On April 30, 2026, at TU’s TechArena Enery’s “Agri PV” team became the grand winner of the third edition of the AmCham Bulgaria Hackathon in 2026. Students Desislava Marinova, Iskren Yotinov, Nikolay Aleksiev, and Stiliana Tankova, led by their mentor Dilyana Veleva from Enery, developed a project for a comprehensive solution for the sustainable management of land under photovoltaic parks through the planting of suitable local crops, smart process management, and achieving a symbiosis between nature and business. Delivering the best performance in terms of technical solution, business application, and financial justification, this project garnered the unanimous approval of the jury and was named the Grand Winner of the initiative.

The Other Winning Teams

The award for best team was presented to the CYBREACH team from Syscom Engineering. The team consisted of Kaloyan Yorgov, Viktor Valchev, Georgi Yanev, Lora Tserovska, and Maria Tsvetanova, mentored by Angela Damyanova from the participating company. They developed a digital training system to prevent online cyber fraud and to improve the cybersecurity skills of employees and citizens.

Due to the exceptionally high level of presentations this year, the jury also awarded three prizes in the “Most Innovative Solution” category. The winning teams are:

The “Prevention of Erosion and Soil Restoration in a Photovoltaic Park” team, a case similar to but distinct from Enery 2’s. It was developed by students Anna Stefanova, Mark Petrov, Teosveta Velkova, and Sofia Toncheva, mentored by Krasimira Petkova.

The “Argus” team from IBM, composed of students Viliyan Gerzhikov, Maya Tacheva, Orlin Kralov, and Svetlana Georgieva, developed an online solution to streamline the real estate market under the guidance of their mentor, Dayana Mitkova.

The KarieraHub team, consisting of students Vanesa Taneva, Stilian Todorov, and Ana-Grace Dacheva, developed an app to facilitate contact between students seeking internships and employers. They worked with mentor Violeta Kalcheva.

Due to the exceptional structure and methodology of their work, the jury also awarded a special (honorable mention) prize for Project Management. This award went to the TENSA team from Sensata Technologies: Bozhidara Georgieva, Daniel Kolev, Alona Oniscenko, and Viktor Marinov, whose mentors were Tsvetelina Petrova and Nikolay Yordanov.

About the Event

The third edition of the American Chamber of Commerce in Bulgaria (AmCham) Hackathon had the overarching theme “Tech-for-Good: Local Impact.”

The AmCham Bulgaria Hackathon 2026 was jointly organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Bulgaria in partnership with the Technical University of Sofia, the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski,” the Faculty of Physics and Technology at Plovdiv University “Paisiy Hilendarski,” and the University of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy in Sofia. The two days of team presentations took place at the Faculty of Economics, while the opening and closing events were hosted at the Tech Arena hall at TU – Sofia. The hackathon was presented in three special sessions to students at these universities, alongside direct online communication.

The closing ceremony brought together the heads of the four partner universities, faculty members, a large portion of the 58 students who remained until the end of the competition, representatives of participating companies – including team mentors – as well as the jury.

Participating in the AmCham Bulgaria Hackathon 2026 are IBM Bulgaria, MOTO-PFOHE, Sensata Technologies, A1, Parker Curtis, HPE, Syscom Engineering, RingCentral, and Enery, and the initiative was additionally supported for another year by StorPool.

Media partners include the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency, Economy.bg, and K:Next.

Knowledge partners for the AmCham Hackathon 2026 include the Fund of Funds with their “Best Youth Startup” competition, GUUT, K-Next, the ATC Step Ahead mentoring program, the Bulgarian Angels Club, and Tuk-Tam.

The Initiative in Numbers:

The hackathon jury consisted of Prof. Dancho Danalev, Ph.D., University of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy, Sofia (UCTM), Assoc. Prof. Dr. Iya Petkova, Faculty of Economics, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski,” Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ivan Bodurov, Faculty of Physics and Technology, Plovdiv University “Paisii Hilendarski,” Assoc. Prof. Dr. Eng. Mihail Zagorski, Faculty of Industrial Technologies, Technical University of Sofia, and Daniel Kiryakov, Manager of “Communications and Institutional Relations,” AmCham.

Moments from the Awarding Ceremony