inria - activity report 2010

Annual report 2010

02 _ In the words of the researchers

08 _ Invent to serve 09 _ Editorial12 _ A new organisation for

a new way of working20 _ More structured and ambitious partnerships25 _ Transfer for innovation: Using research to tackle contemporary challenges

30 _ the PLeasUre of InventInG

40 _ InventInG In the fIeLd

50 _ MasterMIndInG the fUtUre 58 _ Debates

70 _ Staff, contributors and project-teams74 _ Project-teams active in 2010 80 _ Inria’s partnerships81 _ Organisation chart and councils

Our society relies increasingly on digital technologies to communicate,

seek medical information, travel, or have fun. These often-invisible

technologies simplify our tasks and enrich our daily lives, while also

developing the economy.

At the interface of computer science and mathematics, from pure

research to technological development and to industrial transfer,

researchers at Inria, a public research institute, are inventing tomorrow’s

digital technologies. Inria’s research is collaborative, which is evidenced by

the diversity of the talent comprising its research teams, as well as in

the many joint projects conducted with public and private research

entities in France and abroad.

While competing with the leading international specialists in their field,

Inria researchers and staff are also committed to sharing their knowledge

with the widest possible audience.

Inventors for the digital world

InrIA AnnuAl repOrT 2010 /1

DIGITAL PRIVACY

“The part that IT plays in our daily environment is undeniably a source of progress… but one which could quickly turn into a nightmare if we do not take care to protect everyone’s privacy.”

Claude Castelluccia, senior research scientist, Planète project-team, Grenoble – Rhône-Alpes research centre

The Planète team’s research objective is to

analyse existing software and digital services,

such as social networks and smartphones.

In a world where everything is connected…

and traceable, this work aims to develop new

solutions to protect users’ privacy, whilst still

maintaining optimal service quality.

2/ InrIA AnnuAl repOrT 2010

“Bringing a bit of semantics into a world of links will lead to better management of the data posted and viewed on the internet, and make it easier to search and use it. The purpose of my work is to give internet users the means to control their presence on the Web.”

InTeRneT

The edelweiss team’s research is devoted to

reasoning in relation to the growing mass of

online data. The researchers look at metadata,

i.e. data that characterise other data in order to

sort them and assess their pertinence.

Having control over metadata means being able,

in future, to have control over the Web.

Fabien Gandon, Edelweiss project-team, Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée research centre


enVIROnMenT-eneRGY

“Mathematics lets you see the invisible. Our project involves providing a precise mapping of the subsoil, in order to optimise the exploitation of fossil energy sources (petroleum, gas). We are also looking to model destructive geophysical phenomena to determine high-risk zones and thereby be able to protect local populations.”

Hélène Barucq, Magique-3D project-team leader, Bordeaux – Sud-Ouest research centre


The Magique-3D team works on seismic

imaging and computing for seismological

purposes. It develops digital methods to

collect, process and aggregate large amounts

of information. It builds complex models and

makes use of high-performance computing

resources in order to apply them to geophysical

studies.


Watch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FiSSHqSmOQ

HeALTHCARe

The Visages team developed a

neuronavigation device, a veritable “brain

GPS,” that is used to guide medical and

surgical procedures in real time in a simple,

precise way. This image-processing control

system is used in transcranial magnetic

stimulation, a treatment for depression.

“Depression is a major public healthcare issue. Through my work, I seek to improve nerve stimulation treatment response. The solutions we’ve developed help to treat a large number of patients every day at Rennes hospital.”

Pierre Hellier, research scientist in the Serpico project-team, Rennes — Bretagne-Atlantique research centre. It was in the Visages project-team that Pierre Hellier contributed to the concept of a neuronavigation system.


The Demar team strives to improve electrical

stimulation methods, i.e. the skillfully

calculated application of electrical currents

that trigger coordinated muscle contractions

in the paralysed limbs. To obtain functional

movement (walking, posture, prehension), it

is necessary to control the activities of all the

muscles involved: those of healthy as well as

disabled limbs.

“Central nervous system injuries can cause paralysis in certain limbs even if the muscles are intact. In my work, I aim to assist or restore functional movement in paralysed limbs using their residual motor abilities, particularly in cases of hemiplegia and paraplegia.”

DISABILITY

Christine Azevedo Coste, researcher in the Demar project-team, Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée research centre


I n a digital age, Inria is ready, now more than ever, to handle all of its missions: facing new scientific challenges, developing relations with the economic and industrial world, participating in major societal projects

and raising public awareness of digital sciences. Inria has proven its capacity to evolve, demonstrating its scientific agility and solid foundations, in a con-stantly changing French research environment. Michel Cosnard, Chairman and CEO of Inria, and Antoine Petit, Deputy Managing Director, share their views.

In a period marked by continuous upheavals, for society in general and in the world of research, how can the Institute ensure and maintain its vibrancy?Michel Cosnard: Since the world and society are becoming more digital, the need for re-search and innovation in our scientific fields is constantly growing. New research themes are emerging, linked to our traditional skills, at the crossroads of informatics and mathematics. They are more systematically linked to societal challenges like the environment and health, the internet of the future (sensor networks, social networks…), security and reliability of software programmes or privacy issues. In this

Inria is ready for this decade

particularly stimulating context and in order to respond to new problems, Inria researchers are launching new projects, looking for new partners and forming new teams.Antoine Petit: For all these challenges, competition is global. Indeed, beyond their cognitive aspects, digital technologies are considered, and rightly so, as a key factor in economic and social development, thanks to their capacity for innovation and disseminating technology. Our ambition is clearly to continue working within the exclusive circle of leading research institutes that are an international reference in digital sciences.

How has Inria been able to grow and control its development?M. C.: Above all, there are the fundamentals that characterise our work. The first is the nature of our research teams: our teams are small and work on projects with strong societal or economic implications. The second concerns our eight research centres, which all have, working alongside researchers, departments dedicated to development and support for research. This is an important asset. Finally, the national character of our institute translates into the definition of strategic national schemes, implemented in a transdisciplinary manner by our scientific and functional departments. Our organisation does not have a rigid hierarchy. It is capable of rapidly evolving to tackle new subjects in different fields, thus ensuring great agility. This is true for our research teams, but also for our different business lines, which regularly demonstrate their ability to adapt.A. P.: Inria’s flexible organisation allows it to respond effectively to a certain number of current scientific and organisational challenges. Thanks to our responsive project-teams, and their appeal, we can focus our efforts on new projects and attract talents from around the world. For example, Inria mobi-lised its resources in the context of the Future Investments programme. The


purpose for Inria was to confirm its role as a national player in transfer and innovation - as can be witnessed in our Institut Carnot certification - to cultivate new partnerships in life sciences, the environment and medicine, and to consolidate its influence in a digital economy.

What are some major projects in the future that will help Inria confirm its position and ensure its missions?A. P.: Inria has a long tradition of working with the industrial and economic world, for which it is a privileged partner in digital technologies. We are going to pursue this policy, by focusing our efforts on SME. Moreover, we intend to develop our relations with the public at large, in order to answer questions our fellow citizens have about digital technologies and their role in society. As a national institute, Inria also intends to continue being a key player in European research policies and contribute to constructing the European research area.M. C.: In ten years the Institute has doubled in terms of size and budget. Now our goal is to consolidate our organisation, assert our national presence, mul-tiply our partnerships with French and European universities and reinforce our complementary role with the CNRS. Therefore, our research centres, which are strongly embedded in their regional environments, should play a major role in elaborating and building territorial strategies for excellence in digital sciences, in partnership with all the players concerned. Thus, they will contribute to creating the strong and highly visible regional clusters France needs. To sum up and conclude, today we are equipped to face the scientific, social and economic challenges of the next decade, in which digital technologies will play a major role.

x 2In ten years, the institute has doubled in size and budget.


M ore modern management, clearer relations with other institutes, focusing of investments on fledgling centres, rolling out of the Allistene alliance, an increase in its own resources: Inria has con-

solidated its organisation and ensured the longevity of its way of working in a changing research environment.

“2010 has been devoted to a lot of work in order to prepare for the future,” con-cludes Hervé Mathieu, Chief Executive Officer for Resources and Service Administration. “We had to adapt to new rules and a new development model promoted by the State. A lot of projects were conducted, including some that will essentially be completed in 2011.” The goal is to prepare the institute for new challenges: reorganisation of the world of research, new scientific challenges related to societal issues, adaptation to changes in how organisations are funded and the development of new tools.

A complete reorganisation of management methods and proceduresProjects dedicated to modernising management were launched in 2009 and led to certification of the institute’s accounts in 2010. This regulatory obligation required a great deal of work and a complete review of financial procedures, which, after examina-tion by the statutory auditor, only gave rise to a small number of reservations. At the same time, reorganisation of IT means and a necessary update of the institute’s internal information system progressed significantly and will continue in 2011. This

A new organisation for a new way of working

45framework agreements signed with partners in higher education and research since 2009.


phase, devoted to harmonising practices and sharing data, represents an inestima-ble move forward in managing the insti-tute. It will make managing research pro-jects easier, for example in the context of European contracts or the ANR.

positive growth, focused on new centresThe new model for organising research that is taking shape has been accompa-nied by a stabilisation in State funding: “Our growth is now supported by our own re-sources,” points out Hervé Mathieu. “They have been highly significant this year, with an overall increase of 47% and growth of 28% for revenues linked to research contracts. This has allowed an increase of our means, in constant euros, of more than 11% in 2010.” Therefore, despite a decline in the number of openings for civil servants, recruitment levels have remained high. Invest-ment efforts have been concentrated on three recent centres in Bordeaux, Lille and Saclay, whose basic means have not been completely established and who have pressing needs in terms of infrastructure.

A successful transition into the futureInria has aligned itself with the new national strategy in research and inno-vation (SNRI) adopted in July 2009 and which is organised around universi-ties. In particular, a framework agreement was signed in December 2009 with the Conference of University Chancellors (CPU). “In 2010, we set up, within the context of the Allistene alliance, a common environment for work-ing with universities and schools as well as the CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research) and the CEA (French Atomic Energy Commission) in

“The efforts deployed by the Inria

for the Saclay centre correspond

to the challenges being tackled

here, in an extremely rich

scientific environment, at the

heart of the ‘French Silicon Valley’

promoted by the government.

The centre is highly involved in

this project since 25 of its

28 teams are formed jointly with

other partners on the site of

Saclay.

To maintain skills in our scientific

disciplines, it is vital that this

increase in the number of

researchers be accompanied by

an increase in human and

material resources to organise

the centre and its departments

(legal support, exploitation and

transfer of results, etc.) thus

guaranteeing the performance

of research teams.”

The Saclay cenTre: A key sITe FOr InrIA

Nozha Boujemaa, Director of the Inria Saclay Ile-de-France research centre


computational sciences and technologies,” says Hervé Mathieu. Coordination with the CNRS led, in 2011, to the signature of a framework agreement with the latter, clarifying, in particular, the organisation of partnerships set up by both institutions with universities, either within joint research units (UMR) or joint project-teams (EPC).The Allistene alliance should help identify common scientific and techno-logical priorities among its members in order to reinforce partnerships and create links with businesses. “The alliance’s structure has been defined this year, with the creation of a coordination committee chaired by Michel Cosnard, five in-terdisciplinary task forces and six policy groups that are now up and running,” explains Claude Kirchner, Executive Officer for Research and Technology Transfer for Innovation. “An agreement has also been signed with the ANR in order to specify how the two entities are going to establish a joint programme, taking into account the major challenges in the field. Furthermore, the Allistene coordination committee has voted in favour of setting up an ethics committee in computational sciences.”Finally, systems to support the creation of new firms have been reorgan-ised to increase efficiency and integrate more easily the common strategy of actors within the alliance. Thus, Inria-Transfert has been replaced by three firms: Inria Participation (a 100% subsidiary of Inria), which covers all Inria interests in firms, IT-Translation (IT2), which supports entrepreneurs, and IT2I, a venture capital fund set up in partnership with a state-owned bank, the CDC (Caisse des Dépôts et de Consignation), which will inject funds into start-ups.

Organising science in order to be more efficient and responsiveConsolidated in 2010, the new organisation of Inria’s research activities is de-signed to maintain its efficiency and responsiveness, even though its research teams have doubled over the last decade. Research activities are organised ac-cording to five major fields, each led by a Deputy Scientific Director (DSA). This system allows them to work closely with researchers and coordinate their activities more effectively, notably in terms of collective responses to


calls for projects. “The DSA provides scientific leadership in his field and acts as coordinator who is very close to both teams and research-ers,” emphasises Pascal Guitton, Director of research department. “They must also con-tribute to implementing Inria’s national scien-tific policy and help shape collective visions in order to synchronise the work that needs to be done over the next five years. Finally, they must help identify new research themes that the in-stitute should get involved in.”

In this context, “exploratory” incentive ac-tions allow the institute to consider new hypotheses that break with conventional thinking, before creating a team on a topic, if it indeed turns out to be promising. These initiatives are scientifically risky and there-fore limited in number. On the other hand, the number of large-scale initiatives, which involve Inria teams and external partners over a 4-year period in the study of complex issues, are destined to increase. “Indeed, these initiatives tackle very difficult problems that a single team could not easily solve and therefore necessarily involve several players,” explains Pascal Guitton. “Inria wants to engage in more of these projects because they represent current scientific challenges in our fields of research and often involve major stakes for society such as health, energy or the environment.” Two large-scale initiatives have been created this year, raising the total number to seven.

Major tools to organise software developmentAn essential step for innovative research is also the possibility of experiment-ing with algorithms and software on technological platforms. Providing

how do you envision the field today?

Visiting the 43 teams in my field allowed me to understand how

quickly information technology is evolving. I was struck by the many

revolutions that are unfolding simultaneously and in which Inria is playing

an important role. I also observed that communities with members from

different worlds are forming around a common interest, like security,

for example. My job is to identify these emerging groups and help

them get organised.

Which project seems the most vital to you?

Contributing to public debate and clarifying issues is one of Inria’s

missions, but the institute does not know how to respond in a concise way

to very general questions, for example, systems security or protecting

privacy. My role is to promote the emergence of intelligible discourse

about our activities, whether directed to the public at large or our

supervisory ministries.

“helping emerging communiTieS geT OrgAnIsed”

Gilles Dowek, Deputy Scientific Director, “Algorithms, Programming, Software and Architectures


invaluable support for research teams, experimentation and development departments have also been deployed and organised in 2010. Inria has also invested, with institutional partners and local authorities, in high-tech facili-ties. In Lille, the institute inaugurated the Inria Euratechnologies platform,

a place for exchanges and collaborative work open to Inria researchers and part-ners. It is home, in particular, to the Lille node of a network experimentation plat-form (Senslab) deployed on sites in Lille, Grenoble, Rennes and Strasbourg. In Nan-cy, the high-security computing laboratory has opened its doors. It is used to conduct experiments by Inria and its partners in network security, exchanges and telecom-munications equipment. Finally, a virtual reality room has been inaugurated at the Sophia Antipolis-Méditerranée Research Centre (see following p. 18-19). It will be open to regional or European academic and industrial partners.A HOuse AdApTed To The diSabled

Promoting home support and independence of the elderly or

disabled is the objective of a large-scale initiative called PAL

(Personally Assisted Living). This scientific and technical challenge

involves a wide range of skills: 9 teams from 4 of the institute’s

centres and a host of partners, including the CSTB (Centre Scientifique

et Technique du Bâtiment) and the nice CHU (teaching hospital).

