical and cultural content by both academic and non-specialist audiences.

Dr. Toumpouri has led and contributed to national and EU-funded research and innovation projects focused on the sustainable valorisation of tangible and intangible cultural heritage. These initiatives place a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration, participatory design, and community co-creation. 

In addition to her research activities at CYENS, Dr. Toumpouri serves as an expert advisor to the Church of Cyprus on matters related to heritage conservation, digital archiving, and the curation of ecclesiastical collections, contributing to the preservation and promotion of Cyprus’s religious and cultural legacy.

His professional career so far has been diverse and multi-tiered in terms of skillset and knowledge requirements. Through combining rationalistic studies through business and psychology degrees while primarily working in the art fields through photography and music, he opted to combine the two seemingly disparate domains through pursuing an architecture degree. As an architect he aims to further develop his understanding of form and data utilizing new and novel technological tools and processes in the domains of computational design, remote sensing, BIM and AI-assisted design paradigms.

Senior Full Stack Developer with strong technical expertise across a wide range of web technologies. Studied at the University of Nicosia, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and a Master’s in Mobile Systems. Proficient in core web development languages including PHP, HTML5, and JavaScript, and experienced with frameworks and tools such as Laravel, React, WordPress, and MySQL. Skilled in both front-end and back-end development, with hands-on experience managing learning management systems, building custom plugins, developing e-commerce platforms, and delivering scalable, user-friendly web applications.

Kristiana is a UI/UX Designer with over seven years of experience in digital design, game design, and marketing. She enjoys creating digital experiences that are both visually appealing and easy to use, with a strong focus on making technology accessible and engaging for different audiences.

She holds a Bachelor of Science in Interactive Media and has worked across a variety of creative and digital fields, giving her a broad understanding of design, communication, and user experience. Her work combines creativity with practical problem-solving to help turn ideas into intuitive digital products and experiences.

At CYENS, Kristiana contributes to the design and development of projects by applying a user-centered approach throughout the creative process. She is passionate about designing digital experiences that not only look good but also create meaningful interactions for users.

Maria Loizou is a Senior Graphic Designer based in Nicosia. She holds a BA in Multimedia and Graphic Design and an MA in Graphic Communication from the Cyprus University of Technology.

Her work spans across graphic design, branding, digital illustration, UX/UI, and information visualization. With a strong background in the advertising industry, Maria has contributed to a wide range of projects, from visual identity development and traditional print design to creative concepts for digital platforms and interactive applications.

At CYENS – Thinker Maker Space, she played a key role in shaping the department’s branding, visual communication, and social media presence. She also led the Art Direction and Coordination of the Visual Communication and Marketing team behind the WIP Arts & Technology Festival for four consecutive years.

Currently, Maria is part of the CYENS – 3DSW Development Team, where she focuses on branding and visual design for research and collaborative projects, mainly within digital and interactive platforms.

3D artist/animator

Marios Thoma is a Research Associate in the Cognitive Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR) Research Group at the CYENS Centre of Excellence. He specializes in neural-symbolic AI and the development and behavioral evaluation of agentic pipelines based on large language models (LLMs), including tool-using agents and red-teaming protocols, with emphasis on LLM behavior characterization and failure-mode discovery. He also applies quality-diversity methods (e.g., MAP-Elites) to financial portfolio optimization. At CYENS, his projects have included PEDESTRIAN, developing an egocentric-vision dataset focusing on improving pedestrian safety, and several cross-platform smartphone apps using custom-trained computer-vision models for artwork identification and pedestrian-flow obstacle detection. Previously, at the Open University of Cyprus (Computational Cognition Lab), he worked on the MARI-Sense project, focusing on expert systems with neural-symbolic methods.