--- title: "Salem Lahlou — author profile and papers · Reasoning" description: "Salem Lahlou, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research: 5 papers on Elamur Research (2018–2026), h-index 6 — affiliations, topics…" canonical: "https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/salem-lahlou/" --- [Elamur Research](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/salem-lahlou/) [home](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [authors](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/) / Salem Lahlou # Salem Lahlou Salem Lahlou has 5 papers in our library, in 2018–2026, most of them on [Reasoning](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/reasoning/), [Semitic languages](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/semitic-languages/), [Evaluation & benchmarks](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/evaluation-benchmarks/); often with [Ahmed Heakl](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/ahmed-heakl/), [Chitwan Saharia](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/chitwan-saharia/), [Dzmitry Bahdanau](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/dzmitry-bahdanau/). 5 papers in our library · 2018–2026 [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/A5030085635) · [ORCID](https://orcid.org/0009-0000-4107-344X) · [**h-index 6**](https://openalex.org/authors/A5030085635) · [72 works](https://openalex.org/works?filter=author.id:A5030085635) · [216 citations](https://openalex.org/works?filter=author.id:A5030085635&sort=cited_by_count:desc) OpenAlex, 2026-10-14 [📄 5 works in our library](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/salem-lahlou/#papers) · [🔗 Cited 93 times in our library](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/salem-lahlou/cited-by/) · [1 more in our library without a page yet](#also) · [⭐ Paper Stars ranking: #7459](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/paper-stars/page/75/#star-7459) The profile is the library's match of the name; two people with one name are not always told apart. Elsewhere: [Google Scholar](https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=search_authors&mauthors=Salem+Lahlou) · [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/search?q=Salem+Lahlou) · [dblp](https://dblp.org/search?q=Salem+Lahlou) · [ACL Anthology](https://aclanthology.org/search/?q=Salem+Lahlou) ## Affiliations [🎓**Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence** Abu Dhabi · United Arab Emirates 2023–2026 · 31 papersEmployment since 2024 · Assistant Professor, Machine Learning*current*](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/universities/mohamed-bin-zayed-university-of-artificial-intelligence/) · [🎓**Zayed University** Abu Dhabi · United Arab Emirates 2025–2026 · 2 papers*current*](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/universities/zayed-university/) · [🔬**Canadian Institute for Advanced Research** Toronto · Canada 2026 · 1 paper*current*](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/labs/canadian-institute-for-advanced-research/) · [🎓**Université de Montréal** Montreal · Canada 2020–2024 · 5 papers](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/universities/universite-de-montreal/) · [🔬**Mila - Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute** Montreal · Canada 2021–2023 · 4 papers](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/labs/mila-quebec-artificial-intelligence-institute/) From the bylines of their papers (OpenAlex, 2026-10-14), ORCID and Wikidata; institutions on papers are matched by machine. 1 more institution on single bylines are not listed. ## Fields, topics and concepts Of its works in our library, with the number of works on each. 📚 Shelves 9 The field of science this work belongs to (OpenAlex fields).[Artificial Intelligence · 5 works](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/computer-science/artificial-intelligence/) · [Computer Science · 5 works](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/computer-science/) · [Arts and Humanities · 4 works](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/arts-and-humanities/) · [Language and Linguistics · 4 works](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/arts-and-humanities/language-and-linguistics/) · [Social Sciences · 2 works](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/social-sciences/) · [Decision Sciences · 1 work](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/decision-sciences/) · [Education · 1 work](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/social-sciences/education/) · [Management Science and Operations Research · 1 work](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/decision-sciences/management-science-and-operations-research/) · [Sociology and Political Science · 1 work](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/social-sciences/sociology-and-political-science/) 🧭 Topics 3 Research subjects and languages the work is about.[Reasoning · 2 works](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/reasoning/) · [Semitic languages · 2 works](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/semitic-languages/) · [Evaluation & benchmarks · 1 work](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/evaluation-benchmarks/) ## Works by year ### 2020s [**2026** 4 papers](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/salem-lahlou/year/2026/) ### 2010s [**2018** 1 paper](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/salem-lahlou/year/2018/) ## Papers The most cited first (OpenAlex and our library). 1. **[BabyAI: A Platform to Study the Sample Efficiency of Grounded Language Learning](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/chevalier-boisvert-2018-babyai-platform-study-sample-efficiency/)** *(2018 · 123 citations)* Training agents to follow language instructions with a human in the loop could make AI assistants easier to customize. 