Blog
A successful year
I am happy that my high school has once again shown its support and recognized my achievements during this school year.
We have amazing teachers, great events, lots of opportunities to meet inspiring people and ideas. I developed interesting school projects, participated in various contests and competitions, won a number of awards and was always proud to be a student at SoftUni BUDITEL.
I want to thank my wonderful teachers and the entire high school team for this successful school year.
Have a great vacation and see you again in September!
Live Q&A with Svetlin Nakov and SoftUni AI Summit 2024
SoftUni always provides new opportunities for students to maintain their knowledge through continuous learning, networking and webinars. Back in May, I participated in two such events: What are the most sought-after areas in the IT field? - Live Q&A with Svetlin Nakov and SoftUni's AI Summit 2024.
SoftUni's AI Summit 2024 took place online on May 19, 2024. We heard six interesting speakers throughout the day. We started out with the basic questions - What is AI, what skills are needed and how can one start working in this field. I was interested in learning from the professionals about how AI is being implemented in various industries and how you can do it yourself.
I saw a hands-on demonstration of a chatbot trained with specific data. Different model architectures, like LLMs or RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) were also discussed, explained and demonstrated.
The final topic on applications of AI in human genetics was extremely interesting. The lecturer Petko Faziev presented the latest achievements in AI for medical interpretation of human genomes by Illumina, as well as their applications for genetic risk assessment of diseases and for the development of new drugs. These technologies had been trained on results from one of the largest bio-medical databases in the world, containing hundreds of thousands of sequenced genomes.
What are the most sought-after areas in the IT field? That was the topic of the Live Q&A with Svetlin Nakov on May 22. Svetlin Nakov answered very specific questions about professional development in the IT industry and the need for Upskill training at SoftUni. There was a prediction about what changes will occur in the IT sector in 2024, what are the challenges for all those who have gone through training for software engineers and are about to start work. I learned what Upskill trainings are and why they are useful.
CERN CMS Masterclass 2024 - Sofia University "St. Kl. Ohridski"
My participation in the International Masterclasses at CERN was a privilege. This year the event was held at the Faculty of Physics of Sofia University "St. Kl. Ohridski" and I was able to attend a lecture by Prof. Leander Litov again.
According to the organizers’ report, more than 13 000+ high school students from more than 60 countries gather annually in 225 nearby universities or research centers for a day to admire the mysteries of particle physics and learn more about them. The event is organized within the International Particle Physics Outreach Group IPPOG and International Masterclasses.
Lectures from active scientists give insight into the research of the fundaments of matter and forces.
After the introductory lectures on particle theory and an overview of the detector and its inner workings, we performed our own data analysis. Every student is given the opportunity to analyze real data from the CMS experiment, performed at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in CERN, Geneva.
The lector for the CMS experiment and the host of the practical part of the masterclass was Associate Professor at Sofia University Borislav Pavlov who has been working on CMS since 1999 and is a member of the CMS conference committee (since July 2014).
At the end, we discussed our results in a video conference with scientists from CERN and other international participants, just like a real scientific collaboration.
I consider every CERN masterclass every year as a valuable experience.
Meet a Canadian cybersecurity expert
Talking with a professional expert from around the world often provides the opportunity to learn and get new ideas.
Therefore, I was very pleased to facilitate an online meeting with Momchil Karov, Director of Information Security at Vancouver Community College and Adjunct Professor at New York Institute of Technology. He is an accomplished Enterprise Security Leader and Educator, focused on defense-in-depth enterprise security architecture, risk management and maximizing the security ROI for the business. He teaches information security courses related postgraduate courses and other security initiatives for security awareness and education.
I'm grateful our class had the opportunity to meet a leading specialist. The impact, however, is a lot more significant when the information is linked with a personalized conversation and practical examples provided by a friendly director at Vancouver Community College, British Columbia, Canada.
More about the meeting at the school's website.
Physics and Higher Mathematics at Sofia University
After I had the pleasure of participating in the School of Experimental Physics at Sofia University last year, I decided to upgrade my knowledge to university level this year!
The course in physics and higher mathematics is led by Lachezar Simeonov, PhD, Chief assistant professor at Sofia University. We have started already with differential and integral calculations.
I believe this is a great opportunity for students alike with interests in physics. If someone have told me I would solve integrals in my free time, I probably wouldn't have believed him.
"A physicist is just an atom's way of looking at itself"
Niels Bohr
Acknowledgement from my school!
I'm grateful for my school's appreciation of all the time and effort I put into extracurricular activities. I was awarded a certificate and an award for my accomplishments.
