INSAIT, part of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” introduces EgoNight – the first large-scale study and benchmark dedicated to understanding how modern AI systems perceive and interpret visual information at night. The work has been accepted at ICLR 2026, one of the leading global conferences in artificial intelligence.

INSAIT at Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, together with one of the world’s largest streaming platforms, Netflix, have developed a new AI model VOID - capable of removing objects from video while realistically reconstructing how the scene changes afterward.

Alpha Ring, the global leader in micro-fusion technology, has permanently installed its Alpha-E tabletop fusion device at Sofia University, marking a major milestone in the expansion of global access to hands-on fusion education. This is the first time fusion experiments have been available in a classroom in Europe.

The Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Technology (INSAIT) part of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, has successfully closed applications for this year’s edition of its SURF summer research program, once again attracting remarkable global interest.

The technology is of strategic importance for Bulgaria’s sovereignty in artificial intelligence, and BgGPT now supports voice and image recognition and can be downloaded as a mobile app.

The Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Technology INSAIT at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” will represent Bulgaria at the leading natural language processing conference EACL 2026, taking place this week in Rabat, Morocco.

Discussions and meetings with representatives of the academic community and diplomats marked the visit to Sofia of Dr. Nargis Kassenova from the Davis Center at Harvard University.

The National Revenue Agency (NRA) is adopting INSAIT’s AI system across all its organizational structures. The project is carried out jointly with the Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Technology (INSAIT) at Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" and is part of the initiative “Integration of Artificial Intelligence Technologies for the Automation of Information Provision and Response Preparation for Citizens and Businesses,” as well as the NRA Strategic Plan for 2026–2030.

INSAIT at Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski has 8 papers accepted at the International Conference on Learning Representations 2026, one of the leading global conferences in artificial intelligence. With this result, Bulgaria once again ranks among the European countries with the highest number of accepted publications and places first in Eastern Europe.

With five accepted papers, INSAIT, part of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” stands ahead of institutions such as University of Cambridge and Harvard University, and alongside leading universities including Tsinghua University and a number of top U.S. and European universities.

INSAIT, part of Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, is launching the 1st Workshop on Agentic AI for Visual Media (AAVM) at CVPR 2026. The initiative positions Bulgarian-based research at the forefront of developments in Agentic AI for visual media. The workshop is led by INSAIT faculty members Jinjin Gu and Lei Sun, and is organized in collaboration with Snap Inc. and Adobe.

INSAIT PhD student Anna-Maria Halacheva and researchers from the institute are among the co-organizers of the 6th Workshop on Open-World 3D Scene Understanding and Representations, which has been accepted to the program of CVPR - one of the most prestigious global conferences in artificial intelligence and computer vision.

The Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Technology (INSAIT), part of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, has officially opened applications for the 2026 edition of its Summer Research Fellowship (SURF) program, inviting outstanding undergraduate and graduate students from around the world to take part in cutting-edge AI and computing research in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Professor Svetlana Turlakova, a Ukrainian industrial development economist, has been selected as part of the prestigious Scholars Under Threat initiative at Cornell Universityfor the 2026–27 academic year. Virtually hosted by Cornell’s Department of Economics, she will collaborate with renowned economist Professor Kaushik Basu on cutting-edge research.

INSAIT, an institute at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski,” has won a 500,000 USD award from Google. The funding will support the continuation and further development of the institute’s research in AI, robotics and adjacent areas.

The Head of the Department of Arabic and Semitic Studies, Prof. Dr. Simeon Evstatiev, and the Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Classical and Modern Philology, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Galina Evstatieva, held an official meeting with H.E. Mr. Nader Saad, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Arab Republic of Egypt to the Republic of Bulgaria. The meeting took place at the invitation of the Egyptian Ambassador on 20 January 2026 at the Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt in Sofia and focused on opportunities for further cooperation between the Embassy, the Department of Arabic and Semitic Studies, and the Faculty of Classical and Modern Philology.

On 15 January 2026, Associate Professor Abdugani Mamadazimov from the Faculty of International Relations at the Tajik National University in Dushanbe presented his monograph dedicated to “gift diplomacy” at a lecture for students and faculty of the Centre for Eastern Languages and Studies of Sofia University St Kliment Ohridski.

