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With over 2,800 applicants for summer internship at INSAIT, only 15 top students get the opportunity to study and work in Sofia

Category: News
May 19, 2026

More than 2,800 applicants from all over the world competed for the opportunity to spend their summer at the Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Technology (INSAIT) at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. Only 15 interns from three continents – Asia, Europe and North America – were selected to participate.

The participants, who will arrive in Bulgaria very soon, are students at some of the most prestigious universities in the world, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Cambridge, ETH Zurich, the National University of Seoul, etc. Among them are medalists from international Olympiads, national champions and students distinguished among thousands of their peers in national competitions and contests. They have completed internships in leading companies and have numerous opportunities for professional and scientific development.

The Summer Research Program for Bachelor’s Students at INSAIT – SURF, is being held for the fourth consecutive year and thanks to it, INSAIT has established itself as one of the most popular and desirable places for thousands of top students from all over the world.

The selected interns will work together with INSAIT researchers in key AI areas including computer vision, AI for math, natural language processing, machine learning, as well as areas beyond AI such as information security and cryptography, theory and algorithms, and others.

Here are the selected 2026 SURF participants:

  • Aleksander Gatev (University of Cambridge). Gold medalist at the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI).
  • Aman Verma (Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay). Ranked top 1% among > 1,200,000 candidates in the entrance exam in India (JEE).
  • Hyojin Kwon (Seoul National University). Scholarship holder of the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy of Korea, awarded to less than 0.02% of students in South Korea.
  • Emiliana Dimitrova (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). 4x medalist at the European Girls’ Olympiad in Informatics (EGOI).
  • Barış Cem Bakay (Koç University). Ranked top 20 from over 3,000,000 candidates in YKS, the national university entrance exam in Turkey.
  • Jesús Martínez (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid). Winner of a scholarship for excellent performance. Medalist of regional mathematics Olympiads.
  • Joris Liebing (ETH Zürich). Ranked among top 3% in his class of 250 students. Did prior internships on quantitative trading.
  • Ivan Tagarev (Ecole normale supérieure, France). 2x medalist at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) and absolute winner with a perfect result at the Junior Balkan Mathematical Olympiad.
  • Alexey Kravatskiy (Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (State University) – MIPT, Phystech), ranked no.1 in his class. Absolute champion in national economics and physics olympiads. Awarded the best scientific paper at ICOMP 2025 for his achievements in optimizing AI.
  • Vasilije Ivanovic (University of Belgrade), so far with perfect grades (10/10). Bronze medalist at the Balkan Mathematical Olympiad.
  • Ahmet Vedat Kurt (Sabanci University), so far with full honors. He has worked in the field of quantum security and cryptography.
  • Boris Gachevski (ETH Zürich). Gold medalist at the International Zhautykov Olympiad and bronze medalist at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO).
  • Harman Agrawal (Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay). She has completed an internship at Google DeepMind and has worked on research in game theory and machine learning.
  • Rowan Santos (The University of Edinburgh). Has worked on software tools for optimization, stochastic simulations and AI modeling.
  • Pakapim Eua-anant (Chulalongkorn University, Thailand). First place at ICPC Thailand and 2x finalist in the ICPC Asia-Pacific Championship.