Post-doc in “AI and Image Generation applied to 3D Materials” - 18-month fixed-term contract potentially renewable 1 time

Context

The École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint-Étienne (Mines Saint-Etienne), part of the Institut Mines Télécom (IMT), under the supervision of the French Ministry of the Economy and Finance, is responsible for training, research and innovation, transfer to industry and scientific, technical and industrial culture. Mines Saint-Etienne represents: 2,400 student-engineers and researchers, 480 staff, a consolidated budget of €46 million, 3 sites on the Saint-Etienne campus (Loire) of around 26,000 m², a Georges Charpak Provence campus in Gardanne (Bouches-du-Rhône) of around 20,000 m², 6 research units, 5 training and research centers, a center for scientific, technical and industrial culture (La Rotonde). Mines Saint-Etienne has development projects in Lyon, notably on the Campus Numérique of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, and numerous international collaborations.

The Georges Friedel Laboratory (LGF) is a CNRS Joint Research Unit (UMR 5307) and belongs to the Institute of Engineering and Systems Sciences (INSIS). Located at the École des Mines de Saint-Étienne and supported by two trusts (Mines Saint-Étienne and CNRS), the laboratory brings together all the research potential of Mines Saint-Étienne in the fields of materials, mechanics and processes.

The "Sciences des Processus Industriels et Naturels" (SPIN) center is a research, teaching and technology transfer center renowned for its expertise in Process Engineering applied to divided solids (grains, pores, particles, powders, soils, ores). As part of the Georges Friedel Laboratory (UMR CNRS 5307), it applies its scientific skills and cutting-edge equipment to drive innovation in industrial companies faced with the energy transition and the need to invent new, high-performance processes and materials. The SPIN center is structured into three departments and six research themes: powder technology, geometry and physical chemistry of granular media, complex hydro-systems and geo-processes, industrial crystallization and application of gas hydrates, reactivity and transformation of solids, and electrical properties of solids interacting with gas and instrumentation.

The successful candidate will be integrated into the SPIN center and the LGF laboratory.

The theme we wish to support and strengthen is "AI and Image Generation", particularly for the study of 3D materials (see Figure 1); it forms part of the wider field of mathematics applied to Process and Materials Engineering. Over the last ten years or so, the SPIN team has seized the digital simulation niche to meet the growing industrial need to control granular processes as well as conventional ones. The challenge we are tackling is to develop original models that can be used to digitally simulate 3D materials by AI and image analysis that possess the best physico-chemical properties (Materials by Design). The development of these digital twins will lead companies to take full advantage of the digital transition to develop high-performance processes and materials, and thus enter the industry of the future.

To help achieve this highly ambitious goal, Mines Saint-Etienne is recruiting a post-doc in "AI and Image Generation applied to 3D Materials", to mainly work on the CELCER-EHT project (see below).