INSAIT, part of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, introduces DiffSim Trinity (diffsimtrinity.insait.ai), a new paradigm for autonomous driving built on differentiable simulation. The work builds on Waymax, the differentiable simulator developed by Waymo, a global leader in autonomous driving that originated from Google. DiffSim Trinity unifies the full sensor → action → outcome pipeline, enabling more precise, robust, and reliable autonomous driving systems.

An Open Day of the Department of Arabic and Semitic Studies at the Faculty of Classical and Modern Philology (FCMP) was held at the Center for Oriental Languages and Cultures (COLC). The event was organized on the eve and on the occasion of World Arabic Language Day (2025), which is celebrated annually on 18 December at the initiative of UNESCO. The guests included faculty members, under- and post-graduate students not only from the Department of Arabic and Semitic Studies, but also from other programs in Sofia University, as well as Arab ambassadors, representatives of the diplomatic corps, and leading Bulgarian diplomats.

The GATE Institute at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” welcomed H.E. Chikahisa Sumi, Ambassador of Japan to the Republic of Bulgaria, on the occasion of his first official visit to the Institute. Prof. Sylvia Ilieva, Director of GATE, warmly received Ambassador Sumi and introduced him to the mission, development, and strategic vision of the Institute as Bulgaria’s Centre of Excellence in Big Data and Artificial Intelligence.

CSRanking ranks INSAIT ahead of institutions such as Oxford University, University College London, Technical University of Berlin.

INSAIT, part of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” together with leading international research institutions, announces the release of SceneSplat-49k, the largest open-source collection of high-quality, complex 3D scenes in Gaussian Splatting format, along with SceneSplat-Benchmark, a comprehensive evaluation benchmark for Language Gaussian Splatting.

The Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Technology (INSAIT), part of Sofia University has announced the new edition of EXPLORER, the program designed to retain and cultivate Bulgaria’s young technological talent. Participants receive a 36,000-euro scholarship for the duration of their studies, as well as the opportunity to complete paid summer engineering internships at leading tech companies.

The GATE Institute at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” opened new horizons for science, innovation, and technology during the international forum Up To GATE 2025: New Horizons, which brought together leading Bulgarian and global experts in artificial intelligence and data.

Within the framework of the project KP-06-N57/4 "Research and application of machine learning algorithms in the analysis and development of highly secure software," funded by the Scientific Research Fund, with coordinator for Sofia University, prof. Milen Petrov (Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics), two experimental prototypes were created to address current cybersecurity issues – the detection of phishing sites and the protection of unmanned aerial vehicles from network attacks.

Deputy Minister of Education Academician Nikolay Vitanov, Sofia Mayor Vasil Terziev, and Yordanka Chobanova from the European Commission will open the forum on 27 November.

On 19 November 2025, an international seminar dedicated to Moroccan constitutionalism in the 21st century was held at the Rectorate of Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski. The event was initiated by the Department of Arabic and Semitic Studies, Faculty of Classical and Modern Philology, Sofia University, in partnership with Gallup International Balkan’s Center for Constitutionalism and Democracy.

The GATE Institute at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” welcomed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Innovation and Growth Tomislav Donchev. The visit focused on GATE’s strategic priorities and its role as a national centre of excellence in the fields of big data and artificial intelligence.

Professor Simeon Evstatiev, Head of the Department of Arabic and Semitic Studies at Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, and Associate Professor Galina Evstatieva, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Classical and Modern Philology, took part in the Third International Conference on Arabic Studies in Europe (Sharjah, 8–9 November 2025).

INSAIT, part of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” announced StateSpaceDiffuser, a new diffusion-based world model that achieves substantial improvements in spatial and temporal consistency, has been accepted for presentation at NeurIPS 2025 - one of the world’s leading conferences in artificial intelligence, taking place this December in San Diego, USA.

The Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Technology (INSAIT) hosted a key official visit by Prof. Maria Leptin, President of the European Research Council (ERC). The ERC is Europe’s premier organization for funding frontier, high-risk, high-reward research, with more than €16 billion allocated for the 2021–2027 period to support breakthrough scientific advances across disciplines.

Today in Sofia, INSAIT – the Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Technology at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” – and the Bulgarian National Audit Office launched Odis, an intelligent AI assistant designed to support public procurement auditors. The pilot project was unveiled during the “Artificial Intelligence and IT Audit in Safeguarding of the Public Resources” conference, organized by the National Audit Office.

