Sina Institute, Birzeit University http://localhost/sina Mon, 02 Nov 2015 14:10:04 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.3.9 Master thesis at Birzeit University on Towards Building a Corpus for Palestinian Dialect http://localhost/sina/news-and-events/master-thesis-at-birzeit-university-on-towards-building-a-corpus-for-palestinian-dialect/ http://localhost/sina/news-and-events/master-thesis-at-birzeit-university-on-towards-building-a-corpus-for-palestinian-dialect/#comments Mon, 02 Feb 2015 09:31:00 +0000 http://sina.birzeit.edu/?p=6740 English | عربي

Diyam Akra defended her master thesis in the computing program, with the supervision of Dr. Mustafa Jarrar, and a collaboration with Sina institute for Knowledge engineering and Arabic technologies as a part of the ongoing project Curras funded by the Palestinian Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research Council.
The thesis discussed linguistic facts about Palestinian dialects and compared it with Modern Standard Arabic in terms of morphology, orthography and lexical. Also it addressed the issues discussed above for Palestinian Dialect by presenting an annotated corpus for Palestinian Dialect with Relevant Meta Data; this is done through collecting Palestinian written text from different resources, using existing resources for Egyptian Arabic to analyze corpus and annotate it, annotating manually a list of words that can’t be analyzed by existing resources, and finally using existing annotation tool to make a double check over annotated corpus.
The discussion committee included Dr. Nizar Habash, adjunct professor at Sina institute and Associate professor at New York University Abu Dhabi, Dr. Mahdi Arar, the Dean of art faculty at Birzeit University, Dr. Abualseoud Hanani, Assistant Professor at Engineering and Technology faculty.

group
]]>
http://localhost/sina/news-and-events/master-thesis-at-birzeit-university-on-towards-building-a-corpus-for-palestinian-dialect/feed/ 0
SMART Multilingual Guide in Bethlehem, By Sina Institute http://localhost/sina/news-and-events/smart_guide/ http://localhost/sina/news-and-events/smart_guide/#comments Thu, 14 Aug 2014 12:14:47 +0000 http://sina.birzeit.edu/?p=6447 English | عربي

 iphone-app  photo01

Sina Institute at Birzeit University, with the Centre for Cultural Heritage Preservation (CCHP) and University of Trento from Italy through its spin-off company OKKAM s.r.l, have deployed an innovative and pioneering electronic tourist guide for heritage sites in Bethlehem, using QR technologies. The initiative is part of the EU FP7 funded SIERA project.

The goal of the initiative is to enhance the experience of Palestine’s visitors and valorize the cultural heritage of Bethlehem City, through an innovative use of smartphones and tablets.

While walking in the old city, tourists can scan a QR code with smartphones and automatically listen to an audio guidance in their own language, as well as watch video and read further description, about a certain heritage site.

The initiative targeted 8 important locations of cultural and heritage significance in the city, including the Church of Nativity, Manger Square, and Star Street, among other locations.

Mrs. Nada Atrash, the Head of the Research and Training Unit at CCHP, indicated that the initiative stands as an innovative and simple facility to provide and spread information and guidance to the visitors of the city, refuting some parts of the Israeli propaganda that strives to damage the Palestinian history and culture. Mrs. Atrash indicated that the system has been used by hundreds of tourists already, despite its young age, where the free internet connection provided by Hadara ISP facilitated the adoption of the system.

The initiative has also been praised by Dr Hamdan Taha, the deputy minister of the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. Dr Taha expressed the ministry’s interest at the initiative, and hoped to extend its coverage to span the different touristic places in Palestine. Dr Taha also indicated that the initiative goes along the ministry’s plans to digitize and document the Palestinian narration through modern technologies, which should enrich the tourism industry in Palestine.

Dr Mustafa Jarrar, the director of Sina Institute at Birzeit University, stated that the QR scanning technologies has already been deployed at several domains. However, utilizing such technology within a multilingual and multimedia touristic guidance system is considered pioneering worldwide. Dr Jarrar illustrated that the initiative comes about as a result of the cooperation with Trento University in Italy and OKKAM s.r.l, which also included the Arabization of the OKKAM named entities system and enriching it with new Arabic content. Dr Jarrar concluded by stating that the initiative is still at its early stages, and hoped to extend the initiative for the remaining Palestinian sites.

