Stephane Cotin is a Research Director at Inria and leader of the MIMESIS team, specializing in real-time physics-based medical simulations. His work focuses on surgical training, planning, and image-guided therapy, with over 200 scientific articles and the development of the open-source SOFA framework. He co-founded InSimo, Twinical, and EVE, and previously held roles at Harvard Medical School and Mitsubishi Electric Research Lab. Cotin’s research bridges imaging, robotics, and medicine to improve healthcare outcomes, emphasizing patient-specific biophysical modeling and real-time computation. His awards include the Academy of Sciences Award (2018) and Dirk Bartz Medical Prize (2015). He has advised numerous PhD students and led projects like MediTwin and PREMYOM, advancing digital twin technologies for precision medicine.
Gül Varol is a permanent researcher at École des Ponts ParisTech's IMAGINE group, an ELLIS Scholar, and Guest Scientist at Max Planck Institute. She holds a PhD from Inria Paris/ENS with awards from ELLIS and AFRIF. Her academic service includes Program Chair at ECCV'24 and Area Chair roles at major conferences. Current affiliations: IMAGINE group (École des Ponts ParisTech), Max Planck Institute Previous roles: Postdoctoral researcher at University of Oxford Her research focuses on vision-language applications, particularly in 3D human motion synthesis, sign language technology, and audio description generation. Key techniques include text-conditioned diffusion models, temporal context modeling, and synthetic data utilization. Scientific contributions recognized through: Google Research Scholar award (2023) ELLIS PhD Award (2020) AFRIF PhD thesis award (2020) Best application paper at ACCV'20 Recent publications demonstrate expertise in: Text-driven 3D motion editing (MotionFix, 2024) Cross-dataset generalization studies (TMR++, 2024) Temporal action composition frameworks (TEACH, 2022) Sign language dense annotation methods (BOBSL, 2022) Zero-shot audio description generation (AutoAD-Zero, 2024) She actively contributes to dataset development including BOBSL (British Sign Language corpus) and SURREACT synthetic action dataset, while pioneering new evaluation metrics for audio description quality and motion retrieval benchmarks.
Benoît Sagot is a Senior Researcher in Natural Language Processing and Computational Linguistics at Inria , currently holding the 2023-2024 Informatics and Digital Sciences Annual Chair at Collège de France. He directs the ALMAnaCH research team and contributes to the PRAIRIE Institute for AI research. Research Focus: His work spans neural language models, machine translation, text simplification, multimodal NLP, and lexical resource development for French and low-resource languages. He explores computational morphology, etymology, and historical linguistics, with applications in opinion mining and computational oenology. Recent Articles emphasize language model interpretability, cross-lingual transfer, and multimodal integration (speech, image). Tools & Resources: He has developed morphological lexicons (Le fff, Alexina), corpora (OSCAR, CAMEMBERT), and parsing pipelines (SxPipe). Projects: Involved in initiatives like ANR BASNUM (Furetière's dictionary digitization) and 3IA PRAIRIE (AI research). His career combines foundational work in syntactic analysis with evolving deep learning approaches.
Chao Liu is a Research Scientist at CNRS (French National Center for Scientific Research) since 2008, affiliated with the DEXTER team and the Department of Robotics, LIRMM at University of Montpellier, France. He earned his Ph.D. in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (2006). Current research focuses on surgical robotics , haptics , teleoperation , and nonlinear control theory with applications in computer vision. His work addresses challenges in robotic-assisted telesurgery, including: Stable and transparent human-robot interaction through wave variable compensators and passivity filters Physiological motion compensation using spatio-temporal LSTM and dual Kalman filters EMG-based motion recognition for surgical skill assessment 3D soft-tissue reconstruction with stereo-endoscopes and deep learning Dr. Liu leads European and French projects like: TS2RT (CNRS-funded): Safer teleoperation with motion compensation ROBACUS (ANR-funded): Needle positioning with MPC control HaTUMoCo (CNRS-funded): Haptic teleoperation with uncertainty handling ARAKNES (EU-funded): Microrobotic systems for endoluminal surgery Scientific honors include Senior Member of IEEE and Member of Sigma Xi . He supervises Ph.D. and Master's students working on topics such as concentric tube robot optimization, haptic teleoperation, and EMG-based force estimation. Dr. Liu serves on IEEE Technical Committees for Telerobotics and Haptics , and as Technical Editor of IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics.
