Vassileva, professor in the computer science department of the College of Arts and Science, is ranked by Stanford University as among the top 0.66 per cent of researchers in the world in the study of artificial intelligence and image processing. She is an established, prolific researcher, having published more than 300 peer-reviewed research papers in the last decade, many in top journals, and is among the most highly cited applied artificial intelligence researchers of her generation—her research has been cited 9,860 times.
Vassileva runs a large, successful graduate program, having supervised 50 graduate students from diverse backgrounds who have gone on to great career success in academia and industry. Her work is highly regarded by the international research community and in Canada—she was selected as a NSERC/Cameco Chair for Women in Science and Engineering (CWSE), a distinction held by only five researchers at any time in Canada.