American University of Beirut

8:00-9:00

Registration & Breakfa​st
Global WiDS Opening Video

9:00-9:05

WiDS @AUB Welcome

Lama Moussawi, PhD
WiDS @AUB Ambassador
Professor of Management Science
Associate Dean for Research & Faculty Development
Suliman S. Olayan School of Business
American University of Beirut

9:05-9:10

AUB Welcome​​

Fadlo R. Khuri, MD
President
American Univ​ersity of Beirut 

​9:10-9:15

​Sahar Baasiri Salam
Former Ambassador of Lebanon to UNESCO
Former President, Women's International Forum at the United Nations
Co-Director of the National Council of Lebanese Women

9:15-9:20

OSB Welcome

Yusuf Sidani, PhD
Dean
Suliman S. Olayan School of Business
American University of Beirut

9:20-9:25

Academia​ Bridging Public and Private Sectors @WiDS 2025

Ghada El-Hajj Fuleihan, MD, MPH, FRCP
Professor of Medicine
Founding Director
Calcium Metabolism and Osteoporosis Program
WHO CC for Metabolic Bone Disorders
Founding Director, Scholars in HeAlth Research Program
AUBMC, AUB
Bernard Lown Scholar
Department of Global Health and Population
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Boston, MA, U.S.A

9:25-9:30

WiDS @AUB Agenda Overview & WiDS Hackathon Launch

Mariette Awad, PhD
WiDS @AUB ambassador
Director of AI, Data Science, and Computing Hub
Associate Professor
Maroun Semaan Faculty of Engineering and Architecture American University of Beirut

9:30 -10:45

​PANEL DISCUSSION

WiDS 2025 High-Level Panel Discussion​ - Lebanon's Digital Leap: AI in Governance and Public Services​

H.E. Ms. Haneen  Al-Sayed
Minister of Social Affairs

H.E. Dr. Rakan Nasereddine
Minister of Public Health

H.E. Dr. Kamal Shehadi
Minister of the Displaced and Minister of State for Technology and Artificial Intelligence

H.E. Dr. Mohamad Haidar
Minister of Labor

Moderated by
Dr. Carole Al Sharabati
Founder and Partner
Director of Research
Siren Associates
WiDS Advisory Board
Beirut Lebanon

10:45-11:15

NETWORKING BREAK ​

​Track 1: Sustainable Infrastructure & Rebuilding

Moderated by
Mariette Awad, PhD​

11:25 – 11:45

Technical T​​​alk

Responsible AI for Sustainable Infrastructure: When Human Judgment Must Prevail

Oumaima Talouka

AI Strategist
Speaker &​ Coach
Regional Director
The AI Collective​

​11:50-12:10

Technical T​​​alk

Environmental data and analysis to build knowledge and inform policy action: Examples of analytical work from the World Bank in Lebanon​

Lamia Mansour, PhD
Senior Environment Specialist
World Bank​

12:15-12:35

Technical Talk

Climate-Proofing Lebanon's Rebuilding Path  

Lea Kai
Climate Change Advisor
United Nations Development Progra­­mme
Lebanon

12:40-1:00

​Technical Talk

From Data to Decisions: Assessing Vulnerability and Resilience of Critical Infrastructure ​

​Rossella Marmo, PhD
Researcher
University of Naples Federico II
Italy 

1:20-​1:40​

​Fireside Chat

Rebuilding with Intelligence: Women, AI, and the Future We Design

Anusha Dandapani
Chief Data & Analytics Officer
United Nations International
Computing Center, New York,
U.S.A
Adjunct Faculty
New York University
Fordham University

Rola Ghneim Khreis​
Chief Information Officer
Director of Information Technology
International Atomic Energy Agency
Vienna, Austria​​​

​​1:40 - 2:00

​Technical Talk

Using Social Media and LLMs to Aid Disaster Response 

​​Doina Caragea, PhD
Professor
Don and Linda Glaser Keystone Research Scholar ​
Department of Computer Science
Carl R. Ice College of Engineering
Kansas State University ​​
Kansas, U.S.A

2:00-3:00

LUNCH ​

​

Track 2: Healthcare Resilience & Innovation

Moderated by
Ghada El-Hajj Fuleihan, MD, MPH, FRCP
Professor of Medicine
Founding Director
Calcium Metabolism and Osteoporosis Program
WHO CC for Metabolic Bone Disorders
Founding Director, Scholars in HeAlth Research Program
AUBMC, AUB
Bernard Lown Scholar
Department of Global Health and Population
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public HealthBoston, MA, USA​ ​​

3:00-3:10

Track Preamble

Ghada El-Hajj Fuleihan, MD, MPH, FRCP

3:10-3:30

Keynote Talk

The 5S Foundation: Building Resilient Healthcare Systems in an Uncertain World

Alaa Youssef, PhD

Chief AI Officer | Basys.AI

Stanford AIMI | Center for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine & Imaging

Medical Education Research Lead,

Stanford School of Medicine

Stanford, CA

U.S.A

3:30-3:50

Technical Talk

Leveraging data science for predictive healthcare and crisis response

Samah Fodeh, MD, PhD

Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, and Biostatistics - Health Informatics

Yale School of Medicine

Yale University

New Haven CT, U.S.A

3:50-4:10

Technical Talk 

Designing informative, clinically relevant machine learning experiments​ ​

Rima Arnaout, MD

Associate Professor, Cardiologist

Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator

Faculty in the Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute and the Center for Intelligent Imaging

University of California San Francisco (UCSF)

San Francisco, U.S.A

4:10-4:30

Q&A

​

4:30-5:00                 

NETWORKING BREAK ​

​

Track 3: Social Sustainability

Moderated by
Lama Moussawi, PhD

5:00-5:20

Keynote Talk

Social Sustainability - AI & inclusion

Yasmin Al Enazi
Program Director, IX.0 Innovation Hub UAE
Head of MENA, Women in AI
Robotics and Embodied AI
Top 10 Global Women Shaping Future of Robotics
Dubai, UAE

5:20-5:40

Technical Talk

Building AI We Can Trust: Strategies for Fair and Inclusive Data Science

Luna Baalbaki
Research Data Scientist
Stanford School of Medicine
Stanford University
California, U.S.A

5:40-6:00

Technical Talk

Urban Economic Resilience: A Data-Driven Foundation for Smart Sustainable Urban Transformation

Sukaina Abdul Ilah Al-Nasrawi, PhD

Lead of Sustainable Urban Development Portfolio

Gender Justice, Population and Inclusive Development

United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UNESCWA)

6:00-6:20

Technical Talk

Anu Ramaswami, PhD
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies and the High Meadows Environmental Institute
Princeton University

6:20-6:35

TRACK Q&A  

6:35-6:55

HACKATHON STUDENT AWARD DISTRIBUTION & WINNING TEAMS 
Powered By IPARK

6:55-7:00

Closing Remarks

Lama Moussawi, PhD