Postdoctoral in Adaptive AI - CDD 18 months

Who we are ?

Télécom Paris, part of the IMT (Institut Mines-Télécom) and a founding member of the Institut Polytechnique de Paris, is one of France's top 5 general engineering schools.

The mainspring of Télécom Paris is to train, imagine and undertake to design digital models, technologies and solutions for a society and economy that respect people and their environment.

We are looking for a Postdoc in Adaptive Artificial Intelligence to join our dynamic team in the Communications and Electronics research department at Télécom Paris.

SCIENTIFIC CONTEXT

In today's rapidly evolving technological landscape, the demand for intelligent systems that can adapt and learn from new data and experiences is more pressing than ever. The capacity to continually acquire, consolidate, and retain knowledge is a foundational aspect of intelligence. In particular, as we move towards increased AI adoption and as we look to deploy AI systems in the real world, it is imperative that learning agents continuously interact and adapt to the ever-changing environment. Traditional deep neural networks (DNNs) have shown remarkable capabilities in various tasks. However, they often struggle with continual learning, a critical aspect of adaptability where models need to continuously update themselves as new information becomes available.

The inability of AI systems to adapt to our dynamic environment is a significant barrier to fully harnessing AI's potential. For instance, Adaptive AI systems are needed in situations where rapid changes in the external environment or changing enterprise goals require an optimized response. The cutting-edge AI systems now in use have significant caveats, such as excessive data requirements, susceptibility to adversarial attack, lack of robustness to perturbations or spurious correlations. The prevailing assumption in deployed AI systems—that data is static—neglects the evolving nature of data, calling for the development of continual adaptive AI systems that are versatile and resilient to changes. The goal is to create adaptive AI systems that are reliable, highly efficient, trustworthy, robust and green.

Deploying adaptive AI on edge devices presents numerous scientific challenges, primarily due to memory and resource constraints inherent to these platforms. Unlike centralized servers with abundant memory and processing power, edge devices often have limited resources, making it challenging to store large number of samples from previous tasks or multiple models simultaneously. Moreover, performing inference and on-device learning concurrently adds another layer of complexity, requiring efficient utilization of available resources without compromising performance.

This study is part of the European ENFIELD project. ENFIELD is set to establish a distinctive European Center of Excellence focused on advancing fundamental research in Adaptive, Green, Human-Centric, and Trustworthy AI. These pillars represent novel, strategic elements crucial for the successful development, deployment, and acceptance of AI in Europe. Institut Mines-Télécom (IMT), a partner in the project through its Data Analytics and AI scientific community, is in charge of the work package that federates the project's research efforts on these four scientific pillars. This position falls under the Adaptive AI pillar.

As a member of our team, you will have the opportunity to contribute to innovative projects and actively participate in the development of AI-based solutions.
The main responsibilities of the position include:

• Assuring research missions in the field of adaptive AI, in particular embedded and distributed AI at the edge.
  
• Participate in the Horizon Europe ENFIELD project
  
• Contribute to the reputation of the School and Institut Mines-Télécom
  
• Participate in the adaptive AI activities of Institut Mines-Télécom's Data-AI community.
  

You have solid expertise in Artificial Intelligence, a proven ability to work in a team and a passion for technological innovation. Previous experience in adaptive AI would be an asset.
If you're motivated by technical challenges and want to help shape the future of adaptive AI, come and join us!

Why join us?
You'll be working in a fast-growing, pleasant, green and accessible environment (especially for people with disabilities) just 20 km from Paris (RER B and C suburban train lines, close to major roads, shared shuttle departing from Porte d'Orléans). You will benefit from :

• 49 days annual leave (CA + RTT)
  
• flexible working hours (depending on department activity)
  
• telecommuting 1 to 3 days/week possible
  
• 75% public transport pass reimbursement
  
• Proximity to numerous sports facilities, concierge service, underground parking, in-house catering, etc.
  
• Staff association at school and ministry level
  
• Good to know: our social security contributions are lower than in the private sector

Other information :
Application deadline: June 30, 2024
Job type : 18 months fixed-term contract
Job description here.

We recruit on the basis of skills, regardless of origin, age or gender, and all our positions are open to people with disabilities.