Seminars

Links' Seminars and Public Events Add to google calendar
2024
Fri 2nd Feb
10:30 am
11:30 am
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Mikaël Monet: Probabiliste Shapley value

Fri 26th Jan
10:00 am
11:00 am
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Séminaire: Klara Nosan
Sujet: TBA

2023
Thu 14th Dec
2:00 pm
5:00 pm
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Claire Soyez-Martin PhD defense
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Amphi IRCICA
Fri 1st Dec
10:00 am
11:00 am
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Séminaire Oliver
Titre: Direct Access for Conjunctive Queries with Negation
Abstract:
Direct Access is the operation of returning, given an index j, the jth answer of a conjunctive query on a given database for a given order. While this problem is #P-hard in general (wrt combined complexity), many conjunctive queries are structured enough so that for some lexicographical ordering of their answers, one can have a direct access to the answer set of a query Q that takes polylogarithmic time in the size of the database after a polynomial time precomputation. Previous work has precisely characterised the tractable classes and given fined-grained lower bounds on the time needed for precomputation depending on the structure of the query. We give a generalisation of these tractability results to the case of signed conjunctive queries, that is, conjunctive queries that may contain negative atoms. Our technique is based on solving the direct access task for a class of circuits that can represent relational data. Our result then follows from the fact that the tractable (signed) conjunctive queries can be transformed into polynomial size circuits. We recover the known tractable classes from the literature in the case of positive conjunctive queries using this technique and also discover new islands of tractability for signed conjunctive queries. In particular, our result generalises to the Direct Access Problem the known tractabilities of counting the number of answers to beta-acyclic negative queries and of deciding whether a negative query with bounded nested-width has an answer. This is joint work with Florent Capelli.
Fri 24th Nov
10:00 am
11:00 am
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Séminaire Pierre Vandenhove

Fri 17th Nov
10:00 am
11:00 am
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Séminaire Charles (RsonPath)
TBA
Fri 10th Nov
10:00 am
11:00 am
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Séminaire Nils Vortmeier
title: TBA
Fri 20th Oct
10:30 am
12:30 pm
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Aurelien part II

Fri 22nd Sep
11:00 am
12:00 pm
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Séminaire Théo Losekoot
Title: Automata-based verification of relational properties of functions over algebraic data structures
Fri 15th Sep
11:00 am
12:30 pm
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Charles: Présentation de rsonpath

Fri 23rd Jun
11:00 am
12:00 pm
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Seminar by Florent Capelli
Speaker: Florent Capelli — florent.capelli.me/

Title: A simpler FPRAS for nOBDD

Abstract: A simpler FPRAS for nOBDD

Abstract: In this talk, we revisit the algorithm by Arenas, Croquevielle, Jayaram and Riveros that allows to approximate the number of words of length n of a non deterministic finite automaton. We explain the algorithm and techniques in a modular and general way, without relating to the particular case of counting words in automaton. We illustrate the soundness of the approach by applying it to the problem of approximatively counting the number of satisfying assignments of a non-deterministic OBDD.
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B21
Fri 2nd Jun
11:00 am
12:30 pm
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Séminaire Martin Berger
Title: Search-Based Regular Expression Inference on a GPU

Abstract: Regular expression inference (REI) is a supervised machine
learning and program synthesis problem that takes a cost metric for regular
expressions, and positive and negative examples of strings as input. It
outputs a regular expression that is precise (i.e., accepts all positive
and rejects all negative examples), and minimal w.r.t. to the cost metric.
We present a novel algorithm for REI over arbitrary alphabets that is
enumerative and trades off time for space. Our main algorithmic idea is to
implement the search space of regular expressions succinctly as a
contiguous matrix of bitvectors. Collectively, the bitvectors represent, as
characteristic sequences, all sub-languages of the infix-closure of the
union of positive and negative examples. Mathematically, this is a semiring
of (a variant of) formal power series. Infix-closure enables bottom-up
compositional construction of larger from smaller regular expressions using
the operations of our semiring. This minimises data movement and
data-dependent branching, hence maximises data-parallelism. In addition,
the infix-closure remains unchanged during the search, hence search can be
staged: first pre-compute various expensive operations, and then run the
compute intensive search process. We provide two C++ implementations, one
for general purpose CPUs and one for Nvidia GPUs (using CUDA). We benchmark
both on Google Colab Pro: the GPU implementation is on average over 1000x
faster than the CPU implementation on the hardest benchmarks.

Joint work with Mojtaba Valizadeh

Download: martinfriedrichberger.net/pldi2023.html

Thu 13th Apr
11:00 am
12:00 pm
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Séminaire Yann Strozecki

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Esprit salle Agora 2 (rez-de-chaussée)
Tue 11th Apr
2:00 pm
3:00 pm
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Séminaire Mamadou

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Esprit Agora 1 (rez-de-chaussée)
Fri 24th Mar
10:00 am
11:00 am
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Séminaire Mamadou KANTE

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Fri 20th Jan
11:00 am
12:00 pm
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Seminar by Tito
Speaker: Lê Thành Dũng Nguyễn, aka “Tito” — nguyentito.eu/

Title: Polyregular functions: some recent developments

Abstract:
The class of polyregular functions is composed of the string-to-string functions computed by pebble transducers. While this machine model (which extends two-way finite transducers) is two decades old, several alternative characterizations of polyregular functions have been discovered recently [Bojańczyk 2018; Bojańczyk, Kiefer & Lhote 2019], demonstrating their canonicity. The name comes from the polynomial bound on the growth rate of these functions: |f(w)| = |w|^O(1) where |w| is the length of the string w.

In this talk, after recalling this context, I will present some subsequent developments in which I have been involved:
* the subclass of comparison-free polyregular (or “polyblind”) functions, definable through a natural restriction of pebble transducers, which Pierre Pradic and I actually discovered while studying a linear λ-calculus;
* some results that either relate the growth rate of a polyregular function (comparison-free or not) to the “resources” needed to compute it, or show that there is no such relationship.
Fri 13th Jan
11:00 am
12:00 pm
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Seminar by Sarah Winter
Speaker: Sarah Winter — sarahwinter.net/

Title: A Regular and Complete Notion of Delay for Streaming String Transducers

Abstract:
The notion of delay between finite transducers is a core element of numerous fundamental results of transducer theory. The goal of this work is to provide a similar notion for more complex abstract machines: we introduce a new notion of delay tailored to measure the similarity between streaming string transducers (SST).

We show that our notion is regular: we design a finite automaton that can check whether the delay between any two SSTs executions is smaller than some given bound. As a consequence, our notion enjoys good decidability properties: in particular, while equivalence between non-deterministic SSTs is undecidable, we show that equivalence up to fixed delay is decidable. Moreover, we show that our notion has good completeness properties: we prove that two SSTs are equivalent if and only if they are equivalent up to some (computable) bounded delay.

Together with the regularity of our delay notion, it provides an alternative proof that SSTs equivalence is decidable. Finally, the definition of our delay notion is machine-independent, as it only depends on the origin semantics of SSTs. As a corollary, the completeness result also holds for equivalent machine models such as deterministic two-way transducers, or MSO transducers.

