About me

I am a Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, School of Informatics (more details here). My main research interests are in: Human-Computer Interaction, Education Technology, Assistive Technologies, Technology for Autism, (Distributed) Participatory Design, Digital Accessibility, Multimodal Interaction, Applied Artificial Intelligence and Human-Computer Interaction. I contributed to the design, development and evaluation of a free app (SOFA) which built on my PhD research work. 

If you are interested in pursuing a PhD in one of the above areas, please contact me by email. To find more about my research interests, visit "Publications", "Research", "Student Projects" pages, and/or have a look over my publications on Google Citations. To apply for a PhD, please use this online application form. 

Roles

Member of Artificial Intelligence and its Applications Institute (AIAI)

Lead of the Visiting Undergraduate (VUG) Cohort. 

Coordinator of Internships & Exchanges (Incoming). If you are a visiting student,  you may find some useful information here or you may want to engage in discussion or leave a comment/question on the VUG Piazza.

Lead of Accessibility and Inclusivity Working Group

Others: project supervisor (see here more about the projects I (co-)supervised).

Education 

2015 PhD in Informatics, University of Edinburgh, UK

2009 MSC in IT, University of Glasgow, UK

2000 PhD in Physics, University of Craiova, Romania

1986 BSc in Physics, University of Craiova, Romania

Awards/ Professional Activities

2024 Elected to serve 3 years on the Senate of the University of Edinburgh

2023 Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

2022 Knighthood, the National Order of Cultural Merit - section H scientific research, from Romania's President (you can see a short video from the awarding ceremony, including my speech)

2019 Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Membership

2019 - present: Disabled Staff Network, University 

2019 - present: Cross-Party Group on Autism, Scottish Parliament 

2018 - present: Equality and Diversity Committee, School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh

2017 - present: Cross-Party Group on Disability Scottish Parliament 

Personal

In my free time, I enjoy painting and have participated in several group exhibitions, as well as hosted a personal exhibition. Here are some of my works.

I'm also an avid reader with a particular interest in classic literature. While living in Bath (November 2014 to December 2016), I was an active member of a reading group. One of the recent novels I read is The Book of Fate by Parinoush Saniee.

Music is another passion of mine, especially classical music. During my time in Scotland, I discovered a love for Celtic music. Here is my favorite Celtic song. Here is my favourite Celtic song.