Radu-Daniel Vatavu
I am a Professor of Computer Science (HDR) at the
Ștefan cel Mare University of Suceava and
a Corresponding Member of the Romanian Academy.
I direct the Machine Intelligence and Information Visualization Lab (MintViz),
an interdisciplinary research laboratory dedicated to advancing scientific and design knowledge of natural, meaningful, and accessible interactions
among humans, computers, and environments; see Research Projects .
My research has received awards at
CHI (2023, 2016, 2015), EICS (2019), ICMI (2024, 2023, 2022, 2012), IEEE Pervasive (2022), IMX (2023, 2021, 2020), ISAmI (2021),
MobileHCI (2025, 2018), TVX (2015), and W4A (2025, 2022).
For my work on Smart Pockets,
I received the "Mihai Draganescu" Award of the Romanian Academy in 2019.
In 2022, the $P gesture recognizer received the
10-Year Technical Impact Award from ICMI '22, following its Outstanding Paper Award at ICMI '12. My vision papers on non-natural interaction
and AI-embodied modalities were distinguished with 1st Place Blue Sky Awards at
ICMI '23 and ICMI '24.
According to Research.com, I am ranked 3rd in "Best Computer Science Scientists in Romania" (2026), and Google Scholar ranks me 1st in HCI in Romania.
My research is frequently featured in the media, such as the Academica program on Radio Romania Actualitati "The World of Tomorrow Begins Today".
I regularly release open-source software and datasets, such as the $P,
$P+, and
$Q gesture recognizers,
the Agreement Analysis Toolkit (AGATe)
for end-user elicitation studies, and the Gesture Heatmaps Toolkit (GHoST)
for gesture analysis;
see Resources .