Recognition can be an incredibly powerful motivator.
Thank you!
A space traveller
From the NASA website:
„NASA’s Message in a Bottle campaign invites people around the world to sign their names to a poem written by the U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón. The poem connects the two water worlds — Earth, yearning to reach out and understand what makes a world habitable, and Europa, waiting with secrets yet to be explored. The campaign is a special collaboration, uniting art and science, by NASA, the U.S. Poet Laureate, and the Library of Congress.
The poem is engraved on NASA’s robotic Europa Clipper spacecraft, along with participants' names that will be stenciled onto microchips mounted on the spacecraft.“
Together, the poem and my name will travel 1.8 billion miles on Europa Clipper’s voyage to the Jupiter system.
„Europa Clipper is set to launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in October 2024, and by 2030, it will be in orbit around Jupiter. Over several years, it will conduct dozens of flybys of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, gathering detailed measurements to determine if the moon has conditions suitable for life.“
It's so exciting to travel through space!
European Researchers' Night!
It was an honor to participate for the third time in the European Researchers' Night!
This year, I presented the SEPience project at the High School Student Institute of Mathematics and Informatics stand.
My participation was awarded by K-TRIO, together with an Award for Scientific Software for the project SEPience won at the 23rd Student Section of the Spring Conference of the Union of Mathematicians in Bulgaria.
I first presented the SEPience at the same place (at the Serdica ancient cultural and communicative complex) during the Innovation Fair 2022.
Creator of the Metaverse
It was a great pleasure and a great opportunity to participate in the 23rd Summer Research School of Mathematics and Informatics.
SRS is a summer research school for high achieving teenagers with pronounced interests in the fields of mathematics, informatics (computer science) and ICT. It combines the best practices from leading programs for high school students in the field, such as RSI (organized by CEE and MIT), with the unique opportunities of a dynamic small-scale learning environment.
From July 23 to August 12, 2023 was a very valuable time period and experience - in three weeks I had to create a project, a scientific report on it and a presentation. During this time, we had interesting lectures by researchers and professors from BAS and leading world universities.
My supervisor was Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zlatogor Minchev, Director of Joint Training Simulation & Analysis Center, part of the Information Technologies for Security Department of the Institute of Information & Communication Technologies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, IT for Security Department Head.
My topic was A Simulation-Centric Approach for Enhanced Immersion in the Metaverse - a challenge to explore and create a metaverse (which I called Dream Ray). The Dream Ray project uses Unity 3D and multiple simulation driven approaches in order to increase immersion in the Metaverse. The project makes use of Cellular Automata for more nuanced interactions in the ecosystem. The Metaverse redefines how we engage with technology, blurring distinctions between real and imagined.
My research gave me the opportunity to find new topics and in a short time I was able to learn a lot about technologies and loads of new concepts.
As important as the research experience was the international environment. I met students from Bulgaria, USA, Russia, France, Spain, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Great Britain, Kazakhstan, Argentina and India.
More about the school, speakers and participants in the post here (on the right) and the video here.
^ Publication in Global Diplomatic ^
The. End. (of the schoolyear)
My excitement from the last day of the school year is like when I learnt I was accepted. But this time, the excitement comes from the satisfaction of the achievements during the year and for what’s to come. For satisfaction, your grades aren’t the only factor – so are the accomplishments around them and outside of school, all of the events you have participated and all of the new knowledge you’ve gathered.
For example, take a look at the pictures on the left. This is a custom built Bluetooth speaker, designed by me in its entirety – a great gift and a new source of inspiration.
So yes, I’m excited by the future, because my school in addition awarded me a certificate “Explorer” for someone that wants to learn new things and isn’t afraid of the unknown. On the picture on the right, next to me is deputy director Silvia Stoyanova. Thanks for the appreciation of my curiosity!
I'm now an engineer...
If someone told me two days ago that I could create a Bluetooth speaker myself, I would have thought it would have been great if I could.
Today, however, this is reality. I did it! I assembled my own Bluetooth speaker and encased it in a custom 3D printed design, made by me!
I want to thank Sofia Creation Station Makerspace for the opportunity to learn some of the fundamental principles of electronics and Bluetooth and wireless communication as a whole.
I assembled and soldered everything on the board safely and without additional help. This was the first time I’ve ever used a soldering iron and the fact that the speaker works speaks for itself!
Bluetooth is a type of wireless technology that allows certain devices to connect wirelessly and communicate with each other. A Bluetooth speaker is simply a speaker with a Bluetooth receiver built into it in order to receive audio. Connecting the components correctly and having good assemblies can lead to a great final result (if you know what you’re doing, of course).
