Conference Committee

Mahima Agumbe Suresh

Assistant Professor
Computer Engineering, SJSU

Mahima Agumbe Suresh joined San José State University as an Assistant Professor in August 2018. She received her PhD from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University in December 2015. She worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Xerox Research Center, India in 2016, and as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University in the 2017-18 academic year. Her research interests include algorithms, protocol design and modeling, and system design for cyber-physical systems and Internet of Things. She has published in several peer reviewed conferences and journals and been a program committee member at several conferences.

Thalia Anagnos

Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education
SJSU

Dr. Thalia Anagnos is the Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education at San José State University. She earned her PhD in civil engineering with an emphasis on earthquake engineering from Stanford University. She has focused her research on regional losses from future earthquakes and the risk due to the collapse of older concrete buildings in earthquakes. She has served as the President of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, the leading non-profit membership organization dedicated to understanding earthquake risk and increasing earthquake resilience in communities worldwide. At SJSU, she has taught a range of courses in mechanics, statistics and probability, design, and technical writing.

Debra Caires

Career Coach
SJSU

Debra has over thirty years experience as a Career Coach, Workshop Facilitator/Presenter, Curriculum Designer, Program Developer, and faculty member at SJSU; she’s always looking to network and share her best practices with those seeking to advance their career.

Maria Chierichetti

Assistant Professor
Aerospace Engineering, SJSU

Maria Chierichetti is an Associate Professor in the department of Aerospace Engineering. She received her MS and PhD in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, and BS and MS from Politecnico di Milano (Italy). Her research focuses on the development of data-driven models to analyze structural vibrations. She is also interested in investigating the policies related to safety of transportation systems, both on the ground and in the airspace. She is currently a research associate for the Mineta Transportation Institute. Since joining SJSU, Dr. Chierichetti has been involved in several activities that promote students’ success: she has implemented novel pedagogies in her classes, such as specification grading and mastery learning, she coaches students by implementing active learning strategies in her classes, she mentors engineering faculty to improve their teaching.

Fatemeh Davoudi

Assistant Professor
Aviation And Technology, SJSU

Dr. Fatemeh Davoudi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Technology at San José State University. She teaches research methods in engineering and technology, design of experiment, quality control and continuous improvement through lean six sigma, and coordinates graduate academic advising for the department. Her research interests lie in applied machine learning and predictive modeling of industrial systems, quality management and lean manufacturing, and statistical modeling of industrial occupational incidents for improving safety outcomes and informed decision-making in industrial environments. She leads the Machine Learning & Safety Analytics Lab at the Department of Technology, and supervises graduate students in various projects on machine learning in autonomous systems, artificial intelligence in quality improvement of industrial processes, and applied machine learning in improving transportation safety.

Winncy Du

Professor
Mechanical Engineering, SJSU

Prof. Winncy Du is a professor of Mechanical Engineering Department at San José State University.  She received her PhD and 2nd MS Degree from Georgia Tech and her 1st MS degree from West Virginia University. Her research and teaching interests are robotics, sensors, control, instrumentation and biomedical devices.

Sheryl Ehrman

Don Beall Dean
Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering, SJSU

Dr. Sheryl Ehrman is the Don Beall Dean of the Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering at San José State University. She previously served as Keystone professor and chair of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, at the University of Maryland, College Park. Dr. Ehrman received a bachelor’s in chemical engineering from U.C. Santa Barbara and went on to complete a doctoral degree in chemical engineering in the major field of aerosol science and technology and the minor field of atmospheric science at UCLA. She is a fellow of the American Association for Aerosol Research.

Dr. Ehrman served as a visiting scientist with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, in Maryland and as a National Science Foundation-sponsored post­doctoral fellow at the Paul. Scherrer Institute, in Switzerland. In 2006, she was named a Fulbright Research Scholar at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. She served as a Fulbright Alumni Ambassador from 2013-16.

