Terra Dynamica Project
The Terra Dynamica project, backed by two business clusters from the Paris region (Cap Digital and Advancity), and selected for funding by the FUI (French government R&D initiative), involves several partners from industry and academia, including THALES, projet leader, and Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (the Multi-Agents Systems group of LIP6, headed par Amal El Fallah Seghrouchni).
The project aims at developing technologies enabling the animation of realistic virtual cities by simulating the presence and activities of inhabitants and vehicles going about at their regular activities but also able to react to events and to adapt to the evolution of their environment in a credible manner.
Application areas for these technologies are numerous. Terra Dynamica targets specifically (but not exclusively) applications to security, video games, urban planning, and transport studies, fields for which the project includes specialized partners.
In this context, the LIP6 lab from UPMC (MAS group), in collaboration with Thales, is in charge, in the project core, of the elements needed to endow the agents (pedestrians and vehicles) in the interactive simulation with an Artificial Intelligence leading to credible behaviors.
Scientific and technological challenges are numerous - let us mention here the high degree of interactivity targeted, and the large number of agents to manage, which points us towards architectures for autonomous agents with multiple scales (model granularity and levels of detail for the AI).
In the framework of this project, THALES and LIP6 open five funded PhD positions, planned to begin in January 2010. The 3 first PhD topics described below are industry- hosted PhDs (CIFRE scheme) whereas the two other topics (#4 and #5) are traditional PhDs hosted and funded by LIP6 at UPMC.
We are now inviting applications from highly motivated individuals holding a Master’s degree in Computer Science or a similar degree. It is deemed important that candidates have a good level in programming, and at least a basic knowledge of the French language. It is highly desirable that previous studies (coursework, project, experience) have prepared them in the areas of Artificiale Intelligence and Agent technologies. Any research experience in the areas of the project and with the specific research topics mentionned will be of course welcome. Concerning the 3 three first research topics (CIFRE scheme), it is important that the candidate realizes and accepts the specificity of a PhD carried out mainly in an industry setting.
-
•Topic 1: Modeling the environment - PhD (CIFRE) co-advised by Nicolas Sabouret (LIP6) and Jean-Yves Donnart (THALES) position filled
-
•Topic 2: Navigational AI - PhD (CIFRE) co-advised by Aurélie Beynier (LIP6), and Jean-Yves Donnart (THALES) position filled
-
•Topic 3: Decisional AI - PhD (CIFRE) co-advised by Vincent Corruble (LIP6) and Jean-Yves Donnart (THALES) position filled
-
•Topic 4: Emotional agents - PhD (at LIP6) co-advised by Nicolas Sabouret and Vincent Corruble (LIP6) position filled
-
•Topic 5: Coordinating autonomous agents in a dynamic environment - PhD (at LIP6) co-advised by Amal El Fallah Seghrouchni and Vincent Corruble (LIP6) position filled
Application procedure
To apply for one (or several) of these PhDs, please send a resume and motivation letter, if possible with references, to the LIP6 project coordinator (Vincent Corruble, Vincent.Corruble@lip6.fr).
Also, feel free to contact any of the advisors listed above to answer questions you may have on the content or context of these PhDs.
Calendar : We are now receiving applications. A first selection among candidates will take place towards the end of September 2009.
Note :
Students who are available now, and interested in Topics 1 to 3, could be offered funded traineeships in Thales labs for the time between the candidate selection for the PhD and the actual start of the project early 2010.
Contact / Coordination LIP6 : Vincent Corruble