Cristian Țone

I was born into a humble home, where my mother’s hands carried the marks of long days in a factory and my father’s eyes scanned the night as a security guard. We never had much, but what we did have was a shared belief that education could open doors we couldn’t even imagine. It was my grandmother and my mother who built the pillars of my character. My mother, ever the perfectionist, taught me to give my best in everything. My grandmother, with her unwavering principles and high standards, showed me the quiet strength of common sense, the warmth of kindness, and the healing power of forgiveness.

In the final days of fourth grade, I stood on the small stage of our school, holding my third-place award. Inside, I was beaming with pride, but the photo from that day tells another story—a boy with stiff shoulders and a guarded expression. My teacher’s stern presence weighed on me, and my heart, too tender for the world, didn’t know how to let joy fully shine through. I carry deep gratitude for my teacher, Mariana Grinciuc—not despite her strictness, but because of it. Her high expectations and unwavering discipline became the scaffolding on which I built resilience, respect, and the determination to give my best in all things.

In this picture I'm with my 5 year younger brother. At eleven, my homeroom teacher asked me the age-old question: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I had no real answer, so I reached for the first image that felt familiar. “A baker,” I said—probably because some of my happiest moments were spent watching my mother’s gentle hands knead dough, filling our home with the warm, comforting scent of fresh bread. 

When I finished high school, my parents sacrificed yet again to send me to college—a gift I will treasure for the rest of my life. As you’ll see in my journey, that decision didn’t just shape my career—it reshaped who I became.

At 12,

I first joined the Student Club in my hometown, where I discovered a Romanian-made computer: the HC Felix. It ran on the BASIC programming language and connected to a TV via coaxial cable — no monitor, no hard drive. Games and programs were stored on cassette tapes, and the cassette player was connected directly to the computer. I was self-taught, learning BASIC from a manual provided by the instructor. There were no smartphones, no Google, and the internet was in its infancy. The lack of distractions in my life, combined with a deep desire to explore and the joy of every small success, fueled my early passion for programming.

At 15, 

I enrolled in a technical high school where I learned algorithm design and a new language: Turbo Pascal. I’m deeply grateful to my computer science teacher, Neciu Crina, who saw potential in me and became a true mentor. Thanks to her guidance, I qualified for the county-level informatics olympiad. There were days when she gave me the keys to the computer lab so I could stay after school and develop my skills. I’d play games like Prince, Mario, and Street Fighter, explore MS-DOS and Windows 3.1, and work on personal mini-projects in Turbo Pascal and FoxPro — all saved on floppy disks.

At 16, 

I built my own multi-level Snake game in BASIC on my first PC, a HC Felix. Even without someone to check my work, I paid close attention to writing clean code so that debugging would be easier later.

At 17, 

I developed a patient management application in FoxPro, a language with its own built-in database engine. I tried selling it to my family doctor. Around the same time, I created another app in Turbo Pascal that graphically displayed vertical mouse movement — similar to an EKG — with the idea that it could help monitor a patient's breathing by connecting the mouse to a ventilator. I even presented the concept to a doctor at the municipal hospital.

At 20, 

I began studying at the University of Craiova, Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics. While mathematics was the main focus, I also learned Java, C++, SQL, and Lisp for AI.

At university, I liked mathematics quite a lot and I got very good grades in some subjects.

My highest  grades in: 

Differential Equations – 10/10

Mathematical Foundations of Artificial Intelligence – 10/10

Computational Algebra – 10/10

Object-Oriented Programming – 10/10

Software Project Management – 10/10

Data Coding and Compression – 10/10

Expert Systems – 10/10

My lowest grades in: 

Abstract Algebra – 6/10

Numerical Computation - 6/10

Computational Geometry and Graphics – 6/10

Linear Algebra – 5/10

Probability Theory – 5/10

Mathematical Statistics – 5/10

Compiler Design – 5/10

All my grades from university

My bachelor’s degree diploma