Frequently Asked Questions

Please read before emailing me.

I am extremely busy and simply cannot respond to all emails that come my way. In this page, I list the most common questions I get and the answers I give. If your question is on this page, I will not answer your email.

Software Running Questions

Q: I am having trouble getting software X to work, or getting access to Resource Y. Please help.

If X or Y is not authored by me, I will not answer your email. Please contact their authors.

If X or Y is authored by me or my team members, and the answer is in the manual or readme file, I will not answer your email. (If X or Y has a github page, you should open an issue.)

Otherwise, thank you for your feedback!

MADAMIRA Questions

Q: What does MADAMIRA do?

MADAMIRA is a tool for Arabic natural language processing. Read the MADAMIRA paper: Pasha, Arfath, Mohamed Al-Badrashiny, Mona T. Diab, Ahmed El Kholy, Ramy Eskander, Nizar Habash, Manoj Pooleery, Owen Rambow, and Ryan Roth. "Madamira: A fast, comprehensive tool for morphological analysis and disambiguation of Arabic." In LREC, vol. 14, pp. 1094-1101. 2014.

Q: Is there a demo of MADAMIRA?

Yes. Here you go: http://camel.abudhabi.nyu.edu/madamira/

Q: How can I get a copy of MADAMIRA?

MADAMIRA Download Instructions

MADAMIRA was created by the Columbia Arabic Dialect Modeling Group (CADIM) at ColumbiaUniversity. This is why the license to use MADAMIRA has to be obtained from Columbia University.

• MADAMIRA Download Instructions for Research Non-Commercial Use

  • Go to http://innovation.columbia.edu/technologies/cu14012_arabic-language-disambiguation-for-natural-language-processing-applications

  • Click on Express Licensing.

  • Register (if this is your first time) to get the latest version.

  • Make sure to use an academic email account (edu or .ac.uk... etc.)

  • The installation instructions will be in the package you will receive in one to two days.

  • Check the spam folder as sometimes the answer from Columbia ends up there.

• MADAMIRA Download Instructions for Commercial Use

  • Please contact Columbia Technology Ventures directly.

Q: My request to get a copy of MADAMIRA was denied.

Make sure to use an email address associated with your work institution or academic institution. Requests from generic accounts (gmail, hotmail, etc.) will be rejected.

Q: I do not understand some of the abbreviations in MADAMIRA's output.

Please refer to the following resources:

• The MADAMIRA User Manual. It is part of the MADAMIRA package. Here is an outside link in case you do not have the package.

• The list of papers on the MADAMIRA demo page

• My MADAMIRA tutorial slides (under http://teaching.nizarhabash.com)

Research Advice

Q: I am interested in doing research in NLP and I do not know where to start?

Wonderful! I recommend you start by going over the latest publication in our field. The following site is free and central:

• http://anthology.aclweb.org/

If you are interested in Arabic NLP, try the following:

• http://www.nizarhabash.com/ (check teaching and publications pages)

• http://www.morganclaypool.com/doi/abs/10.2200/s00277ed1v01y201008hlt010

Q: I need free resources for Arabic NLP, where can I find some? Can you please share copies of resources you have access to?

• Check out the many resources available from the CAMeL Lab: https://resources.camel-lab.com/

• Check out the CAMeL Lab github repos: https://github.com/CAMeL-Lab

• Check out the CAMeL Lab resources on huggingface: https://huggingface.co/CAMeL-Lab

• For a list of some of the freely available resources for Arabic, see: https://iwan.ksu.edu.sa/en/osact2 (scroll to Useful Resources)

• The Madamira tool suite is free for research purposes.

• For a lot of work on Arabic NLP, the Linguistic Data Consortium’s Arabic Treebanks are central. Your university or company may already be a member of the LDC.

• Sorry, I cannot give out copies of resources that I signed licenses for.

Q: I am working on topic X and want advice from you on what to do.

Please make sure to CC your current advisor and include very specific questions. If your questions could have been answered by reading publicly available papers or simple Google search, I will not answer them.

PhD Program at NYUAD

Q: I am interested in working on a Computer Science PhD under your supervision. How do I that?

NYU Abu Dhabi has agreements with two Computer Science doctoral programs in NYU New York. The programs generally involve one year of classwork in NYU New York followed by three to four years of research in NYU Abu Dhabi. If selected, the doctorate is fully funded under the NYU Abu Dhabi's Global PhD Student Fellowship. Please visit the NYUAD graduate programs website for more details about the Fellowship selection process.

Please submit a standard PhD application to one or both Computer Science doctoral programs in NYU New York listed below.

• The Computer Science and Engineering department via the NYU Tandon School of Engineering.

• The Courant Institute PhD application via the NYU Graduate School of Arts and Science.

The choice of the program will depend on you. When you apply you will be considered by the faculty in the NYU New York program as well as the NYU Abu Dhabi program.

There is no separate application for the Global PhD Student Fellowship; all interested PhD applicants will be considered. Not all PhD application forms specifically ask about candidates' interest in NYUAD. You may indicate your interest in the NYUAD Global PhD by referencing NYUAD, an NYUAD faculty member, or an NYUAD research group in your personal statement (or other application documents).

Please be advised that the PhD application deadlines are typically early or mid December of the preceding year. If you missed the deadlines, it may still be possible to submit an application, but you should contact the relevant NYU New York department.

For more information about the Global Ph.D. Student Fellowship, please contact nyuad.graduateadmissions@nyu.edu.

Job Opportunities at New York University Abu Dhabi Computer Science Program

If you are interested in a position at NYUAD, please make apply to one of the available positions through the NYUAD Faculty Careers page.

We have openings for faculty, lecturers and visiting professors. All positions require a PhD in Computer Science or related field (Information Systems, Computer and Electrical Engineering, etc.)

Job Opportunities at CAMeL Lab

If you are interested in a position at CAMeL Lab, please make sure to include the following in your email: your CV, transcripts, and a pointer to your Google Scholar page if you have publications. If there is a possible match, you will get a response.

Facebook/LinkedIn/Phone Call Contact

Please do not send any work related message to my Facebook or LinkedIn account. I will not answer them by default.

In general, I do not answer unscheduled phone calls.