On Tuesday, November 11, 2014, 17:00-18:30 at the Bissell Library, the American College of Thessaloniki hosted a presentation on ‘The Monsters of Ancient Greek Mythology’ organized by the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences and coordinated by Dr. Nikos Dimitriadis, who teaches the course of Ancient Greek Mythology at ACT.

The speaker was Mr. Yiannis Charalambopoulos, a member of the Beetroot Design Group. Beetroot is a Thessaloniki-based, multi-awarded communication design office and think tank that provides design services and solutions to a worldwide clientele. In one of their self-initiated projects, they designed the Monsters of Ancient Greek Mythology, a world-acclaimed work currently in exhibit in the USA. The speaker presented their sources of inspiration, the practical preparation and the materialization of the project and answered questions from the enthusiastic audience.

The event, which was associated with our Hellenic Heritage program and was also part of our Learning in Action initiatives for the interest of our Study Abroad and NUin students, was very well attended by a great number of students, faculty and visitors.

The second cohort of VentureGarden has begun:

On Friday the 11th of July 2014 the registration period for the second round of the training program “VentureGarden”  finished and the program received 111 applications.  The applications were mainly from Thessaloniki and the broader region.

The first evaluation stage was in September 2014 where all 111 applicants were interviewed and 67 were selected to advance to the second stage.  

The second evaluation stage was held on Wednesday 17th, September 2014 where the 67 applicants were put into groups of 8 and then in round robin fashion were interviewed by the members of the evaluation team in order to determine individual and social skills and abilities.  The process lasted 3 hours and finally 29 individuals were selected.

The training part of the program was launched on 29th, September and lasted 5 weeks. The second stage of VentureGarden, the 12 months support and the mentoring stage, is about to begin with the mentoring of the first cohort still in progress.

Fall 2014 at ACT will see the largest cohort of US students studying at ACT at any one time to this day. Almost 300 students will arrive on campus for the Study Abroad two day Orientation on the 18th and 19th of September, which includes sessions on academic matters, student life, health and safety, life in Thessaloniki and an extensive Anatolia campus tour. Within the first couple of weeks these students will also be introduced to the Anatolia/ACT staff, ACT faculty and other students. They will be invited to group lunches, a campus BBQ, a dinner at a tavern with Greek folk dancing, and they will all be visiting Vergina and Chalkidiki. Before they leave the country in December they will have also all visited Athens, Delphi and many other important places in Greece.

The International Programs Office and the Student Services Office at ACT aim to help integrate these students not only in the life on campus but also in the wider life of the city of Thesslaoniki. Over 160 of these students will be visiting hospitals, churches, youth centers, grade schools, municipal centers, the YMCA and other NGOs, offering services voluntarily to those who need them. They will also be involved in cultural group activities such as the Thesslaoniki Half Marathon, the World Costal Rowing Championship, urban beautification projects such as tree planting, in folk dancing events, etc. ACT, consistent to its mission,  hopes to be sending close to 300 youth ambassadors back to the U.S. home schools by the end of 2014.

Γνωρίστε το American College of Thessaloniki

Παρασκευή 12 Σεπτεμβρίου 2014, 17:30, ACT, Πυλαία, Θεσσαλονίκη

Το ξεχωριστό ακαδημαϊκό πρόγραμμα, τους καθηγητές και τις εγκαταστάσεις του American College of Thessaloniki (ACT), μέλος του Κολλεγίου Ανατόλια, μπορούν να γνωρίσουν από κοντά όσοι το επισκεφθούν κατά τη διάρκεια του ACT Open Day. Η εκδήλωση θα πραγματοποιηθεί στις εγκαταστάσεις του ACT την Παρασκευή 12 Σεπτεμβρίου, από τις 5:30 το απόγευμα έως τις 10 το βράδυ. Το Open Day απευθύνεται σε όσους ενδιαφέρονται για πτυχιακές και μεταπτυχιακές σπουδές υψηλού επιπέδου σε ένα κατεξοχήν διεθνές περιβάλλον μένοντας στη Θεσσαλονίκη.

