Dr. Salah Rashid Alnajem
Founder and CEO of Information Age Consulting
Dr. Salah Alnajem is the founder and CEO of Information Age for I.T. consultations (www.information-age-consulting.com). He is also an associate professor of Computational Linguistics and Natural Language Processing at Kuwait University (from 1998 until present). He received his Master’s and PhD degrees in Computational Linguistics from Essex University in England. Co-founded “Social Watcher” platform, the first Arab platform to measure public opinion in 2019. He worked as a consultant in the Ministry of Information (From 2016 until 2018). Dr. Salah also worked as a producer and host of Information Technology shows at Kuwait TV (from 2004 till 2018). He worked as a Consultant in the Office of Consultative Studies and Research at the Amiri Diwan (Royal Court) (from 2000 until 2015). He worked also as a Consultant in the Central Agency for Information Technology (from 2006 until 2015). Dr. Salah also worked as a consultant at the National Assembly (Kuwaiti Parliament) (From 2015 till 2017). He also worked as a consultant for the Vice President for Academic Affairs at Kuwait University (from 2004 till 2016 and from 2013 till 2015). He is a consultant for the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (from 2013 till 2014).
Dr. Salah Al-Najem won the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Prize 2017 in the E-Learning Category for his project (E-Learning and Virtual Classroom). The award is offered by the United Nations through the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Dr. Alnajem received the prize on the 13th of June 2017 from the International Telecommunication Union Secretary General in the award ceremony held in Geneva during the WSIS forum organized by the ITU in collaboration with the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the UN Development Program (UNDP).
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) selected the project of Dr. Salah Alnajem “Social Intelligence” as WISIS Prizes 2019 Champion during WSIS Prizes 2019 event at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum 2019. Dr. Alnajem received the certificate on the 12 April 2019 from the International Telecommunication Union Secretary General in the WSIS Forum organized in Geneva by the ITU. The project of Dr. Salah was a Social Media Analytics system which utilizes various Natural Language Processing techniques. The system provides content analysis and sentiment analysis of social media posts written in Modern Standards Arabic and Kuwaiti dialect.
During his work in the Central Agency for Information Technology, he worked as a member in a number of committees supervising a number of Information Technology and E-Government projects. These committees include: Steering Committee for Designing and Developing the Official Portal of Kuwait (e.gov.kw), Committee for Establishing and Administrating Comprehensive and Self Service Centers in Kuwait Governates, Committee for Refurbishing Personal Computers used in the Governmental Sector, and the Committee for Media Awareness and National Human Capacity Building in the Field of Information Technology.
He also worked as a member in a number of committees supervising the implementation of projects related to E-Learning. These committees include, Committee for Using Information and Communication Technology in Education (Ministry of Education), Academic Committee for E-Learning (Kuwait University) and the Committee for Establishing Smart Classes used in Applying E-Learning (Kuwait University).
His scientific interests and research papers are focused on the following main areas: Computational Linguistics, Natural Language Processing, Text Processing, Text Mining, Data Analytics and Visualization, Information Retrieval, E-Government, and E-Learning.
Ahmad Abdullah AlEssa
A Kuwaiti Media and Political consultant, who in 2019 co-founded “Social Watcher” platform, the first Arab platform to measure public opinion by monitoring and analyzing what is published on social media towards certain issues. He is currently General Manager of Spin Media Consultancy firm since its establishment in 2010, where they provide consultancy and managerial services to Political campaigns.
Ahmad AlEssa holds a BA degree in Media with a major in Journalism from the College of Arts at Kuwait University in 2000, he started his career as a Journalist during his University days at Al-Taleea magazine, from 1997 up until 2000, he also held a position of Assistant Editor for Al-Arabi magazine, where he then became a Journalist for Al-Qabas newspaper from 2000 to 2006, and a Columnist for Al-Jarida newspaper from 2007 up until 2012.
AlEssa is considered one of the few Kuwaiti journalists who worked in the International press. In 2000-2001, he became an International Correspondent for UPI (United Press International), based in New York. After that, he held the post of Director for Asharq Al-Awsat International newspaper office, based in London, 2006 – 2014. In parallel, a columnist for Majalla Magazine, based in London, 2012 – 2014.
Ahmad AlEssa held the position of Media Consultant for a couple of Information and Housing and Welfare ministers, in the State of Kuwait during the period 2005 – 2018 and as a media consultant in Kuwait National Assembly 2014 – 2016.