This is joint work with Emmanuel Filiot, Ismaël Jecker, and Christof Löding.
2022
Fri 16th Dec
11:00 am
12:00 pm
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Seminar by Sandra Kiefer
CANCELLED: we will attempt to reschedule this seminar to early 2023.

Speaker: Sandra Kiefer — www.lics.rwth-aachen.d.....dx/1/

Title: TBA

Abstract: TBA
Fri 9th Dec
11:00 am
12:00 pm
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Seminar by Rémi Morvan
Speaker: Rémi Morvan — www.morvan.xyz/

Titre: Approximation and Semantic Tree-width of Conjunctive Regular Path Queries

Abstract:
We show that the problem of whether a query is equivalent to a query of tree-width k is decidable, for the class of Unions of Conjunctive Regular Path Queries with two-way navigation (UC2RPQs). A previous result by Barceló, Romero, and Vardi has shown decidability for the case k=1, and here we show that decidability in fact holds for any arbitrary k>1. The algorithm is in 2ExpSpace, but we show that the complexity drops to the second level of the polynomial hierarchy for a restricted but practically relevant case of queries obtained by only allowing simple regular expressions.
We also investigate the related problem of approximating a UC2RPQ by queries of small tree-width. We exhibit an algorithm which, for any fixed number k, builds the maximal under-approximation of tree-width k of a UC2RPQ. The maximal under-approximation of tree-width k of a query q is a query q' of tree-width k which is contained in q in a maximal and unique way, that is, such that for every query q'' of tree-width k, if q'' is contained in q then q'' is also contained in q'. Joint work with Diego Figueira.
Fri 18th Nov
11:00 am
11:30 am
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Seminar by Sarah Winter
CANCELLED for COVID: we will attempt to reschedule this seminar to early 2023

Speaker: Sarah Winter — sarahwinter.net/

Title: A Regular and Complete Notion of Delay for Streaming String Transducers

Abstract:
The notion of delay between finite transducers is a core element of numerous fundamental results of transducer theory. The goal of this work is to provide a similar notion for more complex abstract machines: we introduce a new notion of delay tailored to measure the similarity between streaming string transducers (SST).

We show that our notion is regular: we design a finite automaton that can check whether the delay between any two SSTs executions is smaller than some given bound. As a consequence, our notion enjoys good decidability properties: in particular, while equivalence between non-deterministic SSTs is undecidable, we show that equivalence up to fixed delay is decidable. Moreover, we show that our notion has good completeness properties: we prove that two SSTs are equivalent if and only if they are equivalent up to some (computable) bounded delay.

Together with the regularity of our delay notion, it provides an alternative proof that SSTs equivalence is decidable. Finally, the definition of our delay notion is machine-independent, as it only depends on the origin semantics of SSTs. As a corollary, the completeness result also holds for equivalent machine models such as deterministic two-way transducers, or MSO transducers.

This is joint work with Emmanuel Filiot, Ismaël Jecker, and Christof Löding.
Fri 21st Oct
11:00 am
12:00 pm
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Online seminar by Pierre Pradic
Speaker: Pierre Pradic — perso.ens-lyon.fr/pierre.pradic/

Title: Synthesizing Nested Relational Queries from Implicit Specifications

Abstract:
Derived datasets can be defined implicitly or explicitly. An implicit
definition (of dataset O in terms of datasets I⃗ ) is a logical specification
involving the source data I⃗ and the interface data O. It is a valid definition
of O in terms of I⃗ , if any two models of the specification agreeing on I⃗
agree on O. In contrast, an explicit definition is a query that produces O from
I⃗ . Variants of Beth's theorem state that one can convert implicit definitions
to explicit ones. Further, this conversion can be done effectively given a
proof witnessing implicit definability in a suitable proof system. In this
talk, I will discuss an analogous effective implicit-to-explicit result for
nested relations: implicit definitions, given in the natural logic for nested
relations, can be effectively converted to explicit definitions in the nested
relational calculus NRC.

I will first spend some time explaining what NRC is and what logic we use to
describe implicit definitions of nested queries. Then I will present the
results obtained in our papers, attempt to give some intuitions on the proof of
the main theorem and say a few words on in particular the proof-theoretic
techniques and concerns that come up (namely, cut-elimination and focussing)
and how this can impact the complexity of extracting explicit definitions from
proofs of implicit definability. Then if time allows I will discuss a more
general model-theoretic result that we first used to give a non-constructive
proof of our theorem, and some ideas that we have towards making it
constructive and bounding the complexity of extracting explicit definitions.

This is Joint work with Michael Benedikt and Christoph Wenhard. The main
results I will be discussing were written up in
arxiv.org/abs/2005.06503 and arxiv.org/abs/2209.08299.
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Online
Fri 30th Sep
10:00 am
11:30 am
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Seminar by Liat Peterfreund
Speaker: Liat Peterfreund — sites.google.com/view/liatpeterfreund/

Title: Querying Incomplete Numerical Data: Between Certain and Possible Answers

Abstract:
Queries with aggregation and arithmetic operations, as well as incomplete data, are common in real-world databases, but we lack a good understanding of how they should interact. On the one hand, systems based on SQL provide ad-hoc rules for numerical nulls, on the other, theoretical research largely concentrates on the standard notions of certain and possible answers which in the presence of numerical attributes and aggregates are often meaningless.
In this work, we define a principled compositional framework for databases with numerical nulls and answering queries with arithmetic and aggregations over them. We assume that missing values are given by probability distributions associated with marked nulls, which yields a model of probabilistic bag databases. We concentrate on queries that resemble standard SQL with arithmetic and aggregation and show that they are measurable, and that their outputs have a finite representation. Moreover, since the classical forms of answers provide little information in the numerical setting, we look at the probability that numerical values in output tuples belong to specific intervals. Even though their exact computation is intractable, we show efficient approximation algorithms to compute such probabilities.

The talk is based on joint work with Marco Console and Leonid Libkin, and will be presented in PODS 2023.
Fri 16th Sep
11:00 am
12:00 pm
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Seminar Luis Galárraga
Speaker : Luis Galárraga — luisgalarraga.de/about/

Title: Computing How-Provenance for SPARQL Queries via Query Rewriting

Abstract:
Over the past few years, we have witnessed the emergence of large knowledge graphs built by extracting and combining information from multiple sources. This has propelled many advances in query processing over knowledge graphs, however the aspect of providing provenance explanations for query results has so far been mostly neglected. In this talk I will present SPARQLprov, a method based on query rewriting, to compute how-provenance polynomials for SPARQL queries over knowledge graphs. Contrary to existing works, SPARQLprov is system-agnostic and can be applied to standard and already deployed SPARQL engines without the need of customized extensions. To do so, we rely on spm-semirings to compute polynomial annotations that respect the property of commutation with homomorphisms on monotonic and non-monotonic SPARQL queries without aggregate functions. An evaluation on real and synthetic data shows that SPARQLprov over standard engines competes with state-of-the-art solutions for how-provenance computation, while covering a larger fragment of the query language.

