Spyros Fountas is Professor in Agricultural Engineering at Agricultural University of Athens and Editor-in-Chief in the Elsevier journal Smart Agricultural Technology, while he was Editor-in-Chief in the Elsevier journal of Computers and Electronics in Agriculture from 2014-2021. He holds a BSc in Agricultural Sciences from Greece in 1993, an MSc from Cranfield University, at Silsoe College UK in Management Information Systems in 1998, and PhD from Copenhagen University, Denmark in Systems Analysis on Precision Agriculture in 2004. He was also Visiting Scholar at Purdue University, USA. He has been Keynote speaker in several conferences among others in the FIRA Conference on Agricultural Robotics in France 2021; International Horticultural Congress in Turkey in 2018, 17th European Weed Research Society (EWRS), in France in June 2015; European Conference on Precision Agriculture (ECPA) in Spain in 2013. He has coordinated 7 H2020 and Horizon Europe projects, Smart-AKIS, GATES, OPTIMA, BEATLES, ICAERUS, Oper-8, SmartDroplets, while he has participated in several other European, national and industry based projects. He has more than 250 papers, including book chapters, journal papers and conference papers and 7800 citations (Google scholar, January 2024).
Dr.-Ing Dimitris Manolakos is a Mechanical Engineer of NTUA. He specializes in thermal technologies relevant to heat extraction, upgrade, and conversion to electricity in industry, marine and agricultural sectors. His objective at the Agricultural University of Athens (AUA) is to investigate, develop and integrate Energy Efficiency and Renewables Thermal Technologies and measures in the primary and secondary agricultural sector. In general, the research work assumes the optimal utilization of energy resources for the benefit of the economy and development of the agricultural sector.
RTD work is mostly focused on:
-Low grade heat recovery and conversion to power technologies, emphasizing on Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC), either for electricity generation or CHP. Solar thermal systems, biomass and waste heat are considered as candidate heat sources.
- Low grade heat recovery and upgrading technologies, emphasizing on High Temperature Heat Pumps (HTHPs) for utilization industrial applications.
-Precise climate control of agricultural buildings with multi-use (sensible heating and cooling, de-humidification and re-heating) air, water or geothermal heat pumps.
-Treatment of brackish, sea and brine water with desalination/distillation technologies combined with renewable energy technologies (i.e. solar heat, geothermal heat and heat pumps).
At AUA he teaches Applied Thermodynamics, Heat and Mass Transfer and Heat Engines.
