new campus

While I am keeping my office at Porte Dauphine, undergoing major renovations (of the 1955 NATO building!), I am now spending most of my time in a more modern campus, called PariSanté, located at Porte de Versailles, with medical research teams and startups. This is where our master MASH will be located. The place is very luminous and despite the close proximity with the Paris beltway (le périf’), quiet (and much quieter than Paris Dauphine). It is also an ecological absurdity, with a huge sunroof that could not be shaded during the heat waves, plastic trees, self-induced lights, and compulsory lifts. On the memory lane, it is a trip back 35 years ago, as it sits across the road from the Balard military compound where I spent most of my military service in 1987 (working on my PhD in a research department).  And it is conveniently located half-way between home and Paris Dauphine, although not skipping the tough hill of Porte de Versailles on the way back..!

congrats, Dr. Clarté!

Grégoire Clarté, whom I co-supervised with Robin Ryder, successfully defended his PhD thesis last Wednesday! On sign language classification, ABC-Gibbs and collective non-linear MCMC. Congrats to the now Dr.Clarté for this achievement and all the best for his coming Nordic adventure, as he is starting a postdoc at the University of Helsinki, with Aki Vehtari and others. It was quite fun to work with Grégoire along these years. And discussing on an unlimited number of unrelated topics, incl. fantasy books, teas, cooking and the role of conferences and travel in academic life! The defence itself proved a challenge as four members of the jury, incl. myself, were “present remotely” and frequently interrupted him for gaps in the Teams transmission, which nonetheless broadcasted perfectly the honks of the permanent traffic jam in Porte Dauphine… (And alas could not share a celebratory cup with him!)

AI for the sciences [PhD funding]

Our mega-university, PSL, is calling PhD candidates to apply for one of the 15 PhD scholarships supported to work on one of the 24 PhD topics proposed in the call. Deadline is 22 February 2021, the only constraint for applicants being that they must have stayed or studied less than 12 months in France, since 27 Feb 2018 … Here are some of the 24 topics:

• # 5 : Dark energy studies with the Vera Rubin Observatory LSST & Euclid – Developing a combined cosmic shear analysis with Bayesian neural networks (Observatoire de Paris – PSL)
• # 2 : AI-supported optimisation of multi-actor energy systems enhanced with privacy & confidentiality preserving data sharing (Mines Paris – PSL)
• # 20 : Unsupervized learning of causal graphical models from time-resolved cell biology data (Institut Curie)
• # 22 : A computational and artificial Intelligence approach for studying dolphin communication (Ecole Normale Supérieure – PSL)
• # 23 : Machine learning for biodiversity monitoring (EPHE – PSL)

hommage à Samuel Paty

Toute notre communauté universitaire exprime sa plus vive émotion à la suite de l’assassinat de Samuel Paty, professeur dans un collège de Conflans Sainte-Honorine. Nous nous associons pleinement à la douleur de ses proches, de ses élèves et de ses collègues.

En tant qu’université, nos missions prolongent celles assumées par nos collègues de l’enseignement secondaire, dont nous sommes pleinement solidaires. Et nous tenons à rappeler, dans ces circonstances, les principes qui inspirent nos missions d’enseignement et de recherche : le respect de la liberté de penser, le goût du débat, le développement de l’esprit critique, la production de connaissance, tout cela dans le strict respect des lois de notre République.

Patrice Geoffron, Administrateur provisoire de l’Université Paris Dauphine-PSL  & Nicolas Péjout, Directeur Général des Services

Prairie chair

Today is the launching day of PRAIRIE, one of the four Instituts Interdisciplinaires d’Intelligence Artificielle (3IA) supported by the French government. Taking place in Paris Dauphine, with Yann Le Cun as guest speaker. I have been fortunate to be endowed with one of these chairs for the coming years, along with my CEREMADE colleagues Laurent Cohen and Irène Waldspurger.