A Visual Journal of my Sofia Trip

A couple of weeks ago, I had to pleasure of visiting Sofia for the first time. And it’s truly an honor to be able to speak at 2 of the oldest and most prestigious academic institutions in Bulgaria.

  1. The Institute of Mathematics and Informatics (IMI) under the Bulgarian Academy of Science (BAS), which focuses on research (knowledge discovery)
  2. The Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics (FMI) at the Sofia University (SU), which focuses on secondary education (knowledge dissemination)

Since Sofia is such a beautiful city, I took many photos throughout my journey. Therefore, I thought I would create a photo journal rather than the typical trip summary, so you can see this beautiful city too. Note: reading the captions of the photos will guide you along my journey.

Saint Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Sofia
The #1 landmark of Sofia that you literally cannot miss is the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral
The Bulgarian Academy of Science is right next to Alexander Nevsky
The Bulgarian Academy of Science (BAS), where I’ll be lecturing, is literally right next to Alexander Nevsky
The Bulgarian Academy of Science is a yellow brick house along of the yellow brick road
The BAS is a yellow brick building along of the yellow brick road, where you will find knowledge and wisdom
The lecture hall inside the BAS
I took a snap fo this classic lecture hall inside the BAS building
PROS marketing and HR team help tremendously with promotion, registration, and check-in
PROS marketing and HR team help tremendously with promotion, registration, and check-in at the event
There about 90 people attending the Decoding GenAI lecture series
There are about 90 people attending the Decoding GenAI series of 2 lectures
Most are from academic, with a few from the industry and consulting
Most of the attendees are from academia, with a few from the industry and consulting
Prof AI gave an intro speech and introduce me to the stage
Appropriately, Prof A.I. (Alex Iliev) gave a speech and introduced me to the stage
Prof Peter Boyvalenkov, me, Prof AI, and PROS HR director EmiliaR
We must thank Prof Peter Boyvalenkov for host us in this historic venue, and this event wouldn’t be possible without the help from Prof A.I. and our Director of HR Emilia R.

Decoding GenAI is Live-Streamed

If you could not make it to this series of 2 lectures, I have good news for you. Because this event is live-streamed on YouTube, it is recorded. It is captured by 3 different cameras and very nicely blended together. Check it out! You won’t regret it.

This is the Way: To Get the Slides for the BAS Lectrures

If you are here, you are probably looking for the PDF slides to the lectures that I promised I would provide. Don’t worry, I always keep my promise. I just had 2 more trips after Sofia, so I’ve just returned to SF this week. And for that, I must apologize for the long wait. The 2 lectures were:

  1. Decoding GenAI: The Science Behind the Magic of ChatGPT
  2. Navigating the Limits of GenAI in Business Decisions—Beyond Productivity

Note: the slides for both lectures are combined into a single PDF file below. Here you go!

24-04-18 BAS -GenAI + Profit Optim v03d_cmpDownload

This is the Way: To Get the Slides for the SU-FMI Lecture

Michael Wu Lecturing at Sofia Univ Faculty of Mathematics & Informatics
I also gave a lecture at Sofia Univ’s Faculty of Mathematics & Informatics
Michael Wu Lecturing at Sofia Univ Faculty of Mathematics & Informatics
Unlike the BAS lectures, the audience for the FMI lecture is mostly engineering and data science students
Michael Wu Lecturing at Sofia Univ Faculty of Mathematics & Informatics
There’re a few Professors, and also the Vice Dean of the FMI at SU, Prof Milen Petrov.

The lecture at the FMI at Sofia Univ was titled:

  • The 2 Cutting Edges of GenAI: Coding Liberator or Job Terminator?

However, this lecture was not recorded. But you can get the PDF slides below. Although the slides for this lecture covered similar materials as the BAS lecture at the beginning, they do diverge in the middle and become more Engineering and Data-science-focused. So feel free to watch the first part of the live-stream lecture above if you want to review what I’ve covered.

24-04-19 SU FMI -GenAI Software Data Science v03e_cmpDownload

Meeting the PROS in Sofia

Besides the academic lectures, I also had the opportunity to meet and talk to the pros in Sofia, many of whom I’ve never met in person.

PROS Bulgaria
I talked about my journey to PROS and there were only standing rooms with not enough time for questions
PROS Marketing Bulgaria
It’s great to put a face to a name, as I’ve work with many PROS Marketers in Sofia and only know them by name
PROS Bulgaria HR Director
Huge thanks to our Sr. Director of HR, who tirelessly coordinated everything, making my Sofia trip a breeze

Conclusion

Overall, this trip is a great success. Besides the work, I also learned quite a bit about Bulgaria’s heritage, history, food, and more. The food is not only delicious, it’s creative and innovative. And these are not the typical words that I would use to describe food.

Besides, Bulgaria is truly a treasure trove, ranking #3 in Europe in terms of archeological heritage after Italy and Greece. It has Europe’s oldest continuously inhabited cities (i.e. Plovdiv) that dates back to 6000 BC, which is earlier than many of the oldest known civilizations. It’s a pity that I had to rush back to the US for other committed engagements. But this gives me a very good excuse to come back again soon.