1.6. Scientific project 1.

General information

Design, Interaction and Perception

Here the main objectives are:

• Design digital and semantic models of physical, social, emotional reality from multimodal data
perceived in complex environments ("in the wild");
• Build new forms and languages for interaction between humans and systems;
• Exploit these models for the design of objects, worlds and experiences.

The two main challenges of this axis are: (1) Processing information that allows the machine
to take full advantage of the multiple sources and computing capabilities; and (2) Design effective,
expressive and evolving interactions and devices for environments with a multiplicity of data,
artifacts and humans.

Mathematical Modeling
This axis is transverse to the first previous ones, in the sense that it contributes to each of these
axes, and is one of the strengths of the laboratory which, as it was underlined previously, is
interested at the same time in the theoretical and practical aspects of research in ICT. It can be
divided into three parts:

• Content, Knowledge and Interactions Modeling;

• Networks and Systems Modeling;
• Information (and its ecosystems) Modeling.

For all these issues, advanced mathematical models are developed to effectively represent a complex
reality and at best exploit it.
The two main challenges of the axis are: (1) The compromise between fidelity to the real world
and the efficiency of the models (usability, computability, adequacy to needs); and (2) The ability
to address problems with a high level of complexity, involving heterogeneous, possibly massive
or incomplete data, involving poorly controlled uncertainties or needs for unbounded calculation
resources.

For all the axes described above, our objective is twofolds: develop a research activity at
the highest level and contribute to the innovation effort and transfer to the industry. Thus, the
implementation of our project requires a special effort in the coming years on three main points:

• The attractiveness of our teams and the quality of our recruitments at all levels (researchers,
doctoral students, post-docs), in order to strengthen our expertise and to have the best assets
to meet the challenges mentioned above. This effort will have to be done in coordination with
our partners in NewUni and the IMT.
• Strengthen the synergy between our teams around the axes defined above in order to take
advantage of their complementarities and also to create a momentum that is profitable for
large teams as well as for smaller or less visible teams. This effort should also be extended to
NewUni’s Faculty of Data Sciences and Information Technologies, in order to take advantage of
the complementarities between NewUni’s laboratories.
• Develop a solid partnership strategy that enables the emergence of some big projects, which
may involve several teams with complementary expertise, and that can provide them with
the necessary financial support to develop their work over years. This must be done without
neglecting other sources of funding, especially public funding at national and European level.
We started structuring our efforts around this goal in coordination with IMT and our partners
in NewUni.

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