UPR 4128 LIA - Avignon Computer Laboratory

Activities

The LIA (Laboratoire Informatique d'Avignon) is a Proprietary Research Unit (UPR 4128) that brings together Avignon Université's lecturers and researchers in computer science, as well as administrative and technical staff, engineers, doctoral students and masters students on research placements. The laboratory is part of the Centre d'Enseignement et de Recherche en Informatique (CERI) at Avignon Université.

With a staff of around 90, including 29 permanent employees and around 40 PhD students working in the fields of automatic speech and language processing, networks and operational research, the laboratory is structured into two teams: CORNET & SLG.

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

ORGANISATION

Direction
Fabrice Lefèvre

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 focuses on the theoretical and practical aspects of problems at the interface between networks (telecommunications, transport and social), computer science and mathematics. Its area of interest includes modelling, optimisation, verification and design (to demonstrate feasibility) of solutions, as well as their proper functioning and/or superiority over existing solutions. The LIA focuses on innovative solutions that address the scale and complexity of the problems studied. Game theory, multi-level optimisation, integer linear programming (ILP), optimal control, stochastic processes, mechanism design and biological systems are examples of the fundamental areas in which research is conducted. These mathematical models make it possible to identify the performance limits of networks, study the various trade-offs that result, and design algorithms and mechanisms capable of managing them. Several areas of application are considered, such as cellular networks, transport networks, optical networks, intermittent connection networks, social networks, biological systems, and 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 MoData analytics and big data are changing our relationship with information, knowledge, culture and work, leading to a revolution in usage that is having a profound impact on our society. In terms of economic models, the changes are moving beyond the now traditional field of e-commerce to become widespread, impacting most sectors, including, to a large extent, the cultural industries. Understanding and mastering these changes in order to anticipate them and make the most of them depends largely on the ability of ICTs to produce the methodological and technological tools needed to make the Internet usable and intelligible. In this context, LIA conducts projects that lie at the interface between people in society and the networks they maintain (social networks of Internet users, experts, actors, decision-makers, etc.) or use (information networks, sensor networks, physical urban networks, etc.). The LIA is a member of SFR Agorantic, which promotes multidisciplinary activities around the University of Avignon's «Culture, Heritage and Digital Societies» identity axis. These themes are pursued in collaboration with other laboratories at the University, particularly in the humanities and social sciences. They have also strengthened and developed collaborations with SHS laboratories outside Avignon University, 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 collaborations with companies:

• 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.