Alexandru Caranica


Technical consultant, Research staff, PhD, Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Information Technology,
University Politehnica of Bucharest

Email: alexandru.caranica@upb.ro
Office: B042, Leu Campus

Last update: February 2024
  • Scientific Activity
    • National research projects
    • International research projects
    • National Collaborations
    • Affiliation to scientific community
  • List of publications
    • PhD Thesis
    • Books and book chapters
    • Journal and conference papers

Research Interests

  • Spoken Language Technology (Automatic Speech/Speaker Recognition, Speech Indexing, Spoken Term Detection)
  • Natural Language Processing (Statistical Language Modeling, Diacritics & Punctuation Restoration)
  • Computer network security
  • High availability systems

Degrees and Professional Experience

Degrees

  • PhD Degree, in Electronics and Telecommunications (Dec 2015), University “Politehnica” of Bucharest.
  • Master`s Degree, in Electronics and Telecommunications (July 2012), University “Politehnica” of Bucharest.
  • Bachelor`s Degree, in Electronics and Telecommunications (July 2010), Constanta Maritime University.
  • Highschool Graduation Degree (June 2006), “Traian” Highschool, Constanta.

Professional experience

  • Assistant professor (2023 – present) at Department of Electronic Devices, Circuits and Architectures, University Politehnica of Bucharest. Teaching Security in Computer Networks.
  • Scientific Researcher (Dec 2015 – present) at University Politehnica of Bucharest, Speech and Dialogue Research laboratory.
  • MLOps Engineer & Co-founder (Jan 2019 – present) for Zevo Technology Srl. I focus on streamlining the process of taking ML models to production, and then maintaining and monitoring them
  • Systems Director (Jan 2004 – present) for GLYKON SRL, Constanta, Romania. I design and administer clusters or servers based on Lenovo / Dell (Linux, Windows Server, VMWare). Also, I am involved in a lot of IT integration projects for the company (Fuel Management Systems, WMS Applications, Industrial & Retail Sector, Wireless Infrastructure implementation, etc.).
  • PhD Student (Oct 2012 – Dec 2015) at University Politehnica of Bucharest, Speech and Dialogue Research laboratory.
  • Teaching Assistant (March 2012 – Oct 2014) at Department of Electronics and Telecommunications, Constanta Maritime University. Teaching Sensor Networks, Analog-to-Digital Communication and Mobile Communication Laboratory. Supervising BSc projects in sensor networks and embedded systems.
  • Implementation Expert (2008 – 2012) at Constanta Maritime University. Developed software for the research department, administered web servers and developed web applications.
  • Short Term Expert (2009 – 2012) at University Politehnica of Bucharest. Developed high traffic conference web-sites and network security laboratory platforms for the students.

Academic Activity

Teaching

All my teaching activity took place in the Department of Electronics and Telecommunications, Constanta Maritime University and Department of Electronic Devices, Circuits and Architectures, University Politehnica of Bucharest.

Master curricula

  • Security in Computer Networks (2023 – present)

Bachelor curricula

  • Sensor Networks, seminary (2012 – 2014) and laboratory (2012 – 2014);
  • Analog-to-Digital Communication, seminary (2012 – 2014) and laboratory (2012 – 2014);
  • Mobile Communications, seminary (2012 – 2014), laboratory (2012 – 2014).

Teaching books

  • Alexandru Caranica, “Reţele de senzori: îndrumar de laborator”, Laboratory Guide, Nautica Publishing House, Constanta, 2014, ISBN: 978-606-681-029-6.
  • Electronic support for “Analog-to-digital Communications” laboratory, Constanta Maritime University;
  • Electronic support for “Mobile Communications” laboratory, Constanta Maritime University;
  • Electronic support for “Network Security” laboratory, University Politehnica of Bucharest.