Το ACT Open Day θα ξεκινήσει με ξενάγηση στο campus που διακρίνεται από τη χαρακτηριστική ατμόσφαιρα των αμερικανικών πανεπιστημίων. Αξίζει να σημειωθεί ότι το 50% των σπουδαστών του προέρχεται από το εξωτερικό, ενώ το ίδρυμα αποτελεί τον πιο δημοφιλή ακαδημαϊκό προορισμό στην Ελλάδα για φοιτητές από τις ΗΠΑ μέσω του προγράμματος Study Abroad.

Οι ενδιαφερόμενοι στη συνέχεια θα ενημερωθούν για το ακαδημαϊκό πρόγραμμα, τις ευκαιρίες σταδιοδρομίας, τα προγράμματα Υποτροφιών και Επιδότησης Σπουδών, ενώ θα συναντηθούν με τους διευθυντές των προγραμμάτων και τους καθηγητές του ACT.

Το πρόγραμμα

17:30 – 18:00 Registration 

18:00 – 18:30 Ξενάγηση στις εγκαταστάσεις του ACT

18:30 – 19:30 Ενημέρωση για τα ακαδημαϊκά προγράμματα, τις ευκαιρίες σταδιοδρομίας, τα προγράμματα Υποτροφιών και Επιδότησης Σπουδών

19:30 – 20:30 Συνάντηση με τους διευθυντές των προγραμμάτων και τους καθηγητές του ACT

20:30 BBQ με τις μουσικές επιλογές των: Bill Nakis, Νάνσυ Βλάχου (Τhe Breakfast CLUB), Μαργαρίτη Κεχαγιά και Massimo του Zoo Radio 90.8

Δωρεάν μεταφορά προς το ACT με λεωφορείο. Αναχώρηση στις 17:00 από το άγαλμα του Βενιζέλου, πλατεία Αριστοτέλους.

Ενημερωθείτε αναλυτικά για το πρόγραμμα και δηλώστε συμμετοχή στο ACT Open Day στο www.act.edu/openday

Για περισσότερες πληροφορίες: 2310 398 398

The Dukakis Center celebrated fifteen years of public service initiatives in Thessaloniki during the Spring 2014 semester with a Festival of Civic and Urban Culture.

The celebration was punctuated by three main events organized throughout the spring. First, The Center hosted an open debate on the local and European elections held in May 2014. Featured were journalists and bloggers Kostas Kallergis, Sakis Ioannidis, and Maria Patsarika, while Georgios Toulas of Parallaxi moderated the proceedings. Dubbed "Politics at the Coffeehouse,” the event took place at Zogia in downtown Thessaloniki. The debate focused in large part on the incidence of unprecedented numbers of younger candidates in the local elections and was further animated by the presence of several local university students running for seats in the Municipal Council of Thessaloniki.

The second event was an exhibition of photography by Dukakis Center honors interns Zani Manginis, Valbona Makovci, Lorenzo Di Buongrazio, and George Belidis. The interns did a masterclass in environmental photography with renowned photographer Chryssa Nikoleri and were assigned to shadow candidates running in local and European elections -- among whom Konstantinos Zervas, Christina Tachiaou, Kalypso Goula, and Mihalis Tsitotas. The exhibition took place at the Port Annex of the State Museum for Contemporary Art for three weeks during the month of June 2014.

Finally, the Dukakis Center hosted the Fourth Dukakis International Symposium at the Municipal Council of Thessaloniki on July 1, 2014. Keynote speaker Erhard Busek, formerly director of the Stability Pact for Southeast Europe and currently coordinator of the Southeast European Cooperative Initiative, was joined by a group of distinguished panelists for a lively public discussion on the theme of "The Future of Democracy in Europe and Beyond." Co-organized by Southeast European Studies at Oxford in the person of Othon Anastasakis, Director of the European Studies Centre at St Antony's College, Oxford, the event also featured current Dukakis Fellow Andreas Akaras, former Congressional Aide Alan Makovsky, Nenad Sebek, Director of the Center for Democracy and Reconciliation in Southeast Europe, and Harris Mylonas, of George Washington University.

