Monica Patrascu, ing, tok en doktorgrad i systemteknikk og en MSc i intelligente systemer fra University Politehnica i Bucuresti, Romania. De er koordinator for Complex Systems Laboratory (xLab) ved University Politehnica i Bucuresti, og jobber med komplekse og intelligente systemer. Patrascu er postdoktor ved Senter for eldre og sykehjemsmedisin (SEFAS) ved Universitetet i Bergen, Norge, og jobber med modellering komplekse biosystemer.  Tilknyttet Neuro-SysMed utvikler Patrascu digitale biomarkører for symptomsporing i eldre voksnes hverdag hos personer med demens, i livets slutt og med Parkinsons sykdom.

Dr. Patrascus viktigste bidrag er innen intelligente systemer og kontrollteknikk, spesielt innen evolusjonær databehandling, fuzzy kontrollere og intelligente agenter, samt multi-agent systemer med applikasjoner i en rekke domener. Etter utdanningen har de spesialisert seg på forskning i skjæringspunktet mellom intelligente systemer og reguleringsteknikk. Dette tverrfaglige området er godt forankret under systemteknikk, og krever tenkning utenfor boksen når det gjelder å kombinere de iboende heuristikkene til kunstig intelligens med de strenge kravene til kontroll og systemteori, spesielt når man arbeider med virkelige applikasjoner. I denne forbindelse har en av de mest interessante utfordringene de måtte møte vært å overføre kunnskap mellom forskningsområder, i møte med heterogen terminologi for tverrfaglig forskning. I medisinsk forskning, bruker Dr. Patrascu teknikker avledet fra systemdynamikk og kunstig intelligens i avansert signalbehandling av sensordata og for å modellere ikke-lineære og biologiske prosesser knyttet til menneskekroppen og komplekse kroniske tilstander.

Invited talks and presentations

2024    Invited talk, Human-in-the-loop research at the Centre for Elderly and Nursing Home Medicine, Lunette Care Organization, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

2024    Invited talk, Technology development with applications to elderly care, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania

2024    Invited talk, Ethical Implications of AI-driven Digital Necromancy, Bergen Meeting on AI Ethics, Norway

2024    Invited talk, CC.AGE Project Structure, CC.AGE Opening, University of Bergen Aula, Bergen, Norway

2024    Invited talk, Can We Turn the Machines Off? (as Ava Kelly), Glasgow 2024: A Worldcon for Our Futures, Glasgow, Scotland, UK

2024    Invited talk, Digital Necromancy: Ethical Implications of Virtual Life after Death (as Ava Kelly / Monica Patrascu), Digital Afterlives Session, Academic Track, Glasgow 2024: A Worldcon for Our Futures, Glasgow, Scotland, UK

2024    Invited talk, Learning from COVID - an International Perspective (as Ava Kelly), Glasgow 2024: A Worldcon for Our Futures, Glasgow, Scotland, UK

2024    Invited talk, Engineering Solutions to People Problems (as Ava Kelly), Glasgow 2024: A Worldcon for Our Futures, Glasgow, Scotland, UK

2024    Invited talk, Exciting Possibilities of Trustworthy AI (as Ava Kelly), Gen Con Writers' Symposium 2024, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

2024    Invited talk, Queer Characters of Nonbinary Flavor: The Battle of the Pronouns (as Ava Kelly), Gen Con Writers' Symposium 2024, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

2024    Invited talk, Ask an AI Scientist (as Ava Kelly), Gen Con Writers' Symposium 2024, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

2024    Invited lecture/workshop, Romanian Folklore: How to Write in Threes (as Ava Kelly), Gen Con Writers' Symposium 2024, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

2024    Invited talk, Ageism in SFF: Broadening the Ages of Protagonists (as Ava Kelly), Gen Con Writers' Symposium 2024, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

2024    Presentation, Circadian Rhythm Stability Analysis from Actigraphy Data in Persons with Dementia, ECC 2024: European Control Conference, Stockholm, Sweden

