Biography
I enjoy developing/programming with respect to back-end - that's what I've trained for and that's where my skills prove useful: solving problems, algorithms, data structures, improving the already implemented solutions, working with and/or analyzing data, building robust components/tools that other parts of code or the front-end can call etc.
However, it seems I lack the talent for Graphical User Interfaces.
Short version
I earned in 2011 a Master of Science in Computer Science - Double Degree from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Faculty of Exact Sciences, Department of Computer Science) and Politehnica University of Bucharest (Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Science, Department of Computer Science).
In 2008 I earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Politehnica University of Bucharest (Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Science, Department of Computer Science).
I graduated in 2003 the "Tudor Vianu" National College of Computer Science from Bucharest.
Long version
2008 - 2011 Master of Science - Double Degree: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam & Politehnica University of Bucharest
I graduated a MSc Double Degree by taking at Politehnica University of Bucharest the 1st year MSc courses, and at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam the 2nd year courses and MSc Project.
Politehnica University of Bucharest, Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Science, Department of Computer Science - Master specialization: Advanced Systems for Internet Applications (in Romanian: Sisteme Avansate pentru Aplicatii Internet - SAAI)
2008, October - 2009, July: 1st year courses of SAAI
2011, September: MSc Thesis 2nd defense (i.e. at Politehnica University, too)
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Faculty of Exact Sciences, Department of Computer Science - Master specialization: Parallel and Distributed Computer Systems (PDCS)
2009, September - 2010, February: 2nd year courses of PDCS
2010, February - 2011, August: Master of Science Project
MSc thesis (written in English): The Thorough Analysis of a 500-nodes Large-Scale Wireless Sensor Network Deployed in a 6-coaches FYRA Train
It was a challenging MSc Thesis, which grew me white hair along the way.
Please, do read it in full [MSc Thesis] and explore the output [download public archive]. You shall probably enjoy it.
At the end of April 2010, Chess B.V. (Haarlem, The Netherlands) has deployed a 435-nodes WSN in a 6-coaches FYRA train and let it run live for 3 hours, in order to test a distributed communication/synchronization protocol for the whole WSN, called gMac (developed in partnership by Chess and VU).
The MSc Thesis presents the analysis on how the whole gMac-governed WSN has behaved throughout the experiment – this required my best programming and algorithmic skills – and accomplishes the following:
(1) Message-matching: I designed a powerful & robust algorithm to infer unique IDs for sent/received messages, since this had not happened during runtime; although I had little information in logs to guide myself during this process, eventually I could put together all the pieces of the puzzle, and have an algorithm which delivers very good performances;
(2) Discovering some bugs that occurred during experiment runtime (this part goes hand in hand with message-matching);
(3) Studying time synchronization behavior throughout the experiment by inspecting for each pair of nodes the difference of their local times at each pair of matched messages;
(4) Establishing a global time for the whole WSN - again, a powerful & robust algorithm I am proud of;
(5) Analyzing resets and wake-up times for all nodes with respect to the inferred global time;
(6) Studying fresh information dissemination, which shows gMac behaving both well and badly at disseminating the useful information throughout the WSN in the FYRA train;
(7) Making observations on nodes' communication behavior.
The complex analysis in the MSc thesis shows the gMac research is on the right track, but still requires further improvements.
Supervisors: Spyros Voulgaris (VU), Matthew Dobson (VU), Frits van der Wateren (Chess B.V.)
2003 - 2008 Bachelor of Science
Politehnica University of Bucharest, Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Science, Department of Computer Science
BSc thesis (written in English): Intelligent Lane Reservation System for Highway(s)
The research project aims reducing highway congestion, by designing a distributed system to increase the efficiency of existing highways, by using a lane of the highway as a reserved lane, for cars to safely & continuously travel on it at a higher speed than usual, i.e. ≥150 km/h. Drivers will have to pay a small fee to reserve an empty slot for a portion of the highway; in exchange they are guaranteed a congestion free travel on that portion. The work presents the ILRSH (architecture, subsystems), advances solutions and evaluates the performance results.
Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Ing. Valentin Cristea, Dr. Ing. Ciprian Dobre
1999 - 2003 Tudor Vianu National College of Computer Science, Bucharest
Profile: mathematics - computer science / computer science intensive class