Hirokatsu Kataoka serves as Chief Senior Researcher at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Japan, with multiple academic affiliations including Academic Visitor at the Visual Geometry Group (VGG) at University of Oxford, Visiting Associate Professor at Keio University, and Adjunct Associate Professor at Tokyo Denki University. He is Principal Investigator of both cvpaper.challenge and LIMIT.Lab, and serves as Research Advisor for SB Intuitions. Dr. Kataoka earned his Ph.D. in Engineering from Keio University (April 2011 - March 2014), where he received the Fujiwara Prize in 2014 as valedictorian equivalent. His research primarily focuses on innovative pre-training methodologies that eliminate dependency on natural image datasets, with his Formula-Driven Supervised Learning (FDSL) framework being particularly influential in the field. Kataoka's research interests center around representation learning with limited data resources, including zero-shot, unsupervised, and synthetic learning approaches. His work explores how visual/multimodal models can be effectively trained with minimal real-world data, addressing critical ethical concerns related to large-scale datasets. He has pioneered methods using fractal geometry, mathematical formulas, and procedural generation to create effective pre-training frameworks that rival traditional ImageNet-based approaches. His publication record shows a clear trajectory toward solving the challenges of learning with limited resources, with recent work expanding FDSL to audio processing, microfossil analysis, and visible-to-infrared translation. His papers consistently address the core challenge of building robust visual recognition systems without relying on massive annotated datasets, with increasing focus on practical applications across diverse domains. Scientific Awards & Recognition ACCV 2020 Best Paper Honorable Mention Award for 'Pre-training without Natural Images' AIST Best Paper Award (2019, 2022) BMVC 2023 Best Industry Paper Finalist Featured in MIT Technology Review His 3D ResNets paper ranks among the top 0.5% most-cited CVPR papers over a five-year period Dr. Kataoka actively advises numerous researchers across multiple institutions, with his research team comprising Ph.D. and Master's students from various universities. He has served as Area Chair for CVPR 2024 and 2025, will serve as IEEE TPAMI Associate Editor beginning in 2025, and organizes the LIMIT Workshop series at major computer vision conferences. His LIMIT.Lab, established in June 2025, serves as a collaboration hub focused on building multimodal AI models under constrained resources including compute, data, and labels.
Thomas Walter is a Professor at Mines ParisTech and Director of the Centre for Computational Biology (CBIO) , a research group affiliated with the Institut Curie and INSERM . His work focuses on applying Machine Learning and Computer Vision to biomedical image analysis, particularly in high-content screening and computational pathology . He also serves as Deputy Director of the Computational Oncology (U1331) unit and leads the Statistical Learning and Modeling of Biological Systems team. PhD in Medical Image Analysis (2003, Mines ParisTech) Postdoctoral work at EMBL (European Molecular Biology Laboratory) Director of CBIO since 2018 Holder of a PRAIRIE Chair (Paris Artificial Intelligence Research Institute) since 2019 Dr. Walter's research bridges biomedical imaging , machine learning , and cancer genomics . Key areas include: Statistical reconstruction of biological networks Prediction of tumor progression at genomic/transcriptomic levels Development of deep learning methods for cell cycle analysis Integration of multi-omics data for precision oncology Tools for spatial transcriptomics (e.g., autoFISH, RNA2seg) Recent publications highlight his work in spatial transcriptomics , immunotherapy outcome prediction , and deep learning for digital pathology . His team has developed open-source tools like FISH-quant and pyHiM for single-molecule RNA imaging analysis. Scientific Honors: PRAIRIE Chair (2019) for AI research in life sciences Dr. Walter actively contributes to teaching deep learning for image analysis in multiple graduate programs across France, including courses at Mines ParisTech , Université Paris-Saclay , and Institut Curie . His software tools (FISH-quant, pyHiM) and methodological frameworks (e.g., Cut-Detector, PointFISH) have become standard resources in bioimage informatics.