They are organised around a dedicated infrastructure where they can

combine and experiment with innovations in robotics, sensors and

cognitive methods to prevent falls, detect signs of malnutrition,

improve mobility or preserve social ties.


HIGH-SECURITY LABORATORY (LHS), Nancy – Grand Est centre. Computing and telescope clusters for collecting and studying IT threats. Wadie Guizani, engineer in the Carte team.

InrIA AnnuAl repOrT 2010 /17InrIA AnnuAl repOrT 2010 /17

Watch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e53iVqdj7uY

IMMERSIVE ENVIRONMENT FOR TREATING DOG PHOBIA

The immersive cube consists of three vertical screens and a horizontal screen. The purpose of the system is to obtain

a real immersion sensation for a single user. The cube is one of the components of the Gouraud-Phong room, an immersive space

of variable dimensions at Inria Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée.


Watch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAm7faixBak

n ow more than ever, Inria’s work is part of a national project open to Europe and the world. Defining means of cooperation and agreeing on common research themes is essential for creating

partnerships more easily and achieving a higher level of performance. Work on ambitious projects that the institute started in 2009 is starting to produce results.

“Preparing for the future concerns all of our relations with academic and indus-trial partners,” underlines Claude Kirchner, Executive Officer for Innovation Research and Technology Transfer. “These relations are destined to grow stronger. They should be more ambitious and more thoroughly developed so that we can control transfer better and thus contribute to creating wealth. They must be organised in order to achieve greater performance and legibility.” This is the challenge Inria

intends to take up by reinforcing the high-quality relations it has cultivated with research teams and industrialists. This approach is deployed on national, European and interna-tional levels.

A partnership for the environment and sustainable developmentOn 8 September 2010, Inria and the Cemagref signed a partnership agreement reinforcing their collaborative work on environmental issues and current challenges raised by global climate change and sustainable development. In fact, concerning the environment, as in many other disciplines

More structured and ambitious partnerships

40%In 2010, funding through bilateral industrial agreements increased by 40%.


To this end, Inria set up, in 2008,

strategic bilateral agreements that

contribute to organising the institute’s

skills around major industrial

challenges. These partnerships are

based on ambitious common research

programmes, for periods of 4 to 5 years,

focused on themes that are important

for industry such as simulation and

high-performance computing for eDF,

self-organised networks for Alcatel or

security for Microsoft. A framework

agreement defines the conditions of

this work in terms of intellectual

property rights, management or

publication issues. “The objective is to

promote quality partnerships that allow

Inria researchers to confirm their ideas

and software in real life application

scenarios provided by the industrialist,”

explains Olivier Trébucq, Head of

Strategic Partnerships and Key

Accounts. “As for the firm, it benefits

MOre sTrucTured And AMbITIOus parTnerShipS WiTh induSTry

from a high level of expertise on

important questions. It gains a long

term vision that allows it to identify

challenges or potentially interesting

subjects for its business in the future.”

The first of these strategic partnerships

was signed with Alcatel-Lucent and has

led to the creation of an open laboratory

that will celebrate its 3rd anniversary in

2010. “Around a dozen patent

applications have been submitted

jointly, based on three major research

initiatives undertaken in 2008, and

projects with third parties have been

launched, notably within the 7th

Framework Programme for Research

and Development,” emphasises Olivier

Trébucq. “It’s a wonderful illustration of

the high level of skill and emulation that

exists within the laboratory!” A real

community of expertise has been

established around key issues for the

internet of the future.

New agreements around strong

socio-economic challenges

Three new framework agreements were

finalised in 2010, raising the total

number of strategic partnerships signed

to 9. The first one, signed with Bull,

led to the selection of five projects on

themes defined with the firm. These

projects mobilise a dozen Inria teams

and concern parallel programming

environments, optimisation of energy

consumption or the resilience and

fault-tolerance of tomorrow’s

computers. The second agreement,

with the AnDRA (French national

radioactive waste management

agency), involves six Inria teams

in research on modeling and simulation

of physical and chemical processes

that affect buried radioactive waste

throughout its existence. For the

AnDRA, this partnership contributes,

among other things, to optimising the

use of computation codes, which are

increasingly cumbersome, and

managing ever-increasing amounts

of data.

The third agreement, signed with eDF,

defines the terms of a partnership

concerning high-performance

computing and simulations for energy.

12 Inria project-teams work with 6 R&D

departments at eDF to develop tools

for visualising large volumes of data

or programming models for hybrid

multi-core architectures.

Three start-ups created thanks to Inria

research (Distene, Sysfera and Caps

entreprise) are also involved in the

design of these research initiatives.


involving complex problems, researchers need to rely on computational sciences. Modelling and simulation, observation and detection techniques, managing huge amounts of data, etc. are at the heart of Inria’s work and its commitment to serving other disciplines.

creating a european network to reinforce innovationToday Inria is deeply involved in the major European alliance EIT ICT Labs and coordinates French initiatives. This Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) must reinforce synergies between research, training and innovation to support European industry in services and applications linked to the information society. This is a crucial sector for European economies. 2010 was devoted to organising this highly ambitious pro-gramme and its deployment on 5 sites (Berlin, Eindhoven, Helsinki, Paris and Stockholm) involving 21 main partners, including 8 industrialists, 6 research organisations and 7 leading universities, as well as innovation centres and competitiveness clusters. Since September 2010, the community has had a CEO, Willem Jonker, and a “co-located” system of governance involving the 5 centres. “In 2010 we created tools to encourage exploitation and transfer of research results,” explains Bruno Le Dantec, head of the French

“node”. A European entrepreneur’s club now provides a point of access for national firms interested in doing busi-ness in other member countries. At the same time, the Technology transfer program will facilitate the transfer of research results to industrialists and SME on a European scale. “This tool will greatly improve use and dissemination of research results,” according to Bruno Le Dantec. “The European project Contrail in the field of cloud computing has benefitted from support that has allowed it to confirm its results on European test benches, before disseminating them widely among partners and European students through workshops and a summer school session.”

8In 2010, eight of the highly prized erc (european research council) grants were awarded to researchers on Inria project-teams.


Watch

http://www.inria.fr/en/institute/partnerships/european-partnerships/european-research-council

research and training throughout europeAt the same time, research activities based on the themes of EIT ICT Labs have been set up. “The French part coordinates the theme Tomorrow’s digi-tal city,” indicates Bruno Le Dantec. “It involves imagining services that will make life easier for urban residents and integrating work conducted on other themes (Health and wellness, Energy efficiency…). We have obtained permission from the mayors of major cities covered by the 5 nodes to carry out experiments in situ.”Concerning training, 7 European Masters have been created and will be taught in partner universities, in English, starting in 2012, thus encouraging the mobility of both students and professors. The French par-ticipate in three Masters: internet technology and architectures, Distributed systems and services and Human computer interaction and design.

consolidating partnerships with north AmericaOrganisation and legibility are also the watchwords of Inria’s policy con-cerning international relations. Created in 2009, the JLPC (Joint Laboratory on Petascale Computing), a joint laboratory with the National center for Supercomputing Application at the University of Illinois (USA) has led to highly productive collaborative projects.This has allowed French researchers to take part in a major American pro-ject, the Blue Waters Petaflop Computer, and to contribute to the design of software for the optimal operation of this supercomputer. 10 articles and 5 software programmes have already been produced. Thanks to this high-quality contribution, the JLPC now coordinates an international research programme on climate simulations based on high-performance computing,

Inria has created the first joint project-team with a european

university and its second transnational team since the one it

created in 2008 with a Dutch organisation, the CWI. This

project-team, called Focus, is based at the University of Bologna in

Italy and offers a perfect example of the institute’s european

strategy. It is led by Davide Sangiorgi, an internationally renowned

researcher in modelling mathematical calculations in the study of

distributed systems. This is a fundamental subject, but one that

offers a response to a concrete need: mastering computer systems

integrated in everyday activities and objects and on large-scale

networks.

a Second TrAnsnATIOnAl TeAM


initiated by the G8 and involving partners from the United States, Canada, Germany, Japan, Spain and France. Other collaborative work with American researchers should be more visible. “Around thirty of our teams have created ties with researchers at Berkeley and Stanford, which are among the leading universities in Inria’s fields of expertise,” notes Hélène Kirchner, Director of International Relations. “We would like to reinforce these relations and highlight them more.” This goal was formalised in 2010 with the signature of an agreement with the Citris (Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society) in order to organise existing collaborative work within a common project called Inria@Silicon Valley.

consolidating federal and national agreementsAnother project designed to formalise scattered collaborative projects has started in Brazil. Inria has had long-standing relations with Brazilian researchers and co-funds exchanges between teams. “Inria would like to reinforce, organise and consolidate relations with different Brazilian states in order to assert its presence in this vibrant and promising country,” underlines Hélène Kirchner. A cooperation agree-ment signed with 11 federal research agencies and their coordination within a national confederation has enabled the launch, in 2010, of a joint call for projects on behalf of all these states. Sixteen Franco-Brazilian projects have already been submitted.

SupporTing dynamic AFrIcAn reseArcH

The CARI, the African symposium on

computer science research, organised

its 10th edition this year. This event,

initiated by Inria and the United nations

University in 1992, has become

a reference for African and

French-speaking researchers over the

years. Today, it is ready to move up to

a larger scale and include other

countries, including english-speaking

ones. This could be the next step for

the upcoming CARI in Algeria in 2012.


s ince its creation, the mission of Inria has been to ensure the trans-fer of knowledge and technologies developed by its teams to indus-try. Its purpose? Making sure its work in R&D is transformed into

products and services, contributing to the creation of economic value. Currently SMEs are the institute’s privileged partners in this joint effort to promote innovation.

Sharing expertise, knowledge and new technologies with businesses is one of the missions the State has assigned the institute. This means, on the one hand, transferring knowledge through strategic partnerships with large industrial corporations, as described above. More broadly speaking, this also means transforming technologies developed through research into products and services launched on the market. This requires adaptations. To this end, Inria has set up a specific offer for SMEs in order to create new partnerships. In 2010 the institute also created an internal programme to support scientists conducting technology transfer projects. “To deliberately speed-up and energise this transfer we joined forces in 2010 with OSEO, a French organisation that supports innovative SMEs,” underlines David Monteau, Deputy Director of Transfer and Innovation. “The purpose of this association is to offer SMEs greater visibility concerning public research in our field. This also allows us to identify innovative sectors with strong potential for growth and levers for intensifying transfer of tech-nologies in these sectors.”

Transfer for innovationusing research to tackle contemporary challenges


speeding up transfers to sMesThe OSEO-Inria partnership provides SMEs with a better understanding of the skills and technolo-gies developed by public research facilities and the opportunities for development they offer. In 2010 Inria has multiplied opportunities for encounters between researchers and business. Four one-day national “Inria-Industry Meetings” were organised on specific themes (aeronautics, e-health, sustain-able cities), combining technological demonstra-tions and forward-looking workshops in order to highlight the expectations of both parties. Other, more numerous and targeted, encounters are organised in research centres, often leading to promising collaborative projects. Above all the OSEO-Inria partnership has allowed two large-scale initiatives in favour of innovation to be set up. The first, the Mobile Service Initiative, brings together a host of players in telephony and mobile services. The second, the HPC-SME Initiative, organ-ised with the GENCI (Grand Equipement National

de Calcul Intensif), facilitates access to high-performance computing for SMEs, thanks to an expertise and support programme.

economic models for disruptive technologiesOSEO contributes its expertise to a programme designed to monitor transfer initiatives. “In general we do not know, a priori, the right path for a technology to enter the market. The programme helps us provide support for researchers who are involved in this process and to help them financially,” explains Bruno Sportisse, Director of Transfer and Innovation. Within this programme, professionals

Research director at the Inria, currently on a leave of absence,

for ten years Pascale Vicat-Blanc led teams specialised in support

networks for internet applications, grids or clouds, which are very

demanding in terms of speed and delivery. “As early as 2005, I had

the idea of a new model for the internet, a model that is called

‘Cloud 2.0’ today,” she confides. “I started several projects in France

and internationally and then, in 2009, I decided to formalise the

deployment of this approach, with the help of a small group of doctoral

students who believed in the concept. With one of them, who won

the Marconi Young Scholar prize, I created LYaTiss.”

This start-up was the first to propose a platform focused on the

network, enabling the deployment and optimisation of dynamic

computing and communication infrastructures, and maximal

performance and agility of externalised applications. “Internet users

often evolve faster than research and put pressure on firms,”

she explains. “Thanks to our software, firms can effectively adapt

their online service offer and remain competitive.”

Pascale Vicat-Blanc, Research director at Inria

lyATIss, inria’S 100th STarT-up


help researchers design their transfer project by taking into consideration, in addition to technological aspects, economic and managerial concerns. The programme also relies on a committee of external experts that studies the projects and makes recommendations. “Transfer is a long and complex process: the production cycle for a research proto-type can take anywhere from a few months to several decades.” Situations can therefore vary a great deal. The committee of experts indicates the most relevant means of transfer (partnership, start-up or direct transfer) and provides information on the economic environment in which the project promoters will be working. Their common goal: making sure new products and services meet societal demands and that the corresponding economic models are sustainable and totally independent from the Inria. “To achieve this, adds Luc Grateau, we often need to suggest rather radical changes in posi-tion… encouraging the project promoters to abandon a strictly technological vision of functions in favour of a vision conditioned by demand, uses or regulations.” In 2010, 39 projects entered the programme and 11 were transformed into start-ups and 2 became I-Labs, which are light-weight laboratory organisations associating SMEs and Inria project-teams.

Opening and sharing expertise in transfersFinally, the programme for monitoring transfer initiatives can detect work that should be exploited and decide to support it. This is the case for the work of the Aviz team at Saclay on interactive visualisation of data. “Our work involves technologies that French engineers do not master,” says Jean-Daniel Fekete, head of the Aviz team. “In order for these to be transferred, they must be a certain level of industrial quality upstream. This is a specific model Inria decided to support, by allowing the Aviz to recruit an engineer for one year. His assignment will be to rewrite our most popular systems so that they reach this level of industrial quality.” Entirely dedicated to digital sciences, today the institute has recognised expertise in the transfer of software technologies. In order to propose this expertise and

The first issue of Connect, the magazine for SMEs seeking to innovate through the digital sciences, came out in 2010.

“Transfer is a long and complex process: the production cycle for a research prototype can take anywhere from a few months to several decades.”


Watch

http://www.inria.fr/en/innovation/inria-smes/magazine-connect

Watch

open its systems to university partners, who are often generalists, the institute signed agreements with a dozen university clusters in 2010. On a European level, Inria has brought together research institutions recognised for the quality of their transfer activities in the software sector and currently supervises the EIT ICT-Labs Technology Transfer Program.

