Last week, the Tinusaur team organized and hosted a unique two-day STEM & AI Hackathon in Veliko Tarnovo. The event was coordinated and led by Neven Boyanov, Founder of Tinusaur, who played a central role in the preparation, structure, and execution of the entire program – from designing the educational flow to inviting guest speakers, overseeing the mentor team, and working directly with the students.
The hackathon brought together 12th-grade students from the “Vasil Drumev” High School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics – one of the leading STEM-focused schools in the region – and challenged them to connect the knowledge they had acquired over the years with modern artificial intelligence tools. Our goal was simple but ambitious: to help students experience how AI can enhance the technologies they already know, and to support them as they transformed their ideas into real prototypes.
Opening of the Event
Day 1 began with a series of welcome speeches by our official guests, who expressed strong support for developing STEM and AI education in Veliko Tarnovo.
Official Guests and Institutional Support
We were honored to welcome representatives from several key institutions:
- Yuliya Likomanova-Mutafchieva, Regional Governor of Veliko Tarnovo
- Georgi Nedev, Deputy Mayor of Veliko Tarnovo Municipality
- Zdravka Mincheva, Head of the Regional Education Department
- Angel Gushev, Principal of the “Vasil Drumev” High School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
Their presence emphasized the importance of building bridges between education, community, and technology.
Ideas, Teams, and the Role of Artificial Intelligence
The first part of the program focused on the fundamental steps of the hackathon process:
- generating ideas
- forming teams
- evaluating concepts
- selecting one idea to develop
- and planning the development work ahead
Much of this initial guidance was led by Neven Boyanov, who introduced the students to different approaches for idea generation, group decision-making, and early-stage rapid prototyping.
Artificial intelligence was at the center of these discussions. Students learned not only what AI can do, but how to meaningfully apply it to accelerate real software development.
They also installed Cursor, an AI-assisted development environment. For many, this was the first time using vibe-coding. To everyone’s delight, the students adapted quickly and started creating programs within hours.
A Diverse Team of Mentors
The hackathon was supported by a diverse and highly engaged mentor team:
- Neven Boyanov, Tinusaur – lead organizer and mentor
- Martin Totev, marketing and IT specialist
- Tsvetelina Tsanova, marketing and sales specialist
- Yordan Yotov, web technologies specialist
- Georgi Nedev, Deputy Mayor of Veliko Tarnovo & STEM/AI mentor
- Sofia Boyanova, Student at the Technical University, Sofia
One of the unique organizational decisions introduced by Neven Boyanov was the mentor rotation model – instead of assigning one mentor to each team, all mentors circulated between groups. This ensured that every student received guidance from specialists with different backgrounds and strengths.
Special Guests from MIT
We were also honored to host several distinguished guests from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT):
- Ed Moriarty, Edgerton Center, MIT
- Mark Saul, former director of the Research Science Institute (RSI)
- Christof Ovcharov, engineer and technologist based in Boston
- Jenny Sandova, a Bulgarian mathematician and scientist
They joined the mentors in supporting the students, offering feedback, answering questions, and sharing stories from the world of science, technology, and university research.
The Students: Skilled, Motivated, and Already Experienced
This group of 12th graders is especially meaningful to Neven Boyanov, who has taught them STEM subjects, electronics, and microcontroller programming for the past four years.
During this time, the students:
- assembled two Tinusaur boards each
- built several hardware prototypes
- learned to solder
- learned to program microcontrollers
- and developed a strong foundation in hands-on STEM
The hackathon challenged them to elevate these abilities into the AI-assisted software development space – a completely new dimension for them.
Looking Forward to Day 2
Day 1 concluded with strong momentum: teams had formed, ideas were selected, and the first prototypes had taken shape. On Day 2, students would continue developing their solutions, refine their prototypes, and prepare their final presentations.
Stay tuned for Day 2 …