Fri 1st Jul
11:00 am
12:00 pm
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Séminaire Arnaud Durand

Fri 10th Jun
10:00 am
11:00 am
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Séminaire Corentin Barloy

Title:The Regular Languages of First-Order Logic with One Alternation
Abstract: The regular languages with a neutral letter expressible in first-order logic with one alternation are characterized. Specifically, it is shown that if an arbitrary Σ2 formula defines a regular language with a neutral letter, then there is an equivalent Σ2 formula that only uses the order predicate. This shows that the so-called Central Conjecture of Straubing holds for Σ2 over languages with a neutral letter, the first progress on the Conjecture in more than 20 years. To show the characterization, lower bounds against polynomial-size depth-3 Boolean circuits with constant top fan-in are developed. The heart of the combinatorial argument resides in studying how positions within a language are determined from one another, a technique of independent interest.
Fri 25th Feb
11:00 am
12:00 pm
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Séminaire Nico

Fri 28th Jan
11:00 am
12:00 pm
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Alexandre Vigny (visio)
Title:
Separator logic, expressive power and algorithmic applications
Abstract:
First-order logic (FO) can express many algorithmic problems on graphs,
but fails to express whether two vertices are connected. We define a
new logic (separator logic) by enriching FO with connectivity
predicates connk(x, y, z1, . . . , zk) that hold true in a graph if
there exists a path between x and y after deletion of z1, . . . , zk.
In this talk I will first present a study of the expressive power of
this new logic.
I will then present algorithmic results for this logic on graph classes
that exclude a topological minor.
These results were obtained in collaboration with Michał Pilipczuk,
Nicole Schirrmacher, Sebastian Siebertz, and Szymon Toruńczyk.

Fri 21st Jan
11:00 am
12:00 pm
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Aurélien Lemay in Seminar

2021
Fri 10th Dec
11:00 am
12:00 pm
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Séminaire Sebastien Tavenas

Title: Bornes inférieures superpolynomiales pour les circuits de profondeur constante

Abstract:
Tout polynôme multivarié P(X_1,...,X_n) peut être écrit comme une somme de
monômes, i.e., une somme de produits de variables et de constantes du corps.
La taille naturelle d'une telle expression est le nombre de monômes. Mais,
que se passe-t-il si on rajoute un nouveau niveau de complexité en
considérant les expressions de la forme : somme de produits de sommes (de
variables et de constantes) ? Maintenant, il devient moins clair comment
montrer qu'un polynôme donné n'a pas de petite expression. Dans cet exposé
nous résoudrons exactement ce problème. Plus précisément, nous prouvons que
certains polynômes explicites n'ont pas de représentations "somme de
produits de sommes'' (SPS) de taille polynomiale. Nous pouvons aussi obtenir
des résultats similaires pour les SPSP, SPSPS, etc... pour toutes les
expressions de profondeur constante.
"
Thu 25th Nov
2:00 pm
3:00 pm
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Nofar Carmeli in Links' Seminar
Fri 29th Oct
11:00 am
12:00 pm
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Séminaire Antoine Amarilli

Fri 22nd Oct
11:00 am
12:00 pm
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Mikaël Monet in Links' Seminar
Fri 15th Oct
11:00 am
12:00 pm
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Claire Soyez-Martin in Links' seminar
Fri 17th Sep
11:00 am
12:00 pm
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Séminaire Corentin Barloy
Title: Stackless Processing of Streamed Trees
Abstract:
Processing tree-structured data in the streaming model is a chal-lenge: capturing regular properties of streamed trees by means of astack is costly in memory, but falling back to finite-state automata drastically limits the computational power. We propose an intermediate stackless model based on register automata equipped with a single counter, used to maintain the current depth in the tree. We explore the power of this model to validate and query streamed trees. Our main result is an effective characterization of regular path queries (RPQs) that can be evaluated stacklessly—with and without registers. In particular, we confirm the conjectured characterization of tree languages defined by DTDs that are recognizable without registers, by Segoufin and Vianu (2002), in the special case of tree languages defined by means of an RPQ.

Link: paperman.name/data/pub.....0.pdf

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lille-Salle
Fri 10th Sep
10:00 am
11:00 am
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Séminaire de Patrick Baillot
titre: Type-based complexity analysis in a parallel process calculus

Abstract:
Some type systems have been designed to analyse statically the time
coplexity of functional languages. A natural question is whether this approach
can be extended to parallel languages. We address this problem for the
Pi-calculus, a paradigmatic calculus for parallel and concurrent computation.
In Pi-calculus, processes communicate through channels that can carry values
and channel names. We will define notions of sequential and parallel complexity
for Pi-calculus, and present a type system that provides an upper bound on the
time complexity of processes.
This is based on joint work with Alexis Ghyselen (ESOP 2021).

Based on: link.springer.com/chap.....9-3_3
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Fri 9th Jul
 all day
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Seminar - Antonio AL SERHALI
Title: Integrating Schema-Based Cleaning into Automata Determinization

Abstract : Schema-based cleaning for automata on trees or nested words
was proposed recently to compute smaller deterministic automata for
regular path queries on data trees. The idea is to remove all rules and
states, from an automaton for the query, that are not needed to recognize
any tree recognized by a given schema automaton. Unfortunately, how-
ever, deterministic automata for nested words may still grow large for au-
tomata for XPath queries, so that the much smaller schema-cleaned ver-
sion cannot always be computed in practice. We therefore propose a new
schema-based determinization algorithm that integrates schema-based
cleaning directly. We prove that schema-based determinization always
produces the same deterministic automaton as schema-based cleaning
after standard determinization. Nevertheless, the worst-case complex-
ity is considerably lower for schema-based determinization. Experiments
confirm the relevance of this result in practice.
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Fri 4th Jun
10:00 am
12:30 pm
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Séminaire Pierre Ohlmann
Zoom link: univ-lille-fr.zoom.us/j/95419000064



Titre: Lower bound for arithmetic circuits via the Hankel matrix

Abstract: We study the complexity of representing polynomials by arithmetic
circuits in both the commutative and the non-commutative settings. To
analyse circuits we count their number of parse trees, which describe the
non-associative computations realised by the circuit. In the non-commutative
setting a circuit computing a polynomial of degree d has at most 2^{O(d)}
parse trees. Previous superpolynomial lower bounds were known for circuits
with up to 2^{d^{1/3-ε}} parse trees, for any ε>0. Our main result is to
reduce the gap by showing a superpolynomial lower bound for circuits with
just a small defect in the exponent for the total number of parse trees,
that is 2^{d^{1-ε}}, for any ε>0. In the commutative setting a circuit
computing a polynomial of degree d has at most 2^{O(d \\log d)} parse trees.
We show a superpolynomial lower bound for circuits with up to 2^{d^{1/3-ε}}
parse trees, for any ε>0. When d is polylogarithmic in n, we push this
further to up to 2^{d^{1-ε}} parse trees. While these two main results hold
in the associative setting, our approach goes through a precise
understanding of the more restricted setting where multiplication is not
associative, meaning that we distinguish the polynomials (xy)z and yz).
Our first and main conceptual result is a characterization result: we show
that the size of the smallest circuit computing a given non-associative
polynomial is exactly the rank of a matrix constructed from the polynomial
and called the Hankel matrix. This result applies to the class of all
circuits in both commutative and non-commutative settings, and can be seen
as an extension of the seminal result of Nisan giving a similar
characterization for non-commutative algebraic branching programs. Our key
technical contribution is to provide generic lower bound theorems based on
analyzing and decomposing the Hankel matrix, from which we derive the
results mentioned above. The study of the Hankel matrix also provides a
unifying approach for proving lower bounds for polynomials in the
(classical) associative setting. We demonstrate this by giving alternative
proofs of recent lower bounds as corollaries of our generic lower bound
results.
Fri 28th May
10:00 am
11:00 am
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Seminar Anastasia Dimou
Title: Knowledge graph generation and validation
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Fri 21st May
10:00 am
12:00 pm
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Seminar Dimitrios Myrisiotis
Title : One-Tape Turing Machine and Branching Program Lower Bounds for MCSP
Abstract:
eccc.weizmann.ac.il/report/2020/103/

