Category: Research talks

CITI @The Conversation

The laboratory gets attached to engage in dialogue with society by explaining news from the university community and the world of research. Several citizens have published articles in TheConversation newspaper:


CITI seminar – Edward Knightly (Rice University) – 23/05 at 10AM

Speaker: Edward Knightly (Rice University)

Date: 23/05/2024

Time: 10AM

Place: Amphi Chappe/Lamarr, 6 avenue des arts, La Doua Campus

Title: Curved Beams, Flying Metasurfaces, and Emerging Capabilities for 6G

Abstract: Next-generation wireless networks promise unprecedented performance by exploiting wide bandwidths available in millimeter wave to sub-Terahertz spectrum. At such frequencies, transmission is necessarily highly directive in order to overcome path loss. In this talk, I will debunk two myths about such networks: the first myth is that intelligent surfaces or smooth specular-reflecting surfaces are required to overcome blocked paths via reflected paths. Instead, I will show the theory and experimental results for curving beams around obstacles. The second myth is that highly directional rooftop backhaul links are inherently immune to interception by an eavesdropper. Instead, I will show the theory and experimental results for intercepting a roof-top sub-THz backhaul link without detection by using a metasurface-equipped UAV.

Bio: Edward Knightly is the Sheafor–Lindsay Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science at Rice University. He received his Ph.D. and M.S. from the University of California at Berkeley and his B.S. from Auburn University. He is an ACM Fellow, an IEEE Fellow, and a Sloan Fellow. He received the IEEE INFOCOM Achievement Award, the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance Award for Research on New Opportunities for Dynamic Spectrum Access, the George R. Brown School of Engineering Teaching + Research Excellence Award, and the National Science Foundation CAREER Award. He won eight best paper awards including ACM MobiCom, ACM MobiHoc, IEEE Communications and Network Security, and IEEE INFOCOM. He serves as an editor-at-large for IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking and serves on the scientific council of IMDEA Networks in Madrid and the scientific advisory board of INESC TEC in Porto. He served as the Rice ECE department chair from 2014 to 2019.


CITI seminar – Victor Morel (Chalmers University of Technology) – 18th March 2024 at 2PM

Speaker: Victor Morel (Chalmers University of Technology)

Date: 18th March 2024

Time: 2PM

Place: Meeting Room, 4th floor, Inria building (Antenne), La Doua Campus

Title: Of cookies and paywalls 

Abstract: Cookie paywalls allow visitors of a website to access its content only after they make a choice between paying a fee or accept tracking. European Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) recently issued guidelines and decisions on paywalls lawfulness, but it is yet unknown whether websites comply with them.
We studied the prevalence of cookie paywalls on the top one million websites using an automatic crawler. We identified 431 cookie paywalls, all using the Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF). We then analysed the data these paywalls communicate through the TCF, and in particular, the legal grounds and the purposes used to collect personal data. We observed that cookie paywalls extensively rely on legitimate interest legal basis systematically conflated with consent. We also observed a lack of correlation between the presence of paywalls and legal decisions or guidelines by DPAs. Following the publication of the paper, we disseminated our results to several legal bodies in the EU, in order to contribute to the debate surrounding the last move of Meta to propose a similar ‘pay-or-okay’ business model for Facebook and Instagram.

Bio: Victor Morel is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher in the Security & Privacy Lab at Chalmers University of Technology on usable privacy for IoT applications. He holds a PhD in computer science from Inria – Privatics. His research interests include privacy and data protection, networks security, usability and Human-Computer Interactions, applied cryptography, and ethics of technology in a broad manner. He is also a selected member of the EDPB’s support pool of experts. He appreciates sober, hackable, and accessible technology that works. Besides his academic activities, he is a member of FELINN’s collegiate council, a French association (1901) defending decentralization, privacy, and free software through popular education.

 


CITI seminar – Rémi Bardenet (CNRS) – 14/11 at 12:15

Speaker: Rémi Bardenet (CNRS) is a recipient of a 2021 CNRS bronze medal and PI of the ERC Starting Grant Blackjack (https://rbardenet.github.io/).

