Pokhara University, Nepal, and RVS College of Engineering and Technology (RVSCET), Jharkhand, India, have jointly concluded the Third International Conference on Recent Trends in Artificial Intelligence and IoT (ICAII 2026).
The conference was held on October 26 and 27, 2026, in a blended mode combining physical and virtual participation. The physical session took place in Pokhara on October 26.
The event was organized as part of the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the two institutions the previous year.
Nepal College of Information Technology (NCIT) and Pokhara Engineering College (PEC), both affiliated with Pokhara University, served as co-organizers. The conference also received support from the Model Institute of Technology (MIT), Nepal Research and Education Network (NREN), and Springer.
Inaugural Session
The conference was jointly inaugurated by Prof. Dr. Nirmala Jamarkattel, Registrar of Pokhara University and Chief Guest of the inaugural ceremony, and Prof. Dr. Rajesh Kumar Tiwari, Principal of RVSCET and Conference Chair.
Delivering the welcome address, Associate Professor Dr. Deepanjal Shrestha, Executive Director of the International Relations Center at Pokhara University and Convener of the Conference, provided an overview of the event.
He informed participants that approximately 300 research papers had been submitted from countries including the United States, China, Malaysia, Iraq, the United Kingdom, India, and Nepal.
Following a double-blind review process, 55 research papers were selected for presentation.
The Abstract Book of ICAII 2026 was also released during the inaugural session.
Dr. Deepmala Shrestha, Assistant Professor at the School of Business, conducted the inaugural ceremony.
Keynote Presentations
The conference featured keynote presentations by experts addressing developments in artificial intelligence, engineering education, digital infrastructure, and disaster resilience.
1. Prof. Dr. Sudan Jha
Designation: Honourable Member, National Planning Commission, Nepal
Keynote Topic: "Convergent Infrastructure: IoT and Lean AI are Rewriting Every Job, Every Industry, Everywhere"
2. Prof. Dr. Shashidhar Ram Joshi
Keynote Topic: "Changing the Dimension of Engineering and Technological Education in Nepal in the Age of AI"
3. Prof. Dr. Subarna Shakya
Keynote Topic: "From Policy to Protection: Harnessing AI and Digital Infrastructure for Disaster Resilience in Nepal"
Technical Sessions and Best Paper Presenter Awards
The technical sessions were chaired by Dr. Bidur Devkota, Dr. Ram Mani Adhikari, and Dr. Madhu Sudan Kayastha.
Er. Krishna Ghimire, Er. Bhesh Bahadur Thapa, and Er. Sanjeev Thapa served as co-chairs of the technical sessions.
Four research paper presenters received the Best Paper Presenter Awards at the conference.
1. Rajendra Gautam Jaishi
Research Paper: "Beyond Technology Acceptance: The Roles of Intrinsic Motivation and System Quality in Bank Employees’ Adoption of Digital Banking Tools."
2. Saroj Giri
Research Paper: "Robust Deepfake Detection: A Generalized Dual-Stream Spatial-Frequency Attention Network with Cross-Attention Fusion."
3. Kishore Babu Nampalle
Research Paper: "VIT-Adaptive HOG: A Hybrid Architecture Fusing Global and Adaptive Local Features for Satellite Imagery Classification."
4. Ganesh Saru
Research Paper: "A Transformer-Based Machine Translation System for the Low-Resource Western Magar–Nepali Language Pair."
Closing Ceremony
The closing ceremony was held in the presence of Prof. Dr. Devendra Adhikari, Vice-Chancellor of Pokhara University, as the Chief Guest.
Addressing the ceremony, Vice-Chancellor Adhikari emphasized that artificial intelligence is becoming an integral part of society and that AI education is essential for everyone.
He stated that research activities should generate direct benefits for society and stressed the need to strengthen academic collaboration in the coming years.
Shatrughna Singh, Director of RVSCET, stated that the conference had further strengthened academic cooperation between Nepal and India.
Similarly, Associate Professor Dr. Rishikesh Pandey, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Pokhara University, highlighted the importance of integrating social sciences with emerging technologies such as AI and IoT to address contemporary social challenges.
Conference Chair Prof. Dr. Rajesh Kumar Tiwari delivered the vote of thanks and expressed his commitment to continuing international conferences, collaborative research, and other academic activities between the two institutions in the coming years.
During the ceremony, the Vice-Chancellor honoured visiting delegates, while Registrar Prof. Dr. Nirmala Jamarkattel presented certificates of appreciation to members of the organizing team and volunteers.
Participation and Student Involvement
More than 80 participants, including academics, industry professionals, researchers, and students working in artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, blockchain, and related fields, attended the conference.
Students of Pokhara University contributed to the event by serving as volunteers and presenting cultural performances.
The two-day conference brought together participants from academic institutions, research communities, and industry to present research findings and discuss developments in artificial intelligence and related technologies.
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