[ecoop-info] Postdoc, PhD and Research Engineer jobs at the I3S laboratory (CNRS / University of Nice), France

Mon Jun 21 10:36:55 CEST 2010

Four research job offers are opened at the I3S laboratory (CNRS / University of Nice), Sophia Antipolis, France:

1. Postdoc, "Workflow systems interoperability in distributed infrastructures", 12-24 months, starting July-October 2010
2. PhD thesis, "SPL engineering for naval defense systems", 36 months, starting as soon as possible
3. PhD thesis, "Model-driven analysis of workflow adaptations", 36 months, starting as soon as possible
4. R&D engineer, "Multi-workflows distributed applications", 12-24 months, starting July-October 2010

Applicants should send their detailed curriculum, including academic transcripts, motivation and references by email to the contact addresses indicated below.

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1. POSTDOC
Workflow systems interoperability in distributed infrastructures
up to 24 months, starting July-October 2010

Context:
European project SHIWA on workflow systems interoperability

Description:
We develop a grid-based workflow management system to enact data and compute-intensive applications on a grid infrastructure. The system is based on a workflow description language with advanced data-parallelism representation capability [1] and an asynchronous workflow enactor [2]. In the context of the SHIWA project, we aim at integrating this workflow system in a workflow-interoperability framework. The objective is to make it inter-operable with other workflow systems using different workflow representation and enacors. Workflow interoperability can be achieved at runtime by nesting heterogeneous workflows into a master one, and at design time by transforming heterogeneous workflow representations into a common one before merging. Both approaches will be investigated during the SHIWA project. The work will focus on the analysis of different workflow representation languages and the study of the means to (i) interface heterogeneous representations in the runtime environment and (ii) define a common representation and translator. It covers both the workflow system itself and its interface with application codes invocation on remote grid resources [3]. The applicant will need to demonstrate a good understanding of scientific workflow description languages principles and semantics as well as experience with distributed computing environment such as grids.

Requirements:
 - PhD in computer science
 - Distributed computing
 - Workflow systems
 - java programming language
 - English, spoken / written

Application:
Johan Montagnat, johan at i3s.unice.fr

References:
[1] J. Montagnat, B. Isnard, T. Glatard, K. Maheshwari, M. Blay-Fornarino. "A data-driven workflow language for grids based on array programming principles". WORKS'09. Portland, USA, Nov. 2009. http://rainbow.polytech.unice.fr/publis/montagnat-isnard-etal:2009.pdf
[2] T. Glatard, J. Montagnat, D. Lingrand, X. Pennec. "Flexible and efficient workflow deployement of data-intensive applications on grids with MOTEUR". IJHPCA, 22(3):347-360, Aug. 2008. http://rainbow.polytech.unice.fr/publis/glatard-montagnat-etal:2008.pdf
[3] T. Glatard, J. Montagnat, D. Emsellem, D. Lingrand. "A Service-Oriented Architecture enabling dynamic services grouping for optimizing distributed workflows execution" in Future Generation Computer Systems (FGCS), 24 (7):720–730, July 2008.
http://rainbow.polytech.unice.fr/publis/glatard-montagnat-etal:2008a.pdf

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2. PhD THESIS: Software Product Lines engineering for naval defence systems
36 months, starting as soon as possible

Description:
The objective of this thesis is to provide solutions to better address the modelling of the intrinsic variability of models and software. This subject deals with the modelling of Software Product Lines (SPL) in the context of naval defence applications. A first objective is to address the modelling and the use of SPL according to their expressiveness, manipulation and validation. The aim is to get a framework allowing to define SPL with the necessary expressiveness and to provide to the user appropriate editors in order to guide and control him during the configuration process, that is to say, while he is selecting one product among the family of products corresponding to the SPL. To address business domains emphasizes a number of key issues. A second objective is to study possible extensions in order to address some of these key issues :
i) modification of the selected product at runtime according to the context and the quality of service (QoS),
ii) solution scalability,
iii) separation and composition of the various concerns of one SPL,
iv) interoperability with other formalisms,
v) reusability, etc.

