Tuesday, June 30, 2015

[DMANET] PhD position in Operational Research applied to logistics, Le Havre, France

NOTE : second call for PhD candidates, be careful to the short delay.


The LITIS laboratory of le Havre university offers a financed PhD
position in logistics starting in october 2015. The candidate should
possess (or terminate) a master in computer sciences, with skills in OR
and/or AI.

See below the description of the subject.

Application files should be sent by e-mail to the three supervisors,
Stefan Balev, Antoine Dutot, an Eric Sanlaville (see email addresses in
this mail header). They should contain: CV, marks from last two years,
motivation letter, possibly recommendation letters. The file can be
entirely in English.

The application files should be sent before Sunday, july 5th.

*Operational management of flows along a logistics corridor: application
to the Seine valley**
Supervisors:*Stefan Balev, Antoine Dutot, Eric Sanlaville (LITIS, Le
Havre University)*
Funding:*3 year grant, Le Havre University *
Keywords:*Decision making support, Artificial intelligence, Operational
Research, Logistics, Optimization under uncertainties

*Description:*Given data on transportation infrastructure of a
multi-modal logistic corridor (different supply chains, storage and
transport capacities, etc.) the goal is to check the feasibility of a
transportation plan for a given period of time, taking into account the
uncertainties of the travel time and the hazardsinherent to these
infrastructures (breakdowns, accidents and litigations). In case of
infeasibility, alternative transportation plans willbe computed, either
with better feasibility guarantee or with better cost.

This goal requires the use of a detailed multi-scale model of the
logistic corridor containing the different infrastructures and their
capacities, as well as data on the flows, their sources and
destinations. It also requires to work on planification tools at the
tactical level. The main challenge consists in proposing a tool of
operational management from collected data, able to modify the original
plan to adapt it to new conditions. This tool shall be based on robust
optimization, the study of dynamic systems and the techniques form
collective intelligence (specially the multi agent systems) developed
within the RI2C team of LITIS.

*Environment:*The student will benefit from the knowledge gained during
previous research projects on flow management and optimization in
logistics systems, and in particular two theses in progress: one on
spatial agent-based modeling of logistics stakeholders and another one
on flow optimization in extended seaport. The first thesis uses the
agent-based modeling tool Gama and the second one uses combinatorial
optimization tools such as CPLEX.

The thesis is part of the multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional
project CLASSE (Logistic corridors: application to the Seine valley and
its environment) funded by Haute Normandie region, France and Europe.

The RI2C (Interaction networks and swarm intelligence) team of LITIS
focuses its fundamental researcheson morpho-dynamics of interaction
networks using analysis and optimization methods from artificial
intelligence and operations research domains. An important feature of
complex systems is the large share of uncertainty in the models,
resulting in the need of robust solutions or policies to control these
systems. The main applications of this research are in domains such as
territorial intelligence, industrial risk management, ad-hoc
communication networks and logistics, in particular the analysis of
logistic networks along a logistic corridor such as the Seine axis.

*Skills and profile:*The candidate must have a degree (M. Sc., M. Eng.
or equivalent) in computer science with decision making support related
specialization. In addition to programming skills acquired in such a
curriculum, expertise on concepts and techniques is required in one of
the following domains: artificial intelligence and particularly
multi-agent systems or operations research (combinatorial optimization,
robust optimization). Knowledge in both areas (AI and OR) will be
privileged. Previous experience in GIS would be beneficial.

--
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Eric Sanlaville
professeur, université du Havre
coordinateur de SFLOG, la Structure Fédérative en LOGistique de l'université du Havre
(https://sflog.univ-lehavre.fr)
laboratoire LITIS-EA 41-08
équipe RI2C : Réseaux d'Interaction et Intelligence Collective.

======================================
Eric Sanlaville - LITIS
UNIVERSITE LE HAVRE - UFR SCIENCES ET TECHNIQUES
25 RUE PHILIPPE LEBON
CS 80540
76058 LE HAVRE CEDEX
======================================
Tel : +33 232 744 548
Fax : +33 232 744 314
http://litis.univ-lehavre.fr/~sanlaville

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