Speaker' webpage : dimyrisiotis.github.io/
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Fri 7th May
10:00 am
12:00 pm
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Seminar Nicole Schweikardt
Title:
Spanner Evaluation over SLP-Compressed Documents

Abstract:
We consider the problem of evaluating regular spanners over compressed documents, i.e., we wish to solve evaluation tasks directly on the compressed data, without decompression. As compressed forms of the documents we use straight-line programs (SLPs) -- a lossless compression scheme for textual data widely used in different areas of theoretical computer science and particularly well-suited for algorithmics on compressed data. In terms of data complexity, our results are as follows. For a regular spanner M and an SLP S that represents a document D, we can solve the tasks of model checking and of checking non-emptiness in time O(size(S)). Computing the set M(D) of all span-tuples extracted from D can be done in time O(size(S) size(M(D))), and enumeration of M(D) can be done with linear preprocessing O(size(S)) and a delay of O(depth(S)), where depth(S) is the depth of S's derivation tree. Note that size(S) can be exponentially smaller than the document's size |D|; and, due to known balancing results for SLPs, we can always assume that depth(S) = O(log(|D|)) independent of D's compressibility. Hence, our enumeration algorithm has a delay logarithmic in the size of the non- compressed data and a preprocessing time that is at best (i.e., in the case of highly compressible documents) also logarithmic, but at worst still linear. Therefore, in a big-data perspective, our enumeration algorithm for SLP-compressed documents may nevertheless beat the known linear preprocessing and constant delay algorithms for non-compressed documents.
[This is joint work with Markus Schmid, to be presented at PODS'21.]

Link to the paper: arxiv.org/pdf/2101.10890.pdf for the paper at least
Link to the ACM video: TBA
Fri 30th Apr
10:00 am
12:00 pm
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Présentation de NetworkDisk
Je présenterais mon projet avec Bruno: NetworkDisk.

Abstract and Title: TBA
link to the project: TBA

Fri 9th Apr
10:00 am
12:00 pm
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Seminaire Pascal Weil
titre: Problèmes algorithmiques en théorie des groupes infinis
resumé:
Malgré le titre très général, il s'agira uniquement de problèmes concernant les sous-groupes de groupes infinis, et même juste les sous-groupes de groupes libres. Les résultats et méthodes que je présenterai sont issus de près de 40 ans de littérature et sont dûs à un grand nombre d'auteurs.

Je commencerai par poser le paysage, y compris pour ceux qui ne savent plus ce qu'est le groupe libre -- où l'on verra qu'on est, du point de vue algorithmique, dans une variante de la combinatoire des mots. Je présenterai ensuite l'outil central de la plupart des algorithmes efficaces sur les sous-groupes du groupe libre : la représentation de chaque sous-groupe finiment engendré par un graphe étiqueté et enraciné (disons : d'un automate :-)…) unique et facilement calculable à partir d'un ensemble de générateurs du sous-groupe considéré, qu'on appelle le graphe de Stallings.

Le jeu consiste ensuite à traduire les problèmes algorithmiques sur les sous-groupes en problèmes algorithmiques sur les graphes de Stallings, et à résoudre ces problèmes de la façon la plus efficace possible.

On considèrera notamment les problèmes suivants -- bon, juste le début de cette longue liste.
- Le problème du mot généralisé : étant donnés k+1 éléments du groupe libre (ce sont des mots), le dernier appartient-il au sous-groupe engendré par les k premiers ?
- Le problème de l'indice : étant donné un tuple d'éléments du groupe libre, le sous-groupe qu'ils engendrent est-il d'indice fini ?
- Le problème de la base : étant donné un tuple d'éléments du groupe libre, trouver le rang, et une base du sous-groupe qu'ils engendrent.
- Le problème de l'intersection : étant donnés deux tuples d'éléments du groupe libre, calculer l'intersection des sous-groupes qu'ils engendrent (ou calculer une base de cette intersection).
- Le problème de la conjugaison : étant donnés deux tuples d'éléments du groupe libre, engendrent-ils le même sous-groupe ? deux sous-groupes conjugués ?
- Et de nombreux autres problèmes (mots clés : minimalité de Whitehead, facteur libre, malnormalité, clôture par radical, clôture au sens de la topologie pro-p, etc…)


title: Algorithmic problems in the theory of infinite groups
abstract:
In spite of the very general title, we will talk only about problems on subgroups of infinite groups, and in fact, only on subgroups of free groups . The results and methods I will present have been obtained over the past 40 years and are due to many researchers.

I will start by setting the landscape, including for those who forgot what the free group is --- and we will see that we are dealing here, from the algorithmic point of view, with a variant of combinatorics on words. I will then present the tool that is central to most efficient algorithms on subgroups of free groups: the representation of each finitely generated subgroup by a labeled rooted graph (shall we say… an automaton?) which is unique and easily computable when a tuple of generators of the subgroup under consideration is given. This graph is called the Stallings graph.

The game consists, then, in translating algorithmic problems on subgroups into algorithmic problems on Stallings graphs, and in solving these problems as efficiently as possible.

We will discuss in particular the following problems (clearly: just the beginning of this long list).
- The generalized word problem: given k+1 elements of the free group (these are words), does the last one belong to the subgroup generated by the k first ones?
- The index problem: given a tuple of elements of the free group, does the subgroup they generate have finite index?
- The basis problem: given a tuple of elements of the free group, find the rank and a basis of the subgroup they generate.
- The intersection problem: given two tuples of elements of the free group, compute the intersection of the subgroups they generate (compute a basis of this intersection).
- The conjugacy problem: given two tuples of elements of the free group, are the subgroups they generate equal? conjugated?
- And many other problems (keywords: Whitehead minimality, free factors, malnormality, closure under radicals, closure in the sense of the pro-p topology, etc…)
Fri 26th Mar
10:00 am
11:00 am
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Séminaire Anne Etien

Title: Managing structural and behavioral evolution in relational database: Application of Software Engineering techniques.
Abstract:

Relational databases play a central role in many information systems.
Their schemas usually contain structural and behavioral entity descriptions.
However, as any piece of software, they must continuously evolve to adapt to new
requirements of a world in constant change. From an evolution point of view,
problems are twofold: (1) relational database management systems do not allow
inconsistencies i.e., no entity can reference a non existing entity; (2) stored
procedures bodies are not described by meta-data i.e., DBMS as PostgreSQL
consider stored procedure bodies as plain text and references to entities are
unknown. As a consequence, evaluating the impact of an evolution of the database
schema is a difficult task. In this seminar, we present a semi-automatic
approach based on recommendations (sort of nested code transformations).
Recommendations are proposed to architects who select the ones fitting their
needs. Selected recommendations are then analysed and compiled to generate SQL
script respecting the constraints imposed by the RDBMS. To support
recommendations, we designed a meta-model for relational databases easing
computation of change impact. We performed an experiment to validate the
approach by reproducing a real evolution on a database. The results of our
experiment show that our approach is able to reproduce exactly a manual
modification in 75% less time.


