How can we use data science to better understand human minds—without losing the complexity of context, culture, and cognition?
Data for Humans is a workshop that brings together cutting-edge methods and ethical insights to explore how data that is not just about clicks and response times can be collected, culturally interpreted, and shared to contribute to collaborations with other labs.
Organised by the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU Munich) in collaboration with the MENA Association for the Study Of Mind, with the support of the Arab Council for Social Sciences, this event is designed for researchers at all stages eager to engage this mission.
The event will take place in Beyt al Jabal, in Deir al Qamar, Shouf mountains, just one hour away of Beirut by car, towards the South-East.
It aims at gathering its participants and keynote speakers in this unique setting overlooking the valley, to encourage interactions between attendees. There will also be opportunities to experience the invigorating and inspiring nearby Cedar reserve of Barouk, the palace of Beiteddine, or the town of Deir al Qamar itself.
Accepted speakers and attendees will be provided a room and meal expenses.
The programme features distinguished experts in human cognition, education sciences and data ethics, including:
Prof. Ophelia Deroy (LMU) – Chair in Philosophy of Mind & Neuroscience at LMU Munich. Her research bridges multisensory perception, metacognition, and social cognition, exploring how sensory experience shapes collective reasoning.
Prof. Lina Choueiri (AUB) – Professor of linguistics at AUB. Specializes in generative syntax with a focus on varieties of Arabic. Co‑author of The Syntax of Arabic.
Prof. Laura Joy-Boulos (St Joseph University, Beirut) - Cognitive neuroscience, expert in mental health - 2020 L’Oréal-UNESCO Prize awarded to the 15 most promising female researchers internationally.
Prof. Tamer Amin (AUB) – Associate Professor at AUB’s Education Dept. Studies cognitive foundations of science learning, conceptual change, metaphor usage, and embodied cognition in scientific reasoning.
Prof Mehdi Khammassi (CNRS, France) – CNRS researcher at Sorbonne/ENSTA. Combines robotics, AI, and neuroscience to model human learning and decision-making via action-outcome consequences.
Dr. Bahador Bahrami (LMU) – ERC-funded group leader and senior scientist at LMU Crowd Cognition Lab. Investigates neural mechanisms of interactive decision-making, confidence, social influence using behavioural and neuroimaging methods.
Prof. Oleksandra Poquet (TUM) – Professor at TUM. Leads a LEAPS group working on learning analytics, process data, AI-informed lifelong education, and responsible educational technology adoption.
Dr. Yasmina Jraissati (ASOM) – Head of Raya Literary Agency speciliasing in Contemporary Arab Literature and expert in language and metadata. PhD in philosophy and cognitive science with especial focus on language-perception interactions.
Attendees welcome :
PhD students, postdocs, and advanced Master’s students
Researchers in cognitive science, psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, education, philosophy, and data science
Scholars working with human data in social, cultural, or civic contexts
Participants from Lebanon, the MENA region, and beyond—especially those from structurally underrepresented or low-resource backgrounds
Practitioners (policy makers, mental health professionals, archotects, urbanists, marketers, etc) who have interest in data and the way it's used with human related policies and practices
Accommodation and daily lunch are provided on-site
Email: levantecogsci@gmail.com