Date: 14/11/2023

Time: 12h15

Place: Amphi Chappe/Lamarr, 6 avenue des arts, La Doua Campus

Title: Monte Carlo integration with repulsive point processes

Abstract: Joint work with Adrien Hardy, Ayoub Belhadji, Pierre Chainais, Diala Hawat, and Raphaël Lachièze-Rey.
Monte Carlo integration is the workhorse of Bayesian inference, but the mean square error of Monte Carlo estimators decreases slowly, typically as 1/N, where N is the number of integrand evaluations. This becomes a bottleneck in Bayesian applications where evaluating the integrand can take tens of seconds, like in the life sciences, where evaluating the likelihood often requires solving a large system of differential equations. I will present recent results on variance reduction and fast Monte Carlo rates using interacting particle systems. The underlying idea is that to integrate a function with a handful of evaluations, one should evaluate the function at well-spread (random) locations, where “well-spread” means “so that one can benefit from the smoothness of the target function”.

 


journée de rentrée CITI

Aujourd’hui a lieu notre journée de rentrée du CITI, au programme présentation des nouveaux arrivants, interventions “Mixité des genres”, “Ecoanxiété”, et “Burn out”, présentation de la cellule DDRS du laboratoire, présentation des divers chantiers au niveau du CITI, échanges et moments de cohésion au musée Confluence avec entre autre un escape game.

 


CITI seminar – Alexandre Proutière (KTH) – 11/10 at 15:30

Speaker: Prof. Alexandre Proutière (KTH)

Date: 11/10/2023

Time: 15h35

Place: Room TD-C Chappe/Lamarr, 6 avenue des arts, La Doua Campus

Title: Radio Network Optimization: A Bandit Approach

Abstract: In this talk, we demonstrate how to efficiently solve radio network optimization problems using a bandit optimization framework. We mainly consider the problem of controlling antenna tilts in cellular networks (so as to reach an efficient trade-off between network coverage and capacity). We start with the design of algorithms learning optimal antenna tilt control policies at a single base station, and formalize this design as a Best Policy Identification (BPI) problem in contextual Multi-Arm Bandits (MABs). We then consider coordinated antenna tilt policies at several interfering base stations, and formalize the design of algorithms learning such policies as a multi-agent MAB problem. In both settings, we derive information-theoretical performance upper bounds satisfied by any algorithm, and devise algorithms approaching these fundamental limits. We illustrate our results numerically using both synthetic and real-world experiments.

This is a joint work with Filippo Vannella (KTH / Ericsson Research) and Jaeseong Jeong (Ericsson Research). The talk is based on the following papers:

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2201.02169.pdf (IEEE Infocom 2022)
https://proceedings.mlr.press/v202/vannella23a/vannella23a.pdf (ICML 2023)
Statistical and computational trade-off in multi-agents multi-armed bandits (to appear in NeurIPS 2023)


PhD Defence: “Spatio-temporal Data Analysis for Dynamic Phenomenon Monitoring Using Mobile Sensors”, Ichrak Mokhtari, Amphi Chappe Building, 6th of June 2023 at 10 AM

The defense will take place on Tuesday 6th June at 10 AM in the Heidi Lamarr building (Amphi Chappe), Insa-Lyon, Villeurbanne.

Title

Spatio-temporal Data Analysis for Dynamic Phenomenon Monitoring Using Mobile Sensors

Abstract

Monitoring air pollution in emergencies (industrial accidents, terrorist attacks, volcanic eruptions, etc.) is of utmost importance given the dramatic effects that the released pollutants can cause on both human health and the environment. In these situations, the pollution plume is strongly dynamic leading to a fast dispersion of pollutants in the atmosphere. Thus, the need for real-time response is very strong and a solution to get a precise mapping of pollution dispersion is needed to mitigate risks.

