Research co-authored by Lect. Mohammad Yousif Shakour, Assistant Dean of the College of Computer and Information Technology at the University of Garmian, was named the university’s Best Research Paper for 2025 at the 9th Outstanding Papers Symposium organized by the KSCien Organization for Scientific Research.

The annual symposium gathered academic delegates from higher education institutions across Iraq and the Kurdistan Region. The awarded study, titled "A Novel Facial Recognition Technique with Focusing on Masked Faces," introduces advanced computer vision methodologies to optimize facial recognition accuracy under partial facial coverage.

The paper reflects a collaborative effort between Lect. Mohammad Yousif Shakour and a regional research team comprising scholars from the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, University of Sulaimani, Sulaimani Polytechnic University, Soran University, University of Kurdistan Hewlêr, and Knowledge University.