Young Researchers’ Colloquium for First Time Authors

Vanesa Vargas is Lecturer at the Faculty of Business Administration in foreign languages, where she teaches Entrepreneurship, the European Business Environment and Business Simulations. Her field of research is focused on E-Commerce, and her doctoral thesis was centered on the use of personal data in E-Business and Consumer Protection. She is the office manager of the Higher Education and Research in Management of European Universities (HERMES) and past President of the Rotaract Deva Association. She is a graduate of the German section of the Faculty of Business Administration in Foreign Languages and completed in 2019 the studies for the Bachelor of Laws. Vanesa is a former Konrad Adenauer Foundation scholar and in 2016 she obtained a Trainer certificate. She completed an internship in the Romanian Government, at the Ministry for Small and Medium Enterprises. Recently, she has taken on a key role in organizing the International Conference on Business Excellence, the International Conference on Economics and Social Sciences and publishing the conference proceedings. Vanesa has strong ties with the entrepreneurial network of FABIZ and actively contributes to its development. 

Eduard Mihai Manta, a third-year Ph.D. student and research assistant at the Doctoral School of Cybernetics and Statistics, is one of the first researcher members of the Business Economics Data Science Lab. With over eight years of experience in model risk management, he has held various positions in data teams within a major financial institution in Europe, including roles in Sustainable Finance, ESG, stock ranking, and risk intelligence lead model validation. Recently, his focus has shifted to sustainability, informality, machine learning, and quantitative analysis. His Ph.D. research examines the COVID-19 pandemic as an accelerator for implementing sustainable, resilient, green, and inclusive development concepts globally. Eduard has also contributed to the educational field through his work with a leading NGO, developing reports that support organizational decision-making. He has over four years of teaching experience in econometrics, time series analysis, predictive analytics, and machine learning. Eduard has authored over 10 ISI research papers, participated in more than 15 international conferences, and published around 20 book chapters with Emerald, Springer, and Routledge on topics such as informality, sustainability, and ESG. Additionally, he has been involved in various national and international research projects, including a HORIZON project on informality.

Marina-Diana Agafiței is a PhD student and a research assistent in the Department of Statistics and Econometrics at Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania and a researcher within Business Economics Data Science Lab, focusing on data-driven approaches for business and economics. Currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Cybernetics and Economic Statistics, her research primarily explores tax evasion and the informal economy through both quantitative and qualitative methods, alongside advanced data science techniques. Her other areas of interest include taxation systems, the intersection of the informal economy and labour market, and public policy evaluation. Additionally, she is actively involved in both institutional and international projects that span topics such as informality, artificial intelligence, and public policy.