Ilias Skandalos holds an M.Eng. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and currently is a Ph.D. student in the Silicon Photonics group of the University of Southampton. Ilias's research lies in building an efficient monolithic passive-to-active photonic pathway using the versatile silicon nitride material. His research can contribute to the realization of faster and more energy-efficient fully integrated active components on-chip.