Zoom link: univ-lille-fr.zoom.us/j/95419000064
Fri 19th Mar
10:00 am
12:00 pm
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Seminar Pablo Ferragin
Title: Theory and practice of learning-based compressed data structures

Presenter: Giorgio Vinciguerra

Abstract:
We revisit two fundamental and ubiquitous problems in data structure design:
predecessor search and rank/select primitives. We show that real data present a
peculiar kind of regularity based on geometric considerations. We name it
“approximate linearity”.
We thus expand the horizon of compressed data structures by presenting two
solutions for the problems above that discover, or “learn”, in a principled
algorithmic way, these approximate linearities. We provide a walkthrough of
these new theoretical achievements, also with a focus on open-source libraries
and their experimental improvements. We conclude by discussing the plethora of
research opportunities that these new learning-based approaches to data
structure design open up.

Zoom link: univ-lille-fr.zoom.us/j/95419000064
Fri 12th Mar
10:00 am
12:00 pm
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Seminar: Antonio AL SERHALI
Title: Can Earliest Query Answering on Nested Streams be achieved in Combined Linear Time?
Fri 19th Feb
10:00 am
11:00 am
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Seminar: Bernardo Subercaseau
Title: Foundations of Languages for Interpretability.

Abstract:
The area of interpretability in Machine Learning aims for the design of algorithms that we humans can understand and trust. One of the fundamental questions of interpretability is: given a classifier M, and an input vector x, why did M classify x as M(x)? In order to approximate an answer to this "why" question, many concrete queries, metrics and scores have emerged as proxies, and their complexity has been studied over different classes of models. Many of these analyses are ad-hoc, but they tend to agree on the fact that these queries and scores are hard to compute over Neural Networks, but easy to compute over Decision Trees. It is thus natural to think of a more general approach, like a query language in which users could write an arbitrary number of different queries, and that would allow for a generalized study of the complexity of interpreting different ML models. Our work proposes foundations for such a language, tying to First Order Logic, as a way to have a clear understanding of its expressiveness and complexity. We manage to define a minimalistic structure over FO that allows expressing many natural interpretability queries over models, and we show that evaluating such queries can be done efficiently for Decision Trees, in data-complexity.

Zoom link: univ-lille-fr.zoom.us/j/95419000064
Fri 12th Feb
10:00 am
12:00 pm
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Seminar: Florent Capelli
Title: Regularizing the delay of enumeration algorithms
Zoom link: univ-lille-fr.zoom.us/j/95419000064
Abstract: Enumeration algorithms are algorithms whose goal is to output the set
of all solutions to a given problem. There exists different measures for the
quality of such algorithm, whose relevance depends on what the user wants to do
with the solutions set.

If the goal of the user is to explore some solutions or to transform the
solutions as they are outputted with a stream-like algorithm, a relevant measure
of the complexity of an enumeration algorithm is the delay between the output of
two distinct solutions. Following this line of thoughts, significant efforts
have been made by the community to design polynomial delay algorithms, that is,
algorithms whose delay between the output of two new solutions is polynomial in
the size of the input.

While this measure is interesting, it is not always completely necessary to have
a bound on the delay and it is enough to ask for a guarantee that running the
algorithm for O(t poly(n)) will result in the output of at least t solutions. Of
course, by storing each solution seen and outputting them regularly, one can
simulate a polynomial delay but if the number of solutions is large, it may
result in a blow up in the space used by the enumerator.

In this talk, we will present a new technique that allow to transform such
algorithm into polynomial delay algorithm using polynomial space.

This is joint work with Yann Strozecki.
Fri 15th Jan
10:00 am
12:00 pm
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Séminaire de Kim Nguyễn
Titile: The BOLDR project
Abstract: I
n this presentation, I will give an account of the BOLDR project and
perspectives in the field of language integrated queries.

Several classes of solutions allow programming languages to express
queries: specific APIs such as JDBC, Object-Relational Mappings (ORMs)
such as Hibernate, and language-integrated query frameworks such as
Microsoft's LINQ. However, most of these solutions do not allow for
efficient cross-databases queries, and none allow the use of complex
application logic from the programming language in queries.

We study the design of a new language-integrated query
framework called BOLDR that allows the evaluation in databases of
queries written in general-purpose programming languages containing
application logic, and targeting several databases following different
data models. In this framework, application queries are translated to
an intermediate representation. Then, they are typed with a type
system extensible by databases in order to detect which database
language each subexpression should be translated to. This type system
also allows us to detect a class of errors before execution. Next,
they are rewritten in order to avoid query avalanches and make the
most out of database optimizations. Finally, queries are sent for
evaluation to the corresponding databases and the results are
converted back to the application. Our experiments show that the
techniques we implemented are applicable to real-world database
applications, successfully handling a variety of language-integrated
queries with good performances.

This talk will give an overview of what has been achieved so far (mainly
in the context of Julien Lopez' PhD Thesis) and will glimpse at preliminary
work that is being done in the context of a collaboration with Oracle Labs.
Fri 8th Jan
10:45 am
12:30 pm
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Séminaire @ Lê Thành Dũng (Tito) Nguyễn
Title: The planar geometry of first-order string transductions (joint work with Pierre Pradic)


Abstract:
hal.archives-ouvertes......ument

We propose a new machine model recognizing star-free languages, with a geometric flavor. Our starting point is the characterization of regular languages using two-way automata (2DFA). The idea is to take seriously the visual representations found throughout the literature of the behavior of a 2DFA on a word ; by putting a total order on the set of states, one can formally define what it means for such a behavior to be planar, in a sense analogous to the planarity of combinatorial maps. Star-free languages are then exactly the languages recognized by "planar 2DFA". We also show that the corresponding planar transducer model characterizes the class of first-order transductions (a.k.a. aperiodic regular functions). If time allows, the talk will briefly discuss the connections of this work with the non-commutative lambda-calculus (cf. our recent paper Aperiodicity in a non-commutative logic, ICALP'20).


2020
Thu 17th Dec
2:00 pm
4:00 pm
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Nofar Carmeli
Speaker: Nofar Carmeli (nofar.carme.li/)

Zoom link: univ-lille-fr.zoom.us/j/95419000064

Title: The Complexity of Answering Unions of Conjunctive Queries.

