UPR 4128 LIA - Avignon Computer Laboratory

Activities

Created in 1985, the Avignon Computer Science Laboratory (LIA) is a laboratory attached to the UFR STS of Avignon University. It is a host team EA 4128 recognised by the Ministry and obtained an A+ rating in 2012. The laboratory is directed since 2020 by Yannick Estève.

The LIA brings together approximately ~80 people including ~30 permanent researchers. It is part of the Centre d'Enseignement et de Recherche en Informatique (CERI), which offers Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Computer Science, both in traditional and apprenticeship training.

The LIA is a member of the LABEX "Brain and Language Research Institute". It is also a founding member of the Carnot Institute "Cognition" and of the Convergences Institute "Language, Communication and Brain Institute".

On the Internet http://lia.univ-avignon.fr/

ORGANISATION

Direction
Yannick Estève

Courses offered

LMD fields of study: SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY HEALTH

• Master's Degree in Computer Science
• Doctorate in Computer Science

Research activities

The members of the LIA each carry out research activities, often in collaboration, on several subjects, subjects that fall under five main themes:

"Language

The LIA's activities in the field of automatic language processing began when the laboratory was created. The work initially centred on speech processing has gradually been extended to written language processing, then to the modelling of man-machine dialogue and even to the analysis of Internet content. A significant part of the work carried out is in the field of Information Retrieval. The LIA is at the crossroads of multiple approaches (probabilistic, language models, machine learning), technologies (multimedia indexing, HMM, GMM, iVectors, LSA, LDA, Deep Learning, syntactic analysis) and communities (AFCP, ISCA, CORIA, ATALA, ACM, ACL...). The thematic coverage by the LIA of the field of automatic language processing is wide and the research carried out concerns a large variety of linguistic objects (read or spontaneous speech, dialogues, short/long texts/collections, mono- or multilingual...) and paralinguistic objects (speaker authentication, voice and speech disorders, voice quality, stress, attitudes...), disseminated through a variety of media (audio or video recordings on radio or television, telephone conversations, Internet...).

"Networking

The Networks theme is concerned with theoretical and practical aspects of problems at the interface of networks (telecommunications, transport and social), computer science and mathematics. Its field of interest includes the modelling, optimisation, verification and design (in order to show their feasibility) of solutions as well as their proper functioning and/or their superiority to the existing ones. The LIA is interested in innovative solutions to cope with the change of scale and complexity of the problems studied. Game theory, multilevel optimisation, integer linear programming (ILP), optimal control, stochastic processes, mechanism design and biological systems are examples of the fundamental areas of research. These mathematical models make it possible to identify the performance limits of networks, to study the various trade-offs that result and to design algorithms and mechanisms capable of managing them. Several application domains are considered such as cellular networks, transport networks, optical networks, intermittent connection networks, social networks, biological systems as well as Internet services such as video streaming and caching.

"Optimisation and Operations Research

Discrete Optimization, or Integer Programming, is the core activity of the "Optimization and Operations Research" theme. The LIA is particularly interested in the development of Polyhedral Methods, Quadratic Programming in Binary Variables, robust optimisation and the development of metaheuristic methods. The major application domains are Land Use Planning (location problems), Transport (quadratic assignment problems), Information Extraction and Exploitation and, finally, Scheduling.

Digital societies".

Internet, social networks, SoLoMo (connectivity Social, geo-Localisation and Mobility), "data analytics" and "big data" are changing our relationship to information, knowledge, culture and work and are leading to a revolution in uses that is having a profound impact on our society. In terms of economic models, the changes are moving beyond the already traditional field of e-commerce to become widespread, impacting the majority of sectors, including the cultural industries. Understanding and mastering these changes in order to anticipate them and make the most of them depends largely on the capacity of ICST to produce the methodological and technological tools needed to make the Internet usable and intelligible. In this context, the LIA conducts projects at the interface between humans in society and the networks they maintain (social networks of Internet users, experts, actors, decision-makers, etc.) or use (information networks, sensors, physical urban networks, etc.). The LIA is a member of the (S)FR Agorantic which promotes multidisciplinary activities around the identity axis "Culture, Heritage and Digital Societies" of the University of Avignon. These themes are carried out in collaboration with other laboratories of the University, notably in the human and social sciences. They have also consolidated and developed collaborations with SHS laboratories outside the UAPV, such as the LPL.

"Complex systems

This theme is largely transversal to the previous ones. Each of the previous themes concerns environments composed of numerous entities whose interactions produce a global behaviour that is difficult to deduce from the elementary entities, which is the very definition of complex systems. This theme focuses on developing tools and methods for describing and modelling these systems in order to understand their operation, improve their design and control, and/or predict their behaviour.

Partnerships

Examples of collaboration with VSEs/SMEs:

• Sonear (Paris/Avignon): supervision of the RATP call centre (ANR).
• Thales (Paris): speaker identification.
• Daumas & associés (Aix): planning (collaboration agreement).
• Orkis (Aix): information search in multimedia databases.
• European Data: enriched transcription of multimedia streams.
• Maroc Télécoms: network modelling.

Further information

Skills and know-how

• Modelling, software development, evaluation, industrialisation.
• Processing of large multimedia databases, Web, voice interactions.
• Security: biometrics, networks...
• SoLoMo: Social Connectivity, Location, Mobility.