22.10.2024
Stefani Paunova, PhD candidate and Technical Lead at TINQIN, brings a unique perspective to software engineering: one that bridges medical AI research and real-world product development in the insurance and trust sectors. With experience in both backend (Java) and frontend (React) development, she now leads one of the digital trust apps part of Kipmi. Her interview was first published in Digital Stories, an online tech magazine.
Stefani’s PhD dissertation explores the use of artificial intelligence in medical diagnostics, a field where algorithmic precision intersects with human well-being.
“My research taught me how AI can assist in clinical decisions,” she says. “That principle carries over directly into trust platforms. We help automate, but never blindly.”
At TINQIN, she now leads the engineering of one of our digital trust products, a digital application that supports identity verification, data consent management, and compliance workflows for regulated sectors like health insurance.
Stefani’s current work focuses on building secure, intelligent systems that analyze sensitive data and adapt in real time.
Her AI research included:
“Health data is messy, incomplete, and subjective. Designing systems that extract real value from it, while preserving privacy, is the challenge and that’s exactly what we face in digital identity, too.”
This experience now informs how she and her team approach data flows, access control, and trust logic in TINQIN’s backend platforms, particularly those used in health-focused identity wallets.
While leading a development team at TINQIN, Stefani also teaches database fundamentals at Plovdiv University.
“Staying close to academia keeps me sharp and helps keep the students grounded in real tech,” she explains. “They challenge my assumptions more than anyone.”
She advocates for bringing more practitioners into the classroom, noting the gap between fast-moving industry standards and slow-evolving curricula. Her dual role strengthens TINQIN’s link to the next generation of engineers.
Stefani is cautious about the limits of AI. Her research revealed the danger of overtrusting systems that aren’t fully explainable:
These principles guide her work at TINQIN, especially as we deploy AI in sensitive domains like digital onboarding, identity verification, and health-data consent.
“When you’re handling identity and medical history in the same flow, transparency matters more than ever.”
In her view, modern developers must think ethically, validate at every step, and communicate clearly across technical and non-technical teams.
At TINQIN, Stefani applies this mindset by:
For clients in insurance, healthcare, and digital identity, Stefani’s expertise represents more than technical competence. It confirms that industry know-how and technology are both required for a real-world impact. Her journey reflects TINQIN’s culture: deeply technical, ethically aware, and relentlessly curious.