Said David Wisner, Executive Director of the Dukakis Center, “These events are among the most important we have organized under the banner of the Dukakis project at the American College of Thessaloniki. I can imagine no more pressing issue in our times than the fate of democracy in Greece and Europe, no more important public service gesture than to get young people thinking seriously and creatively about how we govern ourselves.”

Video footage of these events and others was captured by another group of honors interns, who worked with filmmaker Christos Nikoleris on a documentary video on the Dukakis Center. The production will be premiered during the fall 2014 semester.

For the past two years the Dukakis Center has been offering special honors programming for high achieving ACT undergraduates.

The project was launched in September 2012, when Dr Maria Patsarika was invited to conduct a series of honors seminars for select incoming freshmen. The freshmen honors cohort attended bi-weekly seminars in their first semester, and were then offered the opportunity to undertake short-term projects in their second term.

For the 2013-14 academic year the honors program was modified slightly. Incoming freshmen were again invited to attend biweekly honors seminars with Dr Patsarika, while the sophomores who opted to remain in their honors group conducted sessions around the theme “learning to see the world around us” led by photographer Chryssa Nikoleri.

In the spring of 2014 the program changed radically. The freshman and sophomore cohorts were now given the option of following masterclasses in filmmaking and photography, which were open also to honors-calibre students in their junior and senior years; degree candidates from all majors were welcome, as were, in select instances, study abroad students.

The objective of the masterclasses was to have students produce a final project somehow relating to celebrations of fifteen years of Dukakis activities at ACT. The projects included an exhibition of photography on the local and European elections of May 2014; a documentary video on the Dukakis Center; and the preparation of an e-book featuring articles posted on Politis, the blog of the Dukakis Center. Another group of students worked on events management during the spring 2014 semester.

It is hoped that the honors project can be developed further to introduce a regular formative learning component into ACT’s degree programs, while encouraging academically ambitious students to make ACT their first choice for undergraduate studies.

Την ολοκλήρωση των σπουδών τους και ενός σημαντικού κεφαλαίου της ζωής τους γιόρτασαν οι τελειόφοιτοι πτυχιακοί και μεταπτυχιακοί φοιτητές του American College of Thessaloniki / ACT, μέλους του Κολλεγίου Ανατόλια. Η Τελετή Αποφοίτησης πραγματοποιήθηκε στο υπαίθριο Αμφιθέατρο του ACT και κατά τη διάρκειά της βραβεύτηκαν οι φοιτητές, που διακρίθηκαν για τις ακαδημαϊκές τους επιδόσεις και εκείνοι που ξεχώρισαν με την ενεργό συμμετοχή τους στις αθλητικές και εξωσχολικές δραστηριότητες του μη κερδοσκοπικού εκπαιδευτικού οργανισμού. Επίσης, το ACT απένειμε όπως κάθε χρόνο το βραβείο Ανθρωπιστικής και Κοινωνικής Προσφοράς Philip and Marjorie Ireland Humanitarian & Public Service Award. Φέτος με το βραβείο τιμήθηκε το Κέντρο Προστασίας Ανηλίκων ΡΟΜ «Φάρος του Κόσμου» της Ιεράς Μητροπόλεως Νεαπόλεως -Σταυρουπόλεως και ο πατέρας Αθηναγόρας για το ζωτικής σημασίας έργο που γίνεται καθημερινά στον Δενδροπόταμο Θεσσαλονίκης και έχει αλλάξει τη ζωή δεκάδων παιδιών.

Κεντρικός ομιλητής της Τελετής Αποφοίτησης του ACT ήταν ο Απόστολος Αποστολάκης ένας από τους πρωτοπόρους επιχειρηματίες στον χώρο του ηλεκτρονικού εμπορίου και της παροχής υπηρεσιών, συνιδρυτής των εταιριών e-shop.gr, taxibeat, e-food.gr, e-table.gr, doctoranytime.gr και nannuka.gr. Κατά τη διάρκεια της μεστής και πολύ ενδιαφέρουσας ομιλίας του, ο κ. Αποστολάκης αναφέρθηκε στις προκλήσεις, τη γοητεία και τις δυσκολίες που έχει ο χώρος του επιχειρείν και προέτρεψε τους τελειόφοιτους του ACT: «Σε ό,τι και να κάνετε στη ζωή σας, φροντίστε να αποτελείτε πρότυπο. Να συμπεριφέρεστε δίκαια και να κάνετε τη διαφορά. Δείξτε στην πράξη ότι ενδιαφέρεστε για τους άλλους και προσφέρετε στην κοινωνία. Η κοινωνία μας σήμερα περισσότερο από ποτέ χρειάζεται υπεύθυνους ηγέτες με ηθικό ανάστημα». 

