As part of the DIGITISE initiative, AppArt is helping to develop a smart energy systems by combining deep technical expertise with a human-centred approach. With a strong background in EU-funded R&D and a focus on AI, IoT, and digital infrastructure, the AppArt team brings valuable insight to the project’s mission of empowering consumers in the energy transition. In this interview, we speak with Efthymis Serpetzoglou, R&D Project Manager at AppArt, to learn more about their journey, the company’s contributions to DIGITISE, and how they are designing digital tools that are as practical as they are innovative.
D: Tell us a little about yourself, your background and the journey that has brought you to DIGITISE. Can you introduce also the AppArt’s team working on the project?
ES: With over 11 years of experience in R&D and a PhD in Applied Physics and Optoelectronics, my journey has been rooted in innovation, impact, and cross-disciplinary collaboration. Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to lead and manage high-impact European projects, bridging cutting-edge technology with real-world applications. Currently, as an R&D Project Manager at AppArt, I coordinate and drive EU-funded initiatives in areas such as 5G, B5G, 6G, cybersecurity, and sustainable energy.
Joining DIGITISE was a natural step for me, as it aligns closely with both my expertise and values. I am passionate about using technology to enable social and environmental change, and DIGITISE’s vision—to leverage cross-sector data, AI, and sovereign data spaces to democratize the energy transition – deeply resonates with that mission.
As for the AppArt team contributing to DIGITISE, we bring a strong mix of technical depth and project experience. One of our main team members is Michail Sfakianos, our Department Director, who holds a Master’s in Telecommunications from University College London and has over a decade of experience as a Software Engineer. Since 2015, he’s played a key role in leading ICT projects. He also serves as Software Architect across multiple solutions, overseeing task planning, solution design, and implementation. The remaining AppArt team consists of skilled software engineers and developers with experience in implementing both commercial and R&D projects. Their background, expertise and professionalism ensure high quality project outcomes. Together, we form a team committed to driving digital transformation with a strong technical foundation and a shared purpose.
D: What is AppArt’s main role within DIGITISE, and what kind of technical development are you leading or supporting?
ES: AppArt’s main role within DIGITISE is centered on the consumer dashboard development and integration of intelligent automation and IoT-based systems that support the project’s vision of a consumer-empowered energy ecosystem. We contribute our expertise in telecommunications, embedded systems, and cloud platforms to ensure reliable, scalable, and secure infrastructure across the project’s technical layers.
Specifically, AppArt is responsible for enabling the visualization and smart control of energy consumption, generation, and forecasting, as well as asset sizing, investment insights, and monitoring of health and security data through the consumer dashboard. This dashboard will be available as a responsive web application, ensuring seamless access and usability across both desktop and mobile devices. Our focus on interoperability, real-time responsiveness, and minimal user disruption aligns with DIGITISE’s goal of making energy participation effortless for consumers.
We also play a supporting role in the deployment and validation of IoT-based control mechanisms at demonstration sites, helping to ensure that DIGITISE solutions are technically robust, user-friendly, and adaptable to different household and energy contexts.
In essence, AppArt serves as a technical enabler, translating DIGITISE’s high-level vision into concrete, functional systems that empower consumers to participate actively and intelligently in the energy transition.
D: How do you ensure that the digital solutions you design are both user-friendly and compatible with the diverse needs of end users and stakeholders?
ES: Ensuring that our digital solutions are user-friendly and adaptable to diverse end-user and stakeholder needs is a priority throughout our development process at AppArt. We approach this challenge from both a human-centric design perspective and a technical interoperability standpoint.
First, we actively participate in co-creation processes and stakeholder engagement activities within DIGITISE. This allows us to gather direct input from users, including consumers, aggregators, and energy communities, early in the design phase. Their feedback helps shape intuitive interfaces, automation behaviors, and interaction models that align with real-world habits and expectations.
From a technical perspective, we emphasize modularity and interoperability. Our solutions are built using standardized, open protocols and architectures to ensure compatibility with a wide range of devices, systems, and data sources. This ensures that the same solution can be adapted to different geographical, socio-economic, and technical contexts without compromising performance or usability.
