Maria Drencheva, a student at the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics at Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski", is one of 20 young women from across Europe to win the Women in Computer Science Scholarship from the tech company Bending Spoons. More than 3,000 women applied this year, the university's press office said.

Drencheva is also a scholar in INSAIT's EXPLORER programme. She went to a special meeting in Milan, Italy, where this year's scholarship winners gathered.

Bending Spoons is one of the fastest-growing tech companies in Europe. It owns Vimeo, Evernote, WeTransfer, AOL and Eventbrite, and is valued at more than $25bn. The company uses the scholarship to support talented young women in computer science.

Drencheva has also been chosen for the summer research programme at ETH Zurich, the Swiss federal polytechnic. The programme runs every year, and 2,500 people apply for 20 places. On 16 September, the press office of Bulgaria's education ministry said some of the best students in the world compete for a place.

A research paper by Drencheva, written with INSAIT researchers, has been accepted at ICLR in Singapore, one of the world's leading conferences on artificial intelligence.

On 5 October, the Council of Ministers welcomed the scholars of the third EXPLORER intake. Prime minister Rumen Radev, education and science minister Prof. Georgi Valchev, Sofia University rector Prof. Eliza Stefanova and INSAIT founder and scientific director Prof. Martin Vechev took part.

EXPLORER has 15 young talents this year, more than in the first two intakes combined. The university's press office said the programme aims to keep Bulgaria's most gifted young people in the country. It offers them world-class education, research and career development. It combines study at the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, research at INSAIT and internships at leading international tech companies.

Some of the scholars chose to study in Bulgaria, although they could have gone on to elite universities abroad. They have won robotics contests, and olympiads and tournaments in mathematics, informatics, linguistics and artificial intelligence.