The objectives of the Bulgarian Association of Software Developers are:

• Supporting the professional advance of the Bulgarian software developers by various activities, aiming to improve their knowledge and skills in the area of software design and development;
• Establishing conductive conditions for experience exchange between software developers;
• Assisting in spreading of scientific, technical and engineering knowledge and best practices related to software development;
• Raising the image of the Bulgarian software developers;
• Assisting for keeping the young software specialists in Bulgaria;
• Assisting the Bulgarian developers in finding job;
• Supporting the educational system and educational institutions;
• Stimulation of the progress of the software industry, including by assistance for development of conductive legal and financial basis;
• Establish the Association as an respected institution in the area of software development and software technologies;
• Supporting the high level of professionalism and ethics in the software industry.

The activities of the Association include:

• Organizing and supporting conferences, seminars, workshops and competitions according to the Association’s objectives;
• Organizing training courses for developers;
• Accomplishing various educational and research programs and projects in the area of the design, development and maintenance of software and computer systems;
• Organizing competitions and contests stimulating mastering of various software technologies and software development skills;
• Supporting, conducting partnership and participating is scientific and technical projects related to the problems of software development;
• Establishing and developing collaboration relationships with National and International organizations, institutions, physical and legal personalities in Bulgaria and abroad;
• Publishing and dissemination of electronic and printed publications supporting to the objectives of the Association;
• Assisting scientific and educational institutions, as well as non-profit organizations in their activities related to the objectives of the Association;
• Maintaining Internet site for publishing the Association‘s activities and projects;
• Issuing certificates for successfully passed training courses, participation in conferences, seminars and workshops;
• Accomplishing consulting services in the area of design, development, deployment and maintenance of software and computer systems;
• Conducting a dialog with government and public organizations about the problems related to the objectives of the Association.

In spite of the efforts of the high schools and higher education institutions the education in the area of software development and software technologies in Bulgaria is still not achieved the necessary good level in order to provide the development of the software specialists required by the IT business.

Motivated by the strong need of adequate training in software technologies Bulgarian Association of Software Developers is conducting several educational projects to support the young developers in Bulgaria.

BASD is the founder of the National Academy for Software Development. The objectives of the Academy are to deliver free highly qualified training in software development for young people. The objectives of the training are to prepare the students for professional software development and employment in the IT industry. The focus is on the practical technology skills and best practices in the software engineering. The courses target the Java Enterprise and .NET platforms.

The trainings in the Academy cover the practical aspect of following topics:

• Fundamental Data Structures and Algorithms
• Object-Oriented Design and Programming
• Database Modeling and Development
• Internet and Web Application Development
• Development of GUI Applications
• Development for the .NET Platform / Java EE Platform
• Software Engineering and Team Working

For the beginners the Academy provides free introduction courses in C# and Java. For the more intermediate young people an advanced software development courses in Java and .NET are held. The courses are free for the students and are sponsored by their future employer.

The Academy connects the IT business with the students. It helps the students to start their career in the software engineering by giving them the knowledge and skills required by the employers in the IT industry. The employers get highly qualified engineers, ready to get immediately in their projects.

BASD organizes technical seminars in cutting edge software technologies that aim to increase the professional skills of the Bulgarian software developers and to assist for establishing a community for experience exchange. The subjects of the seminars are conformable to the needs of the software industry.  Lecturers in the seminars are distinguished specialists from the leading Bulgarian and foreign software companies.

Experts from BASD organize and teach practical training courses for software developers in the Bulgarian Universities and thus support the professional advance of the students from the computer science and software engineering programs.

Bulgarian Association of Software Developers is founded by a group of distinguished software development professionals:

Svetlin Nakov (chairman of the Association) is a technical director of the National Academy for Software Development where he performs trainings of software specialists for practical work in the IT industry. He is a lecturer in cutting edge software technologies also in Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, where he teaches courses in Computer Algorithms, Internet Programming with Java, Programming for the .NET Framework, Network Security and High-Quality Programming Code Construction. Svetlin has a solid professional experience as software developer and consultant. His interests cover the Java technologies, the .NET platform and the information security. He has bachelor's and master's degrees form the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics in Sofia University. As a student Svetlin is winner in tens National programming contests and has 4 medals from International Olympiads in Informatics. He has tens scientific and technical publications in the area of software development in Bulgarian and foreign magazines and is an author of the books "Programming for .NET Framework", “Internet Programming with Java” and "Java for Digitally Signing Documents on the Web". In 2003 he is winner of the “John Atanassoff” award of EVRIKA foundation. In 2004 Svetlin is awarded by the Bulgarian President George Parvanov with the prestigious award "John Atanassoff" for his contribution for the development of the information technologies.

