Chris Pliakos is a researcher, Dipl. Mechanical Engineer, and PhD candidate at the Laboratory of Fluid Mechanics and Turbomachinery in Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. His expertise includes aerodynamic design, Machine Learning (ML) for aerospace applications, shape optimization, design of multi-rotor VTOL UAVs and flight testing. He has participated in national and European projects. He also has experience in integration, autopilot software configuration, and testing of UAV prototypes (MTOWs 10–300 kg). He has published 4 conference papers.