Connectionists: Research Engineer in Bayesian Programming

[Pierre Bessière]

Position Title:
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Research Engineer in Bayesian Programming

Where:
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Grenoble (Capital of the French Alps), France

When:
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Immediately, for 3 to 4 years

Description of the Position:
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You will have to develop Bayesian models, programs, applications and  
experiments.
You will be a key element of a research group devoted to "Stochastic  
Models for Perception, Inference, Learning and Action".
Your main mission will be to take in charge the software development  
of the group related to the starting european project BACS (Bayesian  
Approach to Cognitive Systems) and some experiments on various  
robotic platforms.
Your employer will  be INRIA (Institut National de la Recherche en  
Informatique et Automatique) a major international institute for  
research in computer science and applied math.

Example of possible models, experiment or application you may have to  
work on are :
- Bayesian models of neurons and population of neurons
- Bayesian models of human object perception
- Bayesian models of human and rat navigation
- Bayesian based autonomous navigation of mobile robots and cars
- Bayesian based body and face motion tracking
- Bayesian reconstruction of 3D realistic scene
- Bayesian based multi-modal sensor integration and analysis
- Bayesian driver assistance for enhanced vehicle safety

All this models are build using the Bayesian Programming formalism  
(an extension of Bayes Nets) and use the ProBT® toolbox and API to  
automate the inference and computation.
You will be the ProBT guru of the group and will assist researchers  
and PhD student in their models and software development.

Requirements:
--------------------

Necessary :
- A master, an engineering degree or a PhD in computer science.
- Fluent in C and C++
- Fluent in either French or English (If not fluent in French, at  
least some good bases are required and a strong willing to learn more  
rapidly)

Plus :
- Bilingual of fluent in both language
- Experience of software development and maintenance
- Holding a PhD
- Experience of robotics and/or artificial intelligence
- Proficiency in probability or statistics
- Experience in other computer languages and tools

Additional Informations:
--------------------------------

- Grenoble
Grenoble is 600K inhabitants city right in the middle of the French  
alps. It has a very big university and at least 10% of the population  
is made of students. Grenoble activity is turned toward high  
technology industry and research. Its domains of excellence are  
nanotechnology, computer sciences and electronic. All mountain  
outdoors leisure are next door (the closest ski resort is 30 minutes  
from downtown).

- eMOTION research group
The research group (www-laplace.imag.fr) is made of 25 persons  
(permanent researchers, engineers and PhD students). It is a very  
international group as presently 6 countries are represented beside  
France  (Brazil, China, India, Italy, Mexico & Singapore). The group  
has a long experience (>15 years) of research in Bayesian modeling.  
It applies theese technics to robotics, artificial intelligence,  
cognitive science and developing industrial applications. The group  
has been the leader of the european project BIBA (Bayesian Inspired  
Brain and Artifacts) which, after 4 years of work, is just terminated.

- BACS project:
BACS is the continuation of BIBA. Its a new european project started  
in january for 4 years. The abstract of the project is the following:
Despite very extensive research efforts contemporary robots and other  
cognitive artifacts are not yet ready to
autonomously operate in complex real world environments. One of the  
major reasons for this failure in creating cognitive
situated systems is the difficulty in the handling of incomplete  
knowledge and uncertainty.
In this project we will investigate and apply Bayesian models and  
approaches in order to develop artificial cognitive systems
that can carry out complex tasks in real world environments. We will  
take inspiration from the brains of mammals including
humans and apply our findings to the developments of cognitive systems.
The Bayesian approach will be used to model different levels of brain  
function, from neural functions up to complex
behaviors. This will enable us to show that neural functions and  
higher-level cognitive activities can coherently be modeled
within the Bayesian framework. The Bayesian models will be validated  
and adapted as necessary according to
neuro-physiological data from rats and humans and through  
psychophysical experiments on human.
The Bayesian approach will also be used to develop four artificial  
cognitive systems concerned with (i) autonomous
navigation, (ii) multi-modal perception and reconstruction of the  
environment, (iii) Semantic facial motion tracking, and (iv)
human body motion recognition and behavior analysis.
The conducted research shall result in a consistent Bayesian  
framework offering enhanced tools for probabilistic reasoning
in complex real world situations. The performance will be  
demonstrated through its applications to drive assistant systems
and 3D mapping, both very complex real world tasks.

- INRIA:
(see http://www.inria.fr/inria/enbref.en.html)

- Bayesian Programming and ProBT toolbox:
Bayesian Programming is a methodology and a formalism to develop  
software able to deal with incomplete and uncertain information.
ProBT is a C++ library that implement Bayesian inference and learning  
on various kind of computers and operating systems.
ProBT is a commercial product (www.probayes.com) but is also  
available for free for research and teaching utilization  
(www.Bayesian-programming.org).

Salary:
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27K€ <-> 37K€(according to qualifications)

Contact:
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Pierre.Bessiere at imag.fr, Christian.Laugier at imag.fr

_______________________________
Dr Pierre Bessière - CNRS
*****************************
GRAVIR Lab
INRIA
655 avenue de l'Europe
38334 Montbonnot
FRANCE

Mail: Pierre.Bessiere at imag.fr
Http: www-laplace.imag.fr
Tel:   +33 4 76 61 55 09
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