Scientific Conference on the Innovative Information Technologies for the Digitalization of the Economy on the Occasion of the 55th Anniversary of Speciality Business Informatics and Communications

Three Deans of the Faculty of Applied Informatics and Statistics Faculty opened the Scientific Conference organized by the Information Technologies and Communications /ITC/ Department - the two former Deans - Prof. D.Sc./Econ./ Valentin Kisimov and Prof. Dr. Kamelia Stefanova who contributed a lot to the Faculty development, and the current Dean - Prof. Dr. Venelin Boshnakov.

Prof. Dr. Kamelia Stefanova, Prof. D.Sc./Econ./ Valentin Kisimov and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Alexandrina Murdzheva, Head of the ITC Department /from the left to the right/

Prof. D.Sc./Econ./ Valentin Kisimov reminded the history of the speciality Business Informatics which had changed its name several times but had always been taught in a modern and contemporary way. "I myself came to the university in 1973 after a competition in the Department of Management and Machine Information Processing Department. At that time at the Department lecturers were Assoc. Prof. Atanas Ganev, Assoc. Prof. Stoyan Aikov and Assoc. Prof. Kiril Boyanov, great specialists who contributed enormously to the Faculty development, they were people of spirit, culture and greatness. I hope that the spirituality, culture and academics that existed then will continue and will contribute to the development of the next generations", said in his greeting speech to the participants in the Conference Prof. Kisimov.

"All of us in this hall have chosen to deal with issues that serve the humanity. The dynamics of the change comes from the information technologies development which were set in one room long time ago but is now they are in the hands of each of us. The most important thing is that we increase our knowledge every day and monitor the dynamics of change. We are grateful that the graduates of this Department are appreciated not only in the country but also abroad. Our graduates are employed in various companies and fields all over the world. I wish them all a successful path, a creative development that pleased the personality and the society we serve", said Prof. Dr. Kamelia Stefanova.

"Graduates of the speciality Business Informatics and Communication know and use the new technologies and show a spirit of innovation. They look for innovations and implement them during their undisputable professional realization", said Prof. Dr. Venelin Boshnakov who joined the Conference online. He emphasized the serious scientific activity of the Information Technologies and Communication Department which ranks it at the forefront positions in the entire university for scientific achievements and makes it an avangard scientific unit.

Special guests at the event were the doyens of the Department and longstanding lecturers Chief Assist. Nikola Nikolov, Chief Assist. Stefka Lilovska, Chief Assist. Deko Danovsky and Chief Assist. Stoyanka Stoyanova.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Alexandrina Murdzheva, Head of the Information Technologies and Communication Department, greeted her colleagues and expressed thankfulness to the participants from the other UNWE Departments and those from D. А. Tsenov Academy of Economics - Svishtov.

She explained that the speciality Business Informatics and Communication, which celebrates its 55^th Anniversary, remains one of the most sought-after Departments of UNWE. "This Jubilee Conference has an objective to present the scientific achievements of lecturers, PhD students, young researchers and students as well as the practical experience of business, the NGO sector and government institutions in the field of information technologies", said Assoc. Prof. Murdjeva.

The Conference continued with a business session where leading IT and consulting companies presented modern directions and new ideas from the practice. The representative of Adastra Bulgaria - Violeta Kerenska - spoke on the Treasure of the Technological Revolution and How Adastra Puts the Data into Action. Adastra has been a partner of UNWE for years, employees of the company are traditionally guest speakers at the University and students participate in internship programmes. Mrs Kerenska explained that the company is not a software company but a consulting firm that provides clients with business solutions using data to reduce costs, improve efficiency and lead to higher profits.

Alexander Nikolov and Atanas Matev from AI Solutions spoke on the Achieving 12-Factor Application Excellence via Software Containers and Bozhidar Bahov, PhD student from the Information Technology and Communication Department, presented the topic Workshop on AI Image Generation with Midjourney and Adobe Firefly.

The Conference also included the so-called Workshop for Students with moderator Chief Assist. Dr. Ivan Belev, where students had the opportunity to participate in practical training for Microsoft Power Platform.

A scientific session on the Digitalization and Digital Transformation of the Economy moderated by Assoc. Prof. Plamen Milev was also held in the frameworks of the Conference.

There was a serious discussion on the fulfilled and unfulfilled expectations of digitalization. The scientific session that attracted greatest interest was about the Big Data and Artificial Intelligence moderated by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vanya Lazarova from the Information Technology and Communications Department.

The interesting papers at the Conference provoked a serious academic discussion and focused the research interest on the problems to be solved in the field of digitalization of the Bulgarian economy.