<div dir="ltr">
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:18pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Beating Roger Federer: <span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:18pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman""><br></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:center;line-height:normal"><b><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Modeling visual learning and expertise through a
bioinspired neural network embedded in an electronic device</span></b><span style="font-size:16pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman""><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Goal: </span></b><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">PhD
grant. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman""><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman""><span></span></span><b><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">When:</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman""> starting
from September 2017 (date may be flexible to some extent)<span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman""><br></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Topic:</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman""> How do
expert tennis players, like Roger Federer for example, predict if a ball will
bounce in or out the field to decide if it should be played or not? After
thousands of trajectory presentations, best champions have developed
extraordinary skills in such a task, but <span style="color:black">little is known on how the visual system turns selective to spatiotemporal
properties of the visual stimulus (e.g., 3D position, velocity and
acceleration) and learns how to make an efficient use of it.</span><span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">The
goal of the project is to build an embedded system – based on FPGA circuits and
ARM processor – an artificial neural network <span style="color:black">which would replicate – and
perhaps beat – the visual and anticipatory performances of these expert
players.</span> <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black">To achieve this goal
successfully, we will develop a bio-inspired neural network, based on some of
the key properties of human vision: the Smart NeuroCam (GST company) will be used
to reproduce the retina functioning. It triggers its message under the form of
spikes, in an asynchronous way (without any concept of frame per second), responding
to spatial or temporal changes in the pattern of illumination. Several kinds of
pre-processing filters can be implemented in VHDL language directly in the FPGA
circuits, and the output is then sent to a neural network. The artificial network
will learn to use this message, applying a simple learning rule, the
Spike-Timing-Dependent Plasticity (STDP). This rule allows each neuron to
become selective to a particular property of the stimulus, completely
autonomously and with no supervision. Several layers will be built to allow
perceiving more and more complex properties of the visual scene. Once the
network will be established, its performances will be assessed in different
conditions of learning and compared to those of the best tennis players.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">The project is funded by a French National Research
Agency (ANR)</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">, involving two sites
and several researchers: <span></span></span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="FR" style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Symbol">-<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span><span lang="FR" style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Robin
Baurès, Benoit Cottereau, Timothée Masquelier and Simon Thorpe, CerCo,
Toulouse.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="FR" style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Symbol">-<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span><span lang="FR" style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Michel
Paindavoine, GST, Dijon.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman""><span> </span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Where: </span></b><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">The
candidate will be based at CerCo, Toulouse (France), and will make the
interface with the two sites, with regular trips. The computational
neuroscience part will be done at Toulouse, and electronic part at Dijon. <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman""><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Tasks:<span></span></span></b></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Symbol">-<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Matlab (or Python) based simulations of numerical
filters. These filters will be applied to the image processing from which
spikes are generated and then sent to feed the neural network and STDP learning
mechanism.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Symbol">-<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">VHDL coding to implement these numerical filters into
the FPGA circuits of the cameras<span></span></span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Symbol">-<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">C/C++ coding of the neural network and STDP mechanism
that should work on an embedded ARM processor system<span></span></span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Symbol">-<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Experimental tests that will allow evaluating the
performance of the whole system, from spikes generation to visual properties
learning of the embedded system, to predict tennis ball’s trajectories <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman""><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Required skills: <span></span></span></b></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Symbol">-<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Strong knowledge on electronic, and openness to
computational neurosciences<span></span></span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Symbol">-<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Knowledge in signal-image processing, and artificial
neural network<span></span></span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Symbol">-<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Interest for multidisciplinary research<span></span></span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Symbol">-<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Ability to turn smoothly autonomous, once the road has
been set<span></span></span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Symbol">-<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Ability to be at the interface of two scientific
fields and two working areas<span></span></span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Symbol">-<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Programming with Matlab and/or Python for simulating
the neural network<span></span></span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Symbol">-<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Programming in VHDL language for FPGA circuits<span></span></span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Symbol">-<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Programming in C/C++ language for porting the
algorithms on ARM microprocessors<span></span></span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Symbol">-<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">French is not a requirement if fluent in English, but
willingness to learn would be beneficial <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman""><span> </span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Citizenship Eligibility:</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman""> We discourage Iranian student to apply, since most
likely the CNRS will not accept them for security/defense reasons,
unfortunately. <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman""><span> </span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Relevant publications
for the project:<span></span></span></b></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Symbol">-<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span><span lang="FR" style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Masquelier,
T., Guyonneau, R. & Thorpe S.J. (2009). </span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Competitive
STDP-Based Spike Pattern Learning. </span><span lang="FR" style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Neural Comput, 21(5),1259-1276.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Symbol">-<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span><span lang="FR" style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Masquelier,
T. & Thorpe, S.J. (2007). </span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Unsupervised
learning of visual features through spike timing dependent plasticity. </span><span lang="FR" style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">PLoS
Comput Biol, 3(2):e31.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Symbol">-<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Cottereau, B.R., McKee, S.P. & Norcia, A.M.
(2014). Dynamics and cortical distribution of neural responses to 2D and 3D
motion in human. </span><span lang="FR" style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Journal of Neurophysiology 111(3), 533-543.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Symbol">-<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span><span lang="FR" style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">SmartNeuroCam
de GST : <a href="https://gsensing.eu/fr/category/sections/products">https://gsensing.eu/fr/category/sections/products</a><span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="FR" style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman""><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><b><span lang="FR" style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Contact:<span></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal"><b><span lang="FR" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Robin
Baurès, PhD<span></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal"><span lang="FR" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Associate Professor<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal"><span lang="FR" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">CerCo, Université Toulouse 3, CNRS<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal"><span lang="FR" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">CHU Purpan, Pavillon Baudot<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal"><span lang="FR" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">31059 Toulouse Cedex 9 – France<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal"><span lang="FR" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Office phone: 0033 (0)5 62 74 62 15<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal"><span lang="FR" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Email : <a href="mailto:robin.baures@cnrs.fr">robin.baures@cnrs.fr</a><span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="FR" style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman""><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal"><b><span lang="FR" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Pr
Michel Paindavoine<span></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal"><span lang="FR" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">GlobalSensing Technologies<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal"><span lang="FR" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">14, rue Pierre de Coubertin<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal"><span lang="FR" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">21000 Dijon<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal"><span lang="FR" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">email : <a href="mailto:michel.paindavoine@gsensing.eu">michel.paindavoine@gsensing.eu</a><span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="FR" style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman""><span> </span></span></p>
<div><br></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><span style="font-size:12.8px">Timothée Masquelier - <a href="mailto:timothee.masquelier@cnrs.fr" target="_blank">timothee.masquelier@cnrs.fr</a> - </span><span style="font-size:12.8px"><a href="http://cerco.ups-tlse.fr/~masquelier/" target="_blank">http://cerco.ups-tlse.fr/~masquelier/</a></span><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
</div>