Jean Ponce is a Professor at Ecole Normale Supérieure - PSL and a Global Distinguished Professor at New York University's Courant Institute and Center for Data Science. He serves as Scientific Director of PRAIRIE Interdisciplinary AI Research Institute and co-founded Enhance Lab, commercializing super-resolution imaging software. His research focuses on computer vision, machine learning, robotics, and image processing. Ponce has held roles at Inria, MIT, Stanford, and the University of Illinois, and is an IEEE and ELLIS Fellow. He has served as chair of major conferences like CVPR, ECCV, and ICCV, and authored the textbook 'Computer Vision: A Modern Approach.' Research interests include statistical models for exoplanet detection, neural networks for 3D reconstruction, and self-supervised learning. His work combines theoretical foundations with practical applications in astrophysics, robotics, and imaging. Notable awards include the IEEE CVPR Longuet-Higgins Prize (2016, 2020) and ICML Test-of-Time Award (2019). Key projects include Enhance Lab's high dynamic range imaging and PRAIRIE's interdisciplinary AI initiatives. Ponce's articles explore cutting-edge topics like neural object priors, geodesic motion planning, and satellite image analysis. His contributions bridge academic research and industrial applications, emphasizing both fundamental theory and real-world impact.
Houman BOROUCHAKI is a Professor at the University of Technology of Troyes (UTT), France, with over 20 years of academic leadership. He has served as Head of the Automatic Mesh Generation and Advanced Methods (GAMMA3) project team since 2008 and previously led the Laboratory of Mechanical Systems and Concurrent Engineering (LASMIS) (2005-2007). His work bridges academic research and industrial applications through collaborations with INRIA , French Petroleum Institute (IFPEN) , Dassault Aviation , and others. Research Interests: A pioneer in adaptive meshing , he focuses on finite element methods , geometric modeling , and numerical simulations . His innovations underpin mesh generation algorithms , 3D triangulation software , and industrial applications in metal forming, composite simulation, and subterranean modeling. Scientific Trends: His recent work emphasizes metric-based meshing , high-order geometric validity , and parallel processing for mesh generation , with applications in petroleum reservoirs, aviation surfaces, and nanomaterials. His Google Scholar profile reflects 25+ years of contributions to meshing and simulation. Teaching: With 22 years of experience, he teaches courses on meshing , numerical analysis , geometric modeling , and computer graphics at UTT, covering undergraduate to PhD levels. Labs & Teams: He leads the interdisciplinary GAMMA3 team and has contributed to LASMIS (mechanical engineering), L2n (CNRS-UMR 7076) (nanomaterials), and LIST3N (computer science).
Thierry Badard is an Associate Professor at the Department of Geomatics Sciences , Université Laval, where he also serves as Director of the Center for Research in Geospatial Data and Intelligence (CRDIG) . With over 28 years of experience in geospatial science, he leads research initiatives at the intersection of GeoAI , LiDAR processing , and smart city technologies . Director, CRDIG (2016-2022) Steering Committee Member, Big Data Research Centre (CRDM) Researcher, Institute for Intelligence and Data (IID) Research Expertise spans geospatial big data, GeoNLP, and IoT applications for digital twins. His work addresses flood risk modeling , 3D urban analytics , and environmental monitoring through AI-driven solutions. Recent publications focus on contrastive learning for LiDAR segmentation and geospatial ontologies for early warning systems. Grant Leadership includes collaborative projects on smart insurance analytics (2018-2025), Arctic bioaerosol research (2019-2025), and Quebec-Morocco digital twin partnerships (2022-2023). He has advised 15+ graduate students in geomatics and related fields.
Claude DELPHA is a Full Professor at Université Paris Saclay, affiliated with CentraleSupélec’s Laboratoire des Signaux et Systèmes (L2S). He holds an IEEE Senior Member status and has been with L2S since 2001. His expertise spans signal processing, fault diagnosis, electrical engineering systems, and machine learning. He leads the Modelling and Estimation team (GME) at L2S and oversees engineering admissions at Polytech Paris Saclay. Education: PhD in Instrumentation & Measurements and Signal Processing from Université de Metz, with a focus on intelligent sensor systems. Graduate degree in Electrical and Signal Processing Engineering. Research Interests: Multidimensional/statistical signal processing, fault diagnosis/prognosis (modeling, detection, estimation), electrical systems (drives, converters, PV), data hiding (watermarking), and pattern recognition (machine/deep learning). Active in energy systems, industry 4.0, and health/biology applications. Professional Roles: Director of GME research team, Polytech admissions lead, member of Polytech’s executive and academic boards, and IUT department council member. Engaged in labs like SYCOMORE and ILOCOS. Publications: Over 200 works since 2015, focusing on fault diagnosis in electrical systems, photovoltaic modules, bearings, and tidal turbines. Key methods include Kullback-Leibler divergence, Jensen-Shannon divergence, Mahalanobis distance, and PCA-based approaches. Awards: Not explicitly listed in provided texts.
