A Historic Day for AI Research at KNUST: AI4PEP Ghana Wins Four Awards at the 2nd KNUST Research Conference
It was a day that will be remembered in the history of AI4PEP Ghana — and indeed, in the story of artificial intelligence research at KNUST. At the just-ended 2nd KNUST Research Conference, the AI for Pandemic and Epidemic Prevention (AI4PEP) Ghana research group delivered a performance that exceeded all expectations, winning a total of four awards across multiple categories and cementing its place as one of the most dynamic and productive research groups at KNUST today.
Four awards. One research group. One conference. It is a result that speaks for itself.
The Awards at a Glance
| # | Award | Recipient |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Best Innovation Award | AI4PEP Ghana Research Team |
| 2 | Multidisciplinary Research Award | AI4PEP Ghana Research Team |
| 3 | 3rd Place – Best Oral Presentation | Lakyiere Alice Bagyiereyele |
| 4 | Overall Best Oral Presentation (1st Place) | Lakyiere Alice Bagyiereyele |
A Team-Wide Achievement
The first two awards belong to the entire AI4PEP Ghana team — a recognition of the collective effort, vision, and scientific output that has defined the group’s work over the years.
The Best Innovation Award honoured the team’s development of groundbreaking AI tools for vector surveillance and infectious disease monitoring — including MosqMixerNets, YOLOv5-based mosquito detection, AI-driven bioacoustic classification systems, and low-cost IoT environmental sensing for real-time mosquito surveillance. These are not theoretical concepts. They are working, validated technologies being deployed in real-world public health contexts across Ghana and beyond.
The Multidisciplinary Research Award recognised the team’s unique strength in bridging biology, physics, computer science, epidemiology, and data science to tackle health challenges that no single discipline could address alone. In an era where the most complex health problems demand cross-disciplinary thinking, AI4PEP Ghana has made interdisciplinarity a cornerstone of everything it does.
A Student Who Stole the Show
While the team’s two institutional awards were cause for great celebration, the story of the conference was completed by one of AI4PEP Ghana’s own student researchers — Lakyiere Alice Bagyiereyele.
Alice entered the conference with not one, but two oral presentations — and she walked away with awards for both.
Her presentation on MosqMixerNets, a deep learning architecture for early-stage mosquito classification, earned her 3rd Place in the Best Oral Presentation category. Her second presentation, showcasing YOLOv5 for real-time adult mosquito detection, was recognised as the Overall Best Oral Presentation, placing her 1st out of all presenters at the conference.
In one afternoon, Alice added two more trophies to AI4PEP Ghana’s already impressive haul — bringing the total to four. Her achievement is a powerful demonstration of what is possible when talented students are placed in the right research environment, mentored with intention, and given the space to do meaningful, ambitious work.
What Four Awards at One Conference Really Means
Winning four awards at a single research conference is rare for any group. For AI4PEP Ghana, it reflects something deeper than a good day at a competition. It reflects years of sustained investment — in research quality, in student development, in interdisciplinary thinking, and in building a team culture where excellence is both expected and supported.
It reflects the strength of the AI4PEP Ghana approach: that the best way to solve Africa’s health challenges is to develop Africa’s own scientists, tools, and systems — not to wait for solutions to arrive from elsewhere.
It also sends a clear message to the broader KNUST community, to funders, to policymakers, and to the global scientific community: AI4PEP Ghana is producing research that matters, training scientists who lead, and building innovations that work.
Gratitude and Looking Forward
AI4PEP Ghana extends profound gratitude to KNUST and the organising committee of the 2nd Research Conference for a well-organised and impactful event that gave researchers at all levels the opportunity to present, compete, and be recognised.
To our funders — the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada, through York University — thank you for the continued investment that makes this work possible.
To our international collaborators, including our partners at the University of Bremen, Germany, and research networks across Africa and beyond — your support strengthens everything we do.
To every member of the AI4PEP Ghana team — from senior researchers to students, lab technicians to administrative staff — these four awards are yours. Every early morning, every late night, every experiment, every line of code, every presentation rehearsed one more time — it all added up to this.
We are grateful. We are energised. And we are just getting started.
Learn more: https://ai4pep.org/ghana/