AUB Alumnus Turns Innovative Idea into Reality

Habib Haddad

AUB alumnus Habib Haddad (CCE 2002) found inspiration in the 2006 July war even as it wreaked havoc in the country.

Based in the United States and eager for every bit of news on Lebanon to keep track of events that might be affecting loved ones, Haddad turned to the worldwide web for information. But he was disappointed to find very little on Lebanon in English and realized he needed to tap into the online world of Arabic news. But that left him with another problem: his American keyboard was not Arabic-enabled, and in any case his Arabic typing skills were limited. But instead of throwing his arms up in desperation, Haddad decided to do something about it.

Thus came the idea for yamli.com--a web-based transliteration tool that can convert Arabic words typed in Latin script into ones written in Arabic letters.

Haddad joined forces with his friend, Imad Jureidini, also a computer engineer and co-founder of Language Analytics, a US-based internet start-up that launched yamli.com in 2007. The new technology has already won a Best Web Technology 2008 Pan Arab Web Award in April 2008.

"Our vision was to empower the Arabic web," said Haddad, during a talk he held at AUB recently. "The first step was to help facilitate typing in Arabic. The second step now is to encourage creating Arabic content, because right now, the Arabic digital culture is endangered."

Entitled "From Idea to Reality," the talk was held on August 4 in the Engineering Department at AUB. It addressed steps needed for creating a startup, including forming the team, financing the project, using the right software engineering principles, and getting the appropriate protection for the ideas. The talk drew on Haddad's and Jureidini's entrepreneurial experiences and the steps they took to convert Yamli.com from a concept into an active startup.

According to Haddad, less than one percent of all blogs are in Arabic, even though Arab internet users make up about five percent of all worldwide users. "In fact, studies at the American University in Cairo show that 78 percent of Arabic internet users have never typed in Arabic. Imagine if 78 percent of French people never typed in French!" he said.

Haddad and his partner are also joining forces with Google to help improve Arabic search engines so that they can recognize different Arabic dialects and distinguish words phonetically even if typed in Latin script.

As a student, Haddad was inquisitive and full of ideas, he says. "If you have an idea, talk to professors, entrepreneurs, well-established people, but believe in yourself and do your research. Partner with someone who complements you and brings something you don't have on the table."