Magdalini Eirinaki

Professor
Computer Engineering, SJSU

Dr. Magdalini Eirinaki is a Professor at the Computer Engineering Department of the College of Engineering at SJSU, and the Program Director of the MS in Artificial Intelligence program. Her research interests cover the areas of recommender systems and machine learning and, in particular, on social recommender systems, aspect-based recommendations, social network mining, deep learning applications, and personalization. She is the recipient of the 2019 Newnan Brothers Award for Faculty Excellence, the 2017 Applied Materials Award for Excellence in Teaching and received the SJSU distinguished faculty mentor award in 2015, 2019, 2020, and 2022.

Ayca Erdogan

Associate Professor
Industrial and Systems Engineering, SJSU

Dr. Erdogan is an Associate Professor at San José State University Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. She received her PhD in Operations Research from North Carolina State University. Previously, she worked as a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at Stanford University, and visiting assistant professor at University of California. She teaches analytics, operations research and design of experiments courses. Her research involves building data-driven models and methods to solve problems related to production and service systems, social good and public health.

Crystal Han

Assistant Professor
Mechanical Engineering, SJSU

Dr. Crystal Han is an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at San José State University. Her research is focused on developing microfluidic techniques applicable to rapid point-of-care diagnosis, food safety, and biomolecular research. Her interdisciplinary research area requires collaborative efforts from biology, chemical engineering, and mechanical engineering. Prior to joining SJSU, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. She earned a Ph.D. and M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. She is the recipient of the 2021 Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching in the College of Engineering.

Lili He

Professor
Electrical Engineering, SJSU

Lili He is a professor at San José State University, Department of Electrical Engineering. Lili graduated from Nanjing University for BS in Semiconductor Physics. She received her Master and PhD in Electrical Engineering from State University of Buffalo. Her research area is mainly in semi-conductor device. Recent year, her research area is focused more in nano-electronics and solar cell and related systems.

Hilary Hurst

Assistant Professor
Physics & Astronomy, SJSU

Dr. Hilary Hurst is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at San José State University. She is a theoretical physicist and quantum educator, with broad interests in condensed matter theory, many-body atomic physics, and open quantum systems. In addition to research, Dr. Hurst is passionate about making quantum physics education more accessible and preparing students to work in the growing quantum technology industry. Dr. Hurst is originally from Greeley, Colorado and received her BS in Engineering Physics from the Colorado School of Mines in 2012. She went on to earn a Masters in Applied Mathematics & Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge (UK), and received her PhD in theoretical condensed matter physics from the University of Maryland in 2018. Following her doctoral work, she was a National Research Council (NRC) Postdoctoral Fellow at NIST and the Joint Quantum Institute. Dr. Hurst joined the faculty of San José State University in Fall 2020.

Jorjeta Jetcheva

Assistant Professor
Computer Engineering, SJSU

Jorjeta Jetcheva is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Engineering Department at San José State University. Her current areas of research focus are Artificial Intelligence-based Personal Assistants, Natural Language Processing, and Knowledge Management.

Previously, she was the global R&D lead for the Virtual Assistant portfolio of Accenture Operations, where she was responsible for leading a global team conceptualizing, building and deploying Virtual Assistants, AI-Powered Knowledge Platforms, and Agent Assist solutions. Prior to Accenture, she was a Research Scientist and Manager at Fujitsu Laboratories of America (FLA), a Principal Engineer in Itron’s Smart Grid Architecture and Standards team, and the Systems Architect of Bay Area startup Firetide.

Professor Jetcheva received a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University, and a B.A. degree with a double major in Computer Science (summa cum laude) and Mathematics from Mount Holyoke College.

Lin Jiang

Assistant Professor
Mechanical Engineering, SJSU

Lin Jiang is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering in the College of Engineering at San José State University. Her research focuses on the biomechanics of human lactation with applications to medical devices that support maternal and child health. Lin’s areas of expertise include mechatronics, robotics, and control systems. She has published many papers in biomedical or robotics journals and international conference proceedings in the above areas. Lin earned a Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), a M.S. in control engineering, and a B.S. degree in aerospace engineering from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (NUAA).