Nicolas Riviere is a Professor at INSA Lyon in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, working within the Laboratory of Fluid Mechanics and Acoustics (LMFA - UMR 5509). He is part of the "Fluides complexes et transferts" (Complex Fluids and Transfers) group and the Environment team. His teaching activities primarily focus on fluid mechanics at the Mechanical Engineering Department of INSA Lyon, covering: General balances (mass, momentum, energy) Aerodynamics Compressible flows Numerical simulation of flows Free surface hydraulics Prof. Riviere's research centers on free surface hydrodynamics, with applications to natural and industrial risks. His work takes an experimental approach, utilizing the laboratory's channel facilities, particularly the channel intersection installation. His research spans river floods with compound beds, urban flooding, sanitation networks, torrential flows, and flow-obstacle interactions. He has developed a strong interdisciplinary focus, co-leading the "Baignades en Rivières Urbaines" studio with Oldrich Navratil from University Lyon 2 and the EVS Laboratory. His publication record demonstrates consistent contributions to the fields of fluid mechanics and environmental hydraulics, with recent work focusing on open-channel flows, urban flooding phenomena, vegetation-flow interactions, and experimental techniques for studying complex hydraulic phenomena. His research often bridges theoretical fluid mechanics with practical environmental applications. Prof. Riviere has received recognition for his work in environmental fluid mechanics, with numerous publications in high-impact journals in hydraulic engineering and fluid mechanics. He has supervised multiple PhD students and research projects related to environmental fluid mechanics and has collaborated with various institutions on interdisciplinary research projects addressing water-related challenges. The laboratory where he works, LMFA, provides extensive experimental facilities including wind tunnels, hydrodynamic channels, and advanced measurement techniques such as PIV (Particle Image Velocimetry), LDV (Laser Doppler Velocimetry), and other state-of-the-art instrumentation for fluid flow analysis.
Rémi Giraud is an Associate Professor at ENSEIRB-MATMECA (Bordeaux INP) in the Electronic department, conducting research at the IMS laboratory within the Signal and Image Processing group (MOTIVE team). He is also a member of the In2Brain research group. Dr. Giraud received his M.Sc. in telecommunications from ENSEIRB-MATMECA and a Master's in signal and image processing from the University of Bordeaux in 2014, graduating with honors as top of his class. He completed his Ph.D. in computer science at the University of Bordeaux in 2017, followed by a year as Assistant Professor before becoming Associate Professor in 2018. Current position: Associate Professor at ENSEIRB-MATMECA (Bordeaux INP), Electronic department Research affiliation: IMS laboratory, Signal and Image Processing group, MOTIVE team Additional affiliation: In2Brain research group Education: PhD in Computer Science (2017, University of Bordeaux), M.Sc. in Telecommunications and Signal/Image Processing (2014, ENSEIRB-MATMECA and University of Bordeaux) His research focuses on image processing and analysis, deep learning, and computer vision, with particular expertise in (un)supervised image segmentation, colorization, matching techniques, irregular under-representations (superpixels), spatial relations, and medical imaging (3D MRI applications). His work bridges theoretical computer vision with practical medical applications, developing algorithms that enhance image understanding in both general and specialized contexts. Dr. Giraud has developed several significant methodologies including SCALP (Superpixels with Contour Adherence using Linear Path), TASP (Texture-Aware SuperPixel), DSP (Dual Superpixel Descriptors), and NNSC (Nearest Neighbor-based Superpixel Clustering). His publications demonstrate consistent advancement in superpixel segmentation techniques with increasing focus on medical imaging applications, particularly brain MRI analysis. He currently supervises multiple PhD students including Julien Walther (working on Deep Learning Models from Structural Image Representations), Eloi Navet (An AI Assembly for Neurological Disease Prediction), Edern Le Bot (Holistic Brain MRI Segmentation), and Matthieu Vilain (Semi-supervised Deep Learning for image sequences). His research has resulted in numerous publications in top-tier conferences and journals, with a clear trajectory from theoretical algorithm development to practical implementation in medical contexts.