This thesis focuses on the monitoring of air pollution in emergencies using a fleet of drones, with three main areas of investigation: 1) the spatiotemporal prediction of pollution plume evolution; 2) the optimal planning of drones trajectories to improve pollution mapping; and 3) the development of a generic solution for dynamic pollution monitoring. Through this work, we
propose a spatio-temporal Deep Learning model for multi-point forecasting of pollution concentrations, and we built upon several uncertainty quantification techniques to make it more trustworthy. Furthermore, we examine and identify the main challenges related to the underlying phenomena as well as its emergency context, and we suggest a new systemic approach for monitoring dynamic air pollution based on aerial sensing, that combines Deep Learning approaches, with Data Assimilation techniques, while relying at the same time on adequate path planning
strategies. The framework is then extended to address the data scarcity issues encountered in such situations through a transfer learning solution based on physical models. Finally, we meticulously address the drones’ path planning problem to improve the air pollution mapping quality, and we provide a Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning solution.

Keywords: Monitoring Dynamic Air Pollution, Spatio-temporal Forecasting, Deep Learning, Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning, Drones.

Jury

  • NATALIZIO, Enrico Professeur des universités TII, Abu Dhabi Rapporteur
  • MITTON, Natalie Directrice de recherche INRIA Rapportrice
  • GARCIA, christophe Professeur des universités INSA-LYON Examinateur
  • CARNEIRO Viana, Aline Directrice de recherche INRIA Examinatrice
  • LABENTALl, Bérengère Directrice de recherche Université Gustave Eiffel Examinatrice
  • RIVANO, hervé Professeur des universités INSA-LYON Directeur de thèse
  • BECHKIT, Walid Maître de conférences INSA-LYON Co-directeur de thèse

CITI seminar – François Michaud (Université de Sherbrooke) – 26/05 at 11:00

Speaker: François is Prof. at University of Sherbrooke (Canada), and leading the IntroLab at the 3IT institute.

Date: 26/05/2023

Time: 11h00

Place: Amphi Chappe/Lamarr, 6 avenue des arts, La Doua Campus

Title: Working Toward Human-Robot Symbiosis

Abstract: Human-robot symbiosis implies developing robotic systems that can collaborate with humans in open and ‘messy’ conditions, meaning unpredictable real-life settings, such as those found in assistive healthcare and work environments. Achieving human-robot symbiosis requires humanizing the sensing, perception, reasoning, and actuating capabilities based on evaluating human safety, well-being, acceptability, and usability. Researchers need to adopt a holistic approach enabling robots to seamlessly ‘see, hear and be’ in everyday settings, and design robots that are situationally balanced, in which complexity levels of sensory, motor, and artificial intelligence (AI)/cognitive capabilities are matched with the environment and people. This presentation addresses an overview of interactive robots and systems developed at IntRoLab, Université de Sherbrooke, involving compliant actuators, assistive robot platforms, telepresence robots, vision-based SLAM, drone intrusion, weed remoal robot, robot companion and robotic living labs.

Bio: François Michaud, Ph.D., is an engineer and full professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Université de Sherbrooke, in Québec Canada. Holder of the Canada Research Chair in Mobile Robotics and Intelligent Autonomous Systems from 2001 to 2011, his research activities are aimed at integrating intelligent autonomous robotic systems into everyday operating conditions, to improve the well-being of people. His expertise is in human-robot interaction, assistive robotics, telepresence robotics, robot design and cognitive robotics. He has extensive experience in initiating and conducting interdisciplinary and intersectoral research projects involving collaborators in physiotherapy, occupational therapy, agriculture, child psychiatry, education, cognitive science, manufacturing, arts and automotive. He has published over 225 peer-reviewed papers in journals and international conferences (h-index 50), has been awarded 8 patents, has five significant distributed open source (software and hardware) contributions used by the robotics community, and has received funding over 50 M$ CAD supporting a broad range of research initiatives. He is the founding director of the Interdisciplinary Institute for Technological Innovation (3IT) (2008 – 2015), co-founder of Robotique FIRST Quebec (2010 – ), founder of Quebec Strategic Cluster INTER (Interactive Technologies in Rehabilitation Engineering) (2011 – ), and co-founder of a graduate training program CoRoM (COllaborative RObotics for Manufacturing). He is the Editor-in-Chief of Springer Nature Current Robotics Reports. He is also the founding director of the Bachelor of Robotics Engineering Program (2017 – ) at the Université de Sherbrooke, the first and only one in Canada.