Katy Kao

2023 SV WiE Conference Chair
Professor, Chemical and Materials Engineering, SJSU

Katy Kao is a Professor in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at SJSU. Prior to joining SJSU, she was an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University. She received a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Irvine, a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University. Her work focuses on understanding microbial adaptation for strain development and stress tolerance in human fungal pathogens.  She was awarded the National Research Service Award by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the TEES Young Select Faculty, and several teaching awards, including the Fluor Distinguished Teaching Award and the Association of Former Students Distinguished Achievement Award for teaching.

Hongrui Liu

Assistant Professor
Industrial and Systems Engineering, SJSU

Hongrui Liu joined San José State University as an Assistant Professor in 2017 after 8 years in the energy management industry. She received her PhD from the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at University of Washington. Her primary research interests are optimization modeling, computing algorithms, data analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence and their applications in supply chain and energy industry.

Kelly Masegian

Career Counselor
SJSU Career Center

Kelly Masegian is the career counselor liaison to the College of Engineering serving over 5000 undergraduate students. Previously, she worked with the Foothill/DeAnza Internship program at NASA Ames serving as an internship coordinator for 5 years providing career guidance and supervision to up to 125 interns each session. As the mother of four, she is used to a fast-paced environment, and deeply believes in helping students learn to navigate and be proactive in their career planning.

Dahyun Oh

Assistant Professor
Materials Engineering, SJSU

Dahyun Oh is an Assistant Professor in the Materials Engineering Department at San José State University. Her research focuses on developing new materials for next-generation batteries. Her research group at SJSU is particularly interested in developing material design rules to make safer lithium-ion batteries for diverse applications such as electric vehicles or portable electronics. She received her Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2014 after completing her B.S. in Seoul National University from the same discipline in 2008.

Nicole Okamoto

Associate Dean
Undergraduate Studies and Student Success, SJSU

Nicole Okamoto is the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies and Student Success in the College of Engineering at SJSU. She has a BS in Engineering from Calvin College and an MS and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She taught at Baylor University for several years before joining the ME Department at SJSU in 2001. She served as department chair from 2016-2021 before taking her current role in August 2021. Her research is in thermal systems modelling, HVAC component optimization, and thermal management of electronics, and she is passionate about developing academic programs that will lead to the success of students from a diversity of backgrounds..

Tina Panontin

Professor
San José State University

Dr. Tina Panontin is a Professor of Practice in the College of Engineering at San José State University. She came to SJSU following a distinguished career at NASA Ames Research Center that included 17 years as Chief Engineer. With her extensive, practical experience in the engineering, development, and management of complex systems, Dr. Panontin supports the Dean and faculty by creating cross-discipline research concepts and strategic partnerships and integrating experiential work within standard curricula. She enjoys working with students, through instruction and advising, and provides them opportunities for internships and networking. Dr. Panontin earned her BSME from Santa Clara University, and her MS and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, both from Stanford University.

Younghee Park

Associate Professor
Computer Engineering, SJSU

Younghee Park is an Associate Professor in Computer Engineering at San José State University and a visiting professor at IBM Research. She received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from North Carolina State University in 2010. She has conducted a broad range of research in security areas, including SDN/NFV security Blockchain, and IoT security. She has worked on several projects supported by NSF and industry including Arista Inc., Nexenta Inc., and VMware Inc. She is a coordinator for the Cybersecurity Certificates program supported by the NIETP. She obtained an award of excellence as a distinguished faculty mentor for the SJSU Student Research Competition in 2017. She received the College of Engineering Research Professor Award, as the Kordestani Endowed Chair from 2016 to 2017.

Birsen Sirkeci

Professor
Electrical Engineering, SJSU

Birsen Sirkeci is a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at San José State University. She received her PhD degree from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, in 2006. Prior to joining SJSU, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California at Berkeley. Her main research lies in the areas of wireless communications, sensor networks, statistical signal processing, and machine learning.

Nanci Solomon

Advisor
SJSU CMPE Advisory Board

Nanci serves on SJSU’s Computer Engineering advisory board. She co-taught a Master’s AR/VR class (CMPE 297), helped launch the AR/VR Club at SJSU, and helps with various related activities on campus.  She also co-founded Xulu Entertainment (a physics-based virtual world and technology company), Smart Machines (a robotics company acquired by Brooks Automation), and ASIC Technology & News (a media company for the custom chip and EDA industry).