This PhD position is funded by DCNS (Thèse CIFRE). DCNS group (http://www.dcnsgroup.com/) is a front-ranking European player in the world market for naval defence systems. The Ph.D. position will be located at I3S lab, Sophia Antipolis, France (see. below) in the MODALIS team. The PhD student may also have to spend research periods at DCNS in Paris, France.

More information:
http://modalis.polytech.unice.fr/positions/phdthesis/aom2

Requirements:
The applicant should have a BSc/MSc degree in Computing (or equivalent to the French Master degree). Demonstration of research skills through an internship is preferred. He/she will work in an active research environment, and have to collaborate with number of researchers. The applicant should be fluent in English. Competence in French is a plus, though the applicant will be encouraged to acquire this skill during training. Knowledge of metamodelling with Eclipse and related research will be appreciated.

Application:
Philippe Lahire: Philippe.Lahire at unice.fr

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3. PhD THESIS: Model-Driven Analysis of Workflow Adaptations
36 months, starting as soon as possible

The development of Grid-based medical applications involves (i) defining a medical data analysis workflow (business procedure) while (ii) taking into account some non-functional requirements such as the need to conform to strict legal constraints in terms of data privacy and security, to support the large amount of data manipulated and to reliably support highly stressing amounts of computations. In order to address the key non-functional requirements, the user has to design workflows in their contextual environment, thus spending time on non-business oriented tasks. Moreover, the workflows have to be adapted according to legal changes, trade agreements, and context modifications. Some of these adaptations are operated statically, when designing new workflows by increment on existing ones. Other adaptations must be realized dynamically at runtime to react to faults or drops in the quality of service. Due to different points of view -cost, efficiency, and security - several adaptations may occur on a same workflow. Based on these observations, there is a need for helping users to define accurate workflows and to adapt them in a safe way according to changes both at design and run times. The objective of this thesis is to develop a framework for  controlling workflow adaptations.
This work encompasses:
i) building a meta-model to capture workflow adaptations supporting incremental composition,
ii) proposing a meta-model to specify requirements on workflows and adaptations,
iii) building detection mechanisms on inconsistencies and interactions between adaptations on workflows, at design, deployment and execution times.

This PhD positions is funded by MAAT-G (Thèse CIFRE). MAAT-G (http://www.g-knowledge.com/) is becoming a leading Grid Business Services Provider (GSP) by developing Grid Infrastructure Tools, middleware and application Services for: Banking, Public Administration, Health, Education and SMEs. The company has been operating several production infrastructures to support various medical research needs (Health-e-Child project, NeuGrid project,...).
The Ph.D. position will be located at I3S lab, Sophia Antipolis, France (see. below) in the MODALIS team. The PhD student will also have to spend research periods in MAAT-G premises in Annecy, France.

More information at:
http://modalis.polytech.unice.fr/positions/phdthesis/model-driven_analysis_of_workflow_adaptations

Requirements:
The applicant should have a BSc/MSc degree in Computing (or equivalent to the French Master degree). Demonstration of research skills through an internship is preferred. He/she will work in an active research environment, and have to collaborate with number of researchers. The applicant should be fluent in English. Competence in French is a plus, though the applicant will be encouraged to acquire this skill during training.
Knowledge of Model Driven Engineering, Workflows (control or data workflows) and related research will be appreciated.

Application:
Mireille Blay-Fornarino blay at polytech.unice.fr <mail:blay at polytech.unice.fr>
Philippe Collet Philippe.Collet at unice.fr <mail:Philippe.Collet at unice.fr>

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4. R&D ENGINEER
Multi-workflows distributed applications
up to 24 months, starting July-October 2010

Context:
European project SHIWA on workflow systems interoperability

Description:
The SHIWA project aims at delivering a workflow interoperability platform supporting scientific applications which need to integrate multiple workflows, possibly designed using different workflow languages and systems, into a common execution framework. The interoperability is implemented either at runtime, by cross-invocation of multiple workflow engines managing different sub-workflows integrated in a hierarchical workflow, or at design time by transforming different workflow representations into a common one and merging. The work will focus on the support of scientists willing to exploit the interoperability platform and the adaptation of one of the workflow systems to the this platform [1]. The scientific applications considered include, but are not limited to, medical image analysis pipelines [2,3].
At the interface with the platform user community, the hired engineer will help scientists to analyze their application requirements in terms of workflow description and interoperability. He or she will assist users in the porting of their applications and the exploitation of the platform design. In addition, he or she will implement adaptations of the existing workflow system necessary for integration in the interoperability platform (changes to the core engine, programmatic and graphical interfaces, and packaging).