Scientific Activity

National research projects

  • 2014 – 2016: research staff, project AFLR (“Phonetic Analysis of the Romanian Language”), funded by the Romanian Government through UEFISCDI, project coordinator Softwin Group, ID PN-II-PT-PCCA-2013-4-1451.
  • 2017 – 2019: research staff, project ToR-SIM (“Integrated software platform for malware analysis of mobile terminals”), funded by the Romanian Government through UEFISCDI, 5Sol/2017.
  • 2017 – 2020: research staff, SPIA-VA (“Intelligent Systems for Video and Audio Analysis — Technologies and Innovative Video Systems for Person Re-identification and Analysis of Dissimulated Behavior”),  grant UEFISCDI 2SOL/2017 (2017-2020).
  • 2018 – 2021: research staff, project SIIMA (“Integrated Information System for the Management of Activities Inside Institutions”).
  • 2018 – 2021: research staff, project MultiMonD2 (“Multiagent intelligent systems platform for the monitoring of water quality on the Romanian sector of the Danube and Danube Delta”).
  • Aug 2019 – Dec 2019: research staff: “RISC V-based hardware-software system for Machine Learning Applications” project (research and development project funded by NXP Semiconductors Romania SRL).
  • 2021 – 2022: research staff, project “Efficiency and Effectiveness of Circuit Verification using Machine Learning Methods v2”. Research and development project funded by Infineon Technologies Romania & Co. SCS.
  • 2022 – 2024: research staff, in AVESIC project (R&D project funded by the Romanian Government through UEFISCDI, project coordinator Infineon Technologies Romania & Co. SCS).
  • Mar 2023 – Dec 2023: project director at BOLD TEHNOLOGIES SRL, in the “Integrated voice to text analytics system (VOITA)” project (R&D project funded by the Romanian Government through UEFISCDI, project coordinator Bold Technologies SRL).

International research projects

  • 2023 – present: research staff, in AI4TRUST project (R&D project funded by the European Union through Horizon Europe programe, project coordinator Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Trento, Italy).

National collaborations

  • Softwin R&D: several research projects in digital signal processing and natural language processing.

Affiliation to scientific community

  • Member of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Jan 2012 – present;
  • Member of SpeeD Laboratory, Oct 2011 – present;

Organizer

  • Member of the organizing committee for the 8th International Conference on Speech Technology and Human-Computer Dialogue – SpeD 2015, SpeD 2017, SpeD 2019, SpeD 2021, SpeD 2023 (“https://sped.pub.ro/“).
  • Member of the organizing committee for the The 7th edition of the International Conference “Advanced Topics in Optoelectronics, Microelectronics and Nanotechnologies” – ATOM-N 2014.
  • Member of the organizing committee for the The 6th edition of the International Conference “Advanced Topics in Optoelectronics, Microelectronics and Nanotechnologies” – ATOM-N 2012.

List of publications

PhD thesis

Alexandru Caranica, “Optimizations in Spoken Language Recognition”, PhD Thesis, University “Politehnica” of Bucharest, Dec 2015 (scientific coordinator: prof. Corneliu Burileanu).

Books and book chapters

  • Alexandru Caranica, “Reţele de senzori: îndrumar de laborator”, Laboratory Guide, Nautica Publishing House, Constanța, 2014, ISBN: 978-606-681-029-6.

Journal papers

2021

  • Alexandru CARANICA, Dan ONEAŢĂ, Horia CUCU, Corneliu BURILEANU, “• Confidence Estimation for Lattice-Based and Lattice-Free Automatic Speech Recognition,” in University “Politehnica” of Bucharest Scientific Bulletin, Series C, vol. 83, issue 3, pp. 155-169, Bucharest, 2021, ISSN: 2286-3540.

2018

  • Alexandru Lucian Georgescu, Alexandru Caranica, Horia Cucu, Corneliu Burileanu, “RoDigits – a Romanian connected-digits speech corpus for automatic speech and speaker recognition,” in University “Politehnica” of Bucharest Scientific Bulletin, Series C, vol. 80, issue 3, pp. 45-62, Bucharest, 2018, ISSN: 2286-3540.

2017

  • Alexandru Caranica, Horia Cucu, Andi Buzo, Corneliu Burileanu, “Survey on Multilingual Spoken Term Detection,” in Romanian Journal of Information Science and Technology, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 210-221, 2017, ISSN 1453-8245, ISI IF 0.442.

2016

2015

Conference papers

2023

  • C. Manolache, C. Andronache, A. Caranica, H. Cucu, A. Buzo, C. Diaconu and G. Pelz, “Applying Multi-objective Acquisition Function Ensemble for a candidate proposal algorithm,” in 2023 International Conference on Speech Technology and Human-Computer Dialogue (SpeD), 2023, pp. 116-121, doi: 10.1109/SpeD59241.2023.10314884.
  • C. Manolache, C. Andronache, A. Caranica, H. Cucu, A. Buzo, C. Diaconu and G. Pelz, “Adaptive Planning Search Algorithm for Analog Circuit Verification,” in 2023 International Semiconductor Conference (CAS), 2023, pp. 81-84, doi: 10.1109/CAS59036.2023.10303674.
  • A. Vulpe, C. Dobrin, A. Stefan, A. Caranica, “AI/ML-based real-time classification of Software Defined Networking traffic,” in ARES 2023: The 18th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security, 2023, doi: 10.1145/3600160.3605078.
  • A. Vulpe, M. Zamfirache, A. Caranica, “Analysis of Spectral Entropy and Maximum Power of EEG as Authentication Mechanisms,” in 2023 International Conference on Speech Technology and Human-Computer Dialogue (SpeD), 2023, doi: 10.1109/SpeD59241.2023.10314890.

