Arabic language cyber security among CMU-Q projects at ARC
A proposal for research into Arabic language cyber security received an NPRP grant in Cycle 9 of Qatar National Research Fund’s flagship program. Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar’s Anis Charfi, associate teaching professor of information systems, will be the lead principal investigator of the project.
Cyber security is a critical issue for nations all over the world, including Qatar. Charfi’s proposal outlined how natural language processing techniques can analyze writing styles to detect and stop various crimes like phishing, cyber-blackmailing, cyber-bullying, and planning terrorist attacks using social media. There is extremely little research that targets cyber security in Arabic, and Charfi’s grant will help bridge that gap.
“We have made a lot of progress in the area of cyber security, and Professor Charfi’s research will help continue that progress in the Arabic-speaking world,” said Ilker Baybars, dean and CEO of CMU-Q.
The grant announcement coincided with ARC ‘16, Qatar Foundation’s Annual Research Convention. CMU-Q was represented in the opening plenary by Maher Hakim, associate teaching professor of entrepreneurship, who moderated the keynote panel discussion, “Strategic Investment in Research and Innovation for Society.”
CMU-Q also shared the breadth of its research initiatives through eleven poster and oral presentations by faculty members, students and research associates. The CMU-Q booth featured demonstrations of three key ongoing projects: Alice in the Middle East, which teaches computer science to school children; phage genomics, which introduces first year students to experiential and computational biology; and Q-SmartLab, which presents the big data of financial markets as an interactive visual dashboard.