Requirements:
  - Master, Engineer or PhD degree in computer science
  - Distributed computing, grid infrastructures
  - java programming language
  - UNIX-based OS
  - English, spoken / written
  - Experience with medical image analysis is appreciated

Application:
Johan Montagnat, johan at i3s.unice.fr

References:
[1] T. Glatard, J. Montagnat, D. Lingrand, X. Pennec. "Flexible and efficient workflow deployement of data-intensive applications on grids with MOTEUR". IJHPCA, 22(3):347-360, Aug. 2008. http://rainbow.polytech.unice.fr/publis/glatard-montagnat-etal:2008.pdf
[2] J. Montagnat, T. Glatard, I. Campos, F. Castejon, X. Pennec, T. Giuliano, V. Voznesensky, C. Vuerli. "Workflow-based data parallel applications on the EGEE production grid infrastructure" in Journal of Grid Computing (JoGC), 6 (4):369-383, December 2008.
http://rainbow.polytech.unice.fr/publis/montagnat-glatard-etal:2008.pdf
[3] J. Montagnat, F. Bellet, H. Benoit-Cattin, V. Breton, L. Brunie, H. Duque, Y. Legré, I. Magnin, L. Maigne, S. Miguet, J.-M. Pierson, L. Seitz, T. Tweed. "Medical images simulation, storage, and processing on the european datagrid testbed" in Journal of Grid Computing (JoGC), 2 (4):387-400, December 2004.
http://www.i3s.unice.fr/~johan/publis/JGC04.pdf

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WORK ENVIRONMENT

The hired personnel will join the MODALIS research team (from MODels to usAge of large scaLe InfraStructures
http://modalis.polytech.unice.fr/) at the I3S laboratory (CNRS / University of Nice - Sophia Antipolis). MODALIS aims at modeling and exploiting large scale distributed computing infrastructures such as Grids and Clouds. Research works include the design of flexible service architectures taking into account user needs, distributed application representation and enactment, modeling of large scale distributed systems and performance optimization.

CNRS (the French National Centre for Scientific Research, http://www.cnrs.fr) is a public institution depending on the French Ministry for Research. Its role is the acquisition of knowledge and the exploitation of this knowledge for the benefit of the society. CNRS hires more than 26000 permanent staff (more than 11600 scientific researchers and more than 14400 engineers). Its budget for year 2009 was 3.3 billion Euros. CNRS is active in more than 1200 units through the French territory and covers all major areas of knowledge.

The University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis (UNS http://www.unice.fr) is the second multidisciplinary University of France with 26000 students. Research occupies a very important place at the UNS. Extremely developed, it is recognized internationally, with 116 research teams and more than 35 laboratories associated to important research organizations (CNRS, INSERM, INRA, CEA...).

The I3S laboratory (Computer Science, Signals and Systems in Sophia Antipolis, http://www.i3s.unice.fr) is a joint research entity of the French National Research Center CNRS and the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis (UMR CNRS 6070).  The I3S laboratory is located in the Sophia Antipolis scientific park. This park has been developed in the vicinity of Nice, on the French Riviera, since 1969. There are near to 1276 corporate names represented in the park, and more than 26000 direct jobs have been created. The University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis and the CNRS French National Research Center form a competitiveness cluster in harmony with the knowledge and the know-how of the site. The Information technology-electronics-telecommunications cluster represents 25% of companies of the site and nearly 50% of the jobs. Sophia Antipolis is a quiet, pleasant place in the middle of a typical Mediterranean pine forest. It is located at 12 kilometers from Antibes city and 20 kilometers from Nice city.