Master Internship - Fixed Point Algorithms for Inverse Wave Problems
Contract type : Internship
Level of qualifications required : Graduate degree or equivalent
Fonction : Internship Research
Level of experience : Recently graduated
About the research centre or Inria department
The Inria Saclay-Île-de-France Research Centre was established in 2008. It has developed as part of the Saclay site in partnership with Paris-Saclay University and with the Institut Polytechnique de Paris .
The centre has 40 project teams , 32 of which operate jointly with Paris-Saclay University and the Institut Polytechnique de Paris; Its activities occupy over 600 people, scientists and research and innovation support staff, including 44 different nationalities.
Context
In the context of a collaboration between OPIS and IDEFIX Inria teams, the aim of this internship is to investigate the design and convergence analysis of fixed-point algorithms for the resolution of inverse problems involving PDEs.
Subject:
Inverse problems are central to many applications like medical imaging, geophysical inspection, and non-destructive testing, where the goal is to identify some parameters (such as physical properties or defect geometries) from given measurements. Unlike forward problems, which involve solving linear PDEs with a unique solution, inverse problems are often nonlinear and ill-posed. Commonly used inversion algorithms in engineering often rely on the linearization of the inverse problem, leading for example to methods like migration or time reversal for inverse wave problems. While these methods are fast and do not require iterative procedures, they suffer from biases due to linearization and can fail in complex environments. A more conventional/traditional approach involves formulating the inverse problem as a minimization of a cost functional that measures data fidelity by comparing it with the PDE solution for a given parameter. However, solving this is often more computationally expensive than solving the PDE itself, making it impractical for real-time applications or large-scale problems. While efforts have been made to enhance the performance of these methods, they often treat forward iterative
solvers independently of inversion algorithms, or incorporate the forward map into the cost functional leading to suboptimal solutions for the forward problem.
Preliminary results have been obtained, showing the suitability of proximal fixed point techniques to address the problem. The goal of the internship is to explore consensus-based formulation and implementation of the methods.
Assignment
Missions: The recruited student will first perform a bibliographical study on the topic. Then, in a second step, the student will propose a mathematical formulation of the problem, and a suitable distributed fixed-point algorithm to solve it. Third, the convergence of the approach will be established.
Environment: The intern will be supervised by Emilie Chouzenoux (Head of OPIS team, Inria Saclay). The intern student will join the Inria Saclay team OPIS (https://opis-inria.eu/). He/she will be located in the Centre de la Vision Numérique, in CentraleSupélec campus, Saclay, France. He/she will enjoy an international and creative environment where research seminars and reading groups take place very often. Informatic material expenses will be covered within the limits of the scale in force. The student will participate to monthly collaborative meetings researchers from OPIS team (Emilie Chouzenoux, Jean-Christophe Pesquet), and IDEFIX team (Lorenzo Audibert, Houssem Haddar).
Organization: The proposed offer is dedicated to internship of Master 2 / Engineering students. The starting/end dates are flexible, with a minimum duration of 5 months.
Main activities
Main activities :
Bibliographical study
Optimization problem formulation and resolution
Convergence Analysis
Scientific meetings
Writing of scientific reports
Skills
Languages : The candidate must be fluent in english and/or french languages.
Benefits package
- Subsidized meals
- Partial reimbursement of public transport costs
- Leave: 7 weeks of annual leave + 10 extra days off due to RTT (statutory reduction in working hours) + possibility of exceptional leave (sick children, moving home, etc.)
- Possibility of teleworking and flexible organization of working hours
- Professional equipment available (videoconferencing, loan of computer equipment, etc.)
- Social, cultural and sports events and activities
- Access to vocational training
- Social security coverage
Remuneration
Gratification
General Information
- Theme/Domain :
Optimization, machine learning and statistical methods
Scientific computing (BAP E) - Town/city : Gif sur Yvette
- Inria Center : Centre Inria de Saclay
- Starting date : 2025-04-01
- Duration of contract : 6 months
- Deadline to apply : 2026-03-31
Warning : you must enter your e-mail address in order to save your application to Inria. Applications must be submitted online on the Inria website. Processing of applications sent from other channels is not guaranteed.
Instruction to apply
Defence Security :
This position is likely to be situated in a restricted area (ZRR), as defined in Decree No. 2011-1425 relating to the protection of national scientific and technical potential (PPST).Authorisation to enter an area is granted by the director of the unit, following a favourable Ministerial decision, as defined in the decree of 3 July 2012 relating to the PPST. An unfavourable Ministerial decision in respect of a position situated in a ZRR would result in the cancellation of the appointment.
Recruitment Policy :
As part of its diversity policy, all Inria positions are accessible to people with disabilities.
Contacts
- Inria Team : OPIS
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Recruiter :
Chouzenoux Emilie / emilie.chouzenoux@inria.fr
The keys to success
We seek for a talented candidate in Master 2 or Engineering studies, with a solid background in optimization, and a strong motivation for research and innovation. Experience in Python or Matlab programming is necessary.
The candidates are requested to send a CV and a motivation letter to apply for this position.
About Inria
Inria is the French national research institute dedicated to digital science and technology. It employs 2,600 people. Its 200 agile project teams, generally run jointly with academic partners, include more than 3,500 scientists and engineers working to meet the challenges of digital technology, often at the interface with other disciplines. The Institute also employs numerous talents in over forty different professions. 900 research support staff contribute to the preparation and development of scientific and entrepreneurial projects that have a worldwide impact.