Connectionists: Multiple open engineering positions in the open-source 3D printed Poppy Robotics project applied to education, at Inria Flowers Lab (Bordeaux, France)

Wed May 13 13:35:08 EDT 2015

[Call for application] Multiple open engineering positions in the open-source 3D printed Poppy Robotics project applied to education, at Inria Flowers Lab (Bordeaux, France)

Poppy is an open-source platform for the creation, use and sharing of interactive 3D printed robots. It addresses both beginners and experts in the fields of education, science, art, more generally makers. The Poppy platform is based on robust, flexible, easy-to-use and reproduce hardware and software. In particular, the use of 3D printing and rapid prototyping technologies is a central aspect of this project, and makes it easy and fast not only to reproduce the platform, but also to explore morphological variants. 

The platform, designed at Flowers robotics Lab at Inria and Ensta (France), allows creation and modification of robots of various morphologies, in particular humanoid robot morphologies such as for the robots Poppy Humanoid and Poppy Torso.
The platform is also used to create simpler robots with variable morphologies, such as the Poppy Ergo robots, which aim to be at the same time reconfigurable, and easy to construct, plug and play.  

Web: http://www.poppy-project.org
Forum: https://forum.poppy-project.org/categories (600 registered members)
Inria Flowers Lab, Bordeaux, France: https://flowers.inria.fr

Inria Flowers lab at Inria is now searching for excellent and highly motivated engineers to join the project and develop it towards educational applications, in the context of the project Poppy Education jointly funded by Inria, Région Aquitaine, and European Feder funds.
The project Poppy Education targets the application of the Poppy platform to the world of education, both within schools/universities and outside school in networks of FabLabs. As detailed below, we have open positions in software development, web development, as well as design and experimentation of educational content/pedagogical kits, with Scratch-like visual programming tools.

Poppy will constitute a major innovative pedagogical platform allowing to cultivate the understanding and creativity of students (and the wider public) to catch up with the current revolution of 3D printing and its integration with computer science, electronics and integrated design methodologies that are now thriving in industry. Within Poppy Education, both the platform, pedagogical content and its use cases will be developed in constant interaction with its end users within schools, universities, FabLabs and other structures acting to educate the wide public to science and technology, within an open-source methodology.

Several open positions, described below, are available and will be located within Inria Flowers Lab in Bordeaux, France. Inria Flowers Lab is internationally reknown for its contribution to developmental robotics, on topics such as curiosity-driven learning in robots, imitation learning, robot acquisition of language, cognitive modelling, and applications to education and assistance.

Inria: Public science and technology institution established in 1967, Inria is the only public research body fully dedicated to computational sciences. Combining computer sciences with mathematics, Inria’s 3,449 researchers strive to invent the digital technologies of the future. Educated at leading international universities, they creatively integrate basic research with applied research and dedicate themselves to solving real problems, collaborating with the main players in public and private research in France and abroad and transferring the fruits of their work to innovative companies. The researchers at Inria published over 4,500 articles in 2013. They are behind over 270 active patents and 110 start-ups. In 2013, Inria’s budget came to 235 million euros, 25% of which represented its own resources. Flowers Lab is located at the Inria Bordeaux site: http://www.inria.fr/en/centre/bordeaux/overview/discover-our-centre

How to apply: send an email with your CV AND letter of motivation to poppy-jobs at inria.fr indicating the CODE of the mission for which you apply (see codes below). Detailed information and documents on projects realized by candidates will be appreciated.

Code: Poppy Education 1
Job title: Engineer in software development for integrated development platform
Experience: up to 8 years after engineering diploma (plutôt 2 à 8 ans d'experience ? je suis pas sûr qu'on veuille un IJD)
Duration: 12 to 24 months
Mission
Develop and integrate software programming tools that allow users in education to discover and learn programming and robotics
Job description:
Extend and maintain the pypot python programming library (https://github.com/poppy-project/pypot)
Extend and maintain the integration of pypot with Ipython and Jupyter
Extend and maintain the integration of programming tools with physical Poppy robots and a simulator
Develop installation tools allowing rapid "one-click" installation of programming tools on several platforms including Raspberry Pi, Windows, Mac Os, Linux
Document developped tools
Participate to animating the users community, both online through the forum and web site and through participating to live educational robotics events
Candidate profile:
Extended python programming experience
Experience in embedded programming (e.g. Rasberry Pi, Arduino, Embedded Linux)
Rich programming skills including javascript, C++
Multiplatform software installers technologies (Windows/MacOS/Linux)
Experience of programming robots
User-centered methodology for code development
Experience in open-source projects
Strong experience with versionning tool (Git)
Excellent programming practices 