I usually use Blender to create 3D models. However, in this case, we used FreeCAD - a free application for 3D CAD design. The program is relatively easy to use and I’ll just let the results speak for themselves:
I currently possess a brand new 3D printed and assembled by me speaker with amazing audio! Despite that, however, the sound isn‘t stereo. But everything else works perfectly, so I think this is a great start for an electronics engineer, right?
Mission Possible: IoT Prototype Without Hardware
No, that's not a clickbait title. This is the name of a SoftUni workshop, which was extremely interesting. Seeing the WOKWI platform, through which a large number of components, modules, sensors controlled via Arduino and ESP32 can be designed and simulated, left me certainly impressed. We were showcased interesting and creative projects. They are simulated before assembled, which significantly reduces the error detection time, as well as potential hardware damage and issues.
Measuring Earth's magnetic field
*The conducted experiment is based on a similar setup I learned from the Circle of Experimental Physics at Sofia University and our supervisor Assoc. Prof. Tsvetan Velinov
Introduction
One way to find the strength of Earth's magnetic filed is by creating an equal to it field that we know the strength of. But how could we know if our magnetic field has the same strength as Earth's? Of course, by making it perpendicular. Then, by making use of a compass, we can observe the arrow. If Earth's magnetic field is stronger, the arrow will point towards the North, otherwise - towards West or East. But if they're equal, then the arrow will point at an angle of 45 degrees.
The Science
How to make a magnetic field? Well, I'm glad you asked. We can create a small solenoid using copper wire and twisting it around a small cylinder at an equal rate. There's no way to know the strength of the field directly, but thankfully, a formula exists - B = μ0iN, where B is the strength, μ0 - permeability constant and N - the number of turnes divided by the length.
Execution
We also need to provide electricity, so I'm using a 5V battery. The length of the solenoid is approx. 8.5 cm and has 19 turns, so N = 204. Since I know that the strength is in the same order of magnitude as 1 Gauss, we can calculate a target current I equal to approx. 10 mA. That would require a resistance of 500 Ω, which is provided using a potentiometer. So here's the final electrical circuit - input electricity, pass it trough a potentiometer, then trough the solenoid and close the circuit.
By putting a compass in the middle of the circuit and making the entire contraption face in the direction East-West, we can regulate the resistance using the potentiometer until the arrow points at a 45 degrees angle. Then, plugging in a multimeter finishes the experiment, giving us our I value. We know the permeability constant and N, so we can easily calculate B by plugging the values in the formula.
Results
This is a fairly inacurate method and the magnetic filed's strenght isn't constant wherever you are - it ranges between 0.25 - 0.65 Gauss. I ran the experiment several times and I got results in that range - between 0.3 and 0.5 Gauss. I'm happy with the results, since there were many factors that can interfere with the experiment itself. Wether that would be other fields, inaccurate readings, burning potentiometers (which definitely didn't occur, not at all) or very, very sensetive potentiometers.
SoftUni's AI Summit 2023
Going Far with Open-Source Tools in NLP, ChatGPT, Unlocking Hidden Potentials: Object Affordances and How AI Detects Them, From data to product (through the lens of MLOps), Super-resolution through neural networks, Stable Diffusion: Painting the Picture with Text, A Bird’s Eye View of Reinforcement Learning - these were some of the themes of SoftUni's AI Summit 2023. It was extremely interesting and I felt rewarded for my participation in this two-day community event.
The event included lectures, workshops, fast master classes and presentations by leading experts in AI, ML, Data science, syntax and computational linguistics.
The ChatGPT theme consisted of 4 modules:
• Introduction to ChatGPT: Technology Overview;
• Understanding how ChatGPT works;
• Benefits of ChatGPT for business and personal use;
• A demonstration of ChatGPT and how to create perfect results.
I was able to touch on document embedding and semantic search (with sentence-transformers), text data EDA (with bulk and BERTopic), and text generation (with Huggingface).
In another session, I learned how to build large-scale systems like ChatGPT, Stable Diffusion, and more. The interesting journey from data extraction to a finalized model. Tools like Kedro, Git, DVC, AWS and more services were demonstrated. This gave me an idea of how to operationalize models and their accompanying data.
SoftUni's AI Summit 2023 was held on April 29 and 30, 2023.
I’m already looking forward to choose a new course of study related to AI.
ME AS A CERN RESEARCHER
I had the privilege of participating in the CERN Particle Therapy International MasterClass this year.
