I have been awarded best PhD thesis from the Fondation Mines-Télécom!

Every year, a prize honors the best PhD thesis from the Futur & Ruptures program (co-funded by the Fondation Mines-Télécom and the Carnot institute Télécom & Société numérique).

After presenting the work I have done during my PhD at the Journée Futur & Ruptures (a day organized every year by the Fondation Mines-Télécom to present the work achieved during the PhD they funded), four of us were selected as finalists for the PhD award.

I then made a video (of 3 minutes, in french) summing up my work (long way to go before being a youtuber..!). The prizes were announced during the special event organized by the Fondation, which was held on the 27th of March at the BNP Parisbas headquarters in Paris.

Credit: Franck Beloncle

The awards were given as follow:

1^st prize: Sylvain Lobry – Markovian models for information extraction in SAR images – Télécom ParisTech

2^nd prize (tied):

– El Mehdi Amhoud – Coding Techniques for Space Division Multiplexed Optical Fiber Systems – Télécom ParisTech

– Yousra Bekhti – Source localization for functional brain imaging with M/EEG – Télécom ParisTech

– Ivan Gorynin – Fast Filtering and Unsupervised Estimation in Switching Markov Models – Télécom SudParis

It was a great evening, and I particularly enjoyed the interactions with the other recipients! Once again, I would like to thank the Fondation for this prize, as well as Loïc Denis, Florence Tupin, Roger Fjørtoft and Cyrielle Flosi for their advices on the video.

On the 16th of November I defended my PhD at Télécom ParisTech. The title is:

Markovian models for SAR images:

Application to water detection in SWOT satellite images and multi-temporal analysis of urban areas

In front of the jury:

• Mr. Eric Pottier (President)
• Mr. Ronan Fablet (Reviewer)
• Mr. Jean-François Giovannelli (Reviewer)
• Mme Marie Chabert (Examinator)
• Mme Gilda Schirinzi (Examinator)
• Mr. Loïc Denis (Examinator)
• Mr. Brent Williams (Invited member)
• Mme Florence Tupin (Supervisor)
• Mr. Roger Fjørtoft (Supervisor)

You can find more information (including manuscript, slides, animations…) on the dedicated page.

I wanted to thank everyone who made this day feel really special, starting with the member of the jury. Thanks to their challenging questions, the defense was a moment that I enjoyed!

And I would like to thank my colleagues, friends and family who came and organized the traditional cocktail. It was great seeing all of you!