Nicolas Ragot

Nicolas Ragot is an Associate Professor at the Computer Science Department of the Polytechnic School of the University of Tours (EPU), affiliated with the LIFAT (Fundamental and Applied Computer Science Laboratory of Tours). He has been active in Pattern Recognition, Document Analysis, and Biometrics since his 2003 Ph.D. from IRISA lab, Rennes University.

• Current research focuses on deep learning for document layout generation, time series forecasting, and robust OCR systems
• Involved in international collaborations with Indian Statistical Institute-Kolkata, BnF (French National Library), and LITIS Rouen
• Lead or participated in projects like IFCPAR, ANR Digidoc, Google Digital Humanities Awards, and Technovision EPEIRES

His work spans:

• Document Analysis: OCR quality assessment, historical document digitization, and layout generation
• Biometrics: Online/offline signature verification and handwritten character recognition
• Machine Learning: One-class classification, incremental learning, and hybrid neural network architectures

Scientific contributions include:

• Google Digital Humanities Award (2-year grant for digitization projects)
• Reviewer for top journals (IEEE PAMI, Pattern Recognition) and conferences (ICPR, ICDAR)
• Supervisor of RFAI group (since 2017) and extensive administrative involvement at Polytech Tours

Key collaborations and networks:

• Academic: Indian Statistical Institute, LITIS Rouen, French National Library
• Industrial: ATOS Worldline, Nexter
• Research Networks: IFCPAR, ANR projects