MY Camper Valeria Staneva: "You don't have to be the age of Yoda to do science"
Research is the passion of Valeria Staneva, MY Camper who turned 17 today. She is especially interested in computer science and bioinformatics, and would like to find her place in the academic world surrounded by talented people, who inspire one another.
Valeria Staneva from Bulgaria.
Valeria Staneva is from Varna, the second largest city in Bulgaria, and turns 17 today. She studies in Mathematics oriented high school in her hometown, and has also taken extracurricular classes in Mathematics and Physics as well as participated in national and international science competitions.
“I like science in all of its forms. The fact that it gets harder every year has never stopped me. It is the exact opposite – the harder it gets, the more I feel involved,” she says.
Science competitions take up most of Valeria’s free time but she does not mind because even thought striving to be better requires effort, it is worth it to her. “I love what I do. In research, the effort is often overwhelming, but still I feel addicted to it. I simply cannot give up.”
The field of science that interests Valeria the most is bioinformatics, and she has done research in the field for almost three years, and presented her work for example at Expo-Sciences International, which is a global science fair for youth.
“In bioinformatics, there are a whole lot of unanswered questions, one can find a niche and research it,” she says. Bioinformatics relies on computer science, and to Valeria combining these fields to solve problems represent an exciting journey. “And as Edward Monkton once said: ‘It is not the destination – it’s the glory of the ride’,” she adds.
Valeria heard about MY Camp from Yanitsa Pehova, 2011 MY Camper from Bulgaria. “She seemed really happy about the experience.” After that Valeria read more about the camp online and decided to apply.
“I expect to meet really interesting people – not only the other participants, but also the scientists from Finland. Actually, I see MY Camp as an unique, involving adventure in vivid colours, where the goal is to reveal the beauty of science and technology, and moreover – to see how your knowledge can be used in real-life.”
Valeria is looking forward to project work with other members of MY Camp’s ICT theme group, which has already began online. “Working on our project, I already feel I’m part of something bigger, something of high value. I am sure MY Camp will teach me a lot about teamwork,” she says.
Valeria did her own project plan for the second phase of MY Camp application process on automated volcano monitoring, which is based on thermal images of the volcanoes.
“The main idea is that one can use image processing algorithms in order to recognize the patterns in the thermal images, because if they change drastically, then something happens inside the volcano and with this information an eruption can be predicted,” Valeria says. She came up with the idea after the volcano eruption in Iceland in 2010.
“While researching the problem, it appeared that there is a similar project in Ecuador, but it is not related to image processing and automatisation.”
After high school Valeria plans on studying computer science at university level and pursue a career in research. “As I want to learn from the best, I plan to continue my higher education where people are as enthusiastic about computer science as I am. Moreover, I desire to work with people, who not only understand my passion but who inspire one another.”
Valeria has already many role models in science: friends who haven proven they are very good at something, teachers who show how a certain problem can be tackled, scientists who make her want to become as good as they are, and James C. Maxwell.
“One night few years ago, I found a very interesting article about him published in the 70s. There I read that Maxwell first published at the age of 15 – and I was the same age then! That night I realized you don’t have to be the age of Yoda to do science.”
Have a look at Valeria’s project plan: Automation monitoring of thermal volcano images.
Like during the previous years, MyScience will introduce each MY Camper and offer news, videos and photos during the Camp. Stay tuned, but in the meantime watch videos and photos from MY Camp 2010 and MY Camp 2011.
Read more about Millennium Youth Camp from Finland’s Science Education Centre LUMA’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.