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BULGARIA: PLOVDIV SCHOOL PREPARES ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE PROGRAMMERS

By Audience, Technology, AI & ML, AR & VR, Basic digital skills, For children, In education, Bulgaria, Funding of the good practice, Public, INSPIRATION: Good practices, Type of initiative of the good practice, Country providing the good practice, Local good practice initiative, INSPIRATION
Plovdiv school prepares artificial intelligence programmers

27.03.2023 |

 In 2022, the Plovdiv high school “St. Paisii Hilendarski” opened a program for students in grades 9-12, preparing them for the profession of “Artificial Intelligence Programmer”. The program is aimed at developing methods for implementing aspects of human intelligent behavior. The main goals of the training are:

  • Introducing students to artificial intelligence;
  • Learning various programming languages;
  • Data analysis and processing;
  • Understanding the basic concepts of neural networks.

Students who graduate from the “Artificial Intelligence Programming” specialty acquire a third degree of professional qualification and the profession of “Artificial Intelligence Programmer”.

The “St. Paisius of Hilendar” high school can also boast the opening of a parallel class for fifth graders in “Robotics and Virtual Design”. The skills that students will acquire during their training include:

  • Application of robotics to solve practical tasks;
  • Construction and programming of robotic devices’ behavior;
  • Web design – creating and publishing information on the internet;
  • Designing, creating structure, visual and graphic design of websites;
  • Building, testing, and publishing websites;
  • Styling and adding functionality to web pages;
  • Virtual and augmented reality – creating and animating 3D objects; transforming 2D into 3D objects.

The goal of the school is to create specialists prepared for the professions of the future by acquainting them with the possibilities for development and career in the field of high technologies.

Details

Target audience

Digital skills in education

Digital skills for children

Digital technology

Artificial Intelligence

Virtual Reality

Digital Skills

Level

Basic

Intermediate

Funding of the good practice

Public

Type of initiative of the good practice

Local initiative

Country providing the good practice

Bulgaria

Organisation providing the good practice

SU “Paisii Hilendarski”

Start date

(15.09.2022)

End date

(dd.mm.yy)

BULGARIA: RAILS GIRLS

By In education, Audience, In education, Audience, Technology, Basic digital skills, Software engineering, Public, Bulgaria, INSPIRATION: Good practices, INSPIRATION
BULGARIA: RAILS GIRLS

31.03.2023 |

 Rails girls is a two-day free workshop that targets women with little to no experience in the field of programming and technology. The goals of the program are to expose as many women as possible to a largely male-dominated industry.

The project held its 14th edition (in Sofia) this year. For 14 consecutive years, this adaptation of this international initiative has contributed a lot to the digital space in Bulgaria.

Background and aims

The project presents a successful approach and training that has introduced many women, previously hesitant, to join the programming and technology sphere. The project mostly promotes 3 of the 4 pillars of the Digital Skills & Jobs Coalition. Mainly, Rails Girls stresses digital skills for all women, as there is an overbearing minority in this field. The main promoter of the event is the focus on education – the event strongly supports teaching and digital skills learning transformation by creating a good environment for an entryway into the digital sphere.

Less dominant is the emphasis on digital skills for the labor force and ICT professionals as the good practice mostly relies on people joining who have had no previous experience into the field. However, with the main goal being introducing more people to the field, in the long term, the project largely contributes to the development and expansion of the digital skills sphere in the country where it is practiced. 

In the region and to an extent part of the EU as well, despite some recent policy changes, there is still a large discrepancy between the number of men and women in certain sectors. With technology and programming being one of the fastest developing ones, the role of women should be promoted, not only because it brings forth equality but also because it promotes more people into joining the sector, thus further expanding it and presenting for new opportunities in the digital landscape.

Why is this a good practice? 

The initiative is so successful because of the approach: the friendly and inspiring environment, as well as the opportunities that occur in it, drive more and more women into joining the initiative. One of the most beneficial things is the duration: people don’t have to sign up for a course that lasts months but instead commit a small portion of their time and give a chance to a new activity that they have always wanted to try out. 