2024    Invited talk, Older Heroes and Protagonists (as Ava Kelly), 2024 SFWA Nebula Conference, Anaheim, Canada

2024    Invited lecture/workshop, The Feminism of Old Folklore (as Ava Kelly), Feminist Storytelling, Litteraturhuset, Bergen, Norway

2024    Invited talk, A dynamic systems approach to digital phenotyping in dementia and Parkinson’s disease, Neuro-SysMed Junior Symposium,  Bergen, Norway

2024    Invited talk, CC.AGE: Complex Conditions and Ageing, Neuro-SysMed Seminar,  Bergen, Norway

2023    Invited talk, Pandemi Frokost, Alrek Healthcare Cluster,Bergen, Norway, "How can we use knowledge-based artificial intelligence to model infodemics?"

2023    Invited talk, Regional Committee for Medical and Health Research Ethics, Vest Norge, Bergen, Norway, "AI in healthcare: the ethical perspective"

2023    Invited talk, Yale University, New Haven, Conneticutt, USA, "Digital phenotyping in dementia and Parkinson's disease"

2023    Invited talk, MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, "Digital phenotyping in dementia and Parkinson's disease"

2023    Invited talk, Harvard McLean Hospital, Boston,Massachusetts, USA, "Digital phenotyping in dementia and Parkinson's disease"

2023    Presentation, Long-Term Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic for Society, Bergen, Norway, "Can Predictive Agent-Based Models Offer a Glimpse into the Long-Term Pandemic-Infodemic Co-evolution?"

2023    Invited lecture, Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway, "AI in Healthcare"

2023    Invited talk, SFWA Nebula Conference, Anaheim, Canada, Panel on "Writing a Moving Target: AI for the Bewildered" (as A. Kelly)

2023    Invited talk, Seminar in Engineering Computing, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen, Norway, "Position control with evolutionary learning for wheeled vehicles"

2022    Invited talk, UiB AI Seminar #4 Examples of Medical AI, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway, "AI in Dementia Research"

2022    Invited talk, Logic & AI Seminar, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway, "How we made a crowd with a brain - creating behaviors at MAS system level by specifying only local agent behaviors"

2022    Invited talk, Indo-Norway Webinar on Digital Ethics: Ethical Issues of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare, "Developing Accountable and Sustainable AI Systems"

2021    Presentation, CDC 2021: Conference on Decision and Control, Austin, Texas, USA, "Robust Position Control for High Slip Risk TricycleRobots with Real-coded Genetic Algorithms"

2021    Invited talk, InnoRes: Innovation Seminar at IGS, University of Bergen, Norway, "Ageing-in-the-loop"

2021    Presentation, ECC 2021: European Control Conference, Delft, Netherlands, "Design of Stabilizing Predictor-based Controller for Closed Loop Traffic Control with Real-Coded Genetic Algorithms"

2011    Presentation, ICAPAI 2021: International Conference on Applied Artificial Intelligence, Halden, Norway, "Smith Predictor Approximation for Industrial Control Applications with Genetic Algorithms"

2019    Invited Talk, FNSSPRI 2019, Forum on Smart State, Romanian Senate, Bucharest, Romania, The Future of (Smart) Work Panel, "Smart Intelligence sau Inteligenta Desteapta"

2018    Presentation, 17th RoEduNet Conference: Networking in Education and Research, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, "Plug-and-play Self-configuration and Integration in Swarm Robotics"

2017    Presentation, 16th RoEduNet Conference: Networking in Education and Research, Targu Mures, Romania, "Encoder-based Path Tracking with Adaptive Cascaded Control for a Three Omni-wheel Robot"

2017    Presentation, EAIS 2017: IEEE Conf. on Evolving and Adaptive Intelligent Systems, Ljubljana, Slovenia, "An Immune Evolution Mechanism for the Study of Stress Factors in Supervised and Controlled Systems"

2017    Presentation, ITST 2017: 15th International Conference on ITS Telecomunications, Warsaw, Poland, "Route Encoding in Evolutionary Control Systems for Emergency Vehicles"