We also rigorously test our systems in diverse real-life demonstration environments across Europe, enabling us to validate not only the technical robustness but also the user acceptance and satisfaction under various conditions.
Ultimately, it’s about striking a balance – delivering high-performance, secure technology that respects user comfort, convenience, and privacy, while supporting the broader goals of the energy transition.
D: Could you share how AppArt balances innovation and practicality when developing digital tools for smart energy management?
ES: At AppArt, we view innovation and practicality as complementary forces, not competing ones. Our goal is to deliver forward-thinking digital solutions that are grounded in real-world feasibility, scalability, and user value – especially in complex domains like smart energy management.
To strike this balance, we follow a lean, iterative development approach. We start by identifying real user pain points and operational constraints, then design innovative solutions that directly address those – rather than pursuing innovation for its own sake. For example, when developing control systems for distributed energy resources, we combine cutting-edge technologies like AI-driven automation with simple, intuitive interfaces that require minimal user intervention.
We also rely heavily on early validation and testing in real environments, such as those provided by the DIGITISE demonstration sites. This ensures that what we develop not only works in theory but also delivers measurable benefits in practice — such as energy savings, reduced complexity, or better decision-making for consumers and stakeholders.
Moreover, we build with futureproofing and interoperability in mind. By adhering to open standards and modular design principles, our solutions can evolve with technology and adapt to different contexts without constant reinvention.
In short, AppArt’s approach to innovation is always anchored in usability, scalability, and meaningful impact – making sure that what we build is not just new, but also truly useful.
D: What challenges do you foresee in scaling your solutions from pilot level to broader market application, and how are you preparing for that?
ES: Scaling from pilot to broader market application presents a number of challenges, and at AppArt, we’re proactively addressing them to ensure long-term impact and adoption of our solutions.
One key challenge is interoperability across diverse technical ecosystems. While pilots often involve controlled environments, real-world deployments must work seamlessly with a wide array of legacy systems, device types, and data standards. To prepare for this, we design our solutions using modular, standards-based architectures and prioritize compatibility with widely adopted protocols and platforms.
Another major challenge is user engagement and behavior. What works well in a pilot – where participants are often early adopters – may not translate directly to broader audiences. That’s why we place strong emphasis on human-centric design and continuous feedback loops, ensuring our systems remain intuitive, minimally intrusive, and adaptable to different user profiles.
On the operational side, scalability and performance under increased load must be considered early. We’re investing in cloud-native infrastructure and edge processing capabilities to ensure our solutions can handle larger volumes of data and devices without compromising responsiveness or reliability.
Lastly, regulatory and market fragmentation across EU countries adds complexity. We’re addressing this by engaging with diverse stakeholders during the project – from energy communities to policy experts – and by contributing to DIGITISE’s broader objectives of shaping consumer-friendly market frameworks.
Ultimately, we see scalability not just as a technical hurdle, but as a multi-dimensional challenge that requires alignment of technology, usability, business models, and policy – and we’re building with that full picture in mind.
D: How does AppArt’s contribution to DIGITISE align with your company’s long-term vision in the digital energy or sustainability space?
ES: AppArt’s contribution to DIGITISE is strongly aligned with our long-term vision of enabling intelligent, sustainable, and user-driven digital ecosystems. We see the energy sector – especially at the intersection with IoT, AI, and cloud – as a key area where digital innovation can have profound social and environmental impact.
Our involvement in DIGITISE allows us to apply and evolve our core strengths in smart systems integration, embedded technologies, and automation, while contributing to a larger mission: empowering consumers to play an active role in the energy transition. This directly reflects our belief that the future of sustainability depends on systems that are not only efficient and intelligent, but also inclusive and easy to adopt.
Through DIGITISE, we are deepening our expertise in areas like distributed energy resource control, data interoperability, and cross-sector digital twins, which are central to our roadmap. At the same time, we’re building relationships and knowledge that support our broader goal of developing scalable, market-ready solutions and digital empowerment.
In short, DIGITISE isn’t just a project for us – it’s a strategic step toward realizing AppArt’s vision of a smarter, and more connected world.
D: Thank you for your time!
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