Her research interests include the design and analysis of algorithms, the mathematical aspects of combinatorial optimization topics such as submodularity and graphs, and their applications to machine learning. Prior to joining BU, she was an Assistant Professor at the University of Warwick, a Faculty Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute for Data Science, and a postdoc in the Center for Computational Intractability at Princeton University. Alina obtained her PhD in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2013 under the supervision of Chandra Chekuri. She graduated with a BSE degree in Computer Science from Princeton University in 2008, with High Honors in Computer Science.