Sultan Qaboos University in the Sultanate of Oman hosted a ceremony to announce the winners of the Second Edition of “My Thesis in 1,000 Words” Prize, organized by the Federation of the Universities of the Islamic World, which reports to the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO). The ceremony was organized in cooperation with ICESCO’s Chair on Machine Learning for Remote Sensing at Sultan Qaboos University, the Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for Geoscience and Remote Sensing, and the Omani National Commission for Education, Culture and Science. This edition saw the participation of PhD researchers at 35 universities from 25 countries and was marked by a new prize in the fields of artificial intelligence.

During the finals, held Tuesday, December 17, 2024, the ten finalists presented their theses before a jury consisting of experts and academics specializing in various fields. The jury then held its deliberations and announced six winners: three in general specialties and three in the use of AI in remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

The winners in the general specialties were: Hajar Akhoutir from Ibn Zohr University in the Kingdom of Morocco (first place), Tahiyya bin Muhammad bin Saud Al-Tubiyya from Sultan Qaboos University (second place), and Soundous bint Nasser bin Said Al-Subhiyya, from Georgia State University, USA (third place).

As for the AI Prize, the three winners were: Khaled bin Mubarak Al-Jaberi from Sultan Qaboos University (first place), Alaa Ahmad Ismail Al-Nubi from Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (second place), and Mashael bint Abdulrahman Al-Luhaibi from King Saud University in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (third place).

At the close of the ceremony, Dr. Omar Halli, Advisor to ICESCO Director-General for the Federation of the Universities of the Islamic World (FUIW) and Dr. Yaseen Al-Mulla, Director of the Remote Sensing Center at Sultan Qaboos University, presented the prizes to the six winners, which consisted of certificates of appreciations and monetary rewards of 2,000USD to first place winners, 1,500USD to second place winners, and 1,000USD to third place winners.