President Rosen Plevneliev has singled out talented researchers and entrepreneurs with the prestigious John Atanasoff Award. By tradition awards have been given for a 13th year now. The date October 4 is not accidental - it is the date of birth of great scientist John Atanasoff, the inventor of the ABC computer, whose father was Bulgarian.

Anna-Marie Vilamovska, Innovation Policy Secretary at the Bulgarian Presidency, tells us more about the awarded researchers:

“This year we had a huge number of applications and the good news is that for the first time this year we have had awarded women. Also, the candidates were exceptional, so this year we have three top winners, not just one, who share the prize: Dr Elitsa Kyoseva, Dr Zornitsa Kozareva and Dr Veselin Raychev.”

Their achievements are in physics, computer linguistics and artificial intelligence. More from one of the awarded researchers, Zornitsa Kozareva:

“My field is computer linguistics. I won the award for my achievement in that we have taught machines to talk with humans and assist them. I am currently working on a digital assistant used to control your home. For example, if you need a certain product, you can order it to the digital assistant. To me this award symbolizes many years of hard work.”

Zornitsa argues that the role of digital assistants in our everyday lives is going to grow. Some professions might even disappear, as machines take on their functions.

Apart from the top award, the president bestowed the Presidency's distinction for a project of great social merit - to Darin Madzharov and Nikolay Zheynov. They have created an educational platform comprising video lessons and exercises in all subjects taught from 1 to 12th grades. The platform offers 7000 lessons with exercises attached to them.

The same certificate went to Todor Lilkov, Ivan Mitov, Stoyan Mitov and Hristo Borisov for an application via which people can file signals for irregularities. More than 4000 such signals have already been filed by using this application.

Prizes were given also to Bulgarian high school students winners in prestigious Olympiads in informatics and information technology.

The development of science and education and supporting research in various areas are an investment in the future. Furthermore, we have enough qualified people who want to develop their businesses in Bulgaria. Our country is becoming more attractive for foreign companies and investors because of low taxes. However, we should not take all this for granted. We need to constantly work on this image and know that someday our work will give fruit.