Urban Analytica at SAIL
Who are we?
The Urban Analytica (UA) at SAIL initiative is a cross-disciplinary initiative focused on delivering community-based projects that enable a new lens on activism and advocacy using modern tools inspired by artificial intelligence and data analytics. The initiative also aims to democratize knowledge around AI and Analytics for advocacy and activism for an Arabic-speaking population.
Our Goals:
Emerging relations between technology and socio-political power require that we recreate our mechanisms for advocating for and working towards reform and reconstruction. As we live in an age that imposes new forms of information capture, the UA at SAIL initiative aims to help the community at large learn how to harness the power of AI, Data Analytics, Graph Analytics, Knowledge Graphs, and Data visualization, for promoting intelligent advocacy and evidence-based activism in Lebanon, thereby re-engineering traditional mechanisms of political and social agency.
Our Methods:
UA at SAIL initiative adopts evidence-based, and community-based interventions that are driven by local and regional needs and adapted to suit the underlying socio-political context. Interventions can be fully-fledged community-based projects or content creation for unlocking state-of-the-art technologies and making them readily accessible to a wider community.

Projects:
Hate Speech Detection as a conversation between agentic AI, critical security, and critical discourse analysis: Lebanon 2023 as a case study

Despite the implications upon national security and stability, very little is known about how online sectarian narratives in Lebanon spread when triggered against a background of crises at the political and social levels. In this project, we address the following overarching research question: what tools are needed, and under which unifying framework using qualitative and quantitative elements, can enable the understanding, as well as the quantification, of the manifestations of moral panic discourse in the social media sphere? and how can elements from disparate perspectives and research disciplines be combined to create a framework for security in the making? To this end, this project explores the potential and limitations of content analytics, data visualizations, and hate speech detection using agentic AI, as critical methods for research on (in)security.
Building for Transparency and Advocacy

In this project, and together with a consortium of community-based experts and academics, we aim to develop, deploy, and evaluate, a community-driven, evidence-based framework for investigating the obstacles facing the implementation of anti-corruption and accountability mechanisms, and for developing and proposing preventive and corrective measures to break the current political stalemate. In essence, this project is an original interdisciplinary endeavor between the field of political science and computer science via the application of computer analyses and Artificial Intelligence tools (AI) to generate recommendations for better transparency, accountability and reforms in Lebanon.
UA at SAIL Talks
May 15, 2025 – Guest Lecture at La Sagesse University
As part of the graduate course on Research Methods in Political Studies, Dr. Abu Salem delivered a guest lecture exploring the role of Artificial Intelligence in political research and analysis.
May 22, 2025 – AI Awareness Session at Collège des Apôtres, Jounieh
In collaboration with Ingio Veritas, Dr. Abu Salem engaged high school students in a session highlighting real-world cases where understanding AI has become crucial for navigating the evolving job market and making informed career choices.
May 29, 2025 – From Policy to Action – Lebanon Works at Work
In this event, Dr. Abu Salem contributed to the breakout session theme of “Tourism Insights: Turning Real-Time Data into Destination Growth and Impact” under the auspices of Her Excellency Mrs. Laura Lahoud Minister of Tourism.
June 2, 2025 – Politics through the Lens of Analytics: How a Futuristic Lebanon Must Be Reproduced
This talk was given by Dr. Abu Salem with LCRS Politica.
June 14, 2025 – Artificial Intelligence and Access to Information Conference
At this conference organized by Awan, several sessions focused on topics such as censorship, ethics, and fake news. Dr. Abu Salem presented a session titled “AI for Discourse Analysis: examples from fake news detection, hate speech detection, and ideology detection.”
Our team

Dr. Fatima K. Abu Salem
Initiative Leader
Our partners
› Community Volunteers:

Ayman El Kaissi

Dina Abou Salem
Multimedia Producer

Hassan Meneimneh

Dr. Nabil El Khoury
Assistant Professor in Political Science at the Lebanese University

Diala Sarryeddine
Project Manager at Istidama Lebanon, with a background in Educational Management and a Master’s in Technology in Education

Rana El Bayeh
Journalist and Writer, with a Masters in economic and development journalism from Lebanese University. Reporter at Almodon Newspaper
› AUB Volunteers:

Yara Al Tassi

Hiyam Ghannam

Hanan Zwaihed

Nour Sakr

Maya Taliha

Maria Hussein

Mariam Elwirish
Computer Science Student, AUB

Jana Badra
BSc in Computer Science, AUB

Sara Omar
BSc in Computer Science, AUB

Roua Etry
MSc Graduate Student in Physics, AUB

Selena Hsheimi

Nour Abdul Khalek

Haidar Jomaa
Graduate Student in CS, AUB

Celine Sadaka
Computer Scientist

Hashem Ayesh Awad
Computer Scientist

Zeina Hammoud
Computer Science, AUB

Mohammad Nahal
Computer Scientist

Mohamad Hussein Karnib
Computer Scientist