IT partnership paves the way for fast searches of documents and databases

The new techniques and supporting technologies will allow users to recognize name entities in Arabic text searches. Combining artificial intelligence that can determine grammatical patterns with a detailed database of existing Arabic entities, such as names, allows the new software package to rapidly identify and isolate key search terms.

The new technology, called Contextual Mining in Arabic (CMA), allows Arabic-reading users to filter out all the irrelevant, peripheral data and obtain the exact information they are looking for.

"People are not interested in searching - they are interested in finding," said Dr. Khaled Shaalan, Lecturer, Faculty of Informatics, The British University in Dubai and Honorary Fellow, University of Edinburgh, UK. "I am proud to say that by working closely with a leading business solutions provider, Faculty members have provided a real service to the community," he added.

For Neil Garner, VP International Operations Middle East, the opportunities presented by working jointly with The British University in Dubai fitted well with his own company's reputation for developing effective business solutions. "This was a real meeting of minds, consistent with our ambitions for Arabic-friendly software" said Garner. "While we look forward to future collaborations of this nature, it's equally exciting to know we are helping people to assemble the data they can turn into information with ease."

The partners marked the technological breakthrough by organising a series of demonstrations of CMA in action.

"Announcements such as this wholly vindicate the strategy of creating and developing a research-led postgraduate university," said Dr. Abdullah Alshamsi, Vice-Chancellor, The British University in Dubai.

"Working with top quality partners such as Fast Search brings us closer to fulfilling the broader strategic goal of enhancing the Knowledge Economy of the United Arab Emirates,"

he added.

Both parties anticipate a roll-out of CMA in a range of settings throughout 2008.