Abstract:
We discuss the fine-grained complexity of enumerating the answers to a query over a relational database. With the ideal guarantees, linear time is required before the first answer to read the input and determine its existence, and then we need to print the answers one by one. Consequently, we wish to identify the queries that can be solved with linear preprocessing time and constant or logarithmic delay between answers. A known dichotomy classifies CQs into those that admit such enumeration and those that do not. The computationally expensive component of query answering is joining tables, which can be done efficiently if and only if the join query is acyclic. However, the join query usually does not appear in a vacuum; for example, it may be part of a larger query, or it may be applied to a database with dependencies. We inspect how the complexity changes in these settings and chart the borders of tractability within. In addition, we consider the task of enumerating query answers with a uniformly random order, and we propose to do so using an efficient random-access structure for representing the set of answers. We also prove conditional lower bounds showing that our algorithms capture all tractable queries in some cases. Among our results, we show that a union of tractable conjunctive queries may be intractable w.r.t. random access; on the other hand, a union of intractable conjunctive queries may be tractable w.r.t. enumeration.
Fri 11th Dec
10:00 am
11:30 am
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Alexandre Vigny
Title: Elimination Distance to Bounded Degree on Planar Graphs
Link to the zoominar: univ-lille-fr.zoom.us/j/95419000064
Abstract:
What does it mean for a graph to almost be planar? Or to almost have bounded
degree?
On such simple graphs classes, some difficult algorithmic problems become
tractable.
Ideally, one would like to use (or adapt) existing algorithms for graphs that
are "almost" in such a simple class.

In this talk, I will discuss the notion of elimination distance to a class C, a
notion introduced by Bulian and Dawar (2016).
The goals of the talk are:
1) Define this notion, and discuss why it is relevant by presenting some
existing results.
2) Show that we can compute the elimination distance of a given planar graph to
the class of graph of degree at most d.
I.e. answer the question: "Is this graph close to a graph of bounded degree?"

The second part is the result of a collaboration with Alexandre Lindermayer and
Sebastian Siebertz.

Fri 4th Dec
10:00 am
11:00 am
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Seminar: Pierre Pradic
Title: Extracting nested relational queries from implicit definitions

Abstract:
arxiv.org/pdf/2005.06503.pdf

In this talk, I will present results obtained jointly with Michael
Benedikt establishing a connection between the Nested Relational
Calculus (NRC) and sets implicitly definable using Δ₀ formulas.

Call a formula φ(I,O) an implicit definition of the relation O(x,...) in
terms of I(y,...) if O is functionally determined by I: for every I, O,
O', if both φ(I,O) and φ(I,O') hold, then we have O ≡ O'. When φ is
first-order and I and O are relations over base sorts, then Beth's
definability theorem states that there is a first-order formula
ψ(I,x,...) corresponding to O whenever φ(I,O) holds. Further, this
explicit definition ψ can be effectively be computed from a sequent
calculus proof witnessing that φ is functional. This allows for
practical use of implicit definitions in the context of database
programming, as there is a well-established link between fragments of
explicitly FO definable relations and relational calculi.

NRC is a conservative extension of relational calculi from database
theory with limited powerset types in addition to tupling and anonymous
base types. NRC expressions thus not only encompass flat relations over
primitive datatypes like SQL but also nested collections, while
remaining useful in practice.

We extend the above correspondence between first-order logic and flat
relational queries to NRC and implicit definitions using set-theoretical
Δ₀ formulas over (typed) nested collection. Our proof of the equivalence
goes through a notion of Δ₀-interpretation and a generalization of Beth
definability for multi-sorted structures. This proof is non-constructive
and thus does not yield any useful algorithm for converting implicit
definitions into NRC terms. Using an approach more closely related to
proof-theoretic interpolation, we give a constructive proof of the
result restricted to intuitionistic provability, i.e, when the input
functionality proof π of φ(I,O) is carried out in intuitionistic logic.
Further, if π is cut-free, this can be done efficiently. Whether or not
there exists a polynomial-time procedure working with classical proofs
of functionality is still an open problem.

I will focus on the effective result for the talk, and if time allows,
discuss the difficulties with extending it to classical logic. I will
not assume any background in either database or model theory.

Fri 27th Nov
10:00 am
11:30 am
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Seminar: Charles Paperman
Title: Stackless processing of streamed trees

Abstract: In this talk, I will first present the state of the art of efficiency implementation of streaming-text algorithms on modern architecture. Then some recent results on the extraction of information on streamed of structured documents without stack overhead.

For more info: paperman.name/data/pub.....d.pdf

Fri 13th Nov
10:00 am
12:00 pm
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Seminar: Mikaël Monet
Title: The Complexity of Counting Problems over Incomplete Databases

Abstract: In this presentation, I will talk about various counting problems that naturally
arise in the context of query evaluation over incomplete databases. Incomplete
databases are relational databases that can contain unknown values in the form
of labeled nulls. We will assume that the domains of these unknown values are
finite and, for a Boolean query $q$, we will consider the following two
problems: given as input an incomplete database $D$, (a) return the number of
completions of $D$ that satisfy $q$; or (b) return or the number of valuations
of the nulls of $D$ yielding a completion that satisfies $q$.


We will study the computational complexity of these problems when $q$ is a
self-join--free conjunctive query, and study the impact on the complexity of
the following two restrictions: (1) every null occurs at most once in $D$ (what
is called *Codd tables*); and (2) the domain of each null is the same. Roughly
speaking, we will see that counting completions is much harder than counting
valuations, and that both (1) and (2) can reduce the complexity of our
problems.

I will also talk about the approximability of these problems and prove that,
while counting valuations can efficiently be approximated, in most cases
counting completions cannot.

On our way, we will encounter the counting complexity classes #P, Span-P and
Span-L.

The presentation will be based on joint work with Marcelo Arenas and Pablo
Barcelo; see arxiv.org/abs/1912.11064
Fri 16th Oct
11:00 am
12:00 pm
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Seminar: Aurélien Lemay
Title: ShEx Learning from Typed Graphs

Abstract: In knowledge graphs, schemas are becoming a new asset to describe the organization of data. The new world-leading format Shex is becoming a de-facto standard in the industry that allows defining flexible and powerful schemas.

In this context, the inference of schemas can become a solution to provide shex expressions that describe already existing data. Typically, the inference starts from untyped graphs. However, these tasks appears to be more complex than expected in general, and is possible only for subclasses of Shex.

The inference of schemas from typed graph gives a baseline for those algorithms. Its comprehension allows to understand better the underlying difficulties of the task. It presents already unexpected difficulties.

We present an algorithm that infers Shex-defined schemas from fully typed graphs. We also present some encountered difficulties, as well as the limitations of the approach.
Fri 24th Jul
2:30 pm
4:30 pm
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Momar Sakho, PhD defense
Wed 8th Jan
1:30 pm
3:30 pm
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Introduction to argumentation theory
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Salle Agora 1, Bâtiment ESPRIT
2019
Thu 19th Dec
11:00 am
1:30 pm
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Thèse L. Gallois

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amphi Bâtiment B Inria
Fri 13th Dec
11:45 am
1:00 pm
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1. On Parsing Gpath (Jérémy and Antonio) 2. On Nested Regular Expression (Joachim)
Fri 13th Dec
10:30 am
11:45 am
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Repet Lily pour l'équipe
"Lille-Salle B31 "
Tue 24th Sep
10:00 am
11:00 am
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Stijn Vansummeren
Title: General Dynamic Yannakakis: Conjunctive Queries with Theta Joins Under Updates
Abstract:
The ability to efficiently analyze changing data is a key requirement
of many real-time analytics applications like Stream Processing,
Complex Event Recognition, Business Intelligence, and Machine
Learning.