Xiao Su

Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research
College of Engineering, SJSU

Dr. Xiao Su is the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research of the College of Engineering at San José State University. She joined SJSU in Fall 2002 and has served as the Chair of the Computer Engineering Department from 2014 to 2020. Leading the largest department in the college, she has embraced the challenge of explosive surge in student enrollment to grow her faculty team, develop new curricular areas, and enrich the department offerings to teach the state-of-the-art in the fast evolving disciplines.

Dr. Su conducts research in broad areas of distributed systems, multimedia communications, network security, and machine learning. Dr. Su has been a principle or co-principle investigator in numerous grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF), NASA, and IT industry. She was a recipient of the NSF CAREER award.

Yun Wang

Assistant Professor
Biomedical Engineering SJSU

Dr. Yun Wang is an Assistant Professor in the Biomedical Engineering Department at San José State University. Her research interests include biosensors, disease diagnosis, food/water safety, nanotechnology, and genetic study of pathogens and diseases. She received her PhD in Biosystems Engineering from Michigan State University and MS in Biological Engineering from the University of Arkansas. She worked as a research biochemist at U. S. Food and Drug Administration before joining SJSU.

Belle Wei

Carolyn Guidry Chair of Engineering Education and Innovative Learning
College of Engineering, SJSU

Dr. Belle Wei served as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at California State University, Chico, and as the Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering’s Don Beall Dean of Engineering at San José State University (SJSU) for ten years. She is currently SJSUâ’s Carolyn Guidry Chair in Engineering Education and Innovative Learning.

Dr. Wei has been a champion for fostering inclusive excellence, bolstering STEM education, and broadening participation in computing by creating new interdisciplinary computing degree programs. She led the expansion of educational access for historically underrepresented groups, and the development of the Engineering Pathways to Success initiative that brings Project Lead the Way curricula to middle and high schools in the SF/Silicon Valley region.

Dr. Wei chaired the Engineering Deans Council’s Diversity Committee in 2009-2012, and spoke before U.S. Congress in 2006 on innovation, contributing to the 2007 America COMPETES Act.

Hiu Yung Wong

Assistant Professor and Silicon Valley AMDT Endowed Chair
Electrical Engineering, SJSU

Hiu Yung Wong is an Associate Professor and Silicon Valley AMDT Endowed Chair in Electrical Engineering, San Jose State University. He received his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley in 2006. From 2006 to 2009, he worked as a Technology Integration Engineer in Spansion. From 2009 to 2018, he was a TCAD Senior Staff Application Engineer in Synopsys. He received the Curtis W. McGraw Research Award from ASEE Engineering Research Council in 2022, the NSF CAREER award and the Newnan Brothers Award for Faculty Excellence in 2021, and Synopsys Excellence Award in 2010. He is the author of the book, “Introduction to Quantum Computing: From a Layperson to a Programmer in 30 Steps”. His works have produced 1 book, 1 book chapter, 90 papers and 10 issued patents.

Wencen Wu

Assistant Professor
Computer Engineering Department, SJSU

Wencen Wu is an Associate Professor in the Computer Engineering Department at San José State University. Her research interests include systems and control theory, robotics, and artificial intelligence as applied to intelligent autonomous multi-robot systems. Prior to joining SJSU in Fall 2018, she was an Assistant Professor in the ECSE Department of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute from 2013–2018. She received her Ph.D. from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Olivia Yip

Assistant Professor
Civil and Engineering, SJSU

Olivia Yip is an assistant professor at SJSU in the Civil & Engineering department. She has recently completed her doctorate at UC Berkeley where she used big data analysis tools to describe tidal and seasonal stratification in Lower South San Francisco Bay. In her final year of graduate school, she was an intern for a small, women-owned, San Francisco environmental consulting firm where she worked with city engineers to look into solutions for infrastructure design for a changing climate.

Sponsors