Twelve students from the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration (FEBA) at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” had the opportunity to immerse themselves in the dynamic and intellectually charged atmosphere of the Third edition of the AmCham Hackathon 2026. The Hackathon is a follow-up of the AmCham Education Partnership HR Best Practice Sharing with the MBA HR Track at FEBA in 2022, which in 2023 developed into a Hackathon in partnership with Technical University – Sofia.

The Hackaton was fully integrated into the course “e-business” for 2nd year bachelor students in Business Administration, delivered by Prof. Todor Yalamov and his assistants Ms. Janet Naydenova and Ms. Emilia Christova. On 11th May 2026, FEBA participants shared their experiences, insights, and newly acquired knowledge with their fellow students of e-business - including those from the Faculty of Physics (who study electronic commerce with Prof. Todor Yalamov as well), so the other students, who were working on different type of projects could benefit from our lessons learnt. And with everyone else, they share them here, in this story that brings together their voices, discoveries, and the journey of the past 42 days.

The initiative was held between 20 March and 30 April under the unifying theme “Tech-for-Good: Local Impact” - challenged participants to envision and design technological solutions capable of generating tangible social value. And - spoiler alert - many of them rose to the challenge with remarkable success! During the final presentations, several teams impressed the jury to such an extent that they were encouraged to approach the Patent Office and formally register their concepts as “utility models”. Some jurors even offered personal support in navigating the registration process. When innovation meets real-world validation, the boundary between student work and professional achievement becomes surprisingly thin, doesn’t it?

Intrigued? Wondering whether you might be part of something similar next year? Still unsure? Then keep reading - what follows may be the spark that nudges you toward your own future breakthrough.

On June 10th, after the semester ended three of the winning teams had the pleasure to pitch at a special event co-organized by AmCham and Bulgarian Angels Club.

• Team Agri PV - tackling solar and agricultural integration in a way that made even the toughest questioners in the room nod
• Team CYBREACH - presenting an enterprise cybersecurity solution with a maturity
• Team KarieraHub - pitching a student-built internship platform that clearly struck a chord with some employers in the room

Read the article by Aliona Oniscenco, Silvia Velikova, and the student team.