INSAIT is pleased to announce a new $1 million USD fund from Google, helping us deepen our commitment to open and inclusive AI research and innovation in Central and Eastern Europe. This latest support includes funding to advance INSAIT’s research mission, cloud compute resources to accelerate advanced AI projects, and investment in local outreach initiatives such as the Tech Series and educational programs like Explorer.

INSAIT, part of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski,” has announced SPEAR-1 – the first open robotic foundation model developed in Europe, achieving state-of-the-art performance with up to 20 times less robotic training data.

On October 21, 2025, the GATE Institute at Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" welcomed the Minister of Education and Science, Mr. Krasimir Valchev, on a working visit.

The Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Technology (INSAIT) at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” marks a major milestone at ICCV 2025 – one of the world’s most prestigious conferences in computer vision and artificial intelligence, taking place next week in the United States. The event is expected to gather more than 10,000 leading researchers and experts from around the world.

Researchers from the Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Technology (INSAIT) and ETH Zurich have announced qblaze, a state-of-the-art quantum simulator that establishes a major milestone in quantum computing research.

On October 9, 2025, the Department of Indology hosted a meeting and discussion with Prof. Dr. Upender Rao from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, India. Prof. Rao, a key-note speaker at the international conference "East-West: Synergy of Scientific Knowledge" (October 6-8, 2025), delivered a lecture titled "Ramayana as depicted on the Temples of Cambodia."

Researchers from INSAIT, part of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, and ETH Zurich have introduced BrokenMath — the first test designed to systematically evaluate sycophancy in mathematical reasoning with large language models (LLMs).

ObjectRelator, a research developed at INSAIT, institute of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski,” has been selected as a Highlight Paper at the upcoming ICCV 2025, one of the most prestigious conferences in artificial intelligence and computer vision. Only a small fraction of accepted papers are chosen for this recognition.

On October 4, 2025, within the framework of the GATE Academic Days at the Bulgarian Pavilion at Osaka Expo 2025, the Institute for Big Data and Artificial Intelligence at Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" signed two cooperation agreements with the prestigious Japanese universities University of Tsukuba and Kwansei Gakuin University.

A team of INSAIT, part of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski,” achieved a historic success by being one of only two teams to qualify for RoboArena – an international challenge for evaluating the latest AI models in robotics. The event was organized by researchers from Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley, and other leading institutions, and took place as part of CoRL 2025 in Seoul.

INSAIT – the Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Technology at Sofia University – announces the appointment of Dr. Yuxia Wang as a tenure-track faculty member. She will establish a new research group focused on Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Large Language Models (LLMs).

INSAIT announces a landmark achievement: for the first time in history, a Bulgarian institution has a paper accepted at the Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL), a top research conference in robotics. The paper, titled “Generalist Robot Manipulation Beyond Action Labeled Data”, will be presented at CoRL 2025, taking place September 27–30 in Seoul, South Korea.

The Institute for Computer Science, AI, and Technology (INSAIT), part of Sofia University, Bulgaria, announces the release of MamayLM v1.0 - the first free, open and efficient Ukrainian Large Language Model that can handle both text and visual data.

The ChatToCaseStudy project aims to transform higher education in the field of computer science by introducing an innovative learning approach supported by AI chatbots. The primary focus is on the disciplines of cybersecurity and data mining, where students learn by solving real-world case studies in a digital environment.

Тhe University of Sofia hosted the annual conference and general assembly for 2025 of the prestigious international federation Euroclassica, which brings together associations of teachers of classical languages (Ancient Greek and Latin) from over 30 European countries.

On August 25, 2025, the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics (FMI) at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” launched a joint doctoral school with the University of Aizu, Japan. The initiative includes early-career researchers who wish to learn about and discuss key ideas in mathematical modeling, artificial intelligence, and data analysis – all core areas of essential importance for addressing complex real-world problems in science and technology.

INSAIT, part of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” has received a new $150,000 gift from Google to advance research in multimodal generative AI. With this latest support, Google’s total contributions to INSAIT now exceed $6 million, underscoring its continued recognition of INSAIT as a world-class AI organization.

On July 2, 2025, students from the Faculty of Geology and Geography at Sofia University, who participated in the T-Lab Fair and second Stakeholder challenge of the Transform4Europe Alliance met with the Mayor of Sofia city, Mr. Vasil Terziev and the Deputy Mayor responsible for the “Green System, Ecology and Land Use” department, Ms. Nadezhda Bobcheva.