After deploying the system in Bethlehem, Dr Paolo Bouquet, the professor at Trento University and the president of its spin-off company OKKAM s.r.l, expressed his contentment for the innovative and pioneering utilization of OKKAM’s platform within the tourism sector, and in Palestine in particular. Dr Bouquet explained that the system allows for dynamic content editing and modification, without having to replace the generated code. Moreover, the system doesn’t require any special software, where it can be used with any QR reader applications.

It is worth noting that, the developed system, in cooperation with OKKAM’s dynamic ObjectLinks framework, allows for bundling several media data and content types, accessible through a single QR code. The developed framework allows for dynamic content editing, which provides for efficient content generation and enhanced monitoring and statistics capabilities. The system was praised by the local and international tourists visiting Bethlehem, quoting that the new system was simple and easy to navigate, while providing very rich and multilingual content.

The initiative is part of the SIERA project at Sina Institute, which aims to  promote research cooperation with scientists around the world in the fields of Multilingual and Multicultural knowledge sharing technologies. The initiative comes about as a result of this international cooperation in the domain of knowledge sharing, which also aims at promoting Bethlehem as a center of international cultural and heritage significance.

Brochure:

 QRNet-Brochure-p1 QRNet-Brochure-p2

 2014-06-30 18.42.02 2014-06-30 18.50.10 2014-06-30 19.37.14 2014-06-30 19.31.26-2
 IMG_1179.JPG IMG_1182.jpg IMG_1183.jpg IMG_1186.jpg
 IMG_1187.jpg IMG_1188.jpg IMG_1189.jpg IMG_1190.jpg
 IMG_1191.jpg IMG_1192.jpg IMG_1193.jpg IMG_1194.jpg
 IMG_1195.jpg IMG_1196.jpg IMG_1197.jpg IMG_1182.jpg

In the media:

Nisaa FM
18409_455425201223376_1858071468_n  
Comment on and Like this post!
bzuLogo  
SMART Multilingual Tourist Guide Deployed in Bethlehem   (Archive)
بيرزيت تطوّر دليل سياحي آلي لأهم المواقع في بيت لحم  (Archive) (Facebook)
fajerLogo  
بيرزيت تطوّر دليلا سياحيا آليا لأهم المواقع في بيت لحم (Archive)
aeleyaLogo  
بيرزيت تطوّر دليل سياحي آلي لأهم المواقع في بيت لحم (Archive)
AlQuds بيرزيت تطوّر دليلا سياحيا آليا لأهم المواقع في بيت لحم (Archive) صحيفة القدس صفحة 22
 Capture5  بيرزيت تطوّر دليلا سياحيا آليا لأهم المواقع في بيت لحم   صفحة 6
Raya FM logo ‘بيرزيت’ تطوّر دليلا سياحيا آليا لأهم المواقع في بيت لحم (Archive)
maan_logo_med_q بيرزيت تطوّر دليلا سياحيا آليا لأهم المواقع في بيت لحم (Archive)
Sheraa بيرزيت تطوّر دليل سياحي آلي لأهم المواقع في بيت لحم (Archive)
stud بيرزيت تطوّر دليل سياحي آلي لأهم المواقع في بيت لحم (Archive)
wafa بيرزيت تطوّر دليلا سياحيا آليا لأهم المواقع في بيت لحم (Archive)
logo بالتعاون مع مركز حفظ التراث في مدينة المهد وجامعة «تورينتو» بإيطاليا
معهد ابن سينا في «بيرزيت» يطور دليلا سياحيا آليا لأهم المواقع في بيت لحم
(Archive)
logo بيرزيت تطوّر دليلا سياحيا آليا لأهم المواقع في بيت لحم (Archive)
logo بیرزيت تطوّر دلیلاسیاحیا آلیالأھمالمواقع في بیت لحم (Archive)
logo بيرزيت تطوّر دليلاً سياحياً آلياً لأهم المواقع في بيت لحم (Archive)
logo بیرزیت تطّور دلیل سیاحي آلي لأھم المواقع في بیت لحم (Archive)
Zadlogo  بيرزيت تطوّر دليلا سياحيا آليا لأهم المواقع في بيت لحم (Archive)

Zadlogo  Turismo: a Betlemme con guida elettronica creata in Trentino (Archive)

Bethlehem electronic tourist guide created in Trentino (Archive)

Turismo: a Betlemme adesso c’è guida elettronica da Trentino (Archive)

Zadlogo  A Betlemme con l’audioguida (del Trentino) (Archive)