The event was organized by IPPOG (International Particle Physics Outreach Group), the Faculty of Physics of Sofia University and The South East European International Institute for Sustainable Technologies.
After interesting lectures on hadron therapy, we took a virtual visit to ALICE experiment at CERN. It was a great experience with a lot of new knowledge.
The most exciting part for me as a programmer and researcher was working with the specialized software. I had the opportunity to do simulations with professional research software toolkit matRad showing the different steps for a treatment planning for cancer therapy! After the practical work, we checked and analyzed our results with participants from other countries.
The Particle Therapy MasterClass demonstrates the direct impact of fundamental research on medical applications. This MasterClass Project allows participants to familiarize with the actual operation technique used for cancer treatment employing x-rays, protons or carbon ions like a physical knife, directed by software programs.
I appreciate my participation in this CERN MasterClass as an excellent opportunity for theoretical and practical knowledge.
One of the exciting exercises was planning treatment for a prostate tumor. Here are my results.
"I believe that scientific knowledge has fractal properties, that no matter how much we learn, what remains, however small it may seem, is as infinitely complex as the whole was at the beginning. That, I believe, is the secret of the Universe."
- Isaac Asimov
Attending INSAIT Conference
I was honored to have the opportunity to participate in the Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Technology (INSAIT) conference under the motto Emerging Trends in AI and Computing Research. The conference was held on 30.09 and 01.10.2022 in the John Atanasov Hall, Sofia Tech Park, Sofia, Bulgaria, with the participation of 16 world-renowned researchers from Google, Waymo, AWS, MIT, ETH Zurich, EPFL, Max- Planck, and Yale presenting in Sofia the latest achievements in informatics and artificial intelligence.
The event was defined as precedent not only for Bulgaria but also for the region with its first event, meeting over 1 000 guests with a galaxy of world class scientists who are also mentors in INSAIT’s doctoral program.
I had the pleasure of listening to the lectures of leading researchers who presented the latest achievements in their field. For example Dr. Rupak Majumdar, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems, researcher at AWS, and a world-renowned scientist in the field of software verification; Dr. Kristina Toutanova, researcher at Google AI and guest lecturer at the University of Washington, mentor in INSAIT’s PhD programme; Prof. Luc Van Gool, professor at ETH Zurich and researcher at INSAIT; Dr. Drago Angelov, research director at Waymo (the company formerly known as Google’s autonomous car project), a world-renowned scientist in the field of computer vision; Prof. Martin Odersky, professor of programming languages at EPFL and ACM fellow, inventor of the Scala programming language; Dr. Mariana Raykova, researcher at Google, formerly a professor at Yale, and one of the leading scientists in the field of cryptography; Prof. Virginia Vassilevska Williams, Professor of Theory and Algorithms at MIT, Sloan fellow and inventor of the world’s fastest matrix multiplication algorithm; Prof. Otmar Hilliges, Professor of Computer Vision at ETH Zurich; Prof. Qi Zhang, professor of machine self-learning and systems at ETH Zurich; Prof. Dragomir Radev, Chair of the INSAIT Advisory Board and Professor of Natural Language Processing at Yale.
It's very inspiring to listen live world-famous scientists and learn by getting information from the people who define the future of technology.
How I Started My Personal Branding
A personal brand is your story. It communicates the talents and values you represent to classmates, teachers, parents, shareholders, future employers and other professionals.
My story in SoftUni Svetlina Private Vocational High School began on the first day of school, when I was the host of the celebration for the opening of the school year. My preparation included creating my logo and vision for my folder.
Why was this important?
This was the first situation in which I had to represent the school. Image and identity were very important to me to build trust and trustworthiness.
So I created a look for a clip folder and the logo that represents me as a high school student with my major.
Книга, но не съвсем
Книга беше в деня, когато ми хрумна да пиша книга. Започнах я бързо и уверено, сякаш ще я довърша още съдия ден.
„Ако има книга, която много искаш да прочетеш, но все още не е написана, тогава ти трябва да я напишеш.” Това са думи на американската писателка, носителка на Нобелова награда Тони Морисън.
Започнах с чувство за хумор като за приятели, защото пиша за нещо любимо и интересно. Нещо, което искам да прочета. Нещо, което искам другите да прочетат. Струваше ми се, че има толкова много полезни неща, които мога да разкажа, които съм открил сам и които мисля, че ще спестят време, лутане и разочарования на моите незнайни читатели.