Traditional approaches to this problem are based either on the
materialization of subresults (to avoid their recomputation) or on the
recomputation of subresults (to avoid the space overhead of
materialization). Both techniques have recently been shown suboptimal:
instead of fully materializing results and subresults, one can
maintain a data structure that supports efficient maintenance under
updates and can quickly enumerate the full query output, as well as
the changes produced under single updates.

In our work we are concerned with designing a practical family of
algorithms for dynamic query evaluation based on this idea, and for
queries featuring both equi-joins and inequality joins, as well as
certain forms of aggregation. Our main insight is that, for acyclic
conjunctive queries, such algorithms can naturally be obtained by
modifying Yannakakis' seminal algorithm for processing acyclic joins
in the static setting.

In this talk I present the main ideas behind this modfication,
offset it against the traditional ways of doing incremental view
maintenance, and discuss recent extensions such as dealing with
general theta-joins.
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Amphitheater of INRIA Building B.
Tue 25th Jun
11:30 am
5:30 pm
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Happy Hours
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Inria Lille
Tue 25th Jun
10:30 am
11:30 am
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Seminar Véronique Benzaken and Évelyne Contejean
Elles présenteront un outil qui prend en entrée une requête SQL et sa compilation par Postrgres sous forme de plan d'exécution, et démontre (avec Coq) que la requête initiale est équivalente au plan d'exécution.
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Lille-Salle B21
Fri 21st Jun
11:00 am
12:00 pm
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Charles
Fri 24th May
11:00 am
12:00 pm
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Seminaire Sławek
Fri 10th May
11:00 am
12:00 pm
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Seminaire Iovka
Fri 12th Apr
11:00 am
12:30 pm
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Alexandre Vigny in Links Seminar
Fri 5th Apr
11:00 am
12:00 pm
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Semyon Grigorev in Links' seminar
Fri 5th Apr
11:00 am
12:30 pm
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Talk of Semyon Grigorev
Title: Parsing techniques for context-free path querying
Abstract: Context-free path querying (CFPQ) is a case of language constrained path querying: the way to specify constraints on paths in a graph in terms of formal languages. In CFPQ language is restricted to be a context-free. Classical parsing techniques and algorithms, such as generalized LR and LL parsing, or parser combinators, can be used for CFPQ. Results of adaptation of different parsing techniques for CFPQ will be presented.
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B31
Fri 22nd Mar
10:00 am
11:30 am
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Seminar LINKS by Aurelien Lemay "Tutorial: Grammatical Inference"
Fri 8th Mar
11:00 am
12:00 pm
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Seminar Momar
Title: Regular Matching and Inclusion on Compressed Tree Patterns with Context Variables

Abstract: We study the complexity of regular matching and inclusion for compressed tree patterns extended by context variables. The addition of context variables to tree patterns permits us to properly capture compressed string patterns but also compressed patterns for unranked trees with tree and hedge variables. Regular inclusion for the latter is relevant to certain query answering on Xml streams with references.
Fri 15th Feb
11:00 am
12:00 pm
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Seminar [Florent]
Wed 13th Feb
1:30 pm
2:30 pm
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30mn de science : Florent Capelli on Knowledge Compilation

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Inria salle Plénière (Bâtiment A)
Fri 1st Feb
11:00 am
12:30 pm
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Bruno Guillon in Links' seminar
Title: Finding paths in large graphs

Abstract:
When dealing with large graphs, classical algorithms for finding paths such as Dijkstra's Algorithm are unsuitable, because they require to perform too many disk accesses. To avoid this while keeping a data structure of size quasi-linear in the size of the graph, we propose to guide the path search with a distance oracle, obtained from a topological embedding of the graph.
I will present fresh experimental research on this topic, in which we obtain graph embeddings using learning algorithms from natural language processing. On some graphs, such as the graph of publications from DBLP, our topologically-guided path search allows us to visit a small portion of the graph only, in average.
This is joint work with Charles Paperman.
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B21 Room
2018
Fri 23rd Nov
11:00 am
12:30 pm
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Filip Mazowiecki in Links' seminar
Title: Containment for Probabilistic automata.

Abstract: This is an ICALP 2018 paper. We analyze when the model of probabilistic
automata has decidable properties, when restricting the ambiguity. The
notion of ambiguity is usually used in weighted automata or transducers,
but we follow a recent paper by Fijalkow, Riveros and Worrell, which
introduced this approach. We do not solve everything but our decidability
results rely unexpectedly on Schanuel's conjecture and we provide some
geometric intuition behind the hardness of the problem.
Fri 16th Nov
11:00 am
12:30 pm
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Aurelien Lemay's Habilitation defense
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IRCICA
Thu 15th Nov
4:30 pm
5:30 pm
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Andreas Maletti in Aurélien Lemay's prehabilitation seminar
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Lille-Salle B21
Thu 15th Nov
3:30 pm
4:30 pm
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Henning Fernau in Aurélien Lemay's prehabilitation seminar:
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Lille-Salle B21
Fri 9th Nov
11:00 am
12:30 pm
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Talk of Bruno Guillon
Abstract: The time complexity of 1-limited automata is investigated from a
descriptional complexity view point. Though the model recognizes
regular languages only, it may use quadratic time in the input length.
We show that, with a polynomial increase in size and preserving
determinism, each 1-limited automaton can be transformed into a
linear-time equivalent one. We also obtain polynomial transformations
into related models, including weight-reducing Hennie machines (i.e.,
one-tape Turing machines syntactically forced to operate in
linear-time), and we show exponential gaps for converse
transformations in the deterministic case.
Fri 26th Oct
11:00 am
12:30 pm
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Momar Sakho in Links seminar
"Lieu : Lille, Salle : A12"
Thu 18th Oct
4:00 pm
5:00 pm
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Talk of Mikael Monet
Title: Combined Complexity of Probabilistic Query Evaluation

Abstract:
Query evaluation over probabilistic databases (probabilistic query evaluation, or PQE) is known to be intractable in many cases, even in data complexity, i.e., when the query is fixed. Although some restrictions of the queries and instances have been proposed to lower the complexity, these known tractable cases usually do not apply to combined complexity, i.e., when the query is not fixed. This talk gives an overview of my PhD research, which investigates which queries and instances ensure the tractability of PQE in combined complexity.

I will first present our work on PQE of conjunctive queries on binary signatures, which can be rephrased as a probabilistic graph homomorphism problem. We restrict the query and instance graphs to be trees and show the impact on the combined complexity of diverse features such as edge labels, branching, or connectedness. This is joint work with Antoine Amarilli and Pierre Senellart and was presented at PODS'2017.

Second, we will explore the combined complexity of evaluating queries on treelike databases, i.e., databases whose treewidth is bounded by a constant. We introduce a class of queries (named 'CFG-Datalog') which generalizes many known query languages that are tractable in this context. Specifically, we show that the (non-probabilistic) evaluation of CFG-Datalog on treelike databases can be solved with complexity linear in the product of the instance size and of the query size. In the process, we introduce a new representation of the provenance of a query on a database, based on cyclic Boolean circuits. This is joint work with Antoine Amarilli, Pierre Bourhis, and Pierre Senellart, and was presented at ICDT'2017.