The 29th annual conference on Computing and Philosophy will be held at Anatolia College/ACT in Thessaloniki, Greece.

We expect ca. 80 researchers from around the world; half from Europe and half from the Americas and Asia.
http://www.pt-ai.org/iacap/2014/registered-participants

Some of the problems discussed are:
- What can computers do?
- Is the human brain a computer and is thinking computing?
- Are computers intelligent or will they be?
- What would happen if computers and robots are more intelligent than humans?
- What are the limits of computer science?
- What are the ethical problems generated by computers?
- How do computers influence culture?
http://www.pt-ai.org/iacap/2014/program

Guests are welcome for the keynote talks. Otherwise, registration is necessary: http://www.pt-ai.org/iacap/2014/registration

Several of the speakers are world-leading experts in their fields, for example:

Ronald Arkin - robotics, ethics of robotics (esp. robots in war)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_C._Arkin

Gregory Chaitin - theoretical computer science
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Chaitin

Selmer Bringsjord - philosophy of computing and artificial intelligence
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selmer_Bringsjord

S. Barry Cooper - theoretical computer science
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._Barry_Cooper

Wilfried Sieg - mathematical logic
http://www.hss.cmu.edu/philosophy/faculty-sieg.php

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Contact:

Organiser:
Prof. Vincent C. Müller
http://www.sophia.de, <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
+30 6942 606171

Management:
Theodoros Gantinas
<This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
+30 694 4841005

ACT is offering two Portfolio & Investments Management courses: one at the undergraduate program available to all business major students, and one at the MBA program available to finance & banking concentration students, both taught by Dr. Nikolas Hourvouliades.

During these courses the students are given the opportunity to manage their own mock portfolios. The final goal is to end up with the highest possible return while simultaneously explain their investment rationale. Students work in pairs at the undergraduate course and individually at the MBA.

This year, we had the honor to have MLS sponsor this portfolio competition. In particular, MLS has given away one MLS Astro Tab for the MBA winner, Savvas Fessas, and an MLS Astro Tab and an MLS Smartphone for the undegraduate winners, Stefan Vladisavljevic and Ivana Jakovljevic.

The MLS Portfolio Competition is organized once every year, during the Spring semester. Class of 2015 is waiting for its turn next year now!

The Michael and Kitty Dukakis Center for Public and Humanitarian Service and Southeast European Studies at Oxford invite you to attend an interactive discussion on “The Future of Democracy in Europe and Beyond”

Keynote speaker: Dr. Erhard Busek, Coordinator, Southeast European Cooperative Initiative

Tuesday, July 1, 6:00 p.m., Municipal Council of Thessaloniki

Today, however, democratic progress seems to be in jeopardy, inside Europe and beyond, with increasingly vociferous protests against democratically elected elites, a rise in right wing extremism, and authoritarian responses in Europe’s neighborhood.

Has the momentum of the Arab Spring stalled? Is extremism a threat to Europe’s democracies? Is democracy at risk in Ukraine, in EU-aspirant Turkey, even in EU member-state Hungary? How deeply does the so-called "democratic deficit" of the European Union impact the citizens of Europe? Does the ongoing sovereign debt crisis in Greece imply that not even the birthplace of democracy is immune to what appears to be an ominous trend?

A group of academics, practitioners, and diplomats will gather at the behest of the Michael and Kitty Dukakis Center for Public and Humanitarian Service on July 1, 2014 in Thessaloniki, Greece, to debate these and related questions.

The event is open to the public and will take place in English