WHAT HAPPENED IN THE IT SECTOR IN SEPTEMBER?

Programs and academies

Signing up for Bosch ECS Career camp volume 3.0 launched

Enrollment is open for Bosch ECS Career Camp Vol.3 – the third engineering academy of Bosch Engineering Center Sofia. The program offers training and acquisition of knowledge and technical skills in the field of complete mobility solutions such as autonomous driving, dashboards, smart displays and more. The programme is open to young people, students and professionals in the fields of computer science, computer and software engineering. Applications are open until 17 November 2023 and the programme starts in January 2024. The online training takes place for 2 hours per day and includes courses in four areas: automotive C++ programming, automotive embedded application programming, automotive testing, and systems and requirements engineering. Successful graduates get the opportunity to be part of the Bosch Engineering Center Sofia team.

Sirma Venture Lab is back for 2.0

Venture Lab 2.0, a joint initiative of Sirma and the venture capital fund Innovation Capital, has been launched for the second consecutive year with the aim to find and support technology startups working in the fields of artificial intelligence, robotics and autonomous flying devices. Applications for the incubation program were open until September 30, and finalists will be announced on October 19. The startups that are selected will receive funding from Sirma of up to €400,000. The programme will also work with experienced mentors, including Tihomir Totev, Sirma’s CTO, who will help the startups build the core prototype of their products and validate their market potential. Other lead mentors include Angel Angelov and Yavor Gotchev, who will assist in developing a sustainable business model, accounting, legislation and other aspects of entrepreneurship.

Events

Robotics Strategy Forum 2023 went down

The fifth edition of the Robotics Strategy Forum 2023 featured 12 topics including cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and technological innovation in manufacturing. The event featured 25 panelists from Bulgaria, the US and Germany. The second season of the PARA Robotics Incubator featured 10 teams competing for prizes worth BGN 5 thousand, including participation in the Founder Institute incubator and the Capital City Municipality’s Sandbox for Innovation program. The forum’s exhibition area featured more than 40 robots, including bionics, collaborative and learning robots, as well as a mini model of an intelligent factory and other educational projects.

Achievements

INSAIT became part of ELLIS, a network for the development of artificial intelligence

The Institute of Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Technology (INSAIT) has been accepted as a member of the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS), making it the first network unit in Eastern Europe. ELLIS is a network comprising only world-class research organisations in the field of artificial intelligence and already has 39 European members, including Oxford, Cambridge, the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) and others. Bulgaria’s application for ELLIS membership has been under consideration for a year and is the result of a collaboration between Sofia’s St. Kliment Ohridski University and Switzerland’s ETH Zurich and EPFL Lausanne. INSAIT is the first institute of its kind in Eastern Europe, for which Bulgaria plans to invest around 170 million BGN over 10 years.