Post-doctoral researcher in computer science – 24 months

JOB ENVIRONMENT: 

Institut Mines-Télécom is the leading public group of engineering and management Grandes Écoles in France. Consisting of eight public graduate Grandes Écoles and two subsidiary graduate schools, Institut Mines-Télécom leads and develops a rich ecosystem of partner schools, economic, academic and institutional partners, key players in education, research and economic development.

Mines Saint-Étienne, a graduate school of the Institut Mines-Télécom, is responsible for education, research, innovation, industrial transfer and scientific culture dissemination. With 2,500 students, 500 staff and a budget of €50m, it has 3 campuses dedicated to the industry of the future, health and well-being, and digital sovereignty and microelectronics. It is ranked in the top 15 graduate engineering schools in France and the top 500 universities worldwide.

The 2023-2027 strategy of Mines Saint-Étienne is in line with that of Institut Mines-Télécom. It aims to:

• Support the ecological, digital and generational transitions and educate the people involved

• Support national and European sovereignty in microelectronics and digital technologies

To support this strategy, it is recruiting a post-doctoral researcher in computer science that will contribute to European university EULiST. This is fixed-term contract of 24 months allocated to department Informatique et systèmes intelligents (Intelligent systems and informatics or ISI) at Institut Henri Fayol, one of the 5 research and training centres of Mines Saint-Étienne. Moreover, the research of the employee will be conducted in the Laboratoire d’informatique, de modélisation et d’optimisation des systèmes (Laboratory of Informatics, Modelling and Optimisation of Systems or LIMOS).

The Institut Henri Fayol is a training and research centre of Mines Saint-Étienne that focuses on current transformations in the light of the digital, ecological and industrial transitions that are at the heart of the efficiency, resilience and sustainability of industry and regions. It deploys a multidisciplinary strategy that brings together strong skills in mathematical and industrial engineering, computer science and intelligent systems, environmental for organisational engineering, and responsible management and innovation, in conjunction with the EVS UMR 5600, LIMOS UMR 6158 and COACTIS research units.

The Intelligent systems and informatics (ISI) department focuses on the IT aspects of these transitions. The department is particularly concerned with the challenges posed by the growing interconnection of data, content and algorithms. In the context of the sustainable industrialisation of territories that the Institut Henri Fayol advocates, this interconnection is shaping a decentralised and dynamic industrial ecosystem in which issues of interoperability and coordination are becoming crucial.

More specifically, the department's activities aim at modelling, designing, managing, controlling and analysing complex systems made up of more or less autonomous and interacting sub-systems. The department approaches these systems from the angle of 3 scientific fields that form the core of ISI's expertise: multi-agent systems; knowledge representation and reasoning; and digital infrastructures.

The Laboratory of Informatics, Modelling and Optimization of the Systems (LIMOS), which will be the host laboratory, is a Mixed Unit of Research (UMR 6158) in computing, and more generally in Sciences and Technologies of information and the Communication (STIC). LIMOS is mainly connected with the Institute of the Sciences of the Information and their Interactions (INS2I) of the CNRS, and in a secondary way to the Institute of the Sciences of the Engineering and the Systems (INSIS). It has for academic supervision the Clermont Auvergne university and the graduate school of Mines of Saint-Étienne (EMSE), and as partner establishment the Engineer Institute SIGMA. LIMOS is a member labex IMOBS3 and ClercVolc and federation of search in Environment FR 3467 (which groups 17 laboratories UCA and INRA of the site of Clermont-Ferrand). The scientific positioning of the LIMOS is centered around the computing, the modelling and the optimization of the organizational and alive systems. The position is available in the Information and Communication Systems (ICS) axis.

JOB DESCRIPTION:

We are offering a post-doctoral researcher position in computer science for 2 years, expecting skills in Semantic Web technologies and Linked Data.

This researcher would contribute to EULiST, an alliance of 10 universities in Europe, on tasks related to the digital campus that aims at collecting data and knowledge about courses, teaching material, library resources, and generally, university knowledge across the alliance.

The post-doctoral researcher will have to get involved in Tasks 2.2 and 2.3 of EULiST that focuses around EULiST knowledge hub hosted by Leibniz University Hannover. In addition, we expect the researcher to:

• In collaboration with other partners, contribute to a knowledge model or knowledge models to describe common university resources (such as courses, study programmes, publications, and so on);

• Instantiate the model by collecting, extracting and transforming available data into a knowledge graph, compatible with Leibniz University's knowledge hub;

• Work on interoperable platform architectures for data/knowledge access and interchange;

• Contribute to existing platform prototypes at Institut Mines-Télécom, such as Data-AI Competences Platform and Teralab's software resource catalogue.

PROFIL SOUGHT:

To do this, we are looking for talented researchers who own a PhD degree on topics that relate to the Semantic Web, the Web of Data, and knowledge graphs. Particularly, we seek a person with:

• Very good knowledge of at least several of these standards: RDF, SPARQL, OWL, SHACL, LDP;

• Experience in developing software with these technologies;

• A capacity to abstract problems and generalise solutions to cover a broad spectrum of applications or fields;

• Good autonomy and some level of leadership towards managing students' projects;

• Good communication skills in English and ease to evolve in an international and multicultural context.

To prove their value, candidates must provide a CV that mentions their publication record and research project experience. Candidates must also write a convincing motivation letter. Letters mostly written by generative AI are usually generic and dull, therefore they are likely to reduce the chance to obtain an interview.

WHY JOIN US:

Institut Mines-Télécom is characterised by: 

• A scientific environment of excellence

• A group with entities throughout France

Mines Saint-Étienne is distinguished by:

• A privileged working environment with a high student supervision rate and a high environment rate (support and back-up functions)

• First-rate experimental and digital resources

• Significant contract research activity (€11m/year in Research and Innovation contracts), mainly with industrial partners

• 25% international students, Member of the T.I.M.E. network and the EULIST European University

• A centre for scientific, technical and industrial culture - La Rotonde - which is unique in France, and which has a major impact on society (> 50,000 visitors per year)

• Pleasant workplace, easily accessible by public transport and close to motorways

• Public transport costs reimbursed up to 75% (subject to conditions)

• Sustainable mobility package

• Staff committee that subsidises sports, leisure, cultural and social events and activities

• The possibility of partial remote working

• 49 days annual leave