Omar Al-Mukhtar University Wins Two Awards at International Artificial Intelligence Conference in South Africa

Cape Town – Omar Al-Mukhtar University won first place for Best Research Presentation and third place for Best Scientific Paper at the Second International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Generative AI 2026, held in Cape Town, South Africa.

The university said the winning paper, number 15, is titled “Comparative Evaluation of Lightweight Deep Learning Architectures for Real-Time Object Detection on Edge Devices.” The research was prepared and presented by Associate Professor Dr. Tahani Al-Mubarak and Engineer Moataz Abdul-Samad Al-Ajeeli from the Computer Engineering Department at Omar Al-Mukhtar University’s Faculty of Engineering. Engineer Salma Al-Mabri from Derna University also contributed.

The paper received the Best Research Presentation award for the quality of the delivery, the clarity in presenting and discussing the results, and the effective use of visual aids. It placed third for Best Scientific Paper, based on the combined evaluation of the written manuscript and the live presentation.

The study evaluates several lightweight deep learning architectures to determine their suitability for real-time object detection on edge devices. The focus is on applications within artificial intelligence, deep learning, and computer vision.

According to the university, researchers from five countries participated in the conference. The paper represents an academic collaboration between Omar Al-Mukhtar University and Derna University in the field of artificial intelligence and scientific research.