Zadlogo  A Betlemme guida elettronica da Trentino (Archive)

Zadlogo  Visitare Betlemme: dall’ateneo di Trento la guida che usa QRcode

Zadlogo  Betlemme con Tablet e Smartphone, le visite elettroniche di Unitn (Archive)

Zadlogo  Visitare Betlemme con tablet e smartphone (Archive)

Zadlogo  Betlemme tecnologica

Zadlogo  Alla scoperta di Betlemme direttamente con lo smartphone. Ecco come si fa (Archive)

Zadlogo  Visitare Betlemme: dall’ateneo di Trento la guida che usa QRcode (Archive)

Zadlogo  Visitare Betlemme è più facile per chi ha uno smartphone (Archive)

Zadlogo  Un progetto trentino per semplificare il turismo a Betlemme (Archive)

Zadlogo  Palestina su Ipad e guida elettronica (Archive)

Zadlogo  Visitare Betlemme con tablet e Smartphone (Archive)

Secondary References:

Zadlogo  Visitare Betlemme: dall’ateneo di Trento la guida che usa QRcode – macitynet.it (Archive)

Zadlogo  Visitare Betlemme: dall’ateneo di Trento la guida che usa QRcode (Archive)

Zadlogo  Visitare Betlemme: dall’ateneo di Trento la guida che usa QRcode (Archive)

Zadlogo  Visitare Betlemme: dall’ateneo di Trento la guida che usa QRcode

Zadlogo  Visitare Betlemme: dall’ateneo di Trento la guida che usa QRcode (Archive)

Zadlogo  A Betlemme guida elettronica (Archive)

Zadlogo  Visitare Betlemme: dall’ateneo di Trento la guida che usa QRcode (Archive)

Zadlogo  Bethlehem electronic tourist guide created in Trentino

Zadlogo  Visitare Betlemme: dall’ateneo di Trento la guida che usa QRcode

 

 

]]>
http://localhost/sina/news-and-events/smart_guide/feed/ 0
Prof. Nizar Habash, Adjunct Professor at Sina Institute – Birzeit University http://localhost/sina/news-and-events/prof-nizar-habash-adjacent-professor-at-sina-institute-birzeit-university/ http://localhost/sina/news-and-events/prof-nizar-habash-adjacent-professor-at-sina-institute-birzeit-university/#comments Fri, 18 Jul 2014 10:46:00 +0000 http://sina.birzeit.edu/?p=6407 English | عربي

Prof. Nizar Habash, a world-class scientist in the field of natural language processing, was recently appointed as an adjunct associate professor as Sina Institute for Knowledge Engineering and Arabic Technologies, at Birzeit University. Prof Habash will be involved research project and academic activities at Sina institute and the faculty of information technology.

Photo - Nizar

 

Prof. Habash received his PhD in 2003 from the Computer Science Department, University of Maryland College Park. He is currently a research scientist at the Center for Computational Learning Systems in Columbia University ​, in the USA​. His research includes work on machine translation, morphological analysis, generation and disambiguation, and computational modeling of Arabic and its dialects. Dr. Habash has over 100 publications (peer-reviewed conference papers, journals and book chapters). He also published a book entitled “Introduction to Arabic Natural Language Processing”.

Prof. Habash stated that research on Arabic language processing specifically of dialectal Arabic requires teaming up with researchers from Arabic countries ​,​ added that, being affiliated with Birzeit University, will enable him to contribute to the Sina institute’s ambitious research projects, help promoting Sina’s achievements and language resources, as well as assist in several academic activities. ​

Dr Mustafa Jarrar, the director of Sina Institute, explained that Dr Habash will not only bring an outstanding research experience to the institute, but will also be a great added value to the faculty and its graduates -encouraging graduate students to communicate with him for possible theses proposals. Dr Jarrar added that Dr Nizar will be a member of the institute’s current projects, specially the Curras project, which aims at building a corpus of the palestinian written dialect.