2. **[SAHM: A Benchmark for Arabic Financial and Shari'ah-Compliant Reasoning](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/elbadry-2026-sahm-benchmark-arabic-financial-shari/)** *(2026 · 4 citations)* Arabic financial NLP has almost no evaluation resources, even though Gulf economies and the Islamic finance industry produce large amounts of Arabic regulatory, juristic and corporate text. 3. **[ArabicDialectHub: A Cross-Dialectal Arabic Learning Resource and Platform](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/lahlou-2026-arabicdialecthub-cross-dialectal-arabic-learning/)** *(2026)* ArabicDialectHub targets a gap in Arabic learning. Most apps teach only MSA, and dialect corpora such as MADAR or PADIC are built for NLP research, not for learners. The author contributes two things. The first is a collection of 552 phrases organized for teaching, spanning MSA along with five dialects: Lebanese… 4. **[Communication Enables Cooperation in LLM Agents: A Comparison with Curriculum-Based Approaches](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/madmoun-2026-communication-enables-cooperation-llm-agents/)** *(2026)* The paper examines how to make LLM agents cooperate in social dilemmas. It compares two interventions: an explicit communication channel and in-context curriculum learning. Four instruction-tuned models (Mixtral-8x22B, Qwen2.5-72B, Llama-3.3-70B, DeepSeek-V3) played classic game-theory scenarios through the DeepInfra… 5. **[SD-E2: Semantic Exploration for Reasoning Under Token Budgets](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/mishra-2026-sd-e2-semantic-exploration-reasoning/)** *(2026)* Small language models have a hard time with multi-step reasoning when token budgets are tight. They need to try different solution approaches, but sampling many traces is costly. Standard RL rewards such as GRPO also cannot tell a new strategy apart from a reworded old one. The authors propose SD-E2, an RL framework… ## All works 6 works of theirs in our library, the most cited first; 5 with a page here, the others link their original until we summarise them. 1. [**BabyAI: A Platform to Study the Sample Efficiency of Grounded Language Learning arXiv:1810.08272**Maxime Chevalier-Boisvert, Dzmitry Bahdanau, Salem Lahlou, et al.*2018 · 123 citations*](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/chevalier-boisvert-2018-babyai-platform-study-sample-efficiency/) 2. **[Minigrid & Miniworld: Modular & Customizable Reinforcement Learning Environments for Goal-Oriented Tasks ↗](https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.13831) arXiv:2306.13831 · no summary yet**Maxime Chevalier-Boisvert et al.*2023 · 25 citations* 3. **[SAHM: A Benchmark for Arabic Financial and Shari'ah-Compliant Reasoning](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/elbadry-2026-sahm-benchmark-arabic-financial-shari/) [Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL)](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/acl/)**Rania Elbadry, Sarfraz Ahmad, Ahmed Heakl, et al.*2026 · 4 citations* 4. **[ArabicDialectHub: A Cross-Dialectal Arabic Learning Resource and Platform](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/lahlou-2026-arabicdialecthub-cross-dialectal-arabic-learning/) [Workshop on NLP for Languages Using Arabic Script](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/abjadnlp/)**Salem Lahlou*2026* 5. **[Communication Enables Cooperation in LLM Agents: A Comparison with Curriculum-Based Approaches](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/madmoun-2026-communication-enables-cooperation-llm-agents/) [Conference of the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (EACL)](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/eacl/)**Hachem Madmoun, Salem Lahlou*2026* 6. **[SD-E2: Semantic Exploration for Reasoning Under Token Budgets](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/mishra-2026-sd-e2-semantic-exploration-reasoning/) [Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/findings/)**Kshitij Mishra, Nils Lukas, Salem Lahlou*2026* ## Co-authors here 12 of 15 co-authors with a page, the most papers together first. - [Ahmed Heakl](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/ahmed-heakl/) - [Chitwan Saharia](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/chitwan-saharia/) - [Dzmitry Bahdanau](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/dzmitry-bahdanau/) - [Hachem Madmoun](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/hachem-madmoun/) - [Jimin Huang](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/jimin-huang/) - [Kshitij Mishra](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/kshitij-mishra/) - [Momina Ahsan](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/momina-ahsan/) - [Nils Lukas](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/nils-lukas/) - [Rania Elbadry](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/rania-elbadry/) - [Sarfraz Ahmad](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/sarfraz-ahmad/) - [Sophia Ananiadou](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/sophia-ananiadou/) - [Thien Huu Nguyen](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/thien-huu-nguyen/) ## Venues Where their works here were published, the most works first, with the editions of those that have a page. - [Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL)](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/acl/) ×2: [ACL 2026](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/acl/2026/) - [Workshop on NLP for Languages Using Arabic Script](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/abjadnlp/): [Workshop on NLP for Languages Using Arabic Script 2026](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/abjadnlp/2026/) - [Conference of the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (EACL)](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/eacl/): [EACL 2026](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/eacl/2026/) - [Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/findings/): [Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics 2026](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/findings/2026/) ## Cited by Papers of our library cite their works 93 times (of the 149,439 papers whose bibliographies we read); [16 citing papers with a page here →](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/salem-lahlou/cited-by/). Updated 2 November 2026