Alain Durmus is a Professor at École Polytechnique, affiliated with the applied mathematics department (CMAP). His research focuses on computational statistics, machine learning, and stochastic methods, including Monte Carlo algorithms, Bayesian inference, and optimization. He explores topics such as Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC), stochastic approximation, and generative models. His work emphasizes theoretical guarantees for algorithms like Langevin Monte Carlo and Hamiltonian Monte Carlo, with applications to high-dimensional Bayesian inference and inverse problems. Key contributions include hypocoercivity analysis of piecewise deterministic MCMC processes, convergence guarantees for stochastic gradient methods, and the development of efficient sampling techniques. He has also contributed to Bayesian imaging and federated learning through works like the QLSD algorithm. Awarded the Best Student Paper Award at ICASSP 2020 for his work on the Sliced-Wasserstein distance. His teaching spans mathematical statistics, stochastic methods, and probability at École Polytechnique and ENS Paris-Saclay. He has also contributed to conferences and workshops on topics ranging from MCMC convergence to optimization in machine learning.
Elise Lavoué is a full Professor in Computer Science at iaelyon School of Management, Jean Moulin Lyon 3 University, and a key researcher at the LIRIS laboratory (CNRS). She leads the SICAL research team and holds leadership roles including Editor-in-Chief of the STICEF journal, member of Labex ASLAN’s management committee, and member of the University of Lyon’s Research Ethics Evaluation Committee (CER-UdL). She is also affiliated with the ATIEF association. Her research focuses on enhancing motivation and engagement in digital learning environments through adaptive gamification, learning analytics, and human-computer interaction. She explores how tailored game elements, emotional awareness tools, and immersive technologies like virtual reality can support self-regulated learning, critical thinking, and skill development in complex digital contexts. Her recent publications span top journals such as IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Computers & Education, and CHI PLAY. These works reflect a strong trend in adaptive and personalized learning technologies, emotion-aware systems, and immersive training environments, particularly in educational and professional settings. Honorable Mention Award at ACM CHI PLAY 2019 (top 4%) Best Industrial Paper award at CSEDU 2020 Elise Lavoué actively supervises PhD students and post-doctoral researchers and leads multiple funded projects including LudiMoodle+, RENFORCE, Lex.gaMe, BODEGA, and Emoviz. These projects involve collaborations with institutions across France and focus on gamification, VR training, emotional dashboards, and vocabulary acquisition. She has secured funding from ANR, Labex ASLAN, CNRS, and other national bodies. Her work emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration between computer science, education, and social sciences. She is involved in several research teams and labs, primarily the SICAL team within the LIRIS laboratory, a major interdisciplinary research unit in computer science, images, and information systems. Her projects often involve industry partners such as SpeakPlus and Woonoz, and she contributes to both scientific advancement and practical educational innovation.
Gianni Franchi is an assistant professor at ENSTA Paris , affiliated with the Computer Science and Systems Engineering Unit (U2IS) . His work focuses on theoretical deep learning , with a strong emphasis on uncertainty quantification, robustness, and explainability in machine learning models. Current affiliation: ENSTA Paris (U2IS) Academic rank: Assistant Professor Key collaborators: David Filliat, Emanuel Aldea, Andrei Bursuc, Antoine Manzanera His research spans uncertainty quantification , explainable AI , and reliable machine learning . He investigates methods like Bayesian neural networks, ensemble approaches, and deterministic uncertainty models. His work also addresses domain adaptation , self-supervised learning , and autonomous systems , particularly in trajectory forecasting and semantic segmentation for autonomous driving. Recent publications analyze probabilistic modeling for robustness, symmetry-aware Bayesian methods , and multi-modal datasets like InfraParis. He develops frameworks like Torch-Uncertainty and benchmarks such as MUAD for uncertainty types in autonomous driving. Key themes: Uncertainty Quantification Deep Learning Theory Autonomous Systems Explainable AI Dataset Creation Bayesian Methods
