I am actively looking for PhD students!
If you are interested in pursuing a PhD, please contact me.
Research interests
I am interested in overcoming the computational difficulty of various NP-hard optimization problems via approximation algorithms, fixed parameter algorithms or heuristics.
Previous employment
Associate Professor - University of Bucharest, Romania. 2016 - 2020
Assistant Professor - Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan. 2015 - 2016
Assistant Professor - Masaryk University, Czech Republic. 2013 - 2015
Postdoctoral Researcher - Aalto University, Finland. 2011 - 2013
Education
PhD - University of Bristol. 2008 - 2011
Bachelors - University of Bucharest. 2005 - 2008
Program committee member
IEEE CICS 2021, SOFSEM 2021, SOFSEM 2020, IWOCA 2019, ICCS 2018, SYNASC 2014, CONTENT 2013, FUTURE COMPUTING 2013, CONTENT 2012.
Current PhD students
Camelia Obreja,
Ahmed Al Sahlani,
Lucian-Ionut Gavrila,
Maria Constantin,
Ionut Chirvase,
Tiberiu Sirbu,
Razvan Vasile,
Hamid Valizdeghan.
Past PhD students
Radu-Stefan Mincu , University of Bucharest, PhD 2019
K Ashik Mathew, Aalto University, PhD 2015 (co-supervisor)
See CV for a detailed list of master and bachelors thesis supervised
Publications
See CV for the complete list or
Google Scholar Profile or
DBLP or
Research Gate
Popular science and motivational talks
Me doing stand-up comedy (in Romanian) for a Christmas charity event organized by my students in December 2020. Link here (starts from minute 2:45)
TEDx - "There are not bad countries, only bad people", 4 March 2016.
Computers are nothing without maths! from ScienceSLAM Helsinki, 13 December 2011.
Instant Scientific Talk Contest - Aalto University Science Day (random talk). Espoo, Finland, 20 September 2012.
Sisteme interactive from Famelab Final Romania, 17 May 2008.
Non-academic achievements and activities that make me very proud
Recently I have travelled to North Korea and I wrote a book about this experience. You may buy the book
here .
I love winter sports: both snowboarding and skiing (equally).
Here is a photo of me snowboarding. And here is a photo of me skiing. I also enjoy skating and crosscountry skiing.
I love boats.
I love riding motorcycles. So far I owned four motorcyles: Kawasaki KLE 500 (the photo is in Vir, CZ), Honda Deauville (photo in Budapest), Honda ST1300 Pan European (photo in Switzerland) and last but not least a Peugeot Elyseo 125. I did many long trips by motorbike: Bucharest - Erevan (and return), Bucharest - Brno (via Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Austria), Saarbruecken - Barcelona - Bucharest, and pretty much any country in Central and Eastern Europe.
I love fixing motorcyles and cars. Some of my achievements include fixing two non-running motorcycles: a Peugeot Elyseo and a Suzuki Burgman. I have many ongoing projects. If you have an old two wheels or four wheels junk that you want to get rid off, do not hesitate to contact me.
I love cars and especially old cars. I own a SAAB 99 GL that I drove from Helsinki to Bucharest.
I like very much literature and poetry (both reading and writing). To view my poems (in Romanian) click here. Please e-mail me if you have any suggestions or critics regarding the poems.
I have published the essay O noua forma de libertate (joint work with Oana Gabroveanu) in Gheorghe Paun's magazine Curtea de la Arges .
I have published a poem in the collective volume Antologia vinovatelor placeri. Some of the co-authors of this volume are the artists Mircea Albulescu, Tudor Gheorghe and Dorel Visan.
Special mention at the International Poetry Contest in Romanian Language STARPRESS 2010 (5612 participants).
I have published several poems in Antologia scriitorilor romani din intreaga lume - STARPRESS 2011.
I have published eight poems in the collective volume Ce enigmatica esti, femeie... .
I am a self taught cook. Some of my achievements include: veprove koleno, pelmeni, sarmale, homemade sausages, mucenici.
I am also a self taught guitar player.
I also like horse riding although I did not do it since I was a teenager.
I have yellow belt at Judo.
