The student teams of "Curtis Balkan" (Curtis Balkan) and "Sensata Technologies Bulgaria" (Sensata Technologies Bulgaria) are the big winners of this year's edition of the AmCham Bulgaria Hackathon 2025. Their names were announced at an official award ceremony for the participants in the student competition, held today at the building of the National Center for High Achievements "Mechatronics and Clean Technologies" - Campus Student City at the Technical University - Sofia (TU-Sofia). The awards for the winners were presented by Ivan Mihaylov, Executive Director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Bulgaria (ACC), which, in cooperation with the Technical University - Sofia, the Faculty of Economics of Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" and the Faculty of Physics and Technology of Plovdiv University "Paisiy Hilendarski" and with the support of nine companies from Bulgaria, organized the student competition for the second time. The business participants were representatives of the companies "Curtis Balkan" (Curtis Balkan); "IBM" (IBM); "Kamenitza" (Kamenitza); "Moto-Pfohe" (Moto-Pfohe); "Paysafe" (Paysafe); "RingCentral" (RingCentral); "Sensata Technologies" (Sensata Technologies) and "Sofmedica" (Sofmedica) and "StorPool" (StorPool). The certificate from the team of "Sensata Technologies Bulgaria" was received by the students from the Faculty of Physics and Technology of PU "Paisiy Hilendarski" Tatyana Ruseva; Boris Dobrev; Arzu Ali Ayesh Mechkarova; Bozhidar Georgiev; Martin Gerenkuvliev; Tatyana Ruseva; Kristian Baykov; Vanesa Kolcheva and Doncho Gerbev. Their mentors were Stoil Stoilov, Stefan Ruskov and Antoaneta Petrova from "Sensata Technologies Bulgaria". The students distinguished themselves with the project they developed for the digitalization of the lines from which manual information is collected. Their development is ready for practical application and the work on integrating the project into real conditions has begun, the team told BTA. The certificate from the team of "Curtis Balkan" was received by the attending students from TU-Sofia Teodora Savcheva and Preslav Vasilev. Ivo Stamatov, a student from SU "St. Kliment Ohridski", is also a member of the team. The team distinguished itself with the digital twins developed by it for the purpose of improving the production process by tracking the "OE" coefficient. The mentor of the team was Bilyana Doncheva from "Curtis Balkan". The working meetings between them were held at the company's base, which provided the students with the opportunity to get to know the production activity up close, representatives of the team told BTA. In addition to the two biggest awards presented, the ceremony also honored the winners in the categories "Most Innovative Idea" and "Best Team". The award for innovative idea was won by one of the two participating teams of "IBM" consisting of Elizabeth Koleva, a student from SU "St. Kliment Ohridski" and her colleagues from TU-Sofia Kalina Katrapelova and Slavi Savov. Their mentor was Dayana Mitkova from "IBM". Their distinction was presented for the chat bot integrated by the team, connecting manufacturers in the food industry with potential clients from the hotel, restaurant and retail sectors. The best team became the "Kamenitza" team, consisting of students from TU-Sofia Vilian Gerdzhikov; Martin Todorov; Viktor Vladinov, Radoslava Stoyanova and Alex Gechovski. Their mentors were representatives of "Kamenitza" Dobromir Stoyanov and Desislava Pencheva, who is also the director of the brewery. The team attracted the attention of the jury for the platform developed by it for the management of machine parts in the warehouse and more specifically for their condition. In addition to the already mentioned teams, certificates for their participation in the AmCham Bulgaria Hackathon 2025 were also received by the student teams of "Moto-Pfohe"; "Paysafe" and the second team of "IBM". This year, 65 students from the three mentioned universities participated in the initiative. Distributed into 12 teams, each of them had the task over the last three weeks to find a solution to existing practical issues. The winners among them were chosen by a jury consisting of Assoc. Prof. Iya Petkova, Faculty of Economics of SU "St. Kliment Ohridski", Assoc. Prof. Ivan Bodurov, Faculty of Physics and Technology at Plovdiv University "Paisiy Hilendarski", Senior Lect. Eng. Dr. Mikhail Zagorski, Faculty of Industrial Technologies at the Technical University - Sofia and Daniel Kiryakov, Manager "Communications and Institutional Relations" at ACC. All attending representatives of the companies that supported this year's edition of the hackathon expressed their satisfaction with the joint work with the students.
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