Permanent Researcher Position in 3D Modeling for Civil Engineering and Geosciences
Centre for Studies and Expertise on Risks, the Environment, Mobility and Urban Planning (Cerema)
Context
The Cerema is a public Institution focused on supporting public policies in the areas of planning, territorial cohesion, and ecological and energy transition. It operates under the dual supervision of the Ministry of Ecological Transition, Biodiversity, Forests, Seas and Fisheries and the Ministry of Spatial Planning and Decentralization. With cross-disciplinary expertise, multidisciplinary skills, and a strong potential for innovation and research, Cerema’s main missions are to promote and facilitate innovations for territories, to contribute to the development of best practices in the respect of territorial concerns, to mobilize knowledge, scientific and technical expertise, and to find innovative solutions for the ecological transition. Cerema’s expertise spans six major areas of activity: territorial engineering, building, mobility, transport infrastructure, environment and risks, and sea and coastline.
Its scientific activities are organized around 12 research teams, which are currently developing and strengthening their partnerships with academic teams. As of August 31, 2021, Cerema is recognized by the Ministry of Higher Education, Research, and Innovation (MESRI) as an institution with a research mandate. Since 2020, Cerema has been accredited by the National Research Agency through its Carnot Institute Clim’Adapt, highlighting its policy of transferring scientific knowledge and expertise to socio-economic stakeholders.
The ENDSUM research team comprises some twenty people, including eight researchers (three HDR), based in Rouen and Strasbourg. Its scientific project aims at responding to several major economic, societal and strategic challenges in the fields of civil engineering and earth sciences, in the context of global climate change. It focuses on providing knowledge and practical tools to meet the challenges of managing infrastructure assets and maintaining them at a satisfactory level of use and safety. It also aims to contribute to the prevention and management of certain natural and human-induced risks.
To achieve this, the approach adopted is resolutely multi-physical, based on active or passive electromagnetic solicitations. It is also multi-scale, from civil engineering materials and structures to those of the earth sciences, and implemented by ground, air and even satellite-based means. It uses innovative measurement, modeling, simulation and processing tools to visualize the physical and geometric surface characteristics as well as the internal properties of the structures, soils and materials studied, and their evolution over time. It is structured along three lines:
- Physical characterization of media: how can a link be made between subsurface physical characteristics observable at various scales and the surface characteristics of the media examined? The aim is to improve the understanding of phenomena specific to soils and materials, and their influence on measured properties.
- Development of measurement and data processing tools: what means need to implemented to access the physical and geometric properties required? The methodologies developed concern both the resolution of direct and inverse problems, as well as surface reconstruction. The work involves experimentation and observation resources ranging from the laboratory to satellites, including equipped vehicles and drones. Sensors are cameras, lasers or geophysical imaging equipment.
- Development of diagnosis, prognosis and visualization methods: what tools should be considered to diagnose the condition of structures and predict their behavior? The development of appropriate visualization techniques and the production of digital twins are privileged means of highlighting observed phenomena. In particular, pattern recognition and data fusion methods can be used to highlight objects or structures of interest and their evolution. Prognosis aims to estimate the vulnerability of structures and soils using detection and characterization techniques.
The ENDSUM research team contributes to the development of expertise at Cerema by providing support to operational teams in three main areas: Transport infrastructures, Environment and risks, Sea and coastline. It works in collaboration with Cerema research teams in geophysics (GeoCoD), land-sea interface (RHITME), intelligent transport (STI), lighting and illumination (EL), and acoustics (UMRAE). ENDSUM maintains local (e.g. ICube, LMI, IDEES), national (e.g. Inria, ENPC, LaSTIG, Université Gustave Eiffel) and international (e.g. Geophysical Institute of Peru, Zhejiang University, Airforce Research Lab) academic collaborations, as well as industrial collaborations.
Geosciences Instrumentation and Data Systems (GI)
Natural Hazards (NH)
Job Content
The Researcher will conduct research in the field of “3D modeling of natural and civil engineering structures, with applications to the creation of land and building models (BIM) or, more generally, to the production of digital twins.
- On the one hand, geometric representations (point clouds, meshes, implicit or explicit surfaces) will be used, with a focus on resolving issues specific to these methods (choice of model, parameterization, robustness to atypical or erroneous data, scaling, etc.), to the real data under consideration (acquired on several scales, at different times, or even by different physical means), and related to the complexity of the structures of interest (geometry, topology, heterogeneity of appearance).
- On the other hand, emerging and promising techniques for modeling and rendering 3D scenes, such as Neural Radiance Fields (NeRFs) or Gaussian Splatting, will be explored and applied.
Beyond visualization, the focus will be on issues such as the extraction of 3D surface models, the semantic segmentation of complex scenes, the representation of multi-sensor or even multi-physical data, the link with simulation (the transition from digital mock-up to digital twin), or the precise positioning of mobiles, possibly carrying means of investigation, relative to structures.
This work will fall within the scope of Axis 2 of the ENDSUM research program, for the aspects of sensors, camera positioning and 3D reconstruction, and above all within Axis 3, through the production of multimodal visualizations, enriched with semantic information and the results of non-destructive evaluations. They should contribute to the development of innovative methodologies for experts in the fields of infrastructure and natural risk prevention, as well as making the most of the testing resources available at Cerema (Aigle 3D and CereMap3D mobile mapping systems, imaging radars, drones, etc.).
More generally, this activity will aim to:
- Develop knowledge and processing methods in the field of surface reconstruction, geometric modeling and enhanced visualization of natural and civil engineering structures;
Support or contribute to large-scale (national and European) research projects, and take part in research partnerships with industry and local institutions as part of the Clim’Adapt Carnot institute; - Disseminate scientific and technical information and culture, by publishing papers in scientific journals and presenting communication at international and national conferences;
- Participate in initial and continuing education by supervising interns, PhD students and post-docs, as well as teaching in areas related to the research priorities of the team;
- Participate in research administration (setting up national, European and international cooperation projects, participation in commissions and working groups, organization of seminars and congresses).
Profile expected
The candidate must hold a doctorate in computer vision, photogrammetry and/or 3D data processing, or be able to demonstrate an equivalent level, particularly for foreign candidates (publications, participation in projects, teaching)
The candidate should master the computer and mathematical techniques involved in modeling and processing 3D geometric data. A good knowledge of machine learning and pattern recognition methods is desirable. Basic knowledge of physics would be appreciated.
The candidate must have published in scientific journals in one of the fields considered as priorities for the position. In addition, the candidate must be proficient in both written and oral communication, in both French and English.
Teamwork and interpersonal skills are essential.
Recommendations
The candidate is expected to propose, in his/her application, a scientific project for the position in line with the activities of the host research team and therefore, is strongly recommended to contact the persons indicated.
Contact(s):
Pierre CHARBONNIER, team leader of ENDSUM in Strasbourg +33 3 88 77 46 44 – pierre.charbonnier@cerema.fr
Cyrille FAUCHARD, head of the research team ENDSUM +33 2 35 68 92 95 – cyrille.fauchard@cerema.fr
Luc BOUSQUET, Deputy Director for Research, Cerema – luc.bousquet@cerema.fr
To enter the competition
- click on the recruitment website of the Ministry of Ecology;
- Then click on “Je m’inscris” (I would like to register) to consult the job description CRCN 03.