JUST Research Team Wins Best Paper Award at ACL 2025 AfricaNLP

Jamhuriya University of Science and Technology proudly celebrates a remarkable academic achievement by a team of Somali researchers whose work has received international recognition at one of the world’s leading conferences in computational linguistics.

The research team, consisting of Shuab Daud Ahmed, Yahye Ali Isse, and Hanad Mohamud Mohamed, together with their supervisor Dr. Muhidin Abdullahi Mohamed, co-founder and research advisor of JUST and lecturer at Aston University in the United Kingdom, won the Best Paper Award at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL 2025) under the AfricaNLP track.

The conference was held in Vienna, Austria, from July 27 to August 1, 2025, bringing together researchers, scholars, and innovators from across the world. The team’s paper, titled “Detection of Somali-written Fake News and Toxic Messages on Social Media Using Transformer-based Language Models,” was selected as the top paper among more than 100 submissions from researchers across Africa.

This award reflects the originality, academic quality, and practical importance of the research. The study focuses on a critical challenge in today’s digital world: the spread of fake news and toxic content on social media, particularly in the Somali language. By applying transformer-based language models, the research contributes to the development of advanced Natural Language Processing tools that can help identify harmful and misleading online content.

The project originated from a Master’s thesis in the Master of Science in Data Science program at the Jamhuriya Center for Graduate Studies (JCGS). It also represents strong academic collaboration among Somali and regional institutions. The paper was co-authored by Dr. Fuad Mire from Somali National University and Dr. Hussein Ahmed Assoweh from the University of Djibouti.

This achievement is a proud milestone not only for Jamhuriya University but also for Somali higher education and Somali-language AI research. It demonstrates the growing potential of Somali scholars in the field of Natural Language Processing and highlights the importance of investing in research that addresses real-world challenges facing Somali-speaking communities.

SAIL extends its warmest congratulations to the entire research team for this outstanding accomplishment. Their success serves as an inspiration for students, researchers, and innovators working to advance Somali-language technology, artificial intelligence, and digital transformation.