]]>
http://localhost/sina/news-and-events/prof-nizar-habash-adjacent-professor-at-sina-institute-birzeit-university/feed/ 0
Sina Institute organized the 3rd Palestinian Symposium on Computational Linguistics and Arabic Content, iArabic http://localhost/sina/news-and-events/sina-institute-organized-the-3rd-palestinian-symposium-on-computational-linguistics-and-arabic-content-iarabic/ http://localhost/sina/news-and-events/sina-institute-organized-the-3rd-palestinian-symposium-on-computational-linguistics-and-arabic-content-iarabic/#comments Sat, 12 Apr 2014 19:07:55 +0000 http://sina.birzeit.edu/?p=6133 English | عربي

Sina Institute for Knowledge Management and Arabic Technologies organized the 3rd Palestinian Symposium on Computational Linguistics and Arabic Content, iArabic, on April 12th. Dr Safa’a Nasser Eldin, the minister of the Palestinian Telecommunication and Information Technology Ministry, inaugurated the symposium, with the participation of many researchers of various Palestinian universities, institutes and companies, which discussed the latest researches and projects within the domain of Arabic language technologies.

111111

Dr Henry Giacman, the Vise President of Academic Affairs at Birzeit University, then discussed the scientific research scene in Palestine. Dr Giacman stressed on the importance of supporting scientific research, and urged the Palestinian researchers to concentrate on the research problems relevant to the Palestinian and Arabic scopes, in addition to discussing the importance of cooperation and knowledge exchange between the Palestinian researchers.

Thirteen researches were presented at the iArabic symposium, divided into 5 sessions. The first session involved four researches concerned with the automated processing of Arabic speech and diacritics, and  the local Palestinian dialects, which was moderated by Dr Bilal Shafe. The second session, which was moderated by Dr Mahmoud Al-Saheb, concentrated at three practical applications and experiences from the local Palestinian scene, including a participation from the Palestinian Land Authority. The third session also discussed three researches on the topics of automatic summarisation and correction of Arabic texts, and was moderated by the researcher Nasser Zalmout. And finally, three researches were presented at the last session, which discussed the topics of automatic annotation of Arabic texts, an Arabic ontology for photos retrieval, and tools to enhance the quality of retrieved Arabic texts. The session was moderated by Dr Mahdi Arar.

Dr. Mona Diab,  from George Washington University in the US, presented the symposium’s keynote lecture entitled   “Computational Modeling of Socio-pragmatic language use in Arabic and English Social Media: Subgroup Detection”. The lecture was then followed by vibrant discussions with attendance regarding many of the points Dr Diab discussed at her lecture, which was moderated by Dr Bassem Sayrafi.

It is worth mentioning that the participating researchers came from diverse backgrounds, including computer science, linguistics, philosophy, and statistics, among other fields. In addition to active participation from the Palestinian IT industry. The symposium was live streamed over the internet, and there were many contributions and participation from Gaza Strip, Egypt and the United States, via video conferencing.

1   2
3   4
5   6
7   8
9   10
11   12
13   14
15   16
17   18
19   20

See the photo album:  iArabic2014 

In the media:

Capture8 جامعة بيرزيت تنظم النّدوة السّنويّة الثالثة للسانيّات الحاسوبيّة والمحتوى العربي في فلسطين Archive
maan_logo_med_q جامعة بيرزيت تنظم النّدوة السّنويّة الثالثة للسانيّات الحاسوبيّة والمحتوى العربي في فلسطين Archive
734927_481039025265538_1609492444_a “بيرزيت” تنظم النّدوة السّنويّة الثالثة للسانيّات الحاسوبيّة والمحتوى العربي في فلسطين Archive
1897669_683506765005089_1145366999_n جامعة بيرزيت تنظم النّدوة السّنويّة الثالثة للسانيّات الحاسوبيّة والمحتوى العربي في فلسطين Facebook  Archive
PERFECTLOGO Sina Institute organized the 3rd Palestinian Symposium “iArabic”
1897669_683506765005089_1145366999_n جامعة بيرزيت تنظم النّدوة السّنويّة الثالثة للسانيّات الحاسوبيّة Archive
]]>
http://localhost/sina/news-and-events/sina-institute-organized-the-3rd-palestinian-symposium-on-computational-linguistics-and-arabic-content-iarabic/feed/ 0
Sina Institute organized a workshop on proposal writing skills and The European Horizon 2020 Program http://localhost/sina/news-and-events/second_workshop_on_proposal-writing_and_h2020/ http://localhost/sina/news-and-events/second_workshop_on_proposal-writing_and_h2020/#comments Tue, 08 Apr 2014 12:25:25 +0000 http://sina.birzeit.edu/?p=6079 English | عربي

Sina Institute for Knowledge Engineering  and Arabic Technologies organized a workshop on proposal writing skills and the new European research funding program, Horizon 2020, on Wednesday April 2nd. The workshop was presented by highly experienced professionals in managing EU funded projects; Mr. Ruben Riestra from Spain, the evaluator and consultant for many EU funded projects, and Prof Paolo Bouquet, from the University of Trento Italy.

