Introduction and Seeking Guidance on Arabic NLP Research Path

[Esraa Abdelrazek]

Dear SIGARAB Community,

I hope this message finds you well.

My name is Esraa Ahmed, and I am pleased to have recently joined the SIGARAB Google Group. I am a graduate of Al-Azhar University, Cairo, where my graduation project focused on Question Answering in the Quran, combining Arabic NLP techniques with information retrieval and machine learning.

Currently, I am pursuing a Master’s degree at E-JUST University, and I am strongly interested in continuing my research in the Arabic NLP field, particularly in areas such as Arabic Question Answering, Information Retrieval, and Arabic language understanding. I aspire to build a solid research foundation that will allow me to actively contribute to Arabic AI research and Arabic NLP competitions in the future.

I would greatly appreciate your guidance on:

• What core topics and skills are essential to study for a strong start in Arabic NLP research

• Recommended resources (courses, papers, datasets, or benchmarks) for beginners transitioning into research

• How to effectively prepare for and participate in Arabic AI and NLP competitions

• Any general advice on beginning and shaping a research journey in this field

I am very eager to learn, contribute, and grow within the Arabic NLP community, and I truly appreciate the efforts of SIGARAB in supporting researchers and practitioners in this domain.

Thank you for your time and guidance.

Kind regards,

Esraa Ahmed Abdelrazek 

Teaching Assistant at Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology (E-Just)

Computer Science and Engineering Department (CSE),

Faculty of Engineering,

Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology (E-Just),

Alexandria, Egypt.

[Mustafa Jarrar]

Dear Esraa,

For early-career students and beginners in NLP, I strongly recommend participating in shared tasks (مسابقات بحثية) organized by the SIGARAB community. Most of these shared tasks provide ready-to-use datasets, tutorials, and Colab notebooks, which makes them especially suitable for newcomers.  In addition, reading the list of shared tasks is a great way to get exposure to current research problems and directions in the field. The required submissions are usually short papers (around 4 pages), which lowers the entry barrier for students.

Please double-check the shared tasks organized at, for example: ArabicNLP 2024, ArabicNLP 2025, Abjad 2026, NakbaNLP 2026, OSCAT2026, SemEval 2026, and others.

Best,

Mustafa

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[Eric Atwell]

Thank you Mustafa for this clear and practical advice. I also give this advice to new PhD students; even if they have their own research idea, getting involved in an NLP shared task is a great introduction to methods and the community

Eric Atwell, Professor of Artificial Intelligence for Language 

 School of Computer Science, Uni of LEEDS, LS2 9JT, UK

  http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/eric    

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From: sig...@googlegroups.com <sig...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Mustafa Jarrar <mustaf...@gmail.com>
Sent: 07 January 2026 8:19 AM
To: Esraa Abdelrazek <esraaabd...@gmail.com>
Cc: sig...@googlegroups.com <sig...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [SIGARAB] Introduction and Seeking Guidance on Arabic NLP Research Path

 

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