2024-10-04 19:37:47
The Head of State Rumen Radev awarded the laureates of the presidential initiative “John Atanasov Award” for 2024. The ceremony, which is being held for the 22nd year in a row, took place in the Heraldic Hall of the presidential institution on the date on which the prominent inventor of Bulgarian origin John Atanasov, whose name the awards bear, was born 121 years ago.
I am glad that this year we have strengthened the traditions for Bulgaria to be glorified around the world by its intelligent, ambitious, innovative young people with creative thinking, with impressive knowledge and skills in the field of informatics, robotics and artificial intelligence, said President Rumen Radev. He noted that our pupils, students and young scientists continue to win medals and awards in the most prestigious Olympiads around the world.
Just a week ago, our informatics team performed brilliantly at the Balkan Informatics Championship with three gold and one silver medal, and in July at the European Informatics Championship for girls, our student returned with a gold medal, the head of state pointed out. He also congratulated the Bulgarian organizers of the First International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence, which was held this year in Burgas.
Rumen Radev noted that these successes of young Bulgarian talents in computer science are due to decades of persistent, dedicated work of scientists, teachers, experts who have created the Bulgarian school in this promising field. He congratulated the professional holiday of the entire Bulgarian information society and wished success to young Bulgarians in all professional and scientific endeavors.
The “John Atanasov” award in the “Project with high social contribution” category went to Yonko Chuklev – an established young professional who, together with his partners, created the “Robotics Incubator”, which for three years has been providing young people with innovative technical ideas with funding, support from experienced engineers and access to laboratories and development centers.
Two students received diplomas “John Atanasov – debut breakthrough in the field of computer technologies”. These are Delyan Hristov and Stoyan Ganchev from the Mathematical High School “Acad. Kiril Popov” in Plovdiv.
Students who glorified our country at international Olympiads and their teachers were also awarded the “John Atanasov” certificate. The awardees in this category are Boris Mihov, a student at the Sofia Mathematical High School “Paisiy Hilendarski” and his teacher Iliyan Yordanov, and Daniel Koinov, a student at the “Nancho Popovich” High School of Science and Mathematics in Shumen, and his teachers – Biserka Yovcheva and Dimitar Dobrev.
The “John Atanasov” diploma was also awarded to Dragomir Popov and Kalin Simeonov from the Vocational High School of Economics in Pernik and their supervisor Ludmil Velinov, who realized as a team the best presented applied project at the National Information Technology Olympiad.
The head of state also presented certificates for nomination in the category “John Atanasov – students and their teachers” to Andrey Stefanov from the First Private Mathematical High School – Sofia and Veselin Markovich from the “Dr. Petar Beron” Mathematical High School – Varna, who won gold at the European Olympiad in informatics, and to Simona Hristova from “Nancho Popovich” High School of Science and Mathematics – Shumen, who won gold at the European Informatics Olympiad for girls.
Teodor Nikolov, a young teacher of informatics, information technologies and robotics at Vasil Levski Primary School – Pleven, whose students have become national champions in natural sciences competitions, was awarded with a nomination certificate in the category “John Atanasov – an inspiration and creator of talents”. sciences, national computer modeling competitions and international robotics competitions.
Yulia Dimitrova, senior informatics and information technology teacher at the “Dr. Petar Beron” Mathematical High School – Varna, received this year’s diploma “John Atanasov – inspirer and creator of talents”. For more than 20 years, it has been training programming competitors, and in the last few years, two of its graduates have won multiple medals at international Olympiads.
Yuliya Dimitrova thanked for this award and pointed out that it is extremely valuable for her, because she is appreciated not only as a teacher, but also as an inspirer of young talents.
At the end of the ceremony, President Rumen Radev commented that he felt like a student and that he enjoyed it very much.