Professor Jorjeta Jetcheva
Professor Jorjeta Jetcheva enjoyed math and learning English from an early age, and later on became interested in computer science, following in her father’s footsteps. After she graduated from First English Language High School in Sofia, Bulgaria, Professor Jetcheva received a financial aid scholarship to attend Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, MA, where she obtained a double major in Computer Science and Mathematics, graduating summa cum laude. Her first job at Mount Holyoke was as a dishwasher and dining hall staff. Her most memorable job was as a high school math tutor, where she saw first hand how in a short amount of time, with just a tiny bit of encouragement and help, students can gain the confidence to unlock their own potential and go from failing to getting As.
Professor Jorjeta Jetcheva enjoyed math and learning English from an early age, and
later on became interested in computer science, following in her father’s footsteps.
After she graduated from First English Language High School in Sofia, Bulgaria, Professor
Jetcheva received a financial aid scholarship to attend Mount Holyoke College in South
Hadley, MA, where she obtained a double major in Computer Science and Mathematics,
graduating summa cum laude. Her first job at Mount Holyoke was as a dishwasher and
dining hall staff. Her most memorable job was as a high school math tutor, where
she saw first hand how in a short amount of time, with just a tiny bit of encouragement
and help, students can gain the confidence to unlock their own potential and go from
failing to getting As. This experience and others like it, inspired Professor Jetcheva to join the faculty of the Computer Engineering Department at San José State University (SJSU) in 2020, with the goal of mentoring students and empowering them to succeed in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). In between getting a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University and coming to SJSU, she spent 15 years in the Silicon Valley tech sector, including in startup, research, and product companies, and holding technical and leadership roles in Artificial Intelligence research and development, accumulating valuable experiences and insights that she shares with her students.
Professor Jetcheva has received multiple innovation and research awards, including top 10 finalist in the Fujitsu Next Generation Product Idea Contest (out of 454) in 2016 for her project "Robo Butler", the Best Paper Award at SmartGridComm 2014, and the Best Application Paper Award at IEEE Big Data Service 2022. She is the holder of over 40 patents, and her research work has been cited over 13,000 times.