In addition, so far this project has carried out 14 editions of the event in the capital of Bulgaria, Sofia, 2 in Varna, 1 in Burgas, and 1 in Vratsa.  This project has been described well on social media and the website, giving more than sufficient information regarding its practice. The goal of the initiative is not to give a detailed programming course; rather, it aims to serve as an introductory stepping stone that women interested in the digital field could use to gain a better perspective and enter the programming sector.

Details

Target audience

Digital skills for all

Digital skills in education

Digital technology

Digital Skills

Programming

Level

Basic

Funding of the good practice

Public

Type of initiative of the good practice

International initiative

Country providing the good practice

Bulgaria

Organisation providing the good practice

Digital National Alliance

TEENS IN AI – BULGARIA: INSPIRING TEENS TO EXLORE CAREERS IN TECH AND AI

By In education, Audience, Technology, AI & ML, For children, Public, Bulgaria, INSPIRATION: Good practices, International good practice initiative
TEENS IN AI - BULGARIA: INSPIRING TEENS TO EXLORE CAREERS IN TECH AND AI

31.03.2023 |

The Teens In AI initiative, launched at the AI for Good Global Summit at the UN in May 2018, exists to inspire the next generation of ethical AI researchers, entrepreneurs, and leaders who will shape the world of tomorrow.

Main activities, outreach, and mission

Through a combination of hackathons, accelerators, and bootcamps together with expert mentoring, talks, company tours, and networking opportunities, the programme creates a platform for young people aged 12-18 to explore AI, machine learning, and data science.

Since its start in 2015, Teens in AI has reached over 9.000 young people in over 140 cities worldwide.

Organized twice a year, global AI hackathons for teenagers are one of the main activities of the initiative. During those campaigns, locations from across the globe participate in local events where teams develop and pitch technological solutions tackling a UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) to determine the winner.

Being on the mission to attract more people to new technologies, achieve more efficient use of digital potential, and support the development of the ICT sector in Bulgaria by encouraging young people to pursue computing and technology, the Digital National Alliance in Bulgaria is the lead organizer of the event for Bulgaria two times in a row – in October 2021 and in March 2022.

Christina de Bruin, who is a UNICEF Representative to the Republic of Bulgaria, shared this in her speech for the opening of the first Teens In AI hackathon in Bulgaria:

The initiative aims to democratise AI and create opportunities for underrepresented talent and give young people and especially girls early exposure to AI which is being developed and deployed for social good.

“We cannot allow half of the world’s talent – girls to be excluded from the spheres of artificial intelligence and technological solutions which are extremely important nowadays. Greetings to the organisers of the initiative!”

Why is this a good practice?

During strict pandemic restrictions due to COVID-19, DNA managed to successfully conduct two consecutive Teens in AI hackathons in an online format. This allowed the engaging a wider range of children from all over Bulgaria, including representatives of minority groups.

As a result of the events, over 100 children from different backgrounds, with zero technical skills and with extensive experience in programming as well, developed nearly 20 innovative AI-based projects, the best of which were evaluated by the international jury of Tees in AI.

“I took part in the hackathon because I think it is important to keep abreast of global problems and look for solutions to them. Artificial intelligence has great potential and I believe that it can help us create a better world for everyone”.

– Elena,16 years old, who took part in both of the Bulgarian hackathons.

Another participant in the latest Bulgarian edition of Teens in AI echoed this positive feedback, stating that the initiative is:

“A hackathon, where you don’t need to miss school and yet you’re developing a project, where you not only code, but develop an entrepreneurial plan with target groups, income sources, partners and so on.”

The Teens in AI initiative spreads more and more all over the world, being launched in around 25 countries.

If you would like to connect with and inspire the next generation of tech and AI thinkers, co-host a hackathon, or support the initiative, read more here.

Details

Target audience

Digital skills for all

Digital skills in education

Digital technology

Artificial Intelligence

Level

Basic

Intermediate

Advanced

Expert

Funding of the good practice

Public

Type of initiative of the good practice

International initiative

Country providing the good practice

Bulgaria

Organisation providing the good practice

Digital National Alliance