The dual advantage of open source software“The open source software programmes we provide are all, first and foremost, objects of research,” underlines Stéphane Ubeda, Director of Technological Development. “They illustrate the nature of our work and demonstrate our know-how. To prove their value, we make them available to the scientific community and our industrial partners.” Open source software offers several advantages. “Making the soft-ware’s source code available forces us to achieve a certain level of quality,” indicates Stéphane Ubeda. It is above all the “open source community” that enriches the software, through a constant improvement process. “We help maintain this community, since its members use, adapt and develop open source software, adding value for everyone,” observes Stéphane Ubeda “Research is a world based on shar-ing: the goal is to multiply our efforts so the code remains effective.”“The community created around open source software inherently generates transfers of technology,” adds Patrick Moreau, who is in charge of software assets. This is one of the reasons behind the creation of the IRILL (Research and Innovation on Free Software): demonstrating that transfer can take place via open source research and development. “Half of the software we disseminate is open source: afterwards, we need to be concerned with what becomes of this software. We need to make sure it survives outside our walls and that users and publishers appropri-ate the work produced by our researchers,” explains Patrick Moreau. From this perspective, the IRILL can serve as a catalyst.

Irill, the Initiative pour la recherche et l’innovation sur le logiciel libre (Research and Innovation on Free Software), was created in partnership with Universities of Paris 6 and 7 in October 2010.


http://www.irill.org/videosIRILL/ID2010_DiCOSMO_OGV.mp4

SEEING, UNDERSTANDING, AND ACTING At a time when masses of information are increasing at an exponential rate, visual analytics combines analysis methods with interactive visualisation methods to give the user initiative and control over the analyses in view of results that have already been calculated and visualised.

Watch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9PvskathGI

30/ InrIa annual report 2010

InrIa annual report 2010 /31

every day, Inria researchers use their creativity, knowledge, intellectual curiosity and specific know-how to invent the digital technologies of tomorrow. theirs is a profession that is made up of small joys and great discoveries, but also frequent self-inspection. presenting one’s first research results with enthusiasm, imparting one’s passion by talking at conferences, facilitating exchange in the scope of an international project… eight Inria researchers share memorable moments from their lives as scientists.

presenting your research is an unforgettable experience“Explaining the result of your work before an audience of research-lecturers puts you in a thrilling situation. I experienced it during the annual congress at which the Gilles Kahn thesis prize is awarded to young researchers in computer science. It’s a real privilege to be able to talk about a subject that you’ve worked on, and to share it with an entire conference audience. But you have to find the right words to popularise the topic, keep their attention, and highlight the potential of your research. Because it’s not only a question of convincing, but also of raising interest in order to establish future collaboration. The actual fact of having to reformulate is in itself very motivating: it’s an exercise that forces you to think and look at the results of your research in a new way. An opportunity not to be missed to build your knowledge!”

Xavier allamigeon A graduate from the École

polytechnique, Xavier Allamigeon

received the Specif - Gilles Kahn

award in 2010 for his work on

software validation as a member

of the SE/IS research team at EADS

Innovation Works and the MeASI

laboratory of the French Atomic

Energy Commission. As a result,

he has developed and made public

a free-licensed tool. Recruited by

Inria the same year, he joined

the Maxplus project-team where

he is pursuing his work.

I chose to apply my passion to research“I’ve always loved putting my brain to work on problem-solving tasks. This character trait is the reason why I was attracted to applied mathematics. It was while I was doing my Master’s degree and then internship at Air Liquide R&D that I discovered operational research. My hobby could actually be put to professional use! I then did a Google search for words that have an important meaning for me – optimisation, probabilities, statistics, etc. – and found a PhD offer! Rather than taking a job after my Master’s degree, I decided to plunge into the world of research and work on combinatorial optimisation, which consists of finding the optimal solution for a specific problem. A lifetime of problems waiting to be solved – what more could I ask!”

marie-ÉlÉonore marmionAfter obtaining a Master’s

degree in applied mathematics,

Marie-Éléonore Marmion is

currently preparing a PhD in

computer science, in the field of

combinatorial optimisation. In

2008 she joined Inria’s Dolphin

project-team, which works on

the modeling and parallel

resolution of combinatorial

optimisation problems. She has

already published four studies

in this field.

the fruit of a passion“The path of a researcher is marked out by opportunities that can build your career. Ever since I was in high school, I have been passionate about computer graphics. My plan was to go into the world of video games or cinema. I didn’t even know that research in the field existed. Then I met various people, one thing led to another, and eventually I ended up doing research work that was awarded the Eurographics prize, an international distinction that singles out contributions in computer graphics. Receiving a prize is of course a great pleasure, but it is really a reward for teamwork and making the right choices. A researcher explores fields without ever knowing whether they will interest anyone but himself; a prize brings the certainty that you were not on the wrong track, that your work serves a purpose. But I didn’t aim for the prize, it was simply a result of my passion!”

Sylvain lefebvreAfter a PhD thesis in computer

graphics, Sylvain Lefebvre spent

a year in Seattle in the Microsoft

laboratories in 2005, before

joining Inria. From the start,

he endeavoured to optimise

the computing of textures used

in computer graphics.

His work, which was awarded

the Eurographics prize

in 2010, has had a considerable

impact on the academic as well

as industrial world.

Striving to improve living conditions“In September 2010, I attended a workshop on the use of new tech-nologies to help people with reduced autonomy. This event changed the way I looked at public research missions. It prompted me not to make a complete U-turn, but to project my work towards a new purpose: providing these people with technological tools that would improve their quality of life. Applying my research to this social issue, and working with multidisciplinary teams that include researchers in computer science, psychology and cognitive sciences… the idea really appealed to me. We therefore began to set up a number of partnerships, in particular with the association Trisomie 21, the University of Bordeaux II, and the University of Quebec in Trois-Rivières (Canada).”

Émilie ballandÉmilie Balland graduated from the

University of Nancy in computer

science, a subject she discovered

while studying for her university

diploma in mathematics and

computing. Her aim at the time

was to become a speech therapist.

Her discovery of computer science

turned into a true passion. Today,

she is a research scientist in

the Phoenix project-team,

which focuses on programming-

language technology for

communication services.

a memorable moment in the life of a researcher“All researchers hope one day to obtain their Habilitation to advise doctoral theses, the highest educational qualification in France. To prepare for it, researchers must define their own scientific field of expertise and put it in perspective. This preparation includes a psychological dimension, self-inspection both on a personal and a professional level. Some researchers feel ready after five years, others after twenty; personally, it took me nine years to take the step, a time during which I assisted many PhD students. Through my contact with them, I became certain that my future would lie in my preferred field, which is 3D interaction with virtual worlds. I received the qualification in 2010, which enables me today to supervise the work of other future researchers, which is very motivating in itself.”

anatole lÉcuyerAfter graduating from the

École Centrale in Lille, Anatole

Lécuyer first started a career

in engineering before returning

to further studies. In 2001,

he defended a thesis on

tactile interaction with virtual

worlds in industrial

maintenance operations for

aeronautics. He then joined

the Bunraku project-team

to focus on virtual reality.

Sharing knowledge: a mission and a pleasure “Presenting our research work to the general public is challenging and very satisfying at the same time. I recently tried my hand at it at the Palais de la Découverte in Paris, as part of the “One researcher, one manipulation” campaign, on the topic of speaker recognition, in other words “knowing who’s talking” in a recording, based on each person’s voice signature. Choosing the right words and pace to explain a complex subject is a real challenge that requires careful thought, since the methods implemented for voice authentication rely on advanced mathematical knowledge. As for the satisfying part: that comes from the pleasure of accomplishing one of the essential tasks of a researcher, which is to give the keys to understanding and to let each person form their own opinion. In addition, the questions that the audience ask also help us to reflect on what we do.”

nancy bertinA graduate from the ParisTech

Telecom engineering school,

Nancy Bertin did her PhD thesis

on automated music

transcription. Besides her love

for mathematics, she also plays

the piano, the violin, and sings.

She joined Inria in 2010 as part

of the Metiss project-team

(modeling and testing for

the processing of information

and sound signals).

Working on an international level is very enriching“Before I joined Inria, I spent a year doing research at the University of Washington. That might seem commonplace nowadays, but in 1992 it was quite an unusual thing to do. Ever since, I’ve always believed that research is something to be done on an international scale, as the combination of different training and cultural backgrounds acts as a source of inspiration. From the moment I became a researcher, I’ve been involved in European projects, like Connect, which brings together ten European partners (universities, organisations and companies) to focus on issues regarding network communication. Though the coordination of international cooperation can be very time-consuming, managing teams in this kind of context is very motivating. If you have a core of people who are used to working together, it creates the necessary impetus. In the end, the effort is always thoroughly rewarded by the quality of what is exchanged.”

valÉrie iSSarnyValérie Issarny graduated from

the University of Rennes with

a PhD in computer science. She

joined Inria where she manages

the Arles project-team

(software architectures and

distributed systems) which

cooperates on international

projects. In 2011, her work led

to the start-up of Ambientik,

a company that specialises in

cooperative mobile application

services, of which Valérie

Issarny is a cofounder.

research driven by operational challenges“Today, we have models that can forecast air quality, as well as a variety of new observation tools (satellites, microsensors). We have to meet the challenge of learning how to use all these information sources in the best possible way. We are fortunate in that we cover a wide spectrum, from the development of advanced mathematical methods right through to their application in the software that we design. For example, together with the company Numtech and the association Airparif, we are building a prototype that can estimate almost in real time the exposure to pollution along an itinerary that a user in Paris defines by himself on his mobile phone. This type of project allows us to match up our methods to real applications, identify new research issues, and sometimes wind up with unexpected solutions.”

vivien malletVivien Mallet graduated as an

engineer from the Ecole Centrale

in Lyon, and obtained a PhD in

applied mathematics at the École

nationale des ponts et chaussées.

He joined Inria in 2007 as

a research scientist in the Clime

project-team (modeling in

environmental sciences).

Among other things, he is in

charge of the Polyphemus project

to create a multimodel platform

for atmospheric pollution and risk

assessment.


over the next pages, you will discover the life cycle of a project-team (with an average duration of eight years). as an illustration, we look back at the first four years of the young Magrit team, and the last four years of the alchemy team that is about to disperse.

The Magrit project-team’s research focuses on augmented reality. led by Marie-odile Berger, Magrit is a joint project-team between the French national Centre for Scientific research (CnrS) and the universities of nancy. Set up in 2006, its activity was extended for another four years in 2010.

The Alchemy project-team, a joint collaboration between the CnrS and the university of paris-Sud, studies architectures, languages and compilers for high-performance embedded or general processors. after eight years of activity, notable results and the unequivocal success of its applications, the alchemy team will now pursue its work in new projects.


The history of Magrit starts in 2006 with the end of the Isa project-team (image, synthesis, analysis) that was led by Jean-Claude Paul at the Inria Nancy – Grand-Est centre. Isa at the time comprised more than 30 team members working in three distinct fields: computer vision, computer graphics, and geometric visibility. During the team’s evaluation in 2005, the creation of three new

auGMenteD realItY IS a neW FIelD tHat HaS Been DeVelopeD

ConSIDeraBlY BY MaGrIt In tHe FIrSt Four YearS oF ItS eXIStenCe.

BaCKGrounD anD HIGHlIGHtS.

Best-paper award at IsMar

Prize for the best paper at ISMAR (International

Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality), on the

influence of camera calibration errors on the quality of the

augmented scene.

NOVEMBER 2006

Start of the Magrit project

since her thesis in 1989-1991, under the supervision of Roger Mohr. Magrit’s goal is to develop research in augmented reality (AR), a discipline that aims to increase a person’s perception by adding information to their field of vision to improve their understanding of their environment. Marie-Odile Berger recalls one of the first highlights: “To boost our work, we supported Frédéric Sur’s application for a lecturer post. He is an expert in probabilistic methods, which is a very important part of automating the building of complex environment models.”

project-teams was recommended. In the Vision group, which counted five permanent researchers (two Inria researchers and three university lecturers), five PhD students, one post-doctoral researcher and one engineer, Marie-Odile Berger, an Inria researcher and university-qualified mathematics professor, decided to take the step of becoming a team manager by forming Magrit. She had been working on this topic

2006 MAGRIT PROjEcT-TEAM

ThE MAGRIT PROjEcT-TEAM IN 2006

n 2 InrIa reSearCHerS n 3 leCturerS n 5 pHD StuDentS n 1 poSt-DoCtoral reSearCHer n 2 enGIneerS

topICS: perCeptIon, CoGnItIon, InteraCtIon

a new perManent researcher for MaGrIt Development of the use of

probabilistic methods in computer vision with the arrival in the team

of Frédéric Sur, lecturer at the École des Mines in Nancy.

OcTOBER 2006


tHe appearanCe oF neW applICatIonS anD neW eleCtronIC CoMponentS CoMBIneD WItH tHe eMerGenCe oF

ConSIDeraBle reStrICtIonS (enerGY SaVInG, roBuStneSS) ConStantlY DrIVeS tHe DeVelopMent oF arCHIteCture,

proGraMMInG, CoMpIlatIon anD lanGuaGe reSearCH. a SItuatIon eXperIenCeD BY tHe alCHeMY teaM.

alchemy: already a well structured team in 2006

2006 ALchEMY PROjEcT-TEAM

aLcheMY InnoVatesAlchemy studies a new type

of computer architecture described as neuro-inspired.

This original research angle aims to design alternative architectures

able to meet technological challenges encountered in the designing of

processors, such as energy saving and possible defects in components.

To explore this route, Hugues Berry, a biologist by training who specialises

in the modeling of living things, was recruited by the team as

an Inria researcher in 2006.

OcTOBER 2006

Alchemy’s history traces back to 2003. The project-team was born from the union between the A3 team that at the time counted two permanent researchers, Christine Eisenbeis and Albert Cohen, who worked on compilation, and the Architecture team run by Olivier Temam, professor at LRI. Why this merger? “We believed that most of the program performance problems in modern architectures stemmed from a lack of communication between

compilation and architecture,” explains Olivier Temam, then team leader. From the start, Alchemy, which had only just been set up in Saclay, became involved in a large-scale European project that turned out to be pivotal, namely HIPEAC (European Network of Excellence on High Performance and Embedded Architecture and Compilation). “We took an active part in setting up this network with the same philosophy that prompted us

ThE ALchEMY PROjEcT-TEAM IN 2006:

n 3 InrIa reSearCHerS n 1 leCturern 10 pHD StuDentS anD poSt-DoCtoral reSearCHerS

topICS: arCHIteCture, proGraMMInG, CoMpIlatIon, lanGuaGeS

to found Alchemy: bringing architecture and compilation researchers together in the fields of embedded systems and high performance. But this time, the idea was to bring them together on a European scale.”

three joInt projects wIth the european unIon

Milepost, Sarc and Acotes, three research projects that Alchemy

presented to European bodies, received considerable funding

in 2006 for a period of three years. These projects focus respectively

on the design of efficient compilation methods for complex architectures, the creation of new heterogeneous

multiprocessor architectures, and the development of feed

programming methods for video.


2007

Magrit aims to develop solutions for calculating insertion and visual reconstruction, two of the main challenges to be tackled to enable potential applications of augmented reality to become operational in the long run, in large spaces. At the moment, most of the applications only work in limited spaces and over short periods of time. “To integrate information at the right spot in the field of vision, regardless of the movement the user makes,the observer’s point of view must be

Took part in a collaborative research action (ARC)

in conjunction with the teaching hospital in Nancy and the

Alcove project-team (Inria Lille–Nord Europe) studying

the simulation of coil rollout in the treatment of cerebral aneurism. PhD thesis award

for the Lorraine region.