Сигурно за програмиране гледат видеа и не четат книги. Аз пък много четях. Сега нямам толкова време и повече програмирам, отколкото чета. Но със сигурност мога да ви кажа, че няма да станете добър програмист, ако не четете много.
Защото четенето развива въображението и мисленото. Креативността и логиката. Любопитството и желанието да научаваш.
Една от наградите, които получих преди време от конкурс за Европейска нощ на учените, беше тениска с този надпис - Imagination is more important than knowledge. Може би Айнщайн е единственият учен, чието име знаят дори Tik Tok-ърите, манекенките и фолк звездите, а негови цитати красят тениски. Хм, това не омаловажава нито учения, нито постиженията му. Нито пък съдържанието на цитатите.
Когато разбрах, че ще правя собствен сайт, въображението ме отведе до една нова идея. Хрумна ми, че това ще бъде блог. Досега не съм бил нито блогър, нито влогър. Но този дигитален начин на разказване ще ми позволи да си пиша своята не съвсем книга.
Бях започнал с няколко думи за себе си, но на сайта така или иначе някъде другаде има мое представяне. Това не пречи да ви кажа, че ми е приятно да сте мои читатели.
Ще ви призная, че когато бях в началните класове, започнах да пиша книга. Роман. Не го довърших, защото открих програмирането и то се оказа много по-интересно писане за мен.
Започнах с Front-end страната на нещата, после научих C++ и Java. Добавих тази година Lua и Python. Започнах всъщност със Scratch в първата Dojo работилница в Музейко. Там имаха една страхотна практика – деца, които имат опит и знания, да бъдат ментори на начинаещи. Това се оказа истински забавно. Още след първите няколко работилници разбрах, че мога да обяснявам добре и запалих всички, на които се оказах ментор.
По време на пандемията имах късмета да водя собствена работилница за начинаещи. Предложих да е с Java и разработих курс. Одобриха ми го и в края на 2020 направих дебюта си като лектор. Групата ми беше от двайсетина деца, а аз се чувствах така, сякаш това е мисията на живота ми. Подготвях се доста сериозно, пишех задачи, написах система за тестването им, написах сървър, на който да си качват домашните. Влизах половин час преди лекциите, за да коментираме въпроси по домашните. За мен беше супер изживяване!
Бил съм състезавал по C++, печелил съм награди, но това беше много по-интересно, полезно и за мен, и за децата. Истински удовлетворяващо. От този курс като че ми дойде вдъхновението да обяснявам шеговито, да извеждам разни практични неща, да давам съвети – това правете, това не правете.
Бил съм на много различни обучения и за деца, и за възрастни. Слушал съм онлайн курс на Харвардския университет, поредица курсове на СофтУни, професорски лекции по физика, семинари, онлайн конференции. Затова можех да си позволя в моя курс да не правя това, което не харесвам в чуждите и да се забавлявам с това, което харесвам.
Важно е не ученето на език, а ученето на програмиране
Научаването на език за програмиране е като научаването да караш кола. Аз засега шофирам само в електронни игри, естествено. В зависимост от това в коя държава си има различни правила за движение. Каквато и кола да си купиш, има сходно устройство с всички останали (задръжте си мисълта за електрическите коли). Научил ли си се да караш една кола, лесно можеш да се метнеш на друга и бързо да се адаптираш.
Като цяло езиците за програмиране могат да бъдат разделени на две групи – Front End и Back End. Ако карате електрическа кола (Front End) ще ви трябва повече време за адаптация, защото те работят по друг начин.
Но е важно не научаването на език, а научаването да програмираш.
Какво значи да се научиш да програмираш? Като ти кажат да се простреляш в левия крак, очаква се да използваш пушка, а не воден пистолет. Звучи странно сам да се простреляш в крака, но това е някакъв програмистки фолклор от времето на Basic. Но това само доказва, че и тогава въображението е било по-важно от знанието.
Или иначе казано за вас, nerd-овете, по зададен проблем да измислиш умно и ефективно решение (на проблема). И ако трябва да стреляш, да знаеш с какво да и как да стреляш. Закачката беше на кой език за програмиране как да се простреляш, но май е по-разбираемо за поколението на нашите родители. Ако ви е любопитно, някъде в мрежата сигурно ще намерите разни интерпретации по темата. Кога се прострелвате в нечий друг крак, кога общо стотина леви крака или изобщо не можете защото кракът ви е от погрешен тип.
Какво следва
Хубаво започнах, но как да продължа? Да разказвам? Да давам примери? Да решавам задачи с обяснения? Да давам съвети?
Може би ще правя всичко това, защото ми се струва интересно.