2016    Presentation, EUROSIM 2016: 9th EUROSIM Congress on Modelling and Simulation, Oulu, Finland, "Controlling Emergency Vehicles in Urban Traffic with Genetic Algorithms"

2014    Presentation, ICSTCC 2014: 18th Intl. Conf. on Systems Theory, Control and Computing, Sinaia, Romania, "Emergent Intelligence in Agents: a Scalable Architecture for Smart Cities"

2014    Presentation, ICSTCC 2014: 18th Intl. Conf. on Systems Theory, Control and Computing, Sinaia, Romania, "Real Time Agent Based Simulation for Smart City Emergency Protocols"

2012    Presentation, UNITE 2nd Doctoral Symposium, Sofia, Bulgaria, "Service Orientation for Intelligent Building Management: an IoT and IoS Perspective"

2011    Presentation, 2012 UKACC International Conference on Control, Cardiff, UK, "Hybrid Geno-Fuzzy Controller For Seismic Vibration Control"

2009    Presentation, 17th Intl. Conference on Control Systems and Computer Science, "Fuzzy control strategies for magnetorheological dampers"

Awards and recognition of research and professional activities

2024    Appointed as a lifetime member of the Doctoral School of Automatic Control and Computers, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania, which organizes scientific doctoral studies in the fields of systems engineering, computer science, and information technology.

2022    Session chair, EUMAS 2022: 19th European Conference on Multi-Agent Systems, Dusseldorf, Germany

2021    Session chair, MoA17 Control Applications I, CDC 2021: Conference on Decision and Control, Austin, Texas, USA

2021    Session chair, WeA01 Transportation and Traffic Control, ECC 2021: European Control Conference, Delft, Netherlands

2020    Five-Year Merit Award for professional excellence at the Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering, Faculty of Automatic Control and Computers, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania (UPB)

2017    Award for Research Results (scientific articles) offered by the Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding (UEFISCDI)

2017    Elevation to the grade of IEEE Senior Member

2015    Five-Year Merit Award for professional excellence at the Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering, Faculty of Automatic Control and Computers, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania (UPB)

2015    Two Awards for Research Results (scientific articles) offered by the Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding (UEFISCDI)

2011    Session co-chair, ThC09 Evolutionary Algorithms, IFAC 2011: 18th World Congress, Milano, Italy

2007    Award, 3rd place at the Student Scientific Communications Session, Faculty of Automatic Control and Computers, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania (UPB)

2006    Award, 1st place at the Student Scientific Communications Session, Faculty of Automatic Control and Computers, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania (UPB)

Outreach, organisation and management

2024-            Chair of the IEEE Engineering in Biology and Medicine Society Norway Chapter

2024-            Leader of the Engineer Group at the Centre for Elderly and Nursing Home Medicine (SEFAS), University of Bergen, Norway

2018-2019    Coordinator of the Workshop series "InGear for the Future" (Complex Systems Laboratory, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania) bringing together alumni and students for professional advice and guidance.

2017-2021    Founder (including development and organization) of a master program in Complex Systems (in English) at the Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania (UPB).

2012-2021    Coordinator of two education awareness advertising campaigns at the Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering, for bachelor and master studies, which include conceptual planning, live presentations, graphics and other materials (posters, banners, brochures, flyers); the campaigns are ongoing and have been designed to popularize the field of Systems Engineering among students.

2012-2021    Implementing department and faculty recognition through branding techniques (posters, flyers, photoshoots, brochures, business cards, tags and personalized department paraphernalia, book covers).

2008-2015    Organization/committee member for various conferences and workshops: CSCS-20 (20th International Conference on Control Systems and Computer Science), CSCS-19, IWoCPS (International Workshop on Cyber Physical Systems), IFAC Workshop SWIIS (Supplementary Ways for Improving International Stability), CSCS-17, IESS 1.6 (International Conference on Exploring Service Science).

Supervision: 9 PhD candidates (3 finalized), 24 Master (and equivalent) students, 48 Bachelor dissertations

Lectures (bachelor and master): Artificial Intelligence, Control Systems Engineering, Complex Systems Automation, Introduction to Complex Systems (in English), Control Systems in Robotics.

