Rate My Professor Alina Vereshchaka

Alina Vereshchaka is an Assistant Professor of Teaching in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University at Buffalo, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. She earned her PhD in Computer Science from the University at Buffalo in 2021. Her research specializations include artificial intelligence, optimal control, and imitation learning, with a focus on human-machine interactions in multi-agent reinforcement learning. Vereshchaka's work addresses practical applications such as predicting and optimizing city-scale road traffic dynamics, spatiotemporal wildfire prediction using reinforcement learning for helitack suppression, dynamic modeling and forecasting of epidemics incorporating age and vaccination status, and multimodal large language models using federated visual instruction tuning for medical applications. She advises graduate students, including PhD candidates like Nitin Kulkarni (co-advised with Chunming Qiao) and MS student Ankith Bala. In 2022, she launched the CSE Workshop Series, a student-centered, faculty-led initiative to extend learning beyond the classroom through practical workshops on topics like Git and other computing skills. Vereshchaka serves as a faculty mentor for the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program in biometrics and authentication.

Key publications include 'Bayesian Multi-type Mean Field Multi-agent Imitation Learning' presented at NeurIPS 2020, 'Multimodal LLM using Federated Visual Instruction Tuning for Medical Applications' in 2025, 'Analyzing and Distinguishing Fake and Real News to Mitigate Disinformation' published in 2020, 'Data-driven Simulation of Urban Human Mobility Constrained by Venues' in 2019, and 'Reducing Risks During Natural Disasters With Optimal Resource Allocation By Multi-Agent Optimization' in 2020. In 2024, she received the University at Buffalo Pillar of Leadership Award for outstanding leadership. Her contributions extend to teaching courses such as Reinforcement Learning and organizing practical workshops in the Computer Science department.