TATEMENT Alexandra Kolla

My research interests are concentrated in theoretical computer science, in particular in graph algorithms, approximation algorithms, complexity theory, and quantum computing. In the area of graph algorithms, my work is motivated by the increasing need to understand and manipulate massive graph structures that emerge from web applications and networks, using efficient graph approximation techniques. I have made contributions to problems such as display ads allocation in web-advertising, optimal linear systems solvers, and well-connected network design. I am also interested in the interplay between the approximation algorithms and complexity theory. For example, I have developed approximation algorithms relying on graph spectra which have provided new insight into the validity of the Unique Games Conjecture (UGC), which is one of the main open problems in complexity theory. In the area of quantum computing, my research is centered on quantum interactive proofs and in particular quantum zero-knowledge.