Individualized Lectures (doctoral studies): Self-organizing systems, Multi-agent systems, Complex Systems. 

Laboratory Practice and Seminars: Control Systems Engineering, Complex Systems Automation, Control Systems in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Modelling and Simulation, Intelligent Control Systems, Basics of Automated Systems.

Founder of the Master Program in Complex Systems, University Politehnica of Bucharest (in English); Administrator and Member of the Research Advisory Committees.

Institutional Responsibilities (selected): Member of Research Advisory Committees for Doctoral Studies, Graduate Student Advisor (Masters dissertation) and Member of the Master Dissertation Examination Committee; Member of the Bachelor Thesis Examination Committee; Undergraduate Student Advisor (Bachelor dissertation); Laboratory manager (LIRA); Coordinator of summer practice stages for 3rd years.

Current projects (PI)

2025-2026 Multi-harmonic visualization of circadian rhythms from actigraphy data with evolutionary learning in people with dementia, Grant from the L. Meltzer Research Fund

2024-2027 Emotion-Intelligent Robot System for people with impaired cognition (EI ROBOT), Eureka Eurostars

2024-2029 (co-PI) Center on Complex Conditions and Ageing (CC.AGE), Trond Mohn Research Foundation & University of Bergen, Norway

2023-2026 Digital phenotyping for changes in activity at the end of life in people with dementia: an observational trial based on sensing technology (DIPH.DEM), HelseVest, Norway

Current projects (team)

2024-2028 Decoding Death and Dying in people with Dementia by Digital thanotyping (5-D), European Research Council & University of Bergen, Norway - leading model development

2024-2026 Oral care at the end of life in people with dementia (ORAL.DEM), HelseVest, Norway

2023-2027 Virtual darkness and digital phenotyping in specialized and municipal dementia care (DARK.DEM), Reasearch Council of Norway (RCN), Norway

2022-2028 ActiveAgeing (branches Helgetun and DIGI.PARK), University of Bergen, GC Rieber Foundation, Reasearch Council of Norway (RCN), Norway

Past projects (PI)

2014-2020 Evolutionary Computing in Control Engineering (ECCE), Complex Systems Laboratory (xLab), University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania

2012-2025 Smart Training Systems (RunCoSy & Motion-AE), Complex Systems Laboratory (xLab), University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania, in collaboration with University Babes-Bolyai, Cluj, Romania

2016-2017     Evolutionary Algorithms for Intelligent Route Generation for Emergency Vehicles in Urban Traffic (EvoIR) – "Excellence Research Grants", University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania

2011-2024    CitySCAPE: Citywide Synergic Control Architecture for Protection during Emergencies, Complex Systems Laboratory (xLab), University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania

2013-2021    Ballbots by xLab in collaboration with the Department of Mechatronics, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania

2016-2018    Cylindrical Robots In a Swarm (CRIS), Complex Systems Laboratory, University Politehnica of Bucharest

2017-2018    Motor Velocity and Torque Control (MoVe), Complex Systems Laboratory, University Politehnica of Bucharest

2016-2017    Genetic Algorithms with Immune Adaptation (GAIA), Complex Systems Laboratory, University Politehnica of Bucharest

2013-2014    A Heterogenous Encoding Lifelike Genetic Algorithm (HELGA), Complex Systems Laboratory, University Politehnica of Bucharest

2006-2017    Structural Seismic Vibration Control (ViCo), Complex Systems Laboratory, University Politehnica of Bucharest

Past projects (team)

2020-2023    Robust trajectory planning for nonlinar incert systems (REPLAN), Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding (UEFISCDI), Romania

2018-2019    Control of Complex Systems using Dimension Reduction (RSCTRD), ARUT, Romania

2010-2013    Strategic program to promote innovation in services through open, continuous education (INSEED), European Social Fund for Romania

2008-2011    Development of bio-inspired cognitive architectures, Exploratory Research Grants, Romania

2005-2006    Autonomous advanced systems for the control of structural oscillations, with University of Civil Engineering, Bucharest, Romania.