Martin Thorsen Ranang, PhD
Founder, Encount AS · CTO, Citrus Analytics
I build AI products, data systems, and production software for teams tackling technically difficult work. I've been doing this since 2010, and the systems I've built are still running.
My research spans the foundations of what we now call modern AI — and goes back further than most expect. In 1999, I built an intelligent web agent that used vector models and document similarity to learn each user's interests and surface relevant content — the same retrieval principles that drive today's AI search and recommendation systems. My Master's thesis at NTNU applied bio-inspired computing to cybersecurity: an artificial immune system that evolved its own pattern detectors to catch network intrusions, a form of adaptive machine learning. My PhD went deeper into language — building systems that decompose Norwegian compound words, map meaning across languages through semantic networks, and answer open-domain questions by extracting knowledge from text.
These are the problems at the heart of modern AI: how machines retrieve, adapt, and understand human language. I hold a PhD in Computer Science from NTNU, and I've been working on these problems for over 25 years. Today I apply that foundation to agentic AI systems, statistical analysis pipelines, and complex data platforms.
As CTO at Citrus Analytics, I lead the development of Fusion, an AI-powered survey analytics platform. Before that, I built Norway's automated COVID survey system in 3 days, data pipelines for transit authorities, and a research platform that's been in production for 16 years.
- Oslo, Norway
- PhD in Computer Science — NTNU
- CTO at Citrus Analytics
- Shipping software since 2010
How I work
Hands-on. I write code, design architectures, and debug production systems. I don't delegate the hard parts.
Selective. I take on problems that are technically interesting and genuinely matter. I say no to work that doesn't benefit from what I bring.
Lean by default. I bring in senior specialists when the problem truly benefits from it, not to fill seats.
Built to last. I bias toward clarity, maintainability, and delivery. The right architecture today saves years of pain later.
Areas of expertise
Encount
Encount AS is the company behind my work. Based in Oslo, Norway. The delivery model stays lean by default and expands only when a problem genuinely needs additional senior expertise.
Have a difficult software problem?
Send a short note with the context, constraints, and what makes the problem hard.