Thumbss

Dr Ali Jaber, the dean of Information Technology (IT) faculty at Birzeit University, first gave a brief speech about the research projects at the IT faculty, explaining that Birzeit University has a long and rich experience with EU funded projects. Dr Mustafa Jarrar, the director of Sina Institute and associate professor at the IT faculty, then presented Sina Institute and the current and previous EU funded projects that Sina Institute has been part of, both as a coordinator and partner. Dr Mustafa also discussed Sina Institute’s preparations for Horizon 2020, and the main research interests for Sina Institute at the upcoming program.

Prof Paolo Bouquet then presented the Horizon 2020 program, explaining its various pillars and funding components. The presentation also discussed the main changes relative to the previous research funding program FP7, regarding research topics, administrative, and financial issues. Prof Bouquet concluded his presentation by explaining the shape and domains of the potential Palestinian participation in Horizon 2020, as part of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP).

The last session was dedicated to highlight the skills of writing a competitive project proposal, presented by Mr Ruben Riestra. Mr Riestra first discussed the competitive landscape of the EU funded projects, and the different factors that contribute to the success of the proposal and how to ameliorate them towards Horizon 2020. Mr Riestra also provided some explanations on the characteristics of a good proposal, and how to  better position your proposal to attain better evaluations.

Dr Mustafa Jarrar concluded the workshop by summarizing some of the key points discussed throughout the workshop, in addition to shedding the light on Sina’s experience regarding some of the discussed points. The workshop has been attended by many interested staff members from Birzeit University, along with many participants from the local Palestinian institutes and universities, which allowed for vibrant discussions and remarks throughout the workshop. Another meeting was held later with Birzeit University’s administration to discuss the university’s strategy for EU funded research projects, in addition to discussing related administrational and financial issues.

Prof Bouquet and Mr Riestra finally concluded their trip on Thursday with a hands-on session with Sina Institute’s staff, to discuss SIna Institute’s strategy for Horizon 2020, among other relevant topics. 

1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
10 11 12 9
13 14 15 16

In the media:

Capture8 معهد ابن سينا ينظّم ورشة عمل حول كتابة مقترحات المشاريع Archive
Capture8 معهد ابن سينا ينظّم ورشة عمل حول كتابة مقترحات المشاريع وبرنامج التمويل الأوروبي هورايزون 2020 Archive
1897669_683506765005089_1145366999_n جامعة بيرزيت تنظم النّدوة السّنويّة الثالثة للسانيّات الحاسوبيّة والمحتوى العربي في فلسطين  Facebook Archive
]]>
http://localhost/sina/news-and-events/second_workshop_on_proposal-writing_and_h2020/feed/ 0
Estonian Professor visited Sina Institute and Faculty of Law at Birzeit University to discuss joint cooperation opportunities. http://localhost/sina/news-and-events/estonian-professor-visited-sina-institute-and-faculty-of-law-at-birzeit-university-to-discuss-joint-cooperation-opportunities/ http://localhost/sina/news-and-events/estonian-professor-visited-sina-institute-and-faculty-of-law-at-birzeit-university-to-discuss-joint-cooperation-opportunities/#comments Mon, 10 Mar 2014 08:01:12 +0000 http://sina.birzeit.edu/?p=5961 English | عربي

Dr. Katrin Nyman-Metcalf, the  chair of Law and Technology Department at the Law Faculty in Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia, and the consultant at the Estonian e-Governance Academy, visited Sina Institute and Faculty of Law at Birzeit University  to discuss joint cooperation opportunities.

2

Dr. Metcalf first met Dr. Khalil Hindi the president of Birzeit University, Dr. Asem Khalil the dean of Law and Public Administration faculty, and Dr. Mustafa Jarrar the director of Sina Institute for Knowledge Management and Arabic Technologies. Two other meetings were then scheduled with members at the Faculty of Law and Faculty of IT to discuss possible joint research and capacity building projects with Birzeit University. In addition to discussing several topics of interest in the field of IT laws frameworks, including the issues of privacy, human factor in data protection, cyber security, digital transactions, and legal and ethical courses, among other topics. Dr Metcalf also reflected on the Estonian e-government experience, and discussed several matching points between the Estonian and the Palestinian e-governance experiences.