Panayot Dobrikov is a software architect in SAP A. G. (Java Server Technology), Germany and is responsible for the coordination of the software projects in SAP Labs Bulgaria. He is graduated Informatics at the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics in Sofia University. Panayot is long-standing participant (as a contestant and as a coach) in pupil’s and students programming contests and is a winner of lots of prestigious Bulgarian and International awards. He is author of the books “Programming=++Algorithms;” and "Java Programming with SAP Web Application Server", as well as tens of scientific and technical publications and articles. In the period of 2001-2003 he was teaching the courses “Design and Analysis of Computer Algorithms” and “Pragmatics of the Object-Oriented Programming” in Sofia University.

Pavlin Dobrev is a Chief Technology Officer in ProSyst Bulgaria. He is responsible for the entire support of ISO 9001:2000 in ProSyst, as well as for the development of lots of software, research and end-customer products. He is graduated the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics in Sofia University, artificial intelligence specialization. Pavlin has strong long-lived experience in Java, OSGi and embedded technologies and is actively participating in OSGi (Open Services Gateway Initiative), JCP (Java Community Process) and other groups for development of technological standards. Pavlin has lots of scientific and technical publications and participations in prestigious International conferences. He has managed the development of one of the first complete implementations of J2EE (now SAP Web Application Server). In the period of 1997-1999 he has been an assistant professor in the course “Data Structures” in Sofia University.

Stanislav Ovcharov is a partner and project manager in Musala Soft. He is leading the team that takes part in the development of one of the newest products of IBM - IBM Tivoli Directory Integrator. Stanislav is graduated the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics in Sofia University and hold several professional certificates from leading technological companies like IBM, Sun and Microsoft. He has long-lived professional experience in the Java technologies and the integration of large enterprise systems. Stanislav has been a coach of the team of Sofia University that has been placed and took part in the ACM-ICPC International Collegiate Programming Contest, Hawaii, 2002. As a student Stanislav has been winner in the National Olympiad in Informatics, 1997 and Silver medal winner in the International Olympiad in Informatics, Cape Town, 1997.

Vassil Popovski is Chief Technology Officer in Sciant. He managed several teams that develop desktop and enterprise application for corporate clients. He is graduated the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics in Sofia University. His professional interests are in the area of Java, XML, Web-services and databases. As a student Vassil is prize winner and lots of National and International programming contests and is a winner of Bronze medal from the International Olympiad in Informatics, Setubal, 1998 and Bronze medal from the Balkan Olympiad in Informatics, Drama, 1997. Later Vassil takes part in several National collegiate programming contests and in the ACM-ICPC. In the 2001-2002 he is lecturer in the course “Transaction Processing” in Sofia University.

George Roussev is Quality Assurance Manager in Sciant. He is responsible for the entire testing process of desktop, middleware and server applications fro corporate clients. George is graduated the Technical University in Sofia, specialty computer systems. He has considerable experience in the area of the organizing, managing and automation of the activities related to the software quality assurance. He has worked in large projects in the area of information security, business process management and environments for software modeling and certification.

Vladimir Tchalkov is a Director of Crossroad. He is graduated the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics in Sofia University. His professional interests are mainly in the area of the solutions based on Microsoft software. He has strong experience with .NET development, Visual Studio .NET, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft BizTalk Server and Microsoft IIS. Ha has successfully managed projects for building large information systems, Internet sites with content management and modules for Microsoft Office. Since 2002 he is a lecturer on lots of technical seminars and conferences. As a student he is a winner of Silver medal from the International Olympiad in Mathematics in 1995.

The Bulgarian Association of Software Developers offers on-site training and consulting services. We have experts in the area of .NET, Java, Java EE, Oracle, MS SQL Server, Linux, embedded development, and more. For more information please contact us.