An IT developer, entrepreneur and a dreamer - that is how 19 year-old Liubomir Yanchev who recently won the European competition eSkills awards 2014 in the Young Digital Talent Category can be described. The first prize - a one-day visit to Cisco Company in Milan (Italy) and meetings with top managers was awarded him for his project entitled Computer-Assisted Analysis of Images in Immunohistochemistry. Liubomir has been working on this project together with scientists from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hiroshima. His contribution to the project is the development of software which creates high-precision images of tissue examined with immunehistochemistry. This will help doctors diagnose different diseases. The young Bulgarian IT expert says that he uploaded the source code of the program to the Internet and access to this code is for free. The reason: Such knowledge in Medicine must not be blocked. Liubomir made quite a stir two years ago when he won the Young Talents national competition with another project entitled The Modern Steward, also known as Melissa. This is an innovative system of automatic control of various home appliances. Currently it is in the focus of his new business undertaking. “We decided to develop one of the devices - for the smart control of air conditioners, which was named Melissa”, the young Bulgarian inventor explains and adds:

“Melissa learns to detect when you come back from work, what air temperature you prefer, etc. For example it knows that in a given time interval you would not be at home and the air conditioning does not have to keep the air temperature at 25 C. It will reduce the temperature, but will make sure the walls do not get cold. Besides, it makes the air conditioner run slower. Thus, the home appliance consumes less electricity and saves money.”

According to Liubomir, Melissa reduces electricity consumption by 25%. Many distributors of air conditioners in Bulgaria have already shown interest in the gadget. “Perhaps, we will be able to sign a contract with some of the big dealers of home appliances in Turkey”, Liubo says. Besides, he is currently working on the development of mobile applications for elite restaurants in all parts of Bulgaria.

“I have worked on many social and technological projects”, says Liubo. “Nine months ago we started work on a device which keeps track of your personal belongings and makes sure you do not lose them. It is a small gadget which can even fit into your wallet. If you forget to take it with you, the moment you move away from your belongings at a given distance between 0 and 60 meters your phone immediately notifies you.”

Even though he is still so very young and is only in his first year at the Information Technologies Department of New Bulgarian University, Liubomir has already lectured IT development at Telerik Software Academy. On occasion, he lectures at the New Software University launched by Svetlin Nakov. “I see myself as a pragmatic person”, Liubomir specifies and adds that there is still a lot to learn. His interest in computer programming was provoked by his first teacher in information technologies when he was only in the first grade. I was a disaster in the beginning. I earned only 18 points out of 300 at my first IT competition in the second grade. Later I focused on this sphere and things worked out for me. Liubomir has inherited the entrepreneurial spirit from his parents who have been in private business for many years. The Taekwon-Do practice and the instructions of his coach in martial arts helped him build the character of a leader and made him strong-minded, which makes it easier for him to make decisions.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov

Photos courtesy of Liubomir Yanchev