The Center of Competence on Digitalization of the Economy in a Big Data Environment at UNWE Was Presented to Major German Corporations in Bulgaria

A meeting of the Management Team of the Center of Competence on Digitalization of the Economy in a Big Data Environment at UNWE with members of the German-Bulgarian Chamber of Industry and Commerce /GBCIC/ was held at our university in order to present to the the business the established infrastructure for big data processing in the Center of Competence and opportunities for cooperation with the business.

The meeting is the result of the implementation of a Memorandum of Cooperation between the UNWE and the Chamber signed in April of the current year between the Rector of UNWE Prof. Dr. Dimitar Dimitrov and Tim Kurth, President of the German-Bulgarian Chamber of Industry and Commerce and CEO of Aurubis Bulgaria.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the German companies in Bulgaria Schwarz IT, Kaufland Bulgaria EOOD & Co. KD, Queisser Pharma Bulgaria and Dimitar Iliev from GBCIC, Coordinator of the signed memorandum.

Prof. Dr. Kamelia Stefanova, Prof. D.Sc./Econ./ Valentin Kisimov, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Monika Moraliyska, Prof. D.Sc./Econ./ Kiril Stoychev and Dimitar Iliev

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Monika Moraliyska, Deputy Head of the International Economic Relations and Business Department, coordinator of the Memorandum on behalf of UNWE, said that she hoped the cooperation between the university and the business would be fruitful.

The meeting was opened by Prof. D.Sc./Econ./ Kiril Stoychev, Assistant Rector of UNWE, who noted that the university pays great attention not only to the training of students but also develops many projects in the field of technology aimed at processing and analysis of big data through the construction of the Center of Competence on Digitalization of Economy in Big Data Environment and to increase energy efficiency through the construction of two photovoltaic power plants and the implementation of a system for managing the use of electricity "smart home" at the UNWE.

Prof. Dr. Kamelia Stefanova, Head of the Information Technologies and Communications Department, drew the attention of the participants to the opportunities for collaboration with the business by using the infrastructure for big data processing built at the Center.

Prof. D.Sc./Econ./ Valentin Kisimov presented the Centre of Competence on Digitalization of the Economy in a Big Data Environment established under the project Digitalization of the Economy in a Big Data Environment /DIGD/. The scientific infrastructure built in the Centre comprises a central Hadoop system at the UNWE and distributed systems at the project partners - the universities of Plovdiv, Gabrovo, Ruse, Varna and the Institute of Information and Communication Technologies of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. The integration of the infrastructure with the Supercomputers in Sofia Tech Park and at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences is also implemented. The big data system at the UNWE has 5 types of networks - MAN, WAN, LoraWAN, TTN and 4G/5G, with a network capacity of 2x40 Gbps - unique telecommunication capabilities for the country. The big data system at the UNWE performs processing with over 1,000 processor cores and a disk capacity of about 4.5 PB /petabytes/.

The Center built at the UNWE can process and analyze the three types of "big data" - structured, semi-structured and unstructured for the purpose of digitalization of business processes.

Prof. D.Sc./Econ./ Kiril Stoychev and Prof. D.Sc./Econ./ Valentin Kisimov showed the participants in the meeting the established infrastructure for big data processing and the "smart home" system at the UNWE.