ARc 2007-2008

Fundamental research on interactive modeling

calculated at every instant,” explains Marie-Odile Berger. “The other cornerstone is the 3D reconstruction of the environment a person sees.” Modeling is essential here, for example to take into account the interaction of light between (added) virtual and real (on the scene) objects.” “To address these fundamental issues, we studied fully automated methods. Since 2008, we have also been studying interactive methods that let the user participate in the application. These on the one hand make it

possible to obtain structured models of the scene, and on the other hand, control the quality of the reconstructed models in real time by comparing them with real vision. The idea is to design interactive modes that are simple for the user, and which offer optimal reliability.” An academic research field that lies between the “vision” community and the “computer graphics” community which Magrit has developed to a great extent these past few years.

MAGRIT PROjEcT-TEAM

Second prize for a thesis in 2008 awarded by the Lorraine

region, on the concept of

augmented fluoroscopy, an application of augmented

reality in the field of interventional neuroradiology.

The research was conducted jointly with the industry partner

GE Healthcare. It consists of superimposing pre-surgical 3D images onto per-surgical images

to enable neuroradiologists to better target the desired area

(aneurism) in order to insert a stent, a cuff, etc.

FEBRUARY 2008


aLcheMY: IMportant IndustrIaL partnershIps reGardInG the

“proGraMMInG” aspectDirect contracts as well as Cifre

contracts have been signed with:– Hewlett Packard France on the

notion of programming optimisation (2004-2007);

– Philips (now NXP) on synchronous language programming approaches (2000-2009);

– ST Microelectronics on programming aspects for complex microprocessor

architectures (2006-2010).All of these relationships continue

today in other research fields related to programming and architecture.

2007

Compilation/architecture interaction, at the heart of alchemy’s researchThe idea of creating interaction between compilation and architecture has come a long way… including with regard to European authorities. The team’s involvement in the HIPEAC network has had numerous consequences. Funding for the three research projects (Milepost, Sarc and Acotes) was for instance obtained from the European Commission: a total of 800,000 euro per year for three years (2006-2009). This made it possible to receive a number of PhD students and post-doctoral researchers, and

to recruit Grigori Fursin. His mission was to develop iterative compilation techniques. From 2006 to 2009, the team’s research activities focused on compilation/architecture interaction to meet the objectives of the three European projects. “This meant that we had less leeway to concentrate on the other area that we wanted to develop in Alchemy, which is the growing complexity in technological development (Moore’s law) and the impact thereof,” explains Oliver Temam. “This refers to the second part of the acronym ‘Alchemy’,

aLcheMY consoLIdates Its work on IteratIVe coMpILatIon Methods

In 2007, the Alchemy team’s recruitment of Grigori Fursin,

who holds a PhD from Edinburgh University, allowed them to

develop particular compilation methods, known as iterative

compilation methods. This new approach makes it possible to

adapt compilers to complex architectures. The work led to the design of a smart compiler

(Milepost GCC) in partnership with IBM Research.

2007

which stands for Architectures, Languages and Compilers to Harness the End of Moore Years.”

ALchEMY PROjEcT-TEAM

Over the next pages, follow the Alchemy team with Christine Eisenbeis (p.47) and Olivier Temam (p. 43).


2009

Applications in particular include computer-assisted medical interventions and the designing of surgical simulators. Since it came into being, Magrit has focused its

Medical applications for augmented reality

research activities on medical imaging, in particular interventional radiology. In 2007, Erwan Kerrien got in touch with Stéphane Cotin of the Alcove project at the Inria Lille – Nord Europe centre. Their collaboration concerns the simulation of coil rollout in blood vessels (see page 44), and the modeling of vessels from 3D images (angiograms). Their aim is to obtain faithful, efficient representations of the vascular network in order to simulate operations in real time. Magrit has

built on this work over the years and today the team’s research forms part of the large-scale action, Sofa InterMeds. Certain medical applications are being studied in conjunction with industrial partners: several theses have for instance been completed in collaboration with GE Healthcare in the scope of Cifre contracts, particularly on augmented fluoroscopy.

MAGRIT PROjEcT-TEAM

Best paper award at the IccV 2009 workshop In kYoto

“On Video Oriented Objects and Event Classification”: the results

related to the modeling and recognition of operational phases (based on a series of videos taken

in an operating theatre). They were obtained in the scope of a thesis co-supervised by Magrit and the Technical University of

Munich (TUM).

2009euroGraphIcs 2009, MunIch During this European conference

on computer graphics, Magrit presented an interactive in situ

model-building method using a camera.

a new perManent researcher for MaGrItMagrit recruits Pierre Fréderic Villard, a university lecturer. This specialist in physical modeling formerly worked as a post-doctoral researcher at Imperial College, London. His arrival on the team has enabled them to develop an aspect that they had previously left relatively unexplored, regarding the construction of physical models, essential for obtaining realistic simulations.


2009

According to Moore’s law, the size of transistors in chips is halved every two years. This law has been followed for more than thirty years. “It was still valid when we created Alchemy, but we realised that it was being exposed to enormous pressure (excessive energy consumption and defects due to process technology), and we wanted to explore alternative routes.” Hence the need to develop new architectures and programming methods that are more energy-efficient and tolerant to defects in components. “The appearance

architecture and programming: dealing with future constraints

of new applications, increasing constraints in terms of energy consumption and tolerance to defects, and lastly, the development of new electronic components (memristors), gradually led us to consider neuro-inspired architectures,” explains Olivier Teman. “To explore this direction, we recruited Hughes Berry, a biologist who specialises in the modeling of neurons, in 2010.” This line of research had previously remained somewhat in the background, since most of the team’s researchers had been working on European projects – a state of affairs that changed in 2009, when the European contracts came to an end.


desIGn of MILepost Gcc, a sMart open-source coMpILer

This compiler is today widely available to the public. It was co-designed

in partnership by Alchemy, the University of Edinburgh, and IBM Research in the scope of the Milepost project.

It includes results obtained on iterative compilation methods developed by

G. Fursin and O. Temam. Milepost GCC was designed to optimise compilation

in an automated way. Other results that relate to the polyhedral model (a new way

of representing programs in a compiler) and that were studied by Albert Cohen were

introduced in the public GCC compiler.

coLLaBoratIon wIth chInaCooperation with the academic institute

for sciences of China (ICT) in Beijing, on iterative compilation and the combined

language/architecture approach. ICT is the research centre in charge of designing the Chinese Loongson

processor. This cooperation will be consolidated in 2011 with the

creation of an associate team, Youhua (“optimisation” in Chinese).

2009


The Magrit team began to study the acquisition of realistic models of dynamic organs for augmented reality or simulation applications. An example of this work is the design of an augmented head in view of language-learning applications. The idea is not to produce a talking head (visualisation of the face only), but an augmented head including both external articulators (lips) and internal ones

Building animated 3D models of the vocal tract

(language, dynamic changes in the vocal tract). This information is vital for teaching users to place their tongue correctly in order to produce a specific sound. “For this, it is necessary to obtain a dynamically articulate model of the face, the tongue, the palate… based on ultrasound images, videos, MRI, and from magnetic sensors,” says Marie-Odile Berger. Since 2006, in the scope of the European ASPI project (2006-2009), Magrit researchers had been working

on the design of data acquisition and synchronisation systems. Today, they aim to build a first dynamic articulation model based on this data.

2010MAGRIT PROjEcT-TEAM

IsVc 2010During the 6th international

symposium on visual computing, Magrit proposed a new

method for matching interest points that is robust in the

presence of repeated patterns and significant changes in

viewpoint. It has proven very useful for applications in urban environments, where repeated

patterns occur frequently.

2010 ARTIS ANR (2009–2012)The aim of this fundamental

research project is to design methods for augmented

speech generation with acoustic speech signals and

dynamic 3D visualisationof internal articulators (language, vocal tract)

and external ones (lips, face).

stutter50

(0^50 100)

when

(0^50 100)

when

(0^50 100)

when

div_X3_X_1

whenot

whenot

(1^50 0^3)

if

merge

1^50(0)

=

x (1^52 0)

o

cyclic_encoding(1^50 0)

merge (1^51 0)

merge

merge

x

(1^50 0^3)

when

(1^50 0^3)

o

cyclic_encoding

true

cyclic_decoding

and_by_3


2010

More changes, new projects to exploreWith their major European contracts coming to an end, the team found the occasion to reorient their activities. The team members’ fields of interest had evolved, and they decided to put an end to the Alchemy project, since it had become difficult to harmonise the scientific topics of the various participants. However, it was also the ideal time to form new associations and new teams, both inside and outside of Inria. Grigori Fursin joined Intel Labs (Paris) to apply his compilation methods in an industrial

environment. Albert Cohen, who had developed his activity on synchronous languages for data feed processing, participated in the creation of a new team (Parkas) on this topic. “For my part, I chose to set up an exploratory action, ByMoore, to study alternative architectures, possibly based on new technologies,” says Olivier Temam. “In the coming years, the nature of architectures will have to change, perhaps profoundly, because of technological constraints. Academic researchers have an important role to play in indicating the most promising

directions for industry to follow. The ‘exploratory action’ working model that Inria offers is original: it runs over two years and involves just one researcher. It is the ideal tool for exploring a completely new direction and bringing flexibility to our research.”


BYMoor creates LInksOlivier Temam set up the exploratory

action ByMoor on the general topic of alternative architectures and has been developing collaborations on this subject for several years. He created a European workgroup and established partnerships

with certain teams in the United States (University of Wisconsin). In France,

he approached Rodolphe Heliot of Cea Leti (Grenoble), to produce a chip based

on analogous neurons, as well as Julie Grollier (CNRS/Thales unit led by Albert Fert,

Paris-Sud university) to study the use of new components (memristors).

parkas under constructIon Albert Cohen participated

with Marc Pouzet (Pierre-et- Marie-Curie University, ENS) in setting

up a new team hosted at the Inria Paris-Rocquencourt centre, namely Parkas. Its research field relates to the design, semantics and compilation of programming

languages. The aim is to implement competitive systems by offering strong

guarantees for the reproducibility of operations and the correction and

efficiency of the code.

2010

Designated as a mediator in digital sciences, Inria is called upon to share its research with the general public. Its goal is to raise public awareness of the scientific dimension of digital technology, often perceived through technological applications. this is done by explaining the origin of innovations, and establishing debate on issues relating to digital sciences. By addressing the general public, Inria contributes to the recognition of this new field of knowledge and a discipline that will soon be taught in secondary schools.


D igital sciences today play an essential part in our economy and society. It is therefore important to make them widely accessible and comprehensible. To this end, Inria has put in place a cultural

and educational content offer for anyone who is curious to know more about science, as well as students and teachers.

Science on a festive noteEach year, the Fête de la Science gives Inria the chance to invite the public to come and meet its researchers. During the 2010 edition of this country-wide event, the artist Pierre Malaval put the spotlight on researchers in an exhibi-tion called “1,000 researchers talk about the future”. He projected their portraits, accompanied by their vision of the future in one sentence, on the façade of the Pantheon in Paris. These included 26 Inria researchers and their 26 promises, some enthusiastic, others poetic, for a bright new digital world.In Bordeaux, researchers from the Phoenix team made use of the occasion to present – among other things – the part of their research project that concerns healthcare at home. In a workshop called “In your home tomorrow, there will be applications for just about everything!” the public was able to discover different examples of possible applications of their research related to the pro-tection of people and possessions, as well as assistance for the disabled. The Inria Grenoble – Rhône-Alpes centre for its part welcomed nearly 750 people, including 190 school children, during an open day.

explaining digital sciences to as wide a public as possible

Stay updated on digital science and technology news with Inria on twitter and Youtube: twitter.com/inria youtube.com/inriachannel

Watch


http://twitter.com/inria

http://youtube.com/inriachannel

2011 JULY

2011SEPTEMBER

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20/25 years old 26/40 years old14 years

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listening to society’s concernsInria has designed a poll to assess the way in which French people learn about and evaluate the issues regarding the rollout of digital technologies, in a field that fascinates as much as it repels. Knowing more about the general public’s fears and expectations enables us to give them the information that they need.

A one-on-one poll with a sample of 1,200 people who are representative of the French population aged over 14 will ensure a good stability of the survey conditions and allow an interpretation of how opinions change.

“One of Inria’s missions of general interest is to help the public understand the changes that are brought about by the spreading of digital technologies, and to contribute through an educational endeavour to combating disinterest amongst young people for scientific fields.”

Michel cosnArd, chAirMAn And ceo oF inriA.

To which fields does the term “digital” apply?

Issues!Distributing and preserving knowledge, creating links, safeguarding health and the environment Issues?

accelerating exchange, protecting privacy, data confidentiality

What meaning is given to the word “digital”?

Which digital issues do French people identify?

Which digital developments have changed French people’s lives the most?

Which interest them most? Which cause the most concern?

The poll will be carried out in summer 2011 and will yield its first results in september.

unIVerSItY proFeSSIonal WorlDSeConDarY SCHool


The inria platform, a vibrant spotIn February 2010, as part of the EuraTechnologies programme, a centre of excellence dedicated to information and communication

technologies was opened in the Nord – Pas-de-Calais region. The principal aim of the 200 m² area is to offer demonstrations that show the researchers’ technical expertise as well as joint projects between research teams, industrial partners and entrepreneurs. But the platform is also open to national or regional events aimed at a young school audience, such as the Fête de la Science or the Careers Olympiads. The Inria platform’s staff, in partnership with EuroTechnologies Développement, conducts awareness programmes with secondary schools close-by in the Bois-Blanc neighbourhood of Lille.

Developing scientific mediation,

in other words all actions that reach out

to the public, is an ambition of Inria that

receives considerable support from all

its staff members. pascal Guitton, head

of research, sees it as a way to try and

help reduce the “digital divide”. “Digital

technology is a revolution to which many

people are only spectators,” he admits.

“And yet, it raises a large number of

Mediation, a shared concern

operatIon VIrtual plantSVirtual Plants

was the second

inria team to

participate in the

“one researcher,

one operation” initiative at the Palais

de la découverte in Paris in

February 2010. researchers from

sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée

exhibited their work in the field of

plant modeling. The “operation”

explained in understandable language

how genes determine the

development of plant forms, through

the manipulation of virtual plants.

This drew enthusiastic reactions

from both the large number of

visitors — even the very young — as

well as the researchers involved

in the operation.

economic, social and ethical questions.

From this point of view, I believe it is

our duty to explain to the general public

what we are doing and where we are

going. We have various means of doing

this: websites like Interstices, events that

are open to as many people as possible,

and mass-market media or social

networks.

Watch


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EIUhOUv2Vk

everyone connected in GrenobleThe Inria Grenoble – Rhône-Alpes centre took part in the project set up by La Casemate CCSTI (scientific and technical cultural centre) to organise a large exhibition on digital objects, under the name “Tous connectés?” (“Everyone connected?”). Held from 22 October 2010 until 27 March 2011, the exhibition was designed to question the public about the use of these technologies that could potentially infiltrate all areas without us being aware of it, as well as the way in which people adopt them, and how they penetrate society. Inria contributed to the production of videos and a cultural programme that included a conference debate on the topic “Internet and privacy”. Inria co-organised a guided tour

of the city in augmented reality, through the application “Grenoble Ville Augmentée” (developed in cooperation with the tourist office and Stendhal University). In 2011, the exhibition moved to the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie (science museum) in Paris.

