John Atanasoff was born on October 4 and he is best known for being credited with inventing the first electronic digital computer.Atanasoff is of Bulgarian origin and he worked in the fields of mathematics, physics and engineering in the United States. A prestigious Bulgarian state award bears his name and every year the President of the Republic gives it to young scientists with significant achievements in the field of computer science. The award ceremony this year recalled the 80th anniversary of the invention of the ABC digital computing machine. According to​​ Atanasoff’s design, the computer had regenerative capacitor memory and his great scientific breakthrough is rooted in the idea of ​​using electricity and electronics in machine calculations.

The John Atanasoff Awards this year went to two young scientists loaded with ideas for new original designs and thirst for discoveries. The winner of the Grand Prize is Svilen Kanev, a senior software engineer at Google with a master's and doctoral degree in computer science from Harvard, USA.

His main scientific interest lies in the field of computer architecture and the boundary between hardware and software. He is just 31 years old, but has already published dozens of articles, has been quoted numerous times in all reputable specialized journals and conferences.

"My dream is basically doing science that I find interesting," Svilen Kanev says. “I have inherited this from my first mentor and teacher, thanks to whom I became passionate about science. I started my career as a physicist and my teacher – Teodosii Teodosiev has the greatest contribution to my growth in science. He used to organize meetings between young students and former ones, who had achieved big success. Then he told us that they were just like us previously and assured us that we would be like them too. My job now is directly related to system efficiency, as it is always possible to make things more efficient and faster, consuming less energy.”

Engineer Svetlin Penkov, a doctoral student at the University of Edinburgh, received an honorary diploma on the name of John Atanasoff.

His scientific interests are focused on the intersection between robotics and artificial intelligence. He has recently returned to Bulgaria to continue working on an idea in the field of road safety. The software he created accurately analyzes road situations along with all participants in traffic, as well as the possible maneuvers that they would make on the road. Svetlin Penkov’s work will help in creating the first safe autonomous cars of the near future.

Bulgarian President Rumen Radev has welcomed the scientists who have contributed to the promotion of Bulgaria's prestige in the IT sector. He pointed out that along with the remarkable scientific insights, the work of the young scientists clearly showed their aspirations of being of service to people and society:

"It is noteworthy that the focus is on stimulating entrepreneurial activity through open source, enabling the expansion of future business ventures," the head of state said. “I am very pleased that more and more young people with brilliant achievements are participating. Most joyful is that many of these projects are patented, which shows the serious attitude young people have towards competition. And most of all, wherever they study, they do their job thinking of Bulgaria and keep in touch with Bulgaria, which strengthens the scientific community in this country. Our students from the informatics and technology teams have confirmed Bulgaria's prestigious position in the field. There is already an established Bulgarian tradition and school in the sphere and now I'm setting a new tradition – a diploma for an excellent teacher – inspirer and creator of talents, who has developed the most successful teaching methodology in computer science."

The special diploma "Inspirer and Creator of Talents" was presented to Dr. Biserka Yovcheva – Ch. Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Informatics of the University of Shumen.

English: Alexander Markov