Archived

MY Camper Yanitsa Pehova: Applied mathematics is everywhere

17-year-old Yanitsa Pehova is from Bulgaria, and attends to a high school specialized in mathematics. In Bulgaria, most of the top schools are specialized in mathematics. “A fact showing that students who are good at math are good at everything,” Yanitsa says.

Yanitsa has been a math lover since she started school. “So, I guess it’s kind of my destiny.” But what makes her different from most of the other math-oriented students, is her aptitude for applied mathematics in particular, and applied mathematics is also her theme group of choice for MY Camp.

Yanitsa first heard about MY Camp from a friend, who sent her a message in Skype saying “Look at this: technologyacademy.fi/millennium-youth-camp.html, it has applied mathematics.” As the application process was online, she thought “Why not, I have nothing to lose!” And indeed she didn’t as she is one of the 30 2011 MY Campers.

“Since I saw my name on the list, I’ve been as if my feet were off the ground!” Yanitsa says, and adds that she usually takes, what she is given, so she hasn’t got any particular expectations from the camp, but at the same time there is no limit to her expectations. “I could tell that I expect a pile of gold and it would still be true.”

The idea for Yanitsa’s project plan came from a friend of hers, who worked on a project on secret sharing schemes during the Bulgarian National Summer Math Camp. The friend’s presentation roused Yanitsa’s interest in cryptography, and it can be seen in her project plan as well.

“This project started as an idea for tracing and encoding a signal around an onion network, but later it morphed into error-correction encoding,” Yanitsa explains.

Yanitsa says that to her, world is so digitalized that she sees many objects in angles, lengths, vectors, and equations. “My relationship to science is purely spiritual, no exaggeration. (Here one can insert a creepy nerdy laugh.) Sometimes I just feel it flowing through my veins,” Yanitsa says.

Yanitsa also loves physics, chemistry, and biology, and enjoys watching scientific documentaries. “I’m always interested in topics and facts that make you say ‘Wow, this is so cool!’,” she says.

For her future career, Yanitsa is set her mind on mathematics, even though during the years she has also contemplated becoming a lawyer, a psychologist, or an accountant.

“Many people here ask me what I am going to do with a math degree just because the average Bulgarian person hates mathematics and doesn’t believe that any theoretical subjects can be applied in real life. On the contrary, I think that mathematical skills are so fundamental that they’re an essential part of every career choice,” Yanitsa says.

She could imagine a future as a math consultant for a large company, who uses math for optimisation, analysis, desicion-making and so on. “Something like what Charlie in the TV series NUMB3RS does for the FBI.”

But as for now, Yanitsa continues to attend mathematics-related events in Bulgaria, and spending the little spare time she gets sleeping, as she often jokingly puts it. In reality, she finds also time for volunteer work for local charity organisation, tennis, and creative writing in form of poetry, essays, short stories, and blog posts.

Have a look at Yanitsa’s project plan (pdf).

Visit also Millennium Youth Camp’s website.

Elisa Lautala works as web editor for University of Helsinki's Faculty of Science. Elisa likes all kinds of cultural events, good books, warm weather, and aqua-jogging.