A unique experience in the Moroccan desertthe Sultan Marathon des sables

included a new kind of runner:

Guillaume Chelius, a research

scientist in the Dnet team and

experienced marathon runner, ran

250 km over seven days, equipped

with 16 sensors in order to study

the movements of his body, his

performance, and how he adjusted

to the environment, weather

conditions and fatigue.

Get-toGetHerS at tHe “CaFé DeS teCHnIqueS” (“teCHnoloGY CaFé”)organised by the Musée des Arts et Métiers and the French association for the

promotion of science (Association française pour l’avancement des sciences),

inria researchers regularly participate in these events. Two of our researchers,

david simplot-ryl and Frédéric desprez, were asked to talk about smart

communicating devices and cloud computing, respectively.

To share this adventure, Inria has produced a video mini-series, broadcast on its Youtube channel.

Watch


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHJpcMzEaig

A premiere performance at the cinemascience festivalInria took part for the first time in this event that was initiated by the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in 2008. The festival, which took place for the third time from 30 November to 5 December 2010 in various cinemas in Bordeaux, achieved its goal: bringing the public in touch with science via full-length feature films – comedy, drama, thrillers… – accessible to all. After each screening, a discussion took place between the spectators, the film crew, and players from the research world who gave their own angle. The Festival Village also gave schoolchildren the chance to see films about the work of Inria’s researchers, who were particularly present at the retrospective “Vision of the future”. Cinemascience, which drew thousands of participants, is a festival that is gaining a following, and provides an ideal opportunity for Inria to reach out to people on their home ground.

Acroban is a humanoid robot developed by the Flowers team in Bordeaux,

in collaboration with the University of Bordeaux 1, to investigate the role

that the shape of the body plays in the learning of movement, and walking

in particular. The robot has two original aspects: a spinal column, and

a flexible body. “These two characteristics allow Acroban to be stable,

move about without falling, and adjust spontaneously when it encounters

obstacles,” according to Flowers team leader Pierre-Yves Oudeyer. Thanks

to its shape and its physical construction, it is also the first humanoid

biped capable of smooth, intuitive, robust interaction, even with children.

It was in fact when they went to do a demonstration at the Science

Museum in Naples that the researchers discovered that the robot could be

taken by the hand and led around. “The visitors, especially little girls,

came up and touched it, and directly manipulated it,” says Pierre-Yves

Oudeyer. This live experience confirmed his convictions: “I believe that it

is very important to interact with the public,” he says. “Science in general

doesn’t communicate well. This is partly due to scientists who, in the

20th century, concentrated on technological progress conducted by and

for themselves. They did not answer the question of what their research

meant. I believe on the contrary that we have to explain its meaning,

bring technology and science back into the heart of society, and establish

a publicly oriented dialogue to explain the human stakes of the work

that we do.”

ROBOTICS, toWarDS a Better unDerStanDInG oF ManKInD

Watch


http://www.youtube.com/user/InriaFlowers?blend=2&ob=5#p/a/u/0/zHbl-ozA_h0

It’s an undisputed fact: IT changes the way people think. “The younger generations are born into it ,” admits Nazim Fates, a research scientist and member of the Maia team at the Nancy – Grand-Est Inria centre. But for one thing, the use of IT tools is not entirely without danger; and besides that, there’s a whole science hidden behind computers. Young people are not necessarily aware of that. They must be encouraged to think about it, so that they won’t be uninformed users. We also hope to give them a taste for science, which a lot of them have unfortunately been drifting away from lately.” This is the whole purpose behind the optional subject “Digital science and technology, offered to school pupils aged 15-16 in three pilot education authority areas: Nancy, Versailles, and Nice. “The idea was to give pupils the chance to put the knowledge to practice,” says the researcher, who provided

support to teachers in Nancy throughout the school year. “My role was also to explain to them the importance of computer science in research today. We make them aware of scientific issues raised by IT, particularly in its relationship with society.” Each school term, all the teachers were invited to a day of discussion based on scientific talks. At the end of the year, the pupils presented their work during a visit to the Inria centre, which ended with a talk by Gérard Berry, holder of the Chair in computer and digital sciences at the Collège de France and a passionate pedagogue. “Conducted with scant resources, but a lot of time and energy from the teachers who were involved, this experiment creates a precedent from which we can learn much, and which marks the beginning of an ongoing dialogue between researchers and teachers.”

CoMputInG anD DIGItal SCIenCe IS to Be oFFereD aS a SuBJeCt to FInal Year SeConDarY SCHool pupIlS In 2012. at tHe InItIatIVe oF reSearCHerS lIKe MaurICe nIVat, GIlleS DoWeK anD paSCal GuItton, InrIa anD ItS partnerS HaVe Been CloSelY InVolVeD In tHIS proJeCt. at tHe SaMe tIMe, nuMerouS aCtIonS ConDuCteD In tHe CentreS HaVe DeMonStrateD tHe InStItute’S CoMMItMent to HelpInG to Set up tHIS SuBJeCt CHoICe For pupIlS eVen tWo YearS earlIer, For eXaMple In nanCY.”

teaching computer science in high school, soon to be a reality

2012at the start of the 2012 school year, computer science will become a specialisation subject in the final year of secondary school, for pupils taking the science option.


Key issues for the internet of tomorrowDebate between Anne-Marie Kermarrec and Dominique Cardon

neW ISSueS, neW CHallenGeS, neW DanGerS, neW FearS… toMorroW’S Internet, For WHICH toDaY’S reSearCH IS alreaDY GIVInG tHe outlIne, ForMS tHe CruX oF nuMerouS DeBateS, In partICularlY reGarDInG tHe proteCtIon oF prIVaCY.

Anne-MArie KerMArrec

After spending four years in

the Microsoft labs in Cambridge,

England, Anne-Marie Kermarrec

joined Inria in 2004. Today, as

a senior research scientist and

member of the Asap project-team,

she focuses more particularly on a

decentralised approach to internet

browsing (GOSSPLE project).

DoMinique cArDon A sociologist in the Usage Lab

at Orange Labs and associated

researcher at the Social

Movements research centre (CEMS/

EHESS), Dominique Cardon is

interested in the transformation

of the public domain under the

influence of new communication

technologies, as well as social

networks and online identity

forms.

ANNE-MArIE KErMArrEC: The filtering of information, and customisation more especially, is one of the key factors in internet development. Users will need information that is more contextualised, and that is distributed and filtered according to their profile.

DOMINIqUE CArDON: In this respect, we’ll be needing more and more sorting and hierarchy tools to obtain information that is adapted to a given context.

A.-M.K: This is an inevitable development that raises questions regarding the protection of privacy. Providing pertinent information requires knowledge of the context and the internet user’s profile. However, all this data today is in the hands of major companies like Google or Facebook, the security and confidentiality guarantees of which are on the whole relatively weak. My research on the decentralisation of this information can play a role with regard to this issue which raises a number of scientific challenges.

D. C.: The moment this information is no longer in the hands of a single entity, but distributed on the network and gathered on the fly for a specific purpose, the “Big Brother” danger disappears. Having said that, interpersonal surveillance – aggravated in particular by the use of social networks – is likely to bring along new problems. For instance, a private conversation can be hijacked by a recruiter and used to the detriment of a potential job candidate.

TAlKing DeVICeS!

For inria’s dneT team, led by Éric Fleury, sensor networks represent one

of the major stakes of tomorrow’s internet. Whether in the scope of home

automation or in the work environment, in future, devices will communicate

with each other! To prepare for this new era, the team set up a trial platform

in February 2011, which is open to researchers and industrial partners.

The aim is to work on protocols for interaction between devices as well as

interconnection between networks (fibre, Wi-Fi, ADSL, etc.). The project also

includes a part that is closer to users, regarding applications that for instance

let you turn your box into the central brain of your home, or supervise

the equipment on your premises remotely.


Debate between Michel Parent and Roland Castro

Michel PArenT

Michel Parent, coordinator

of several European projects on

cybercars, has been leading Inria

teams for nearly 20 years,

including the Imara team (computer

science, mathematics and control

for automated road transport).

His work focuses on assisted

driving, road traffic modeling

and automated vehicles.

rolAnD cAsTro Architect and political activist

roland Castro participated

in talks on the Greater Paris

project, launched by the French

President in 2008. He is also

one of the founding members of

the “Movement for a concrete

utopia” (MUC), which defends

“89 proposals to restore social

bonds”, and has published

numerous works including

Civilisation urbaine ou barbarie (“Urban civilisation or barbarism”).

What will the city of the future look like?tHe SpreaD oF loW-rISe SuBurBan HouSInG, BIG CarS anD HYperMarKetS… tHe DoMInatInG MoDel tHat WaS IMaGIneD In tHe 1950S no lonGer FItS tHe CHallenGeS oF our tIMe. tHe MoMent HaS CoMe to retHInK our CItIeS.

MICHEL PArENT: Transport is one of the major issues of urban planning, particularly private cars. With the continuously growing concentration of people in cities, there is simply no longer enough room for each person to use and park their own personal car.

rOLAND CASTrO: For the past century, looking beyond this problem, conceiving the city of the future has raised a real question of civilisation. We have to get rid of chopped-up areas, unbearable neighbourhoods right next to marvellous places… in order to regain a decent urban environment! We must therefore go beyond the inequalities produced by liberal economics. As far as

I’m concerned, I militate in favour of a city where, on a physical as well as spatial level, any neighbourhood is as good as another. We must stop building industrial and business zones and instead evolve towards projects that foster a shared idea. Today, too many areas live completely separated from each other!

M. P.: In the new city, cars will be shared. As a supplement to public transport, they will no longer be social symbols. This cultural evolution will be difficult, just as it was to move from horses to motor cars, but when you propose alternatives that are more convenient and less expensive, people make the right choice.

r. C.: Car-pooling is definitely a part of the city of the future. This is all the more healthy and inevitable when you consider that, the poorer you are, the more expensive this social marker is. But a city cannot be summed up by economic problems, systems and rationalities. It is also and above all a question of well-being and harmony. This is for instance why I prefer “soft” transport, such as trams rather than buses or boats on the Seine, because they are less disturbing to the poetry of the city.

M. P.: This is why I also think that automation is an essential part of the solution. Automated cars use technologies that reduce air and sound pollution, and that therefore contribute to better harmony. Moreover, the car-pooling model can only work if automated vehicles are used because, like the self-service bicycle system, cars will have to be redistributed in the city.

r. C.: Besides transport, living areas must be redesigned in light of the development of the digital world. The more virtual technologies are developed, the more time we spend at home, the more important the place where we live becomes. This will even be the fundamental issue of cities in the future.

A ciTy where you only hAve to lIFt Your FInGer

A city where you can merely wave your hand

to open the door to a car park or switch

channels on your TV… Led by Laurent Grisoni,

the Mint team (Methods and tools for gestural

interaction) looks at new forms of interaction

between man and machine. Its research, based

on the study of users’ gestures, aims to create

new interactive experiences. These have

already been made a reality in an interactive

touchpad, as well as applications in which

mobile phones and tablets serve as

intermediaries to this dialogue between man

and everyday devices. This activity has further

been developed by the Mint team’s

collaboration with the SME Idées-3com, which

specialises in interactive 3D applications.


What role will cars play in the cities of the future?

Debate between Michel Parent and Bruno Marzloff

InCreaSeD traVel anD Greater relIanCe on perSonal CarS, traFFIC ConGeStIon… our lIFeStYle HaS BrouGHt aBout neW proBleMS. to taKe on tHe CHallenGeS oF tHe Future, We HaVe to retHInK tHe role tHat CarS WIll plaY In It.

MICHEL PArENT: Today, there are too many cars and not enough place to park or drive them. Our relationship with cars will therefore have to evolve towards mobility modes that favour rationalisation, such as car-pooling, multimodality, and the development of environmentally-friendly alternatives.

BrUNO MArzLOFF: Too much travelling destroys mobility! For over a century,

transport has been key to the development of cities, but urban expansion has been synonymous with traffic congestion. There are on average 600 cars per 1,000 inhabitants, with each being used for just 5 to 10% of its lifespan. There is therefore an opportunity for improved productivity through the development of car-pooling as opposed to individually owned automobiles.

M. P.: Automation is an essential part of the solution. The pooling model can only work if one deploys automated vehicles because, as with bicycles at present, cars will have to be redistributed throughout the city.

Bruno MArzloff CEO and founder of Chronos,

a sociological survey and

innovation consultation firm

which observes, questions

and analyses the development

of mobility issues. Bruno Marzloff

is the author of several works

including Le 5e écran. Les medias

urbains dans la ville 2.0

(“The 5th screen. Urban media

in the 2.0 city”), and Pour

une mobilité plus libre et plus

durable (“Towards a freer, more

sustainable mobility”).


“Automation is an essential part of the solution.”

B. M.: We’re trying to modernise in the wrong place: the solution does not lie in the object! To reduce travel, we must first of all get away from the “Le Corbusier” approach to city planning where you have workplaces on one side, and commuter neighbourhoods on the other. And we are also being subjected to an accumulation of mobility that we can counteract by making use for instance of the increasing availability of digital infrastructures. In the future, we’ll be able to do more and more things remotely, like working or shopping.


Aperunum hortemque furopte musquam et fes ocatn?

Debat entre George Drettakis & Françoise Ben

DAviD siMPloT-ryl A professor in Computer Science

at the University of Lille 1,

David Simplot-ryl is also in charge

of the Pops team. His work focuses

on systems and networks for

small, secure portable devices

such as microprocessor cards, rFID

labels or communicating sensors.

Debate between David Simplot-Ryl and Thierry Saniez

tHe DeVelopMent oF DIGItal teCHnoloGY In ConSuMer HaBItS IS oVerturnInG BeHaVIour patternS: onlIne SHoppInG, Better proDuCt traCeaBIlItY… tHe SerVICe renDereD IS not ConteSteD, on tHe ContrarY. But DIGItal ConSuMptIon DoeS raISe SoMe WorrYInG ISSueS, For InStanCe reGarDInG prIVaCY.

What role will digital technology play in consumerism of the future?

Thierry sAniez

After graduating in Law from

Sciences-Po and pursuing a career

in local government and consular

bodies, Thierry Saniez became general

director of CLCV (Consommation,

Logement et Cadre de Vie, or

“consumerism, housing and living

environment”). Founded in 1952,

CLCV is one of France’s largest

associations for the protection

of consumers, the environment,

general education, etc.

DAVID SIMPLOT-rYL: The exponential development of the internet has already changed behaviour in a profound way. More and more French people are buying on the web. Technologies that help to improve traceability, such as RFID chips, have also contributed to progress in consumerism by improving health safety.

THIErrY SANIEz: Consumption is becoming more and more digital. Soon we’ll be able to do our shopping on peripherals such as mobile phones,

on public transport, for example. The advantages in terms of saved time and service are undeniable. But it doesn’t mean that stores will disappear. The virtual and the physical will continue to exist alongside each other; certain products like clothing are not – or less – suitable for online shopping. At the same time, digital consumption poses new problems, for instance regarding the protection of private information. No need to be a soothsayer or great technician to realise nowadays that the information we leave on a website when we shop will be sold and exploited by others.

D. S.-r.: The consumer modes that are taking shape today will indeed bring data management into question. The buyer’s route will in future depend on a combination of media: he will first of all go to the store to be scanned and obtain an avatar that resembles him, then he can try on various models at his own convenience at home via the internet, and track his order on his mobile phone. Each time, he will find a personalised interface based on his profile and all the data regarding his order. From a technical viewpoint, we already know how to do it. But the questions regarding the storage of information still stand: who, between the telephone operator and the vendor, will get the upper hand when it comes to storing information on the user? Who will guarantee respect for his privacy? etc.

T. S.: The development of nanotechnologies must also be kept in mind when we look at the evolution of consumer habits. This technology is booming and will also revolutionise our models by its presence in our daily lives. Again, we must remain watchful and establish debates on the risks that consumers take.

An InCReASIngly perSonalISeD oFFer

With the internet in particular, consumers have much more information

and a wider range of products to choose from. In order to help companies

design an offer that is adapted to their needs, the Dolphin team, and in

particular Luce Brotcorne, is working on mathematical financial problems.

The aim is to develop a strategy for selling the right product to the right

customer, at the right price and the right time, according to the analysis of

consumer behaviour. His work is already used by companies in the railway

sector as well as in aeronautics (yield management). The extension of

his mathematical models is currently underway in the fields of energy

and the logistics chain.


BrUNO rAFFIN: Current technologies point to numerous development possibilities. Any peripheral today, from traditional PCs to mobile phones, is capable of displaying quality images. At the same time, interfaces are evolving. Gamepads are making place for more natural tools, based on movement sensors; the idea is to collect ever more information from real life to feed the virtual worlds and thus favour interactivity between the real and the virtual. In future, users could be represented in digital space in a much more natural, faithful way, like in the lab tests we are doing on the Grimage platform, for example.

DAVID CAGE: Beyond technical considerations, the interactivity procured by video games puts the individual in the role of an active player and not, as in cinema, a mere spectator. From this point of view, video games today are still seen as escape mechanisms, with violence often being the most noticeable aspect of the fictions they contain. But in recent years, with the appearance of games that target a more feminine audience, children or families, things have evolved somewhat. Having said that, if video games really want to win their spurs in cultural entertainment, they will have to adapt in order to convey meaning and emotion.

B. r.: The development of virtual 3D spaces shared over a network, the ability to interact in a more natural way and be represented more faithfully

What is the future of digital entertainment?

Debate between Bruno Raffin and David Cage

SupporteD BY tHe ContInual DeVelopMent oF neW InnoVatIonS, VIDeo GaMeS are BeCoMInG InCreaSInGlY popular WorlD-WIDe anD aCroSS GeneratIonS. toDaY, a neW BreaKtHrouGH IS nearInG FruItIon, In tHe ForM oF eVer Greater InteraCtIon BetWeen real anD VIrtual WorlDS, WItH reCent DeVelopMentS In VIrtual realItY leaDInG to tHe MarKetInG oF neW leISure aCtIVItIeS.

Bruno rAffin Bruno raffin joined the Moais

team (Multiprogramming and

scheduling for interactive

simulation applications) in 2001.

He contributed in particular to

FlowVr, a software program for

developing virtual reality applications

that require the power of dozens

of PCs.

in these worlds are opening up the way to applications that will surpass the realm of video games. As the Second Life application has begun to suggest, it is likely that these 3D environments in future will become the medium for a new generation of social networks that will offer advanced communication tools, whether for work, family or entertainment.

D. C: This is indeed already the case. Tactile interfaces, particularly in mobile telephony, are opening up new opportunities, particularly in the field of interactions between real and virtual. Some sort of physical control, with a joystick or other similar object, is however still necessary, since the mere sensing of movements poses too many problems. Nonetheless, I am convinced that if we fail to deliver in terms of emotions and meaning, video games will fail to become a mass-market entertainment product, and simply become a niche product for a handful of aficionados.

DAviD cAge Video-game designer David Cage

is the founder and CEO of quantic

Dream. His studio developed

The Nomad Soul, Fahrenheit and

Heavy rain, console games that

achieved international success

on the market, particularly for

their emotional dimension.

virTuAl worlDs tHat are More anD More real

Technological developments are making it possible to create increasingly

realistic virtual worlds. Through its work on algorithms, the reves team and in

particular its team leader George Drettakis, has contributed to this evolution.

The improvement in image and sound quality resulting from this research has

benefited a variety of fields: video games, cinema, 3D reproduction of

archaeology sites… They are also applicable to social issues. The team is for

instance working in collaboration with psychiatrists on a project for treating

phobias, by placing the patient in a reproduction that is as faithful to reality as

possible (cf. pp. 18-19).


Should we be worried about the dominant role that digital technology plays in entertainment?

Debate between Bruno Raffin and Emmanuel Forsans

SuStaIneD BY tHe ConStant DeVelopMent oF neW InnoVatIonS, VIDeo GaMeS are IntenSIFYInG tHeIr HolD on people oF all GeneratIonS tHe WorlD oVer. toDaY, tHeY are on tHe BrInK oF enterInG a neW pHaSe: Greater InteraCtIVItY BetWeen real anD VIrtual WorlDS IS GIVInG rISe to neW GaMInG praCtICeS.

EMMANUEL FOrSANS: Recent developments in video games, particularly in terms of accessibility, have broadened the initial geek target to a much wider audience. You no longer need to be a joystick expert to play with the latest generation of consoles.

BrUNO rAFFIN: Touch-screen interfaces and sensor-based systems have played an important part. Moreover, with the development of technologies that allow you to play on any peripheral device, including mobile phones, image quality is no longer a vital criterion for all audiences.

E. F.: Getting immersed in a virtual reality is merely a consequence of the development of increasingly natural interfaces; it is not the specific objective of game manufacturers for a simple reason: it doesn’t bring in money.

B. r.: This doesn’t take away from the fact that the development of new interactive and digital presence modes is essential for revealing the full potential of 3D environments. Applications are going beyond video games. These shared 3D cloud environments should become advanced communication and exchange areas, the medium


for a new generation of social networks. The emergence of peripheral devices which can generate avatars that look a lot like the users will perpetuate their remote presence.

E. F.: That shouldn’t worry us in itself, since immersion has never been the crux of the problem of addiction that is too often associated with video games. The lottery is not an immersive game, and yet it’s the one that is the most addictive. As for avatars, it’s after all more exciting to get into the skin of a hero!

eMMAnuel forsAns

General Manager of the French

bureau for video games (AFJV),

Emmanuel Forsans has been

working in this field for more

than 20 years. He has also written

a number of works on computer

graphics and 3D, and lectures

at the University of Paris VII

(Paris Diderot).

“The development of new interactive and digital presence modes is essential. Their applications go beyond video games.”


Staff, contributors and project-teams (December 2010)

Scientists include: Researchers and research-lecturers 1,375PhD students 1,273Post-doctoral researchers 262Contractual engineers 519

non-inria staff (1,724)

Chercheurs et ens-ch., y compris délégués

Doctorants

Autres contractuels

782

752

6966 55

Post-doctorants

ITA et IATOS

Researchers and research-lecturers, including delegates

PhD students

Other contractual workers

782

752

6966 55

Post-doctoral researchers

ITAs (engineers, technicians and administrative sta�) and IATOS (engineers, technicians, administrative and service sta�)

number of staff members in each centre and at headquarters

Bordeaux319

Grenoble678

Lille301

Nancy527

Paris-Rocquencourt584

Rennes640

Saclay464

Sophia Antipolis535

242Siège

Bordeaux319

Grenoble678

Lille301

Nancy527


Rennes640

Saclay464

Sophia Antipolis535

242Headquarters

overall staff numbers

sta� members �nanced by State allocations

39.4%

20.4%

2%

38.2%

sta� members �nanced from own resources

research-lecturers, delegates or chair holders

non-Inria sta�

Bordeaux319

Grenoble678

Lille301

Nancy527


Rennes640

Saclay464

Sophia Antipolis535

Siège242

1,640

84

874

1,692

sta� members �nanced by State allocations

39.4%

20.4%

2%

38.2%

sta� members �nanced from own resources

research-lecturers, delegates or chair holders

non-Inria sta�

Bordeaux319

Grenoble678

Lille301

Nancy527


Rennes640

Saclay464

Sophia Antipolis535

Siège242

1,640

84

874

1,692

4,290Total number of employees in France (3,429 scientists, 861 support staff), excluding interns


Figures as at 31 December 2010

Recruitments 1,100Including from abroad 710Foreign guest scientists hosted in the course of 2010 315Number of foreign students received in the scope of the Internship programme 139Interns received in 2010 (flow) 724Project-teams 171 active in 2010Project-teams created in the course of 2010 10

Project-teams terminated in the course of 2010 7

Technological development actions, TDA 17

Framework agreements with universities, engineering schools, research organisations 45

Framework agreements or partnerships 7 existing framework agreements,with industrial partners negotiations underway with 11 other industrial partnersParticipation in European projects of the 7th FPRTD 128Number of ERC grant holders in Inria project-teams in 2010 8 (including 2 supervised by Inria partners). In total, 16 grants since the founding of the ERC

Associate teams created during the year 15

Associate teams around the world 69

Scientific publications 4,850Conferences organised or co-organised by Inria 68 (including 41 international conferences)

36years and three months is the average age


Some activity indicators in 2010

6start-ups founded in 2010: Verbatim analysis Vera, Lyatiss, Sysfera, Karrus ITS, Powedia, Robocortex

111software programs filed

90technology transfer projects underway

8I-Labs founded or in the process of being founded

105start-ups founded in total

271active patents

21patents filed in 2010


Budget for 2010

(in €M excl. tax, excl. balancing operations) Pre-budget Final budget Executed Forecast for 2010 2010 budget 2010 2011

Income• State allocation (subsidy for civil-service charges) 166.567 [75.7%] 164.992 [65.3%] 164.992 [64.7%] 167.704 [63.3%] including: – basic allocation 163.531 (98.2%) 161.955 (98.2%) 161.955 (98.2%) 164.700 (98.2%)

– Subsidy associated with the post-doctoral programme 3.036 (1.8%) 3.036 (1.8%) 3.036 (1.8%) 3.560 (2.1%)• Own resources 51.332 [23.3%] 65.861 [26.1%] 68.379 [26.8%] 71.813 [27.1%]including: – Research contracts 33.568 (65.4%) 40.885 (62.1%) 43.970 (64.3%) 53.619 (74.7%)

– Finalised research support (including donations) 6.429 (12.5%) 7.648 (11.6%) 7.329 (10.7%) 3.920 (5.5%)– Development and service products 2.159 (4.2%) 3.490 (5.3%) 3.174 (4.6%) 1.613 (2.2%)– Investment subsidies (property and equipment) 7.527 (14.7%) 11.130 (16.9%) 10.264 (15.0%) 10.976 (15.3%)– Other products and subsidies 1.649 (3.2%) 2.708 (4.1%) 3.643 (5.3%) 1.686 (2.3%)

• Flow to or from working capital +2.217 [1.0%] +21.643 [8.6%] +21.643 [8.5%] +25.268 [9.5%]including: – Carry forward from the previous year - +19.239 (88.9%) +19.239 (88.9%) +23.075 (91.3%)

– Other flows +2.217 (100%) +2.405 (11.1%) +2.405 (11.1%) +2.193 (8.7%)

Total 220.116 [100%] 252.496 [100%] 255.014 [100%] 264.785 [100%]

Expenses• Staff financed from State allocations 115.392 [52.4%] 116.331 [46.1%] 115.542 [50.1%] 119.712 [45.2%]• Staff financed by own resources 32.705 [14.9%] 36.504 [14.5%] 37.191 [16.1%] 45.065 [17.0%]• Operation and current investment 53.581 [24.3%] 73.411 [29.1%] 57.564 [25.0%] 73.564 [27.8%]including: – Research and support

activities 32.938 (61.5%) 46.422 (63.2%) 36.159 (62.8%) 46.547 (63.3%)– Research support functions 20.643 (38.5%) 26.989 (36.8%) 21.405 (37.2%) 27.017 (36.7%)

• Long-term investment operations 16.863 [7.7%] 26.250 [10.4%] 20.261 [8.8%] 25.185 [9.5%]including: – Scientific equipment 1.885 (11.2%) 3.569 (13.6%) 2.711 (13.4%) 2.020 (8.0%)

– Property transactions 13.995 (83.0%) 21.114 (80.4%) 16.636 (82.1%) 20.815 (82.7%)– Other general means 0.984 (5.8%) 1.568 (6.0%) 0.915 (4.5%) 2.350 (9.3%)

• Reserve 1.575 [0.7%] - - 1.260 [0.5%]

Total 220.116 [100%] 252.496 [100%] 230.557 [100%] 264.785 [100%]


Applied Mathematics, Computation and SimulationcoMPUTATionAl Models And siMUlATion

Calvi (3, 27, 32): Scientific computation and visualization methods.Nancy – Grand Est.Eric Sonnendrücker.

Concha (3, 39): Complex flow simulation codes based on high-order and adaptive methods. Bordeaux – Sud-Ouest.Roland Becker.

Defi (3, 13): Shape reconstruction and identification.Saclay – Île-de-France.Houssem Haddar.

Gamma 3 (48): Automatic mesh generation and adaptation methods.Paris – Rocquencourt.Paul-Louis George.

Ipso (3, 7, 40): Invariants preserving solvers. Rennes – Bretagne Atlantique. Philippe Chartier.

MC2 (3, 11, 20, 21): Modeling, control and computations.Bordeaux – Sud-Ouest. Thierry Colin.

Micmac (6): Methods and engineering of multiscale computing from atom to continuum.Paris – Rocquencourt. Claude Le Bris.

Nachos (3, 35): Numerical modeling and high performance computing for evolution problems in complex domains and heterogeneous media. Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée. Stéphane Lanteri.

Opale (3, 35): Optimization and control, numerical algorithms and integration of complex multidiscipline systems governed by PDE. Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée and Grenoble – Rhône-Alpes.Jean-Antoine Désideri.

Poems (3, 12): Wave propagation: mathematical analysis and simulation.Paris – Rocquencourt. Patrick Joly.

Simpaf (3, 25): Simulations and Modeling for Particles and Fluids.Lille – Nord Europe. Thierry Goudon.

Smash (3, 44): Simulation, modeling and analysis of heterogeneous systems.Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée.Richard Saurel.

Tropics: Program transformations for scientific computing. Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée. Laurent Hascoët.

sTochAsTic MeThods And Models

Alea (3, 46): Advanced Learning Evolutionary Algorithms.Bordeaux – Sud-Ouest. Pierre Del Moral.

Aspi (3, 40): Applications of interacting particle systems to statistics.Rennes – Bretagne Atlantique. François Le Gland.

CQFD (3, 11, 20, 21): Quality control and dynamic reliability.Bordeaux – Sud-Ouest. François Dufour.

Mathfi (3, 6, 29): Financial mathematics.Paris – Rocquencourt. Agnès Sulem.

Tosca (3, 16, 32, 33): To Simulate and Calibrate stochastic models.Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée and Nancy – Grand Est. Denis Talay.

oPTiMiZATion, leArninG And sTATisTicAl MeThods

Classic (9): Computational Learning, Aggregation, Supervised Statistical, Inference, and Classification.Paris – Roquencourt. Olivier Catoni.

Dolphin (3, 25): Parallel cooperative multi-criteria optimization.Lille – Nord Europe. El-Ghazali Talbi.

Mistis (3, 15, 23): Modeling and Inference of Complex and Structured Stochastic Systems.Grenoble – Rhône-Alpes. Florence Forbes.

project-teams active in 2010

The figures in brackets correspond to the partners listed on p. 80


Realopt (3, 11, 20, 21): Reformulations based Algorithms for Combinatorial Optimization. Bordeaux – Sud-Ouest. François Vanderbeck.

Select (3, 36): Model selection in statistical learning. Saclay – Île-de-France. Pascal Massart.

Sequel (3, 4, 25, 26): Sequential Learning.Lille – Nord Europe. Philippe Preux.

Tao (3, 36): Machine Learning and Optimization.Saclay – Île-de-France. Marc Schoenauer.

ModelinG, oPTiMiZATion And conTrol oF dYnAMic sYsTeMs

Alien (3, 4, 13): Algebra for Digital Identification and Estimation. Saclay – Île-de-France and Lille – Nord Europe. Michel Fliess.

Apics: Analysis and Problems of Inverse type in Control and Signal processing.Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée. Laurent Baratchart.

Bipop (3, 15, 23): Modeling, Simulation, Control and optimization of Non-Smooth Dynamical Systems.Grenoble – Rhône-Alpes. Bernard Brogliato.

Commands (3, 12, 13): Control, Optimization, Models, Methods and Applications for Nonlinear Dynamical Systems. Saclay – Île-de-France. Frédéric Bonnans.

Corida (3, 16, 32, 33, 43): Robust Control of Infinite Dimensional systems and Applications.Nancy – Grand Est. Marius Tucsnak.

Maxplus (3, 13): Max-plus algebras and mathematics of decision.Saclay – Île-de-France. Stéphane Gaubert.

Metalau: Methods, algorithms and software in automatic control.Paris – Rocquencourt. Maurice Goursat.

Necs (3, 15, 23): Networked Controlled Systems.Grenoble – Rhône-Alpes. Carlos Canudas de Wit.

Algorithmics, programming, software and architectureProGrAMs, VeriFicATion And ProoFs

Abstraction (3, 9): Abstract Interpretation and Static Analysis.Paris – Rocquencourt. Patrick Cousot.

Ateams (45): Analysis and transformation based on reliable tool compotions.Lille – Nord Europe. Paul Klint.

Carte (3, 16, 32, 33): Theoretical Adverse Computations, and Safety.Nancy – Grand Est. Jean-Yves Marion.

Cassis (3, 16, 32, 33, 42): Combination of approaches to the security of infinite states systems. Nancy – Grand Est. Michaël Rusinowitch.

Celtique (3, 7, 40): Software certification with semantic analysis. Rennes – Bretagne Atlantique. Thomas Jensen.

Comete (3, 13): Concurrency, Mobility and Transactions.Saclay – Île-de-France. Catuscia Palamidessi.

Contraintes: Constraint programming.Paris – Rocquencourt. François Fages.

Gallium: Programming languages, types, compilation and proofs.Paris – Rocquencourt. Xavier Leroy.

Marelle: Mathematical, Reasoning and Software.Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée. Yves Bertot.

Moscova: Mobility, security, concurrence, verification and analysis.Paris – Rocquencourt. Jean-Jacques Lévy.

Pareo* (3, 16, 32, 33): Formal islands: foundations and applications.Nancy – Grand Est. Pierre-Etienne Moreau.

Parsifal (3, 13): Proof search and reasoning with logic specifications.Saclay – Île-de-France. Dale Miller.

PI.R2* (3, 38): Design, study and implementation of languages for proofs and programs.Paris – Rocquencourt. Pierre-Louis Curien.

Proval (3, 13, 36): Proofs of programs.Saclay – Île-de-France. Christine Paulin.

Secsi (3, 7): Security of information systems.Saclay – Île-de-France. Jean Goubault-Larrecq.

Typical (3, 13): Types, Logic and computing.Saclay – Île-de-France. Benjamin Werner.

AlGoriThMs, cerTiFicATion, And crYPToGrAPhY

Algorithms: Algorithms.Paris – Rocquencourt. Philippe Flajolet.

Arenaire (3, 8): Computer arithmetic.Grenoble – Rhône-Alpes. Gilles Villard.

Caramel*: Cryptology, Arithmetic: Hardware and Software.Nancy – Grand Est. Pierrick Gaudry.

Cascade (3, 9): Construction and Analysis of Systems for Confidentiality and Authenticity of Data and Entities.Paris – Rocquencourt. David Pointcheval.

Galaad (3, 35): Geometry, algebra, algorithms.Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée. Bernard Mourrain.

Geometrica: Geometric computing.Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée and Saclay – Île-de-France. Jean-Daniel Boissonnat.

Lfant (3, 46): Lithe and fast algorithmic number theory.Bordeaux Sud Ouest. Andreas Enge.

Salsa (3, 37): Solvers for Algebraic Systems and Applications.Paris – Rocquencourt. Fabrice Rouillier /Jean-Charles Faugère.

Secret: Security, Cryptology and Transmissions.Paris – Rocquencourt. Anne Canteaut.


Tanc (3, 13): Algorithmic number theory for cryptology.Saclay – Île-de-France. François Morain/Daniel Augot.

Vegas (3, 16, 32, 33): Effective Geometric Algorithms for Surfaces and Visibility.Nancy – Grand Est. Sylvain Lazard.

eMBedded And reAl TiMe sYsTeMs

Aoste (3, 35): Models and methods of analysis and optimization for systems withreal-time and embedding constraints.Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée and Paris – Rocquencourt. Robert de Simone.

Dart (3, 25): Contributions of the Data Parallelism to Real Time.Lille – Nord Europe. Jean-Luc Dekeyser.

Espresso (3, 40): Synchronous programming for the trusted component-based engineering of embedded systems and mission-critical systems.Rennes – Bretagne Atlantique. Jean-Pierre Talpin.

Pop art (3, 15, 23, 24): Programming languages, Operating Systems, Parallelism, and Aspects for Real-Time.Grenoble – Rhône-Alpes. Alain Girault.

S4 (3, 40): System synthesis and supervision, scenarios. Rennes – Bretagne Atlantique. Benoît Caillaud.

Trio (3, 16, 32, 33): Real time and interoperability.Nancy – Grand Est. Françoise Simonot-Lion/Nicolas Navet.

Vasy (3, 15, 23): System validation, Research and applications.Grenoble – Rhône-Alpes. Hubert Garavel.

Vertecs (3, 40): Verification models and techniques applied to testing and control of reactive systems.Rennes – Bretagne Atlantique. Thierry Jéron.

ArchiTecTUre And coMPilinG

Alchemy (3, 36): Architectures, languages and compilers to harness the end of Moore years.Saclay – Île-de-France. Olivier Temam.

Alf*: Amdahl’s Law is Forever.Rennes – Bretagne-Atlantique. André Seznec.

Cairn (3, 7, 18, 40): Energy efficient computing architectures with embedded reconfigurable resources.Rennes – Bretagne Atlantique. Olivier Sentieys.

Camus*: Compilation pour les architectures multicœurs.Nancy – Grand Est. Philippe Claus.

Compsys (3, 8): Compilation and embedded computing systems.Grenoble – Rhône-Alpes. Alain Darte.

Mexico*: Modeling and Exploitation of Interaction and Concurrency.Saclay – Ile-de-France. Stefan Haar.

Networks, systems and services, distributed computing

neTWorKs And TelecoMMUnicATions

Dionysos (3, 40): Dependability, interoperability and performance analysis of networks.Rennes – Bretagne Atlantique. Gerardo Rubino.

Distribcom (3, 7, 18, 40): Distributed and Iterative Algorithms for the Management and Telecommunications Systems.Rennes – Bretagne Atlantique. Albert Benveniste.

Gang (3, 38): Networks, Graphs and Algorithms.Paris – Rocquencourt. Laurent Viennot.

Hipercom (3, 13): High performance communication. Paris – Rocquencourt and Saclay – Île-de-France. Philippe Jacquet.

Madynes (3, 16, 32, 33): Management of dynamic networks and services.Nancy – Grand Est. Olivier Festor.

Maestro (3, 31): Models for the performance analysis and the control of networks.Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée. Philippe Nain.

Mascotte (3, 35): Algorithms, simulation, combinatorics and optimization for telecommunications.Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée. Jean-Claude Bermond.

Planete: Protocols and applications for the internet.Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée and Grenoble – Rhône-Alpes. Walid Dabbous.

Rap: Networks, Algorithms and Probabilities.Paris – Rocquencourt. Philippe Robert.

Reso (3, 8, 28): Protocols and softwares for very high-performance network.Grenoble – Rhône-Alpes. Pascale Vicat-Blanc Primet/Paolo Goncalvez.

Trec (3, 9): Theory of networks and communications.Paris – Rocquencourt. François Baccelli.

disTriBUTed sYsTeMs And serVices

Aces (3, 40): Ambient computing and embedded systems.Rennes – Bretagne Atlantique. Michel Banâtre.

Adam (3, 25): Adaptive distributed applications and middleware.Lille – Nord Europe. Laurence Duchien.

Adept (3, 40): Algorithms for Dynamic Dependable Systems. Rennes – Bretagne Atlantique. Michel Hurfin.

The figures in brackets correspond to the partners listed on p. 80.


Arles: Software architectures and distributed systems.Paris – Rocquencourt. Valérie Issarny.

Asap (3, 18, 40): As scalable as possible : foundations of large scale dynamic distributed systems. Rennes – Bretagne Atlantique and Saclay – Île-de-France. Anne-Marie Kermarrec.

Ascola (3, 5): Aspect and composition languages. Rennes – Bretagne Atlantique. Mario Sudholt.

Cidre* Confidentialité, Intégrité, Disponibilité et Répartition Rennes – Bretagne Atlantique. Ludovic Mé.

Focus (47): Foundations of Component-based Ubiquitous Systems. Sophia Antipolis – Méditerrannée. Davide Sangiorgi.

Indes (3, 35): Secure Diffuse Programming.Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée. Manuel Serrano.

Oasis (3, 35): Active objects, semantics, internet and security.Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée. Denis Caromel.

Phoenix (3, 11, 20): Programming Language Technology For Communication ServicesBordeaux – Sud-Ouest. Charles Consel.

Pops (3, 25): System and Networking for Portable Objects Proved to be SafeLille – Nord Europe. David Simplot-Ryl.

Regal (3, 37): Large-Scale Distributed Systems and Applications.Paris – Rocquencourt. Pierre Sens.

Rmod (3, 25): Analyses and languages constructs for object-oriented application evolution.Lille – Nord Europe. Stéphane Ducasse.

Sardes (3, 15, 23, 24): System architecture for reflective distributed computing environments.Grenoble – Rhône-Alpes. Jean-Bernard Stefani.

Triskell (3, 40): Reliable and efficient component based software engineering.Rennes – Bretagne Atlantique. Jean-Marc Jézéquel.

disTriBUTed And hiGh PerForMAnce coMPUTinG

Algorille (3, 16, 32, 33): Algorithms for the Grid.Nancy – Grand Est. Jens Gustedt.

Cepage (3, 11, 20, 21): Algorithmics for computationally intensive applications over wide scale distributed platforms.Bordeaux – Sud-Ouest. Olivier Beaumont.

Graal (3, 8, 28): Algorithms and Scheduling for Distributed Heterogeneous Platforms. Grenoble – Rhône-Alpes. Frédéric Vivien.

Grand-large (3, 36): Global parallel and distributed computing.Saclay – Île-de-France. Franck Cappello /Brigitte Rozoy.

Hiepacs (3, 46): High-End Parallel Algorithms for Challenging Numerical Simulations.Bordeaux – Sud-Ouest. Jean Roman.

Mescal (3, 15, 23): Middleware efficiently scalable.Grenoble – Rhône-Alpes. Bruno Gaujal.

Moais (3, 15, 23, 24): PrograMming and scheduling design fOr Applications in Interactive Simulation.Grenoble – Rhône-Alpes. Jean-Louis Roch.

Runtime (3, 11, 20): Efficient runtime systems for parallel architectures.Bordeaux - Sud-Ouest. Raymond Namyst.

Perception, cognition, interactionVision, PercePTion And MUlTiMediA UndersTAndinG

Ariana (3, 35): Inverse problems in earth monitoring.Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée. Josiane Zerubia.

Imedia: Image and multimedia indexing, browsing and retrieval.Paris – Rocquencourt. Nozha Boujemaa/Anne Verroust.

Lear (3, 15, 23): Learning and recognition in vision.Grenoble – Rhône-Alpes. Cordelia Schmid.

Magrit (3, 16, 32, 33): Visual Augmentation of Complex Environments.Nancy – Grand Est. Marie-Odile Berger.

Perception (3, 15, 23): Interpretation and modeling of images and videos.Grenoble – Rhône-Alpes. Radu Horaud.

Prima (3, 15, 23, 24): Perception, recognition and integration for observation of activity.Grenoble – Rhône-Alpes. James Crowley.

Pulsar: Perception Understanding Learning Systems for Activity Recognition.Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée. François Brémond.

Temics (3, 40): Digital image processing, modeling and communication.Rennes – Bretagne Atlantique. Christine Guillemot.

Texmex (3, 18, 40): Multimedia content-based indexing.Rennes – Bretagne Atlantique. Patrick Gros.

Willow (3, 6, 9): Models of visual object recognition and scene understanding.Paris – Rocquencourt. Jean Ponce.


inTerAcTion And VisUAliZATion

Alice (3, 16, 32, 33): Geometry and Lighting.Nancy – Grand Est. Bruno Lévy.

Artis (3, 15, 23): Acquisition, representation and transformations for image synthesis.Grenoble – Rhône-Alpes. Nicolas Holzschuch.

Aviz: Analysis and Visualization.Saclay – Île-de-France. Jean-Daniel Fekete.

Bunraku (3, 7, 18, 40): Perception, decision and action of real and virtual humans in virtual environments and impact on real environments.Rennes – Bretagne Atlantique. Stéphane Donikian / Georges Dumont.

Évasion (3, 15, 23): Virtual environments for animation and image synthesis of natural objects. Grenoble – Rhône-Alpes. Marie-Paule Cani.

In-situ (3, 36): Situated interaction. Saclay – Île-de-France. Wendy Mackay.

Iparla (3, 11, 20): Visualization and manipulation of complex data on wireless mobile devices. Bordeaux – Sud-Ouest. Pascal Guitton /Emmanuel Pietriga.

Reves: Rendering and virtual environments with sound.Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée. George Drettakis.

KnoWledGe And dATA rePresenTATion And MAnAGeMenT

Atlas (3, 34): Complex data management in distributed systems. Rennes – Bretagne Atlantique and Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée. Patrick Valduriez.

Axis: Usage-centered design, analysis and improvement of information systems.Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée and Paris – Rocquencourt. Brigitte Trousse.

Dahu (3, 7): Verification in databases.Saclay – Île-de-France. Luc Ségoufin.

Dream (3, 18, 40): Diagnosing, Recommending Actions and Modeling.Rennes – Bretagne Atlantique. Marie-Odile Cordier.

Edelweiss: Exchanges, Documents, Extraction, Languages, web, Ergonomics, Interactions, Semantics, Servers. Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée. Olivier Corby.

Exmo (3, 15, 23, 24): Computer mediated exchange of structured knowledge.Grenoble – Rhône-Alpes. Jérôme Euzenat.

