CYPnaval 2015 Conference e-Booklet enhancing the protection of Blue Economy

Zacharias Siokouros President, Maritime Institute of Eastern Mediterranean Zacharias Siokouros is a Naval Architect and Marine Engineer graduate of the National Technical University of Athens. He currently works for a major classification society’s office in Cyprus. He has work experience of over 20 years in the Shipping Industry having worked for many years as a Safety Manager and Technical Director for a major Cruise Line. He has also been the President of the Cyprus Naval Architects and Marine Engineers Association for over 10 years. In 2010 he was among the founding members of the "Maritime Institute of Eastern Mediterranean" and currently holds the position of President. The Institute is a novel, non-profit organization aiming to promote Research, Technology, Innovation, Education and Training within and for the Maritime Industry. The Institute acts as a Forum and a Think-tank but also as an Incubator of Business Opportunities; on Maritime Affairs; encouraging and facilitating Dialogue, Networking and Cooperation among the sector's stakeholders in the Eastern Mediterranean Region in line with the European Union's "Integrated Maritime Policy" and the “Limassol Declaration on a Marine and Maritime Agenda for Growth and Jobs”. Zacharias Siokouros has also recently been the initiator of an Innovative Project called Lynceus which is currently being funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme and is to be completed by 2015. The Lynceus aims at developing a distributed wireless sensor network system that will enable the ship command on Passenger Ships to monitor the location of each passenger during an evacuation. The LYNCEUS project has been presented last May during the meeting of the IMO’s Maritime Safety Committee while it has also been featured

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