Alina Sirbu

Alina is Associate Professor of Computer Science at University of Pisa, and member of the Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining laboratory. Her research interests are Complex Systems Modelling, Data Science and Machine Learning, applied to a variety of systems ranging from technical (HPC systems, data centres), social (opinion dynamics, social choice theory, behaviour change) to biological (gene regulatory networks). Her work has appeared in BMC Bioinformatics, PLOS One, Journal of Statistical Physics, Nature Methods, Cluster Computing, Quality and Quantity, Advances in Complex Systems and other international journals and conferences. She was previously Research Assistant at Bologna University, Italy, and Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute for Scientific Interchange in Turin. In 2014 se was Visiting Assistant Professor at New York University, Shanghai. She holds a PhD in Computational Biology from Dublin City University, Ireland and a BSc in Computer Science from AI Cuza. University in Iasi, Romania. She was recipient of the Irish Research Council for Science Engineering and Technology EMBARK scholarship award in 2008.

Research/Academic Experience

Assistant Professor: February 2016 - Present University of Pisa, Department of Computer Science, Italy

Visiting Assistant Professor of Computer Science: October 2017 - December 2017 NYU Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Postdoctoral Researcher: March 2014 - January 2016 University of Bologna, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Italy

Visiting Assistant Professor of Computer Science: August 2014 - December 2014 NYU Shanghai, China

Postdoctoral Researcher: Oct 2011- February 2014 Institute for Scientific Interchange Foundation, Turin, Italy

PhD Student: Oct 2008 - Sept 2011 Dublin City University, Centre for Scientific Computing and Complex Systems Modelling, School of Computing, Ireland

Education

PhD degree, Dublin City University, Ireland, Oct 2008 - Oct 2011

Centre for Scientific Computing and Complex Systems Modelling, School of Computing

• Funded under the IRCSET Embark scheme 2008. Project title: "Gene regulatory network modelling with evolutionary algorithms: an integrative approach". Please see research page for more information and publication list. BSc degree, 'A.I. Cuza' University, Iasi, Romania, Oct 2004 - June 2008

Faculty of Computer Science

• Thesis title: "GriW: application for visualisation of grid systems". Relevant modules studied: Machine Learning, Bioinformatics, Evolutionary Algorithms, Artificial Neural Networks, Probability and Statistics, Graph Theory, Artificial Intelligence, Software Engineering, Programming (C/C++, Java, C#, Haskel, Lisp), Databases, Coding Theory and Cryptography, Computer Networks.

Interests:

Complex systems modelling (e.g., technical, biological, social systems), machine learning, data analytics, agent based modelling, gene regulatory networks, opinion dynamics, evolutionary algorithms, artificial neural networks, bioinformatics.

Awards

• 2008 Irish Research Council EMBARK postgraduate scholarship award