I work at the Department of Sociology of the University of Bucharest, teaching social statistics, research methodology and measurement in the social sciences. I am also the Director of the RODA - Romanian Social Data Archive, being involved in data archiving for almost 20 years, in partnership with the CESSDA - Council of European Social Science Data Archives.
With a joint proposal for CESSDA and ESS - European Social Survey, two of the most important landmark projects for the social sciences in the European lanscape at ESFRI - European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures, RODA is about to become a National Research Infrastructure for the social sciences, already included in the National Roadmap for Research Infrastructures, recently published by the Ministry of Research and Innovation. My activity in the research infrastructures area was acknowledged both nationally, appointed as a member of the CRIC - Romanian Committee for Research Infrastructures, and internationally as a Romanian delegate to ESFRI, where I chaired the SCI-SWG - Social and Cultural Innovation Strategy Working Group between 2012 and 2014.
My primary research interest is QCA - Qualitative Comparative Analysis, a novel methodology for social research that inspires a growing community for which I serve as a member of the Advisory Board and Steering Committee at COMPASSS. I have published extensively on methodological aspects, with a key interest in the programming of the minimization algorithms. My main programming environment is R (see also R-omania), for which I have contributed a number of packages, among which a highly advanced and sophisticated QCA software. It includes a cross-platform, web-based Graphical User Interface written with a custom combination of HTML, Javascript, jQuery, a special SVG library called Raphäel and one the most spectacular packages called shiny to link everything with the base R.
PhD in Sociology, 2008
University of Bucharest
MA in Sociology, 1999
University of Bucharest
BA in Sociology, 1997
University of Bucharest
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My programming environment of choice is R, because it is a high level software and it automatically does memory management when creating objects. It is the sort of language where users can focus on substantive issues, rather than pure programming.
The most important R package I’ve created is called QCA, which does Qualitative Comparative Analysis for all types of input data: binary crisp, multi-value crisp and fuzzy sets. This package is now used in many universities and summer schools all over the world.
I am currently working with Ciprian Păduraru on producing a parallel version of the minimization algorithm, which has the potential of increasing the execution speed function of the number of cores from the machine where the package is installed.
Linked to QCA is an independent package called venn, that creates Venn diagrams for up to 7 sets. It is specifically written for graphing entire sets or any other custom intersection, specified as a SOP (sum of products) expression.
Interpreting SOP expressions, as well as a good number of useful miscellanea functions, are tasks perfored by the admisc package.
Another incipient package that has a lot of potential is called DDIwR, with a number of useful functions based on the Data Documentation Initiative standard.
Together with Emilian Hossu, I currently develop an new type of Graphical User Interface generator for R, creating custom dialogs that are imported in a main application, employing ElectronJS from the node.js environment. It uses webkit as a standard environment, so the created dialogs look exactly the same on the users’ machines. As an added bonus, this is achieved irrespective of their operating systems, because the dialog objects are created from scratch using the magic of Scalable Vector Graphics provided by the RaphaëlJS library.
At the Department of Sociology, I teach the following classes:
My preferred e-learning platform is Moodle, where students complete quizzes and build their final grade throughout the entire semester.
In my limited spare time I offer consultancy on topics related to sampling, basic statistical analysis and social research methodology. A significant part of my current training is dedicated to the R environment for statistical analysis and data management.
In a random order, this is a list of the institutions I have signed contracts with: