Students and young entrepreneurs from Plovdiv and the region participated in the “Cyber Research Exercise – CYREX 2024” hybrid training on “Future Media and Artificial Intelligence”. The event was organized for another year by the Institute of Information and Communication Technologies (IICT) at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS). For the first time, it was hosted by the European Digital Innovation Hub (EDIH) “Trakia” with the coordinator Union for Private Economic Enterprise.
“Cyber Research Exercise – CYREX 2024” is an international computer-supported, face-to-face and collaborative training event held since 2015, which includes participants from universities, academic and professional organizations, as well as industry representatives. The main focus of the event was to increase the cyber resilience of society in the new digital era through experimental testing of future cyber threats and risks. The format helps participants expand their practical skills to address the challenges of a digitally transformed future.
A scenario was prepared for the participants according to the best standards in futurology, created with the help of experts and generative artificial intelligence. “We chose neutral themes – media of the future and artificial intelligence. The idea was to combine human and machine intelligence so that when we talk about the media of the future, the participants of the event could see that it is not so trivial to separate the imaginary or the machine from human intelligence”, said for The Bulgarian News Agency BTA assoc. prof. Zlatogor Minchev from the Institute of Computer Science at BAS and part of the team of EDIH Trakia, whose project “Cyber4AllSTAR” is funded by the Digital Europe Programme of the European Commission and the national programme “Research, Innovation and Digitalization for Smart Transformation 2021-2027”.
After the presentation of the scenario, the participants were divided into groups and given certain practical tasks. “Overall, the idea is to close the whole loop – starting from planning with the topic of the unification of human and machine intelligence and ending with simulating the process for a kind of verification,” said assoc. prof. Minchev for the Bulgarian Telegraphic Agency. Denis Petkov from the EDIH Trakia team in Plovdiv also commented for the Military TV Channel on the topic of the forum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuADe8nwOac.
“We want to create a basis for continued cooperation both in the context of EDIH Trakia and in the wider global context so that together different generations can think about a better and more secure future. In a purely practical way, participants can see new technologies in action to create a new fictional digital reality, think more structurally, and further acquire systems thinking as well. We have to be ready to live in the post-information society or, to use the more buzzed term lately, in the era of artificial intelligence,” added Assoc. Prof. Minchev.
The event was attended by young entrepreneurs as well as students from the Hub Trakia Youth Program from several Plovdiv schools and students from Plovdiv University (PU) “Paisii Hilendarski”. Alexandra, a first-year student of National Security at Paisii Hilendarski University, said she was looking forward to learning about cybersecurity and gaining knowledge to use in her development in cybersecurity. “I want to help Bulgarian citizens so that there are not so many problems in the digital sphere. At the university, I met great professionals who teach me and they made me passionate to pursue a career in this field,” said the PU student.
After the end of the event, the hosts from EDIH “Trakia” defined the initiative as a success. “I take as added value not only the new knowledge and practices but also the contacts that the participants have exchanged with each other. In my opinion, all future initiatives that address the digital transition among the young strata are worth investing time and resources,” Denis Petkov, senior expert at the European Digital Innovation Hub “Trakia”, told BTA.
Denis Petkov expressed his gratitude on behalf of the management of EDIH Trakia to Ms. Hristina Velinova – lawyer, psychologist and founder of the ZONO Foundation, part of the innovation ecosystem of EDIH Trakia, as well as to Ms. Denitsa Marinova – Chair of the Board of ZONO. Thanks were also extended to the team of “Hristo G. Danov” Secondary School, represented by teachers Lyudmila Zidarova and Daniela Aleksandrova, who bridged the generational gap and captivated the next generation of cybersecurity experts through their participation in the event.
The event at the training and business centre of EDIH Trakia was organised in the broader context of the practical seminar held later in the day by the Union of Reserve Officers Atlantic (UROA), in cooperation with the Association of Scientific and Technical Unions with the House of Science and Technology – Plovdiv and the Ministry of Defence. The theme of the forum was “Unconventional Methods for Educating, Preparing, and Engaging Youth from Secondary and Higher Education Institutions to Participate in the National Security System and Enlist in the Armed Forces”.
An upcoming opportunity for new synergies between EDIH Trakia and the House of Science and Technology – Plovdiv, part of the Hub’s innovation ecosystem, will be at the end of November when a plenary session during the annual Youth Science Forum will feature Dr. Hristian Daskalov from the Digital Hub’s management, who will present a special paper on “EDIH Trakia and the Right to (Self-)Defence in the Digital Space”, dedicated to the initiative of the Hub and the Bulgarian Cyber Security Association to legislate coordinated disclosure of cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
A scientific paper on the topic of business and cybersecurity, in the context of the free services for small and medium-sized enterprises provided by digital hubs, will be presented by Denis Petkov from EDIH Trakia on 30.10.2024, again at the House of Science and Technology – Plovdiv, when at the invitation of the organizers from the Institute of Informatics and Innovative Technologies, Plovdiv Tech Park and the Union of Economists in Bulgaria, EDIH Trakia will be part of the Sixth International Scientific Conference on Artificial Intelligence and e-Leadership (AIEL 2024).