It is worth mentioning that Sina Institute was the coordinator of several projects aiming to build the Palestinian e-government services. Such projects include Zinnar, building the Palestinian e-government interoperability framework, and the Palestinian e-Government Academy, providing capacity building and training services in the domain of e-government.

1 3

In the media:

bzu البروفيسورة كاترين ميتكالف تزور الجامعة Facebook Archive
maan_logo_med_q البروفيسورة كاترين ميتكالف تزور جامعة بيرزيت Archive
Capture8 كاترين ميتكالف تزور جامعة بيرزيت  Archive
734927_481039025265538_1609492444_a البروفيسورة كاترين ميتكالف تزور جامعة بيرزيت Archive
1897669_683506765005089_1145366999_n البروفيسورة كاترين ميتكالف تزور جامعة بيرزيت  Archive
1897669_683506765005089_1145366999_n البروفيسورة كاترين ميتكالف تزور جامعة بيرزيت  Archive
PERFECTLOGO البروفيسورة كاترين ميتكالف تزور معهد ابن سينا وكلية الحقوق في جامعة بيرزيت
 
]]>
http://localhost/sina/news-and-events/estonian-professor-visited-sina-institute-and-faculty-of-law-at-birzeit-university-to-discuss-joint-cooperation-opportunities/feed/ 0
The 3rd Palestinian Symposium on Computational Linguistics and Arabic Content http://localhost/sina/news-and-events/iarabic-symposium-2014/ http://localhost/sina/news-and-events/iarabic-symposium-2014/#comments Sat, 22 Feb 2014 12:36:56 +0000 http://sina.birzeit.edu/?p=5883 People who are interested to contribute to the Symposium are encouraged to submit a short abstract (300-600 words) to by 1/4/2014. Submissions can be research-oriented, applications and use cases, or problem specification. Welcoming work in progress and not only completed work. The best submissions will be then selected for presentation. All abstracts and presentations will be published on the website of the Symposium.

 

iarabic14en-FeaturedBanner-April

]]>
http://localhost/sina/news-and-events/iarabic-symposium-2014/feed/ 0
Master Thesis defended Birzeit University on Constructing the Top Levels of the Arabic Ontology. http://localhost/sina/news-and-events/master-thesis-defended-birzeit-university-on-constructing-the-top-levels-of-the-arabic-ontology/ http://localhost/sina/news-and-events/master-thesis-defended-birzeit-university-on-constructing-the-top-levels-of-the-arabic-ontology/#comments Thu, 13 Feb 2014 16:43:00 +0000 http://sina.birzeit.edu/?p=5731 English | عربي

A master thesis “On Constructing the top levels of the Arabic Ontology” was defended in Thursday (13/2/2014) by Ms. Rana Rishmawi, which was under the supervision of Dr. Mustafa Jarrar, and committee members Dr. Bassem Sayrafi, Dr. Mahdi Arar, and Dr. Mudar Qassis.
RanaThesis
The Arabic Ontology is a classification of the concepts of the Arabic terms, which is a necessary semantic resource for modern IT applications. This thesis contributes to constructing the top levels of the Arabic Ontology. The top-level concepts represent the most abstract concepts of the Arabic terms and linking them with well-formed semantic relations.
The presentation first gave an overview about the Arabic Ontology, which is an ongoing project in Sina Institute, at Birzeit University. And discussed the importance of building the top levels of the Arabic Ontology which is represented in governing the quality of the lower levels, as well as helping in the building process of the lower levels. It also presented the methodology used for constructing these top levels, and the classification methods that were used in order to classify the chosen most abstract concepts of the Arabic Language. The methodology included studying existing other upper-level ontologies, especially DOLCE, BFO and SUMO, as well as literature of Arab Philosophers.
The complexity of deciding the top-level concepts, is that these concepts are more abstract, and thus more application independent, and require deep investigation in order to be agreed upon. Such investigations need philosophical sense, rather than only linguistic and formal knowledge.

