Muscat – An artificial intelligence platform developed by an Omani student to combat money laundering and financial crime has been selected to represent Oman at the 67th London International Youth Science Forum (LIYSF), one of the world’s most prestigious gatherings of young scientists.

Ayah Hamid Al Kendi, a second-year computer science student specialising in artificial intelligence at Gulf College, will present her project – Sentinel – at the international forum, which will be held from July 19 to August 1.

Developed as part of her academic research, Sentinel is designed to help financial institutions detect suspicious transactions and uncover hidden criminal networks while safeguarding customer privacy.

“Project Sentinel began as a research concept and gradually evolved into a fully documented proposal and research dossier,” Ayah told Muscat Daily.

The project first gained regional recognition after securing third place at the AI Futures Lab competition in Dubai in November 2025, organised by the UAE Ministry of Higher Education. It was later submitted to the Research and Innovation Authority and selected on June 3 to represent Oman at LIYSF.

According to Ayah, Sentinel addresses three key challenges facing anti-money laundering systems: high false-positive rates that burden investigators, criminal networks operating across multiple financial institutions, and limitations on data sharing between banks.

The platform combines behavioural fingerprinting, graph neural networks and federated learning technologies to identify suspicious activities while ensuring that sensitive customer information remains secure within each institution.

“Raw customer data never leaves the bank’s infrastructure. Only the mathematical insights generated by the AI model are shared,” she explained.

Although currently in the research and design phase, Sentinel is expected to reduce false alerts by up to 40%, enabling investigators to focus on genuine threats and uncover complex criminal networks more efficiently.

Ayah hopes the project will eventually evolve into a regional platform linking financial institutions across the GCC and beyond, strengthening efforts to combat financial crime through collaborative and privacy-preserving AI.

“Combating money laundering helps build a cleaner and more stable economy,” she said. “When you cut the lifeline of crime, you are not only catching criminals but also helping create a safer and more secure society.”

Selection of Sentinel for LIYSF highlights the growing contribution of Omani youth to scientific research and innovation while showcasing homegrown AI solutions on the global stage.