Research

Research Overview

My research focuses on  knowledge representation, processing, and sharing. I am particularly interested in exploring digital technologies to transform data into knowledge that supports people and organizations in meeting their objectives.

The rise of the internet and web technologies is providing unprecedented means for people and organizations to collect, share, and access information. This phenomenon is contributing to a surge in data generated in various forms and from different sources. Today, data is treated as an asset that empowers individuals, organizations, and artificial agents to perform more sophisticated tasks. However, the abundance of data in different formats on distributed sources dictates aiding information consumers in making sense of the shared data and employing it in their contexts. More specifically, I study the potential of semantic web ontologies and knowledge graphs to improve the exchange and discoverability of data; the adoption of knowledge graphs in organizational contexts; and the analytical methods of organizational and people’s opinion data to enhance the delivery of products and services

My research has practical implications on the e-government and educational contexts, as well as e-commerce that I recently started to address.

Research Awards

  • 2015 - Winner of the best paper award at the Linked Learning 2015 workshop at the 24th International World Wide Web conference, with a EUR500 prize sponsored by GNOSS
  • 2011 - Winner of the Knowledge Media Institute Linked Data Application Competition
  • 2010 - Winner of the best student research paper award at the 17th International Conference on Knowledge Engineering and Knowledge Management (EKAW 2010)
  • 2009 - Honorary mention at the 6th European Conf on the Semantic Web (ESWC 2009) PhD Symposium

Research Grants

  • 2021 - American University of Beirut Research Grant (URB). Project: Semantically Annotating Emerging Actions in Product Reviews. Grant amount: US$12,000. Duration: June 2021-June 2022
  • 2020 - American University of Beirut Research Grant (URB). Project: Contextualizing Product Recommendations using Affordances. Grant amount: US$10,000. Duration: June 2020-June 2021
  • 2019 - American University of Beirut Research Grant (URB). Project: Managing Visibility in Opaque Analytical Processes. Grant amount: US$9,600. Duration: June 2019-June 2020
  • 2018 - American University of Beirut Research Grant (URB). Project: Reconceptualizing Open-ended versus Close-ended Information Search: How do Digital Search Affordances Affect User Engagement with Tools. Grant amount: US$9,000. Duration: June 2018-June 2019
  • 2017 - American University of Beirut Research Grant (URB). Project: Exploring Tool Affordances in Strategy Implementation Practices. Grant amount: US$8,050. Duration: June 2017-June 2018
  • 2016 - American University of Beirut Research Grant (URB). Project: Exploring e-Government Gaps via an Open-Ended Survey: Using Multi-Dimensional Scaling to Classify e-Government Barriers. Grant amount: US$6,000. Duration: June 2016-June 2017
  • 2015 - American University of Beirut Research Grant (URB). Project: Model Centric Text Analytics. Grant amount: US$6,000. Duration: June 2015-June 2016
  • 2014 - American University of Beirut Research Grant (URB). Project: Adaptive Semantic Contexts for Organizational Knowledge Retrieval. Grant amount: US$6,300. Duration: June 2014-June 2015
  • 2014 - Olayan Foundation Research Fund (OFFER). Project: Exploiting Social Networks for Organizational Knowledge Creation. Grant amount: US$8,000. Duration: Jan 2014-Dec 2014
  • 2013 - American University of Beirut Research Grant (URB). Project: Conceptually Linking Higher Education Programs. Grant amount: US$6,000. Duration: June 2013-June 2014
  • 2007 - 3-year research PhD scholarship grant funded by the NeOn EU Project through the Knowledge Media Institute, UK

Selected Publications

  • F. Zablith and B. Azad (2021). Reconciling Instructors' and Students' Course Overlap Perspectives via Linked Data Visualization. To appear in: IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies.
    [Publisher Website] [PDF Preprint]
  • I. H. Osman and F. Zablith (2021). Re-evaluating electronic government development index to monitor the transformation toward achieving sustainable development goals. Journal of Business Research, Vol 131, pages 426-440.
    [Publisher Website] [PDF Preprint] 
  • B. Azad and F. Zablith (2021). How digital visualizations shape strategy work on the frontlines. Long Range Planning, Vol 54, No 05.
    [Publisher Website] [PDF Preprint]
  • F. Zablith and I.H. Osman (2019). ReviewModus: Text Classification and Sentiment Prediction of Unstructured Reviews using a Hybrid Combination of Machine Learning and Evaluation Models. Applied Mathematical Modelling, Vol 71, pages 569-583.
    [Publisher Website] [PDF Preprint]
  • F. Zablith (2016). Towards a Linked and Reusable Conceptual Layer around Higher Education Programs. Book chapter, In: Open Data in Education, Ed. Mouromtsev, D. and d’Aquin, M., Springer.
    [Publisher Website] [PDF Preprint]
  • F. Zablith, S. Faraj and B. Azad (2016). Organizational Knowledge Generation: Lessons from Online Communities. Business Process Management Journal, Vol 22, No 01, pages 33 - 55.
    [Publisher Website] [PDF Preprint]
  • F. Zablith, M. Fernandez and M. Rowe (2015). Production and Consumption of University Linked Data. Interactive Learning Environments, Vol 23, No 01, pages 55-78.
    [Publisher Website] [PDF Preprint]
  • F. Zablith, G. Antoniou, M. d’Aquin, G. Flouris, H. Kondylakis, E. Motta, D. Plexousakis and M. Sabou (2015). Ontology Evolution: A Process Centric Survey. The Knowledge Engineering Review, Vol 30, No 01, pages 45-75.
    [PDF Preprint]
  • I. Rahwan, F. Zablith and C. Reed (2007). Laying the Foundations for a World Wide Argument Web. Artificial Intelligence, Vol 171, No 10-15, pages 897-921.
    [PDF Preprint] [Publisher Version]

The list of all my publications can be found here.