The Cyprus Interaction Lab of the Cyprus University of Technology, the Interaction Design Lab of Tallinn University in Estonia and the Computer Graphics Department and the Center for Design and Multimedia of ITMO University of Saint Petersburg in Russia agreed to strengthen their collaboration.

All three parties agreed to put in place research cooperations in fields of common interest in the area of Human Computer Interaction, Interaction Design and Technology Enhanced Learning.

At the moment, the Cyprus University of Technology offers an online MSc program in Interaction Design (http://idmaster.eu). The program is offered in English jointly between CUT and Tallinn University. Starting immediately the program will also be offered in collaboration with ITMO University in Russia.

The collaboration will also include the following modes of cooperation: faculty exchanges, student exchanges, mutual participation in research projects, mutual exchange of information, scientific documentation and publications, collaborations in offering common courses.

The decision was a result of a meeting of representatives of the units of the three research labs that took place in Dubrovnik Croatia on the 13th of July 2016 as part of a summer school where all three research labs were actively involved in. The Cyprus Interaction Lab was represented by its co-director Prof. Panayiotis Zaphiris.

In a statement Prof. Zaphiris pointed out that this is a big move forward for the Cyprus Interaction Lab and CUT in general as it gives the opportunity for the MSc in Interaction Design to target the Russian market and build strong collaborations with the well known teams of researchers in Russia in this emerging area of research.