DeepStation Greece - Building and Scaling an Independent AI Research Lab
What does it take to build a real AI research lab with no PhD, no institution, and no permission?
Join us in Athens to hear how an idea that began when Panos was still a student became a NeurIPS paper, and how that paper became Synkrasis Labs, an independent research group of more than 12 people with papers accepted at major conferences and connections in the USA and China.
You'll leave with a working map of how research gets built outside the academic path, and a first look at the question Synkrasis believes comes next: not whether an AI agent succeeds, but how it gets there.
Speaker
Panos Michelakis
Co-Founder and Lead Researcher, Synkrasis Labs
Forward Deployed Engineer, Wonderful
🔸 From an Idea to NeurIPS
It started with two students who were not pursuing PhDs, Panos among them, working together on an idea they believed was worth exploring. That idea became a paper accepted at NeurIPS, and the paper became Synkrasis Labs, where Panos is now Co-Founder and Lead Researcher alongside his role as a Forward Deployed Engineer at Wonderful. Panos walks through how it happened: what they got right, what they got wrong, and what a research lab outside the traditional path actually needs in order to keep publishing.
🔸 What you'll take away
🔹 How an independent research lab gets built and scaled without a university behind it.
🔹 What Synkrasis has learned evaluating AI agents in real environments, and why how an agent gets there matters as much as whether it succeeds.
🔹 Where research and production meet, from someone who leads a team shipping AI systems for banking and insurance.
Schedule
7:00 PM – 7:30 PM: Doors and arrivals
7:30 PM – 8:15 PM: From an Idea to NeurIPS: Building and Scaling an Independent AI Research Lab
Panos Michelakis, Co-Founder and Lead Researcher at Synkrasis Labs
8:15 PM – 9:00 PM: Networking
Meet the builders, engineers and founders behind Greece's AI community.
Event Details
📅 Monday, 28 September 2026
⏰ 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
📍 Location: Pi55, Plateon 55, Athens 104 35, Kerameikos
💬 Language: Greek
🎫 Free to attend
Get involved
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Special thanks to our venue sponsor, Pi55, for opening their doors to our community. Pi55 is a coworking space in Athens' Kerameikos neighborhood, known for its rooftop terrace with Acropolis views and vibrant community events.
What is DeepStation?
We're on a mission to create the world's most connected AI learning community. As an official OpenAI Academy Launch Partner with 6,000+ global members, we're building more than AI skills through expert-led workshops and regional summits, we're creating economic development ecosystems where innovators are made.