Code: Poppy Education 2
Job title: Engineer in web software technologies
Experience: Up to 2 years after engineering diploma
Duration: 12 to 24 months
Mission Integration and development of web software technologies for the Poppy web sites
Job description:
Develop Wordpress plugins for http://www.poppy-project.org
Develop plugins and personalization of Discourse-based Poppy forum: https://forum.poppy-project.org 
Integrate a wiki technology for Poppy Documentation
Unify graphical design of web sites
Setup maintainance methods for Poppy web sites (including update of supporting softwares)
Document developped tools
Daily update of web site content and animation of the community in the forum
Candidate profile:
Excellent javascript skills
Experience in developping plugins for Wordpress
Experience in web design and web site development
Experience in open-source projects
Strong experience with versionning tool (Git)
Excellent programming practices 

Code: Poppy Education 3
Job title: Engineer in software development for web-based applications
Experience: Up to 2 years after engineering diploma (+0 to +2 experience)
Duration: 12 to 24 months
Mission Develop web applications for educational robotics 
Job description:
Develop web applications allowing the configuration of robots and checking the state of motors, sensors and electronics (accessible from browsers on computers and tablets)
Extend and maintain a REST API for the pypot python programming library
Develop a web applications allowing basic control of Poppy robots (launching behaviours, teleguiding robots)
Extend and develop visual programming tools based on Snap! language (including developping extensions to Snap!)
Develop compatibility with Scratch programming language
Develop an app store allowing easy community sharing of programs written in python or visual programming languages
Participate to animating the users community, both online through the forum and web site and through participating to live educational robotics events
Candidate profile:
Excellent programming skills in javascript and python
Experience in web app architecture design
Experience in interface design and user-centered methodology
Experience in web communication technologies and APIs
Experience in responsive and mobile friendly web design
Strong experience with versionning tool (Git)
Excellent programming practices 

Code: Poppy Education 4
Job title: Engineer for pedagogical design and experimentation of educational activities in robotics
Experience: up to 8 years after engineering/university diploma (pareil +2, autant pas avoir un IJD)
Duration: 12 to 24 months
Mission
Design, experiment and disseminate educational activities based on the Poppy robotic platform
Job description:
Analyze the educational needs of several populations of users (high-school students, university students, FafLab members, ...)
Design pedagogical sequences and scenarios of activities targeted to different populations of students, based on visual programming and python programming tools
Initiate contacts with users for experimentation
Evaluate pedagogical activities in real contexts of use (in schools, universities and FabLabs)
Produce integrated polished multimedia documents embedding "ready to use" pedagogical content
Produce multimedia content to publicize educational uses of the platform
Participate to events to promote educational uses of the platform
Candidate profile:
Experience in teaching computer science and technology
Experience in user-centered methodologies
Experience in python programming language (or other scripting languages)
Familiarity with Scratch like visual, drag-and-drop programming language
Interest in interdiciplinary collaborations (education, science, art, makers)
Creative thinking to design motivating learning scenarios

Code: Poppy Education 5
Job title: Engineer for coordination of pedagocial activities and events in Poppy Project
Experience: senior level pedagogical expert
Mission
Coordinate the design and dissemination of pedagogical activitives, organization of educational dissemination events
Job description:
Build a focus group of pedagogical experts to design the specification of educational robotics activities
Build a network of educational partner institutions to welcome experimentation of educational activities
Coordinate the organization of experimentation and dissemination of pedagogical activities
Design pedagogical sequences and scenarios of activities targeted to different populations of students, based on visual programming and python programming tools
Candidate profile:
Extended experience of teaching with/about digital technologies/ICT
Extended experience of collaboration with educational institutions
Experience in designing pedagocical content for various age ranges
Knowledge of French education programs at high-school levels

Pierre-Yves Oudeyer
Research director, Inria
Head of Flowers Laboratory
Inria and Ensta Paris-Tech
http://www.pyoudeyer.com
https://flowers.inria.fr
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