For more information about the Arabic Ontology please visit: http://localhost/sina/ArabicOntology/

 

3.title 4.jury 5.Mustafa 7.Mahdi 8.Mahdi 9.Mahdi
9.Modar 10.Mahdi 11.Modar 11.Bassem 12.Mahdi 13.Bassem
Rana10 Rana11 Rana12 Rana17 Rana30 Rana33
Rana16 Rana42 Rana32 Rana23 Rana39 Rana41
20 (10) 20 (1) 20 (7) 20 (8) 20 (9) 20 (11)

In the media:

maan_logo_med_q نقاش رسالة ماجستير في جامعة بيرزيت Archive
Capture8 نقاش رسالة ماجستير في جامعة بيرزيت حول المفاهيم الاكثر تجريدا من الأنطولوجيا العربية  Archive
734927_481039025265538_1609492444_a نقاش رسالة ماجستير في جامعة بيرزيت حول المفاهيم الاكثر تجريدا من الأنطولوجيا العربية  Archive
1897669_683506765005089_1145366999_n نقاش رسالة ماجستير في جامعة بيرزيت حول المفاهيم الاكثر تجريدا من الأنطولوجيا العربية  Archive
PERFECTLOGO Thesis defended on the Top Levels of the Arabic Ontology 
]]>
http://localhost/sina/news-and-events/master-thesis-defended-birzeit-university-on-constructing-the-top-levels-of-the-arabic-ontology/feed/ 0
Sina Institute Organized a Discussion Panel on Cross-Lingual Mapping Semantics at the 7th Global WordNet conference, in Tartu, Estonia http://localhost/sina/news-and-events/sina-institute-organized-a-discussion-panel-on-cross-lingual-mapping-semantics-at-the-7th-global-wordnet-conference-in-tartu-estonia/ http://localhost/sina/news-and-events/sina-institute-organized-a-discussion-panel-on-cross-lingual-mapping-semantics-at-the-7th-global-wordnet-conference-in-tartu-estonia/#comments Wed, 05 Feb 2014 13:49:36 +0000 http://sina.birzeit.edu/?p=5649 Panel2

Sina Institute, in cooperation with its SIERA partners (Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences (BBAW) and University of Milano-Bicocca (UniMiB)) have organized a discussion panel on Cross-Lingual Mapping Semantics at the 7th Global WordNet conference, in Tartu, Estonia in January 25th, 2014. A refereed article on this topic was also authored and presented at the conference, in addition to several other internal project meetings.

The discussion panel “Cross-Lingual Mapping Semantics” moderated by Prof. Mustafa Jarrar, Sina Institute’s director, discussed the challenges in research as well as in industry that are typically faced when constructing and  linking Wordnets across different  languages, thereby enabling multilingual web interoperability. The panel started with three real-life cases, each discussed a different experience in Wordnets mapping across different languages. Sonja Bosch, from University of South Africa, introduced the challenges in building the African Wordnet. The challenges in mapping between Asian languages were presented by Hitoshi Isahara, Toyohashi University of Technology. Additionally, the challenges in linking Indian language Wordnets were presented by Pushpak Bhattacharyya, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.

In the second part of the discussion panel, the panelists presented their experiences and suggestions  in linking Wordnets across different languages. Francis Bond, Nanyang Technological University, argued that there cannot be an exact conceptually equivalent concepts across different languages.  John P. McCrae, University of Bielefeld, claimed that linking Wordnets across different languages depends on the intended application. German Rigau, University of the Basque Country, discussed  the uncertainty in mapping among concepts across different  languages.  Piek Vossen, VU University Amsterdam, emphasized the trends in using the Inter-Lingual Index according to his experience in Eurowordnet. Christiane Fellbaum, Princeton University, highlighted on the use of the common concepts across the different languages.

A refereed article (co-authored by SIERA partners Mamoun Abu Helou, Matteo Palmonari, Mustafa Jarrar, and Christiane Fellbaum) titled: Towards Building Linguistic Ontology via Cross-Language Matching was also presented at the conference. The article introduced a methodology for mapping linguistic ontologies lexicalized across different languages, with a classification-based semantics for mappings. The article also  discussed the experimental design for validating the proposed approach, and discussed its role in creating a reference alignment that can be used in assessing cross-language matching systems.

Several bilateral meetings were conducted between SIERA partners; Sina Institute (Mustafa Jarrar, Mamon Abu Helou, and Mohammad Zeinaldeen) and BBWA (Amanda Hicks and Christiane Fellbaum), to discuss the mapping of Arabic ontology to Koyoto, and the mapping between the Arabic ontology and Wordnet. The partners planned and agreed on some future steps. Moreover, Sina Institute, BBAW, and VU discussed possible future cooperation  and potential project ideas for H2020.

