My explicit entry point into this field was the book Artificial Intelligence (1985), one of the first works devoted to the subject published in Romania. In later stages, the research developed along two main directions: one related to semantic modeling and ontologies, and another related to intelligent agents, digital ecosystems and avatars.

Fundamental landmarks

• 1985 — Artificial Intelligence
  The book that marks my explicit entry into the field of symbolic AI, knowledge representation and problem solving.
• 1943–2025 — Chronology of Artificial Intelligence
  Historical landmarks, from the artificial neuron model and the Dartmouth Conference to deep learning, large language models and generative AI. The page also includes my own conceptual thread: R2V2R → VHR → digital healthcare ecosystem → avatars and digital twins.

Ontologies and semantic modeling

• 2007 — Towards an Ontology using a Concern-Oriented Approach for Information Systems Analysis
  Ontologies, concerns and the semantic structuring of information systems analysis.
• 2007 — A Concern-Oriented and Ontology-Based Approach to Constructing Facets of Information Systems
  An extension of the same direction toward views and facets, as a way of organizing the description and understanding of complex systems.
• 2008 — Understanding Concerns with Ontologies
  A representative paper for the transition from informal analysis to the ontological representation of knowledge and of the perspectives of the actors involved.
• 2010 — Concern-Oriented and Ontology-Based Analysis of Information Systems
  A more mature formulation of the ontological direction: systems analysis based on concerns, semantic models and conceptual structuring.

Intelligent agents, digital ecosystems and avatars

• 2011 — Supporting Adaptability in Agent-Based Digital Healthcare Ecosystem
  An extension toward mechanisms of adaptability, selection and evolution in an agent-based digital ecosystem.
• 2012 — Towards an Agent-Oriented Architecture of the Digital Healthcare Ecosystem
  A direction developed together with Andrei Vasilățeanu: multi-agent systems (FIPA/JADE), specialized roles, cooperation, negotiation and orchestration of processes in the digital healthcare ecosystem.
• 2015 — Agentification of Electronic Healthcare Record Systems
  An important step from the VHR/LuMiR architecture toward virtual organizations of agents, proactive digital representations and avatars of human actors.

Essays and dialogues on artificial intelligence

• 2025 — Dialogue with an Artificial Intelligence about Itself
  An essay-dialogue based on a conversation with ChatGPT, about symbolic AI and generative AI, Turing, Gödel, the BDI model, artificial morality, sensitive decisions and the risk of cognitive idleness.
• 2026 — When Truth Becomes Plausible
  A second essay-dialogue on artificial intelligence, focused on the digitization of knowledge, near-truth, algorithmic black boxes, the consciousness of consequences and human responsibility.

Precursors of digital twins

In my research in medical informatics, the idea of a digital twin does not appear suddenly. It takes shape gradually: from concern-driven design and the R2V2R paradigm to VHR, the digital healthcare ecosystem, the agentification of EHR systems and, finally, Health Digital State / Smart EHR.

• 2008 — Toward Concern-Driven Design
  The article emphasizes that information-system decisions are not driven only by “functional” requirements, but by a set of concerns (interests, risks, obligations, constraints, priorities) of the stakeholders, which justify the partitioning of the solution and organize the architecture. PDF
• 2011 — Steps towards a digital health ecosystem
  VHR, LuMiR and the transition from an organization-centered healthcare model to a patient-oriented digital ecosystem based on interoperability.
• 2011 — Supporting Adaptability in Agent-Based Digital Healthcare Ecosystem
  R2V2R, adaptability, virtual organisms and multi-agent systems: one of the conceptual links between medical reality and its active digital representation.
• 2015 — A Virtual Health Record-based EHR System
  VHR as the functional core of EHR 2.0: not just a document repository, but an integrative, authorized and active representation of health information.
• 2015 — Agentification of Electronic Healthcare Record Systems
  The transition from the VHR/LuMiR architecture toward virtual organizations of agents, proactive digital representations and avatars of human actors.
• 2020 — Health digital state and Smart EHR systems
  A point of maturity for this direction: Health Digital State, Smart EHR and the individual’s health avatar, close to the current notion of a digital twin. (PDF)

Related links

• Medical informatics
  The application context in which an important part of my AI research was developed and put to work.
• Andrei Vasilățeanu
  The doctoral student with whom I developed the line of intelligent agents, digital health ecosystems and avatars.
• Doctoral students
  The section that also includes the other doctoral collaborations relevant to my research directions.

AI chronology: for a synthetic view of the field’s evolution, see Chronology of Artificial Intelligence, 1943–2025. For the biographical and institutional context, see My path in research. For dialogues and pages with a reflective dimension, see also Reflections.