CITI seminar – Frédéric Prost (CITI) – 04/05 at 12:15

Speaker: Frédéric Prost is an associate professor hosted by the CITI laboratory: https://lig-membres.imag.fr/prost/

Date: 04/05/2023

Time: 12h15

Place: Amphi Chappe/Lamarr, 6 avenue des arts, La Doua Campus

Title: AI Risk: an Historical Perspective through the Game of Chess

Abstract: The game of chess as always been viewed as an iconic representation of intellectual prowess. Since the very beginning of computer science, the challenge of being able to program a computer capable of playing chess and beating humans has been alive and used both as a mark to measure hardware/software progresses and as an ongoing programming challenge leading to numerous discoveries.

Recent advances in AI (GPT-4, Midjourney etc.) have raised an important discussion on the societal risk of AI. Several articles, and a recent request for a moratorium of 6 months in AI research (signed by thousands of AI researchers and influential figures from politics, economics etc. https://futureoflife.org/open-letter/pause-giant-ai-experiments/) have been published in the last few weeks.

In this talk I will tackle the issue of AI risk from an historical perspective. In chess the AI are stronger than humans for more than a quarter of century (Kasparov loss to Deep Blue dates back to 1997). We can use this history as a proxy to discuss fears/hopes and to explore what happens when AI develops super human capabilities (for instance how the chess community has evolved). Of course the range of the chess is wolrd is limited in its scope with relation to LLMs. But it is interesting and justified because, when one is trying to study a complex phenomenon, isolating experiments in a lab allows the reduction of noise.

Bio: Frédéric Prost est MdC à l’université Grenoble Alpes et au laboratoire LIG, hébergé au CITI. Il a principalement travaillé dans la théorie des langages de programmation (réécriture de graphes, sémantique des langages d’interrogation des BD graphes) et les problématiques de confidentialité (analyse de non interférence, anonymisation de bases de données graphe).


CITI seminar – Khac-Hoang Ngo (Chalmers University of Technology) – 20/04 at 10:00

Speaker: Khac-Hoang Ngo (Chalmers University of Technology)

Date: 20/04/2023

Time: 10h00

Place: Amphi Chappe/Lamarr, 6 avenue des arts, La Doua Campus

Title: Unsourced Multiple Access: An Information-Theoretic Analysis

Abstract: The drastic growth of the number of connected devices gives rise to the Internet of Things (IoT). Massive IoT connectivity targets a large number of low-cost, battery-limited, narrowband devices—meters, sensors, trackers, wearables—that transmit small data volumes in a sporadic and uncoordinated manner. These key features are captured by the unsourced multiple access (UMA) model proposed by Polyanskiy (2017), where all users transmit their messages using the same codebook and the decoder returns an unordered list of messages. In this talk, we introduce the UMA framework and Polyanskiy’s random-coding achievability bound for the Gaussian UMA channel. We then extend this bound to the case of random and unknown number of active users, thus fully account for the random user activity. Finally, we investigate a setting where, on top of the standard UMA messages, the users transmit a common alarm message that needs to be decoded with higher reliability; we thereby study the coexistence of massive and critical IoT.

Bio: Khac-Hoang Ngo (https://khachoang1412.github.io/) received the B.Eng. degree (Hons.) in electronics and telecommunications from Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam, in 2014; and the M.Sc. degree (Hons.) and Ph.D. degree in wireless communications from CentraleSupélec, Paris-Saclay University, France, in 2016 and 2020, respectively. His Ph.D. thesis was also realized at Paris Research Center, Huawei Technologies France. Since September 2020, he has been a postdoc at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden under a project funded by the MSCA Individual Fellowship. His research interests include wireless communications and information theory, with an emphasis on massive random access, edge computing, MIMO, noncoherent communications, coded caching, and network coding. He received the Honda Award for Young Engineers and Scientists in Vietnam in 2013 and the “Signal, Image & Vision Ph.D. Thesis Prize” by Club EEA, GRETSI and GdR-ISIS, France, in 2021.