The second edition of the American Chamber of Commerce in Bulgaria's student competition opened at the Technical University – Sofia

The organizer of the hackathon is the American Chamber of Commerce in Bulgaria (AmCham Bulgaria), in collaboration with Technical University - Sofia (TU-Sofia), the Faculty of Economics at Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski", and the Faculty of Physics and Technology at Plovdiv University "Paisii Hilendarski". 

The hackathon was launched in the presence of Prof. Dr. Georgi Venkov, Vice Rector of TU - Sofia; Corresponding Member Prof. Dr. Eng. Georgi Todorov, Chairman of the General Assembly of Technical University - Sofia; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Todor Yalimov, Deputy Dean for "Research, Innovations and Projects" at the Faculty of Economics of SU "St. Kliment Ohridski"; Ivan Mihaylov, Executive Director of AmCham Bulgaria; and Asst. Dr. Megi Dakova from the Faculty of Physics and Technology of PU "Paisii Hilendarski". 

The mentors this year are practitioners from eight companies, which is two more than the AmCham Bulgaria Hackathon 2024 edition. The trainers in this year's edition are representatives from the companies "Curtis Balkan", "IBM", "Kamenitsa", "Moto-Pfoe", "PaySafe", "RingCentral", "Sensata Technologies", and "Softmedica". 

The formation of student teams is upcoming, with the registration deadline for participation in the hackathon being March 13th. The cases for which contestants will seek real solutions in the coming weeks can be viewed on the special page of the AmCham Bulgaria Hackathon. It is planned that the teams will be mixed and include students from all three higher education institutions.

By April 5th, the teams must present their solutions to the business cases; from April 7th to 9th, students will introduce their work to the jury; and on April 10th, there will be the closing event and the awarding of the winner. 

The competition jury consists of four members: Corresponding Member Prof. Dr. Eng. Georgi Todorov, Chairman of the General Assembly of Technical University - Sofia; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Iya Petkova, Director of the Master's Program "Business Administration - Human Resource Management" at the Faculty of Economics of SU "St. Kliment Ohridski"; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ivan Bodurov from the Faculty of Physics and Technology of PU "Paisii Hilendarski"; and Daniel Kiryakov, Director of "Communications and Public Relations" at the American Chamber of Commerce in Bulgaria.       

The jury will evaluate the teams based on applied technical skills, their ability to analyze and visualize data, strategic thinking, project management, teamwork, and last but not least, the ability to present the results of their work.   

Prof. Venkov stated that during these three to four weeks, the students, with their mentors, must demonstrate how important the symbiosis between academic education and real business is; students must learn to work in teams, share ideas, defend them, and finally present a real product.  

Prof. Georgi Todorov also addressed the participants, emphasizing that this is a forum with a place and significance that is growing. According to him, it provides new opportunities for young people from the three universities to express their creativity and get in touch with the possibilities of large companies and the problems of real life.

Assoc. Prof. Todor Yalumov stated that he hopes that some of the students participating in the hackathon will be participants from the side of academic institutions in ten years.

Ivan Mihaylov, at the end of the official part, stated that he envies the students because they have the opportunity to get in touch with unique companies and mentors and to work on their cases, which will help them understand the connection between what they study and the needs of the business.