Graphik (3,7, 31): Graphs for Inferences and Knowledge représentation.Sophia – Antipolis Méditerranée and Lirmm Montpellier. Marie-laure Mugnier.

Gravite (3, 11, 20, 21): Graph Visualization and Interactive Exploration.Bordeaux – Sud-Ouest. Guy Mélançon.

Maia (3, 16, 32, 33): Autonomous intelligent machine.Nancy – Grand Est. François Charpillet.

Mostrare (3, 25, 26): Modeling Tree Structures, Machine Learning, and Information Extraction.Lille – Nord Europe. Rémi Gilleron.

Orpailleur (3, 16, 32, 33): Knowledge representation, reasonning.Nancy – Grand Est. Amedeo Napoli.

Smis (3, 41): Secured and Mobile Information Systems.Paris – Rocquencourt. Philippe Pucheral.

Wam (3, 15, 23, 24): web, adaptation and multimedia.Grenoble – Rhône-Alpes. Vincent Quint.

roBoTics

Arobas: Advanced robotics and autonomous systems.Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée. Patrick Rives.

Coprin (6): Constraints solving, optimization and robust interval analysis.Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée. Jean-Pierre Merlet.

E-motion (3, 15, 23, 24): Geometry and probability for motion and action.Grenoble – Rhône-Alpes. Christian Laugier.

Imara: Informatics, mathematics and automation for La Route Automatisée.Paris – Rocquencourt. Michel Parent.

Lagadic (3, 40): Visual servoing in robotics, computer vision, and augmented reality.Rennes – Bretagne Atlantique. François Chaumette.

AUdio, sPeech, And lAnGUAGe ProcessinG

Alpage (38): Large-scale deep linguistic processing.Paris – Rocquencourt. Laurence Danlos.

Metiss (3, 40): Speech and sound data modeling and processing.Rennes – Bretagne Atlantique. Frédéric Bimbot.

Parole (3, 16, 32, 33): Analysis, perception and recognition of speech.Nancy – Grand Est. Yves Laprie.

Signes (3, 11, 20, 22): Linguistic signs, grammar and meaning: computational logic for natural language.Bordeaux – Sud-Ouest. Christian Retoré.

Talaris (3, 16, 32, 33): Natural language processing: representation, inference and semantics. Nancy – Grand Est. Patrick Blackburn.

The figures in brackets correspond to the partners listed on p. 80.


Computational sciences for biology, medicine and the environmentoBserVATion And ModelinG For enVironMenTAl sciences

Clime (6): Coupling environmental data and simulation models for software intégration.Paris – Rocquencourt. Isabelle Herlin.

Estime: Parameter estimation and modeling in heterogeneous media.Paris – Rocquencourt. Jérôme Jaffré.

Fluminance (1): Fluid flow analysis, description and control from image sequences.Rennes – Bretagne Atlantique. Etienne Mémin.

Magique-3D (3, 39): Advanced 3D numerical modeling in geophysics.Bordeaux – Sud-Ouest. Hélène Barucq.

Moise (3, 15, 23): Modeling, observations, identification for environmental sciences.Grenoble – Rhône-Alpes. Eric Blayo.

Sage (3, 40): Simulations and algorithms on Grids for environment.Rennes – Bretagne Atlantique. Jocelyne Erhel.

oBserVATion, ModelinG And conTrol For liFe sciences

Anubis (3, 20, 21): Tools of automatic control for scientific computing, models and methods in biomathematics.Bordeaux – Sud-Ouest. Jacques Henry.

Bang (9): Nonlinear analysis for biology and geophysical flows.Paris – Rocquencourt. Benoît Perthame.

Comore (3, 37): Modeling and control of renewable resources.Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée. Jean-Luc Gouzé.

Digiplante (2, 14): Modeling plants growth and plants architecture.Saclay – Île-de-France. Philippe De Reffye.

Dracula*: Multi-scale modeling of cell dynamics : application to hematopoiesis.Grenoble – Rhône-Alpes. Mostafa Adimy.

Macs: Modeling, analysis and control in computational structural dynamics. Paris – Rocquencourt. Dominique Chapelle.

Masaie (3, 43): Tools and models of nonlinear control theory for epidemiology and immunology. Nancy – Grand Est. Gautier Sallet.

Mere (10, 17): Water resource modeling.Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée. Claude Lobry/Alain Rapaport.

Numed (3, 8, 28): Numerical médicine.Grenoble – Rhône-Alpes. Emmanuel Grenier.

Reo (3, 37): Numerical simulation of biological flows.Paris – Rocquencourt. Jean-Frédéric Gerbeau.

Sisyphe: Signals and systems in physiology & engineering.Paris – Rocquencourt. Michel Sorine.

Virtual plants (2, 17): Modeling plant morphogenesis at different scales, from genes to phenotype.Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée. Christophe Godin.

coMPUTATionAl BioloGY And BioinForMATics

ABS: Algorithms, biology, structure.Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée. Frédéric Cazals.

Ibis (3, 23): Modeling, simulation, measurement, and control of bacterial regulatory networks. Grenoble – Rhône-Alpes. Hidde De Jong.

Magnome (3, 20): Models and algorithms for the genome.Bordeaux – Sud-Ouest. David Sherman.

Symbiose (3, 40): Biological systems and models, bioinformatics and sequences.Rennes – Bretagne Atlantique. Jacques Nicolas.

coMPUTATionAl Medicine And neUrosciences

Asclepios: Analysis and simulation of biomedical images.Sophia Antipolis – Méditerrannée. Nicolas Ayache.

Athena: Computational Imaging of the Central Nervous System.Sophia Antipolis – Méditerrannée. Rachid deriche.

Cortex (3, 16, 32, 33): Neuromimetic intelligence.Nancy – Grand Est. Frédéric Alexandre.

Demar (3, 30, 31): Artificial movement and gait restoration.Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée. David Guiraud.

Neuromathcomp (3, 9, 35): Mathematical and computation neuroscience.Paris – Rocquencourt and Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée. Olivier Faugeras.

Parietal: Modeling brain structure, function and variability based on high-field MRI data.Saclay – Île-de-France. Bertrand Thirion.

Visages (3, 19, 40): Vision, action and information management system in health.Rennes – Bretagne Atlantique. Christian Barillot.

* Partner’s agreement pending.


1. Cemagref

2. Cirad

3. CNRS

4. École centrale of Lille

5. École des mines of Nantes

6. École nationale des ponts et chaussées

7. École normale supérieure of Cachan

8. École normale supérieure of Lyon

9. École normale supérieure of Paris

10. École nationale supérieure agronomiqueof Montpellier

11. Enseirb

12. Ensta

13. École polytechnique

14. École Centrale of Paris

15. Institut national polytechnique of Grenoble

16. Institut national polytechnique of Lorraine

17. Inra

18. Institut national des sciences appliquées of Rennes

19. Inserm

20. University Bordeaux 1

21. University Victor Segalen (Bordeaux 2)

22. University Michel de Montaigne (Bordeaux 3)

23. University Joseph-Fourier (Grenoble 1)

24. University Pierre-Mendès-France (Grenoble 2)

25. University of sciences et technologies of Lille (Lille 1)

26. University Charles-de-Gaulle (Lille 3)

27. University of Strasbourg 1

28. University Claude-Bernard (Lyon 1)

29. University of Marne-la-Vallée

30. University Montpellier 1

31. University of sciences and techniques of Languedoc (Montpellier 2)

32. University Henri-Poincaré (Nancy 1)

33. University Nancy 2

34. University of Nantes

35. University of Nice – Sophia Antipolis

36. University Paris-Sud (Paris 11)

37. University Pierre-et-Marie-Curie (Paris 6)

38. University Denis-Diderot (Paris 7)

39. University of Pau and of Pays de l’Adour

40. University Rennes 1

41. University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines

42. University of Franche-Comté

43. University of Metz

44. University of Provence

45. Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica (The Netherlands)

46. PRES University of Bordeaux

47. University of Bologne (Italy)

48. University of technology of Troyes

Inria’s partnerships


General Management

hervé MathieuCEO for Resources and Service Administration

nozha Boujemaa Inria Saclay – Ile-de-France research centre

hélène KirchnerInternational Relations Department

Pascal GuittonResearch Department

stéphane UbedaTechnological Development Department

Bruno sportisseTechnology Transfer and Innovation Department

Muriel sinanidèsHuman Resources Department

luc d’ArchimbaudAdministrative, Financial, and Asset Affairs Department

Éric GautrinInformation Systems, Infrastructures, and Computer Services Department

renaud de VernejoulHQ Administration Delegation

Antoine PetitDeputy managing director

laurent stencelCommunication Department

christian serradjiAccounting Officer

chris hankinChairman of the Scientific Council

Gérard BerryChairman of the Evaluation Committee

Michel cosnardChairman and CEO

isabelle Terrasse Inria Bordeaux – Sud-Ouest research centre

Patrick BouthemyInria Rennes – Bretagne Atlantique research centre

Gérard GiraudonInria Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée research centre

François sillionInria Grenoble Rhône-Alpes research centre

isabelle ryl Inria Paris – Rocquencourt research centre

david simplot-ryl Inria Lille - Nord Europe research centre

Jean-PierreBanâtreEuropean Partnerships Department

Karl TombreInria Nancy – Grand Est research centre

claude KirchnerCEO for Research and Technology Transfer for Innovation


chAirMAn Michel Cosnard,

Chairman and CEO of Inria

eX-oFicio MeMBer Alain Fuchs,

Chairman and CEO of CNRS

GoVernMenT rePresenTATiVes Marc Bellœil, Person in

charge of the “specialised bodies” department, DGRI Franck Tarrier,

Head of the software department, DGCIS Grégory Cazalet,

Head of department 3 (MIRES), Budget department Éric Grégoire,

Scientific training consultant to the general management of higher éducation, DGESIP Christine Marteau,

Manager of the Telecommunications Office, DGA

Donatienne Hissard, Deputy director of scientific exchanges and research Cécile Dubarry,

Head of the Information and Communication Technologies Department, DGCIS

APPoinTed MeMBers Jean-Luc Beylat,

Chairman of Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs France Bernard Jarry-Lacombe,

National secretary of the CFDT cadres executive trade union Marie-Noëlle

Jégo-Laveissière,Director of research and development, Orange Labs Gilles Le Calvez,

Director of R&D, Valeo Group

Jean-Yves Mérindol,Director of the École Normale Supérieure de Cachan Luc Pabœuf, Chairman

of the Aquitaine CESR (Regional Economic and Social Council) Laure Reinhart, Deputy

managing director, OSEO and OSEO Innovation Gérard Roucairol,

President of Ter@tec association

elecTed MeMBersrepresentatives of the scientific personnel, engineers, technicians, and administrative staff Serge Steer, Director of

research, INRIA Paris – Rocquencourt, SNCS-FSU (collège A)

Jocelyne Erhel, Director of research, INRIA Rennes – Bretagne Atlantique, SGEN-CFDT (collège A) Fabrice Fenouil, Research

technician, INRIA Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée, SNTRS-CGT (collège B) Laurent Pierron, Research

engineer, INRIA Nancy – Grand Est, SGEN-CFDT (collège B)

AdVisorY cAPAciTY Patrick Roger,

Auditor général Christian Serradji,

Accounting Officer Chris Hankin, Chairman

of the Scientific Council Antoine Petit, Deputy

managing director of Inria

Board of Directors

WatchThe annual report can be found at the following URL:http://www.inria.fr/en/institute/inria-in-brief/annual-report

Scientific activity reports (in English) from the research teams can be fournd at the URL:http://raweb.inria.fr/


chAirMAn Chris Hankin, Director

of the Institute for Security Science and Technology and a Professor of Computing Science (Imperial College)

APPoinTed MeMBers Yann Barbaux, Director

of the Innovation Works (EADS) Yolande Berbers,

Professor, Katholic University of Leuven (KUL) François Bichet,

Chief Technology Strategist (Dassault Systèmes) Jacques Blanc-Talon,

Head of the Scientific Domain Information Engineering and Robotics (DGA)

Luca Cardelli,Principal Researcher (Microsoft Research, Cambridge) Yves Caseau,

Executive Vice-President in charge of Technologies, Services and Innovation (Bouygues Telecom) Chahab Nastar,

Vice-President, Business Intelligence Research (SAP) Jean-Pierre Panziera,

Director of Extreme Computing Product Strategy (Bull) Olivier Pironneau,

Professor, University of Paris 6 (Pierre-et-Marie-Curie)

elecTed MeMBersMembers Albert Cohen

(Inria Saclay – Ile-de-France) André Seznec,

(Inria Rennes – Bretagne Atlantique) Luc Segoufin

(Inria Saclay – Ile-de-France)

Substitute Juliette Leblond (Inria Sophia

Antipolis – Méditerranée) Paul Zimmermann,

(Inria Nancy – Grand Est) Fabien Campillo

(Inria Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée)

elecTed MeMBers - rePresenTATiVes oF The scienTiFic Personnel, enGineers, TechniciAns, And AdMinisTrATiVe sTAFFMember Christine Leininger

(Inria headquarters)

Substitute Guillaume Rousse

(Inria Saclay – Ile-de-France)

Scientific Council


evaluation Committee

Production, coordination, illustrations and production supervision: Communications Department.Editors: A.Fellmann, Technoscope (F.Breton, C.Drault), M.Varandat.Inria photo credits: CSI / JP ATTAL: 55 - CNRS Images: 56- J. - M. Droisy: 29 - N. Fagot: 54- Inria/Asclepios: 6 - Inria/Dnet 8 - Inria/Flowers 50 –Inria/Magique 3D 4 – Kaksonen: 8, 16, 17, 18, 19, 29, 30, 40, 50, 54 - C. Lebedinsky: 42, 46 - Palais de la découverte/ Chantal Rousselin: 54 – Quantic Dream 2010 65 -Stéphanie Têtu/La Company: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 13, 15, 21, 26, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 42, 43, 45, 47, 56, 58, 60, 62, 64 - C. Tourniaire: 55.Design and production ISSN: 1263-2961. Printed on FSC certified recycled paper, Type, Aurillac.

chAirMAn Gérard Berry, Research director, Inria

Vice-chAirMAn Guillaume Hanrot, ENS Lyon

eXTernAl APPoinTeesMembers Elsa Angelini Telecom ParisTech

Jean-Yves Berthou EDF R&D

Anne Doucet Université Paris-6

Guillaume Hanrot ENS Lyon

Laurent Julliard Minalogic

Laurent Massoulié Thomson

Manuel Samuelides SUPAERO ISAE

inTernAl APPoinTeesMembers Gérard Berry Thomas Jensen Sylvain Petitjean Jean Roman Marc Schoenauer David Simplot-Ryl Denis Talay Alain Viari

elecTed reseArchersMembers Pierre-Alexandre Bliman Philippe Chartier Véronique Cortier Julien Diaz Mathieu Giraud Nicolas Holzschuch Juliette Leblond Wendy Mackay Stephan Merz Pierre Saramito Nicolas Sendrier Monique Teillaud

elecTed enGineers, TechniciAns, And AdMinisTrATiVe sTAFFMembers Patricia Bournai Florian Dufour Roger Pissard Gibollet Franck Yampolski

The flashcodes included in this document provide access to video content. To watch the videos: using a compatible phone, download one of the flashcode reader applications at no cost, then flash.
