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Director, 1/2009–Present
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The Complex Systems Institute, Paris
(ISC; founded by Paul Bourgine) is a multidisciplinary research
center and network, sponsored by the Paris Region (Ile-de-France)
and 15 French academic partners—graduate schools, universities,
and national institutions (Ecole Polytechnique, Ecole Normale
Supérieure, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, CNRS, INRIA, CEA,
INSERM, et al.). Its mission is to create a community of research
in "complex systems"—viewed as large sets of elements interacting
locally and producing collective behavior—that studies common
questions (self-organization, emergence, autonomy, adaptation,
etc.) across many domains (molecular, cellular, cognitive, social,
economic, technological, environmental).
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Beside my research activities (see below), I am in charge of
managing the institute, together with a monthly Steering Committee
(12 external advisors), in particular leading the renewal of ISC's
mandate and funding for the next four-year period 2010-2013.
I report twice a year to an Executive Board (composed of our
supporting partners) about the institute's program, activities and
budget use (capital and operating budget totaling about €
1M/year). Scientific orientations are overseen by a Scientific
Council of foreign scholars. Capital budget is used to create ISC
"branches" hosted by its different academic partners, i.e.,
build/renovate and equip office space to become complex systems
research labs. Another part is invested in a large computing grid
(already 1600 cores, soon 2400) dedicated to complex systems
modeling and numerical simulations. Operating budget supports
ISC's activities, including scientific events (conferences,
workshops, seminars) and educational programs (summer school,
thematic institutes, Master's curriculum), and the resident staff
of 8 researchers, 3 engineers, 3 admins, who coordinate them.
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Researcher, 9/2007–Present
Research Engineer, 11/2006–8/2007
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Active in several collaborations with colleagues in Europe, United
States and Canada on the modeling and simulation of complex multi-agent
systems, in particular biological and techno-social, which can also inspire
novel principles in intelligent systems design. My research topics belong to
(biologically inspired engineering) and
(dynamics of large-scale spiking neural networks).
Especially interested in the self-organization of complex, articulated
morphologies from a swarm of heterogeneous agents, through dynamical,
developmental, and evolutionary processes.
Also worked with
Paul Bourgine
(founder and former head of ISC and the Complex Systems Society) on the
Embryomics and
Bioemergences projects toward the
spatiotemporal reconstruction of the cell lineage tree underlying
animal embryogenesis.
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Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, UNR, 7/2005–6/2006
Research Assistant Professor, Brain Computation Laboratory, UNR, 8/2004–6/2005
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The UNR Brain Computation Laboratory
("Brain Lab") is an interdisciplinary research group studying
large-scale spiking neuronal models of the cortex.
Its core technology is the NeoCortical Simulator (NCS),
a biologically detailed software model running on a massively
parallel 220-CPU Beowulf computer cluster.
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Co-PI in the "Neuromorphic Mesocircuits" project
led by Philip H. Goodman (Professor &
Lab Director, School of Medicine). It constitutes an original
attempt to design a modular brain architecture of spiking neural
networks that emulate robotic behavior learning.
We model pattern recognition and association by "lock-and-key"
coherence induction between dynamic cell assemblies (see
).
Also further developed the research on spatial categorization
started at CREA, Paris (emergence of symbolic language from
visual scenes; see below and
)
and became actively involved in several other complex systems
projects (see above). Additionally, as a visiting faculty in the
Department of Computer Science and Engineering,
taught two to three classes per semester, organized
student projects and assisted supervising M.S. and Ph.D. works.
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Full Member (2007–Present),
Foreign Correspondent (1998-2006),
Associate Member (1995-1998)
Research Associate, Paris, France, 10/1996–9/1997
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The Centre de Recherche en
Epistémologie Appliquée
(CREA) is an interdisciplinary theoretical research center
in cognitive and social sciences. Its activities range from
neuroscience to linguistics and economics, focusing on the
mathematical and computational modeling of complex,
self-organizing systems.
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Worked with
Jean Petitot
(Professor & Chair; also at EHESS—School for Advanced Studies
in Social Sciences, Paris) on dynamic models of semantics
based on cognitive linguistics (in contrast to logical models of
syntax based on generative grammar). Specifically examined spatial
categorization, i.e., how the mind is able to map an infinite
variety of visual scenes to only a few prepositions ('in', 'over',
'across', etc.). This study addressed central theoretical questions
such as the interface between physicalist and symbolic
representations and the existence of a "cognitive topology" in
perception (less metric than vector spaces, yet more metric than
topological spaces). Created an image-processing application to
illustrate the schematization pathways underlying spatial
categorization (see ).
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Postdoctoral Assistant, Bochum, Germany, 10/1991–12/1994
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The Institut für Neuroinformatik
(INI) is a research institute in neural networks, computer vision,
neurobiological models and robotics.
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Worked under the supervision of
Christoph von der Malsburg (Professor &
Chair; also at the University of Southern California) on theoretical
aspects of pattern recognition, specifically the ability of the
visual system to segment and regroup image domains under the influence
of previously learned shapes. Focused on the study of networks of
coupled oscillating units and their properties of emergent
collective behavior, such as phase-locking synchronization or
traveling waves of activity. Designed models showing that shape
extraction can arise from such networks and created network
simulator applications with high-end graphical user interfaces to
support these models (see ). Also taught two original
seminars in cognitive science for graduate students
(see ).
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Doctoral Fellow, Paris, France, 10/1987–9/1991
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The Laboratoire d'Electronique
at the Ecole Supérieure de Physique et Chimie Industrielles
(ESPCI) is an engineering research lab in machine learning, neural
networks and biological system modeling, led by
Gérard Dreyfus, Professor & Chair.
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Under the direction of
Elie Bienenstock, CNRS (currently
Associate Professor at Brown University, Providence),
elaborated a criticism of the traditional activity-rate code
in neural models and advocated temporal correlations as the
basis of brain function (after von der Malsburg, 1981).
Illustrated this question by three mathematical and numerical
studies:
- a critical review of "learning" in neural networks as a
nonparametric statistical estimation method
- an algorithm of handwritten character recognition using 2-D
"elastic" lattices (instead of pixel lists)
- a model of synaptic self-organization in the cortex based on
an activity/connectivity feedback loop
Designed the models, created visualization tools and carried out
numerical simulations for all three parts (see ).
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