140125_047140125_044140125_036140125_046

140126_013140126_016140125_020140126_019

140126excursion_012140126excursion_026140126folkparty_004140126excursion_030140126folkparty_003 140127_004140127_011140127_018140127_031140128_016140128banquet_040140128_018140128_028140128banquet_007

140126_026140126excursion_003140126excursion_005140126folkparty_011140126folkparty_055140127_013140128_021140128banquet_004140128banquet_007varia_006

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.

]]>
http://localhost/sina/news-and-events/sina-institute-organized-a-discussion-panel-on-cross-lingual-mapping-semantics-at-the-7th-global-wordnet-conference-in-tartu-estonia/feed/ 0
Google’s Director of Arabic localization Visiting Birzeit University http://localhost/sina/news-and-events/googles-director-of-arabization-visiting-birzeit-university/ http://localhost/sina/news-and-events/googles-director-of-arabization-visiting-birzeit-university/#comments Wed, 18 Dec 2013 22:04:01 +0000 http://sina.birzeit.edu/?p=5548 English | عربي

The director of language services and Arabic localization at Google, Dr. Fayeq Owies, visited Birzeit University to give a lecture on the Arabic digital content, and discuss possible joint cooperation with Sina Institute for Knowledge Engineering and Arabic Technologies. The visit has been organized by Google ambassadors club at Birzeit University, in collaboration with Najjad Zeenni Center.

2featured
Dr. Owies’s Lecture, entitled: “BelArabi Ahla”, is part of the activities of the “Arabic Internet Days” campaign, intended to strengthen the cooperation between Google and the Media department at the United Nations; aiming to promote the Arabic content on the Internet. Dr. Owies focused on the importance of enriching the Arabic digital content, to bridge the wide gap between the number of Arabic speakers worldwide in contrast to the percentage of the Arabic content online at 3% only. Dr. Owies also pointed out Google’s activities to enrich the Arabic digital content, by building partnerships with universities to establish Arabic content, and civil and governmental institutions to digitize the content, in addition to translating the existing content into Arabic. Moreover, Dr. Owies illustrated that Google provides training, support and programs for all these institutions and telecommunication companies to create and manage Arabic Content; which helps to keep up with the innovation on the Arabic technologies level. The importance of such activities stems out of the fact that the Arabic language occupies the seventh position among the most widely used and fastest spreading languages on the Internet.

In his visit to Sina Institute, Dr. Owies met Dr. Henry Giacaman the vice president for academic affairs, Dr. Ali Jaber the dean of the Information Technology faculty, Dr. Basem Sirefi the director of the Computer Science department and the Masters in Computing programs, and Dr. Mustafa Jarrar the director of Sina Institute. The visit was scheduled in order to discuss the possible ways of joint cooperation between Google and Sina Institute at Birzeit University, including the memorizing/preserving of the Palestinian heritage, extraction and annotation of named entities in Arabic texts, and the involvement of the university students in the imaging and labeling processes of Google Street maps, among other technical and cultural subjects.

Dr. Fayeq Oweis is a Palestinian from the town of Der Debwan, north of Ramallah. He is the director of the languages services and Arabic localization department at Google, where he works to support and develop the Arabic versions of Google’s products, including Gmail, YouTube, and the social network Google+, as the Arabic version of Google+ was issued as the same time with the English version. Before joining Google, Dr. Owies worked as a consultant in the Arabic localization field for many of the Internet companies at the Silicon valley in California. Dr. Oweis holds a PhD in Arabic and Islamic studies, and he worked as a teacher of the Arabic language and culture at the University of Santa Clara in California.

album2 album3 album1 album44
album6 album7 album8 album9

 

In the media:

Birzeit University جامعة بيرزيت تستضيف مدير التّعريب في جوجل (Archive)
الحياة الجديدة جامعة بيرزيت تستضيف مدير التّعريب في جوجل (Archive)
Shasha.ps جامعة بيرزيت تستضيف مدير التّعريب في جوجل (Archive)
Maan جامعة بيرزيت تستضيف مدير التّعريب في جوجل (Archive)
Raya media جامعة بيرزيت تستضيف مدير التّعريب في جوجل (Archive)
فلسطين جامعة بيرزيت تستضيف مدير التّعريب في جوجل (Archive)
]]>
http://localhost/sina/news-and-events/googles-director-of-arabization-visiting-birzeit-university/feed/ 0