2022

  • C. Manolache, A. Caranica, H. Cucu, A. Buzo, C. Diaconu and G. Pelz, “Enhanced Candidate Selection Algorithm for Analog Circuit Verification,” in 2022 International Semiconductor Conference (CAS), 2022, pp. 137-140, doi: 10.1109/CAS56377.2022.9934364.

2021

  • Dan Oneaţă, Alexandru Caranica, Adriana Stan, and Horia Cucu. “An evaluation of word-level confidence estimation for end-to-end automatic speech recognition.” In 2021 IEEE Spoken Language Technology Workshop (SLT), pp. 258-265. IEEE, 2021.
  • D. Drăghicescu, A. Caranica, O. Fratu, “HONEYPOT TECHNOLOGIES FOR MALWARE DETECTION AND ANALYSIS,” in STRATEGIES XXI – Command and Staff College, 2021, pp. 265-271, doi: 10.53477/2668-2028-21-34.

2020

  • Cristian Manolache, Alexandru-Lucian Georgescu, Alexandru Caranica, Horia Cucu, “Automatic Annotation of Speech Corpora using Approximate Transcripts,” in the Proceedings of the 43rd International Conference on Telecommunications and Signal Processing (TSP), 2020, Milano, Italy.

2019

  • Alexandru Caranica, Alexandru Vulpe, Marius Emil Pârvu, Dragoș Drăghicescu, Octavian Fratu, “ToR-SIM, A Mobile Malware Analysis Platform“, in the Proceedings of the 10th Conference on Speech Technology and Human-Computer Dialogue (SpeD), 2019, Timișoara, Romania – October 2019.

2018

  • Alexandru Caranica, Alexandru Vulpe, Octavian Fratu, “Tenable Smart Building Security Flow Architecture using Open Source Tools“, in the Proceedings of WorldCist’18 – 6th World Conference on Information Systems and Technologies, Workshop Emerging Trends, Challenges and Solutions in Infrastructures and Smart Building Management, Naples, Italy, 27th – 29th of March 2018.
  • Alexandru Caranica, Lucian Georgescu, Alexandru Vulpe, Horia Cucu, “Multilingual Low-Resourced Prototype System for Voice-Controlled Intelligent Building Applications,” in Rocha Á., Adeli H., Reis L., Costanzo S. (eds) Trends and Advances in Information Systems and Technologies. WorldCIST’18 2018. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 747. Springer, Cham.

2017

  • Alexandru Caranica, Horia Cucu, Corneliu Burileanu, François Portet, Michel Vacher, “Speech Recognition Results for Voice-controlled Assistive Applications,” in the Proceedings of the 9th Conference on Speech Technology and Human-Computer Dialogue (SpeD), Bucharest, 2017, 8p, ISBN 978-1-5090-6496-0.

2016

  • Alexandru Caranica, Horia Cucu, Andi Buzo, “Exploring an Unsupervised, Language Independent, Spoken Document Retrieval System,” in the Proceedings of the 14th International Workshop on Content-Based Multimedia Indexing (CBMI), Bucharest, Romania, 2016.

2015

2014

  • Alexandru Caranica, Corneliu Burileanu, “An automatic speech recognition system with speaker-independent identification support“, in Proc. SPIE 9258, Advanced Topics in Optoelectronics, Microelectronics, and Nanotechnologies VII, 925834, Constanța, Romania, 2015, doi:10.1117/12.2072245.

2009

  • Alexandru Caranica, Vali Mihaela Stefan, Danut Argintaru, Eliodor Constantinescu, “Simulating The Marusya Setup With Geant4“, in Proc. of The 10th International Balkan Workshop on Applied Physics – IBWAP 2009, Constanța, Romania, 2009.
  • Mihaela Hnatiuc, Alexandru Caranica, “Communication between the Sensor Levels for Monitoring Subjects with Disabilities“, in Advanced Technologies for Enhanced Quality of Life – AT-EQUAL ’09, Iași, Romania, 2009.

2008

  • Danut Argintaru, Calin Besliu, Alexandru Jipa, Tiberiu Esanu, Alexandru Caranica, “Glauber analysis of He+AT nuclear colisions at 4.5 GeV“, in Proc. of the 15th National Conference on Physics, Bucharest, Romania, 2008.
  • D. Argintaru, A. Baldin, C. Argintaru, A. Jipa, D. Moscalu, Alexandru Caranica, “Searching for the Mixed Phase with the Marusya Setup at the Nuclotron Energies“, in Constanta Maritime University Annals,  Year IX, Vol.11, 2008.