Youssef Al Hariri

Youssef Al Hariri is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Language, Cognition and Computation (ILCC) within the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh. He holds a PhD in Informatics (2023), an MSc in Artificial Intelligence with Distinction (2018), and a BSc in Computer Engineering (2017).

• PhD: Informatics, University of Edinburgh (2023)
• MSc: Artificial Intelligence with Distinction, University of Edinburgh (2018)
• BSc: Computer Engineering, Qatar University (2017)

His research focuses on computational social science, social network analysis, machine learning, and natural language processing. He studies human-generated content, networks, and narratives, applying qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze online communities’ interactions, contributions, and network dynamics. Current projects include FANToM (Finding Adversary Narratives: Topic and Momentum), aiming to enhance AI-based narrative analysis tools, and past work includes modeling audience interactions using state-of-the-art AI techniques.

His recent publications highlight trends in social media analysis, Arabic NLP, and narrative detection. Key contributions include TwiXplorer (2024), an interactive tool for historical Twitter data analysis; SMASH group papers at AraFinNLP2024 (2024) and StanceEval2024 (2024) on Arabic intent detection and stance detection; and ESG communication studies during COP events (2024). Earlier works (2019, 2021) explore religious polarization in Arab online communities.

Labs & Teams: Member of the Social Media Analysis and Support for Humanity (SMASH) Lab, Neuropolitics Research Lab (NRLabs), and Digital Influence & Intelligence Lab (DIIL). Current teaching includes Text Technologies for Data Science (2023/2024). Past grants include the Alan Turing Institute for FANToM and Modelling Audience Interactions.