Call for applications: doctoral programme "Artificial Intelligence for the Sciences".

Call for applications: doctoral programme “Artificial Intelligence for the Sciences”.

16 février 2021

Carried by the PSL University, the doctoral program “Artificial Intelligence for the Sciences” launches a call for applications open until February 26, 2021. 23 thesis topics on AI or massive data processing interfaces are available.

Artificial Intelligence for the Sciences (AI4theSciences) is a doctoral program carried by PSL University with the support of the European program Horizon 2020 – Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions-COFUND.

Resolutely open to the international market, this unique and structuring project aims to create a research community from multiple laboratories and institutions of SLPs, joined by a dozen private and public partners. AI4theSciences will offer 26 co-funded doctoral contracts for thesis projects at the interfaces of artificial intelligence or massive data processing.

In addition to the training specific to each doctoral scholarship, a programme of training and specific events will be created: in addition to the activities of the doctoral school in their discipline, the programme’s laureates will be trained in AI and Machine Learning techniques, in writing popular articles, in Open Science, in the acquisition of transversal skills, etc. during weekly seminars and conferences.

Each doctoral student will benefit from double supervision: a thesis director, a PSL researcher specializing in his or her discipline, and co-supervision by a specialist in AI techniques or massive data – the latter may come from a laboratory outside PSL or from a private partner located in France or Europe.

Applications for thesis projects are open from 17 November 2020 to 26 February 2021. The winners will start their PhD in the academic year 2021.

Eligibility criteria

You must have a Master’s degree (or be in the process of obtaining one) or have a university degree recognised as equivalent to a European Master’s degree (lasting five years) on the date of the end of the call;
No age or nationality criteria apply but candidates must respect the MSCA “mobility rule”: they must not have lived or followed their studies in France for more than 12 months between 27 February 2018 and 26 February 2021.
Candidates must be available to start the program in September 2021.

Documents to be provided

An English translation of their Master’s degree (or an equivalent degree from a 5-year university degree). A copy of the Master’s degree or a temporary certificate will be requested at the time of final registration.
An international CV and a cover letter explaining the reasons why the candidate is interested in undertaking a PhD, applying for an offer of the AI4theSciences programme and specifying his/her professional projects.
Two letters of reference prepared by academics
A letter of declaration concerning mobility rules, availability and conflict of interest, duly signed by the applicant.

Selection of applications

For the start of the 2021 academic year, 15 doctoral scholarships, out of the 23 subjects listed below, will be co-financed. The selection of future doctoral students will take place in two stages from March to June 2021:

Selection on file from 15 March 2021 to 9 April 2021 (round 1)
Hearing of candidates from June 1 to June 25, 2021 (All candidates will be contacted in April 2021)

The excellence of the candidates, an essential principle of the Horizon 2020-MSCA projects, will allow the selection of 15 thesis projects out of the 23 proposed in the call. Out of the 23 projects open for application, 9 projects will therefore not be funded but may be proposed in the second AI4theSciences call for applications starting in May 2021.

The 23 thesis topics available for applications are as follows

PhD project 1 : Transfer learning in biomechanics: high-dimensional transfer learning for personalized biomechanical modeling in surgery planning – application to anterior-cruciate ligament reconstruction (Mines Paris – PSL)
PhD project 2: AI-supported optimisation of multi-actor energy systems enhanced with privacy & confidentiality preserving data sharing (Mines Paris – PSL)
PhD project 3: Advanced methods for enhancing interpretability of AI tools with application to the energy sector (Mines Paris – PSL)
PhD project 4 : Breaking the curse of high-dimensional PDE’S and applications to mathematical finance (Université Paris Dauphine – PSL)
PhD project 5: Dark energy studies with the Vera Rubin Observatory LSST & Euclid – Developing a combined cosmic shear analysis with Bayesian neural networks (Observatoire de Paris – PSL)
PhD project 6: The politics of coding (Ecole Normale Supérieure – PSL)
PhD project 7: Physics-Informed Machine Learning in the context of seismic imaging (Mines Paris – PSL)
PhD project 8: Physically Informed Machine Leaning for controlling unruptured intracranial aneurysms (Mines Paris – PSL)
PhD project 9: LIterary Success, Style and Artificial Intelligence (Ecole Normale Supérieure – PSL)
PhD project 10: Towards neuromorphic computing on quantum many-body architectures (ESPCI Paris – PSL)
PhD project 11 : 3DMorphEmbryo: AI-assisted reconstruction of 3D human embryo morphology from 2D medical images to improve the prediction of its development potential (Collège de France)
PhD project 12: Data-driven Enzyme Evolution (ESPCI Paris – PSL)
PhD project 13: Machine learning for origin of life in the RNA world (ESPCI Paris – PSL)
PhD project 14: Artificial Intelligence for Seismic Hazard Monitoring with InSAR (Ecole Normale Supérieure – PSL)
PhD project 15: Impact of human cognitive traits on financial market formation (Ecole Normale Supérieure – PSL)
PhD project 16: Creating AI/ML techniques to enhance mechanistic eco-evolutionary computer simulations (Ecole Normale Supérieure – ENS)
PhD project 17 : Language Acquisition in Brains and Algorithms: towards a systematic tracking of the evolution of semantic representations in biological and artificial neural networks (Ecole Normale Supérieure – PSL)
PhD project 18: Artificial Intelligence to Decode the Genomic Replication Programme of Human Cells (Ecole Normale Supérieure – PSL)
PhD project 19: Learning dynamics in biological and artificial neural networks (Ecole Normale Supérieure – PSL)
PhD project 20: Unsupervized learning of causal graphical models from time-resolved cell biology data (Institut Curie)
PhD project 21: Finding and classifying transient patterns to predict from EEG the depth of anesthesia (Ecole Normale Supérieure – PSL)
PhD project 22: A computational and artificial Intelligence approach for studying dolphin communication (Ecole Normale Supérieure – PSL)
PhD project 23: Machine Learning for biodiversity monitoring (EPHE – PSL)