Last, we will move to the field of knowledge compilation and present our work that connects various notions of width for Boolean circuits. We show that circuits of bounded treewidth can be efficiently compiled into structured deterministic decomposable normal forms (d-SDNNFs), which in particular allows efficient probability computation. We show the implications of this result for PQE of CFG-Datalog on treelike databases. We also prove general lower bounds on knowledge compilation formalisms, which imply lower bounds for provenance computation. This is joint work with Antoine Amarilli and Pierre Senellart and was presented at ICDT'2018.
"Lieu : Lille, Salle : B21"
Fri 28th Sep
10:15 am
11:45 am
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José Lozano Links seminar
Fri 21st Sep
10:30 am
12:00 pm
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Fabian Reiter in Links' Seminar: Descriptive distributed complexity
This talk connects two classical areas of theoretical computer science: descriptive complexity and distributed computing. The former is a branch of computational complexity theory that characterizes complexity classes in terms of equivalent logical formalisms. The latter studies algorithms that run in networks of interconnected processors.

Although an active field of research since the late 1970s, distributed computing is still lacking the analogue of a complexity theory. One reason for this may be the large number of distinct models of distributed computation, which make it rather difficult to develop a unified formal framework. In my talk, I will outline how the descriptive approach, i.e., connections to logic, could be helpful in this regard.
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Salle B21
Fri 7th Sep
11:00 am
12:30 pm
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Rustam Azimov in Links Seminar: "Context-Free Path Querying by Matrix Multiplication"
Fri 25th May
10:00 am
11:30 am
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Nicolas Crosetti in Links' Seminar: Dependency weighted aggregation
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Lille B21
Fri 27th Apr
10:30 am
12:30 pm
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Yann Strozecki in Links' Seminar: Methods in enumeration
In enumeration we are interested in generating a set of solutions, while bounding the time needed to generate one solution. We will first present the complexity measures used in this context, simple theoritical results and a few open questions.
We then introduce classical problems in this area such as the enumeration of: trees, models of a DNF, model of a FO or MSO formula, the maximal cliques of a graph, circuits of a matroid ...
We use them to illustrate the algorithmic toolbox of enumeration (Gray Code, backtrack search, reverse search, saturation...).
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Lille B21
Wed 25th Apr
2:15 pm
3:45 pm
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Nicolas Stage
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Jan's office
Fri 20th Apr
2:15 pm
3:45 pm
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Nicolas Stage
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Jan's office
Fri 13th Apr
2:15 pm
3:45 pm
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Nicolas Stage
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Jan's office
Fri 13th Apr
10:00 am
12:00 pm
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Iovka Boneva and Jérémie Dusart in Links' Seminar: Shape Expressions Schemas 2.0 : Semantics and Implementation
We will present the semantics of the ShEx language, its implementation
in java, and future directions of research.
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Salle B21
Fri 6th Apr
2:15 pm
3:45 pm
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Nicolas Stage
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Jan's office
Fri 30th Mar
2:15 pm
3:45 pm
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Nicolas Stage
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Jan's office
Fri 23rd Mar
10:00 am
11:30 am
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Paul Gallot: High-Order Tree Transducers
Paul présentera le papier de Sylvain, Aurélien et Paul, soumis à LICS 2018, sur le sujet des transducteurs d'arbres d'ordre supérieur.
Wed 21st Mar
2:00 pm
3:15 pm
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répétition Delta

Fri 16th Mar
10:00 am
11:30 am
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Luc Dartois in Links' Seminar: A Logic for Word Transductions with Synthesis
In this talk I present a logic, called LT, to express properties of transductions, i.e. binary relations from input to output (finite) words. I argue that LT is a suitable candidate as a specification language for verification of non reactive systems, extending the successful approach of verifying synchronous systems via Mealy Machines and MSO.

In LT, the input/output dependencies are modelled via an origin function which associates to any position of the output word, the input position from which it originates. LT is well-suited to express relations (which are not necessarily functional), and can express all regular functional transductions, i.e. transductions definable for instance by deterministic two-way transducers.
Despite its high expressive power, LT has decidable satisfiability problems. The main contribution is a synthesis result: it is always possible to synthesis a regular function which satisfies the specification.

Finally, I explicit a correspondence between transductions and data words. As a side-result, we obtain a new decidable logic for data words.
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Inria Lille
Fri 9th Mar
10:00 am
11:00 am
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Benjamin Bergougnoux : Counting minimal transversals of hypergraphs
A transversal of a hypergraph H is a subset of vertices that
intersects all the hyper-edges H. The enumeration and the counting of
the minimal transversals have a lot of applications in many domains
(graph theory, AI, datamining, etc). Counting problems are generally
harder than theirs associated decision problems. For example, finding
a minimal transversal is doable in polynomial time but counting them
is #P-complet (the equivalent of NP-complet for counting problems).

We have proved that we can count the minimal transversals of any
beta-acyclique hypergraph in polynomial time. Our result is based on
a recursive decomposition of the beta-acyclique hypergraph founded by
Florent Capelli and by the introduction of a new notion that
generalize the minimal transversals.

A lot of exciting open questions live in the neighborhood of our
result. In particular, our algorithm is able to count the minimum
dominating set of a strong-chordal graph. But counting the minimum
dominating set is #P-complete on split graphs. Is it the beginning of
a complete characterization of the complexity of counting minimal
dominating sets in dense graphs ?
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Salle B21
Fri 16th Feb
10:30 am
11:30 am
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Victor Marsault : Formal semantics of the query-language Cypher
Cypher is a query-language for property-graphs. It was originally designed and implemented as part of the Neo4j graph database, and it is currently used by several commercial database products and researchers. The semantics of Cypher queries is currently described using natural language and, as a result, it is often not well defined. This work is part of a project to define a full denotational semantics of Cypher queries. The talk will first present the main features of Cypher through examples, including the core mecanism: graph pattern-matching, and then will describe the formal semantics in its current state.
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Salle B21 - INRIA Institut National Recherche Informatique Automatique; 40 Avenue Halley, 59650 Villeneuve d'Ascq, France
Wed 31st Jan
5:30 pm
7:00 pm
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Bien avant l'avènement des ordinateurs personnels, de l'internet et des smartphones , l'Interaction Homme-Machine (IHM) était déjà une préoccupation au cœur de certaines des visions qui ont contribué à forger l'informatique moderne, qu'elle soit personnelle ou professionnelle. Pour autant, la conception et l'étude des interactions est encore souvent considérée comme secondaire dans la conception des systèmes, la priorité étant souvent mise sur le développement des fonctionnalités plutôt que sur les moyens pour les utiliser.

Cette situation s'est progressivement améliorée, avec notamment l'avènement des dispositifs tactiles (smartphones et tablettes) ou de divertissement (consoles de jeux) pour lesquels l'argument de simplicité d'utilisation a détrôné celui de la puissance intrinsèque. Cela a bien évidemment permis de populariser et démocratiser l'accès à la technologie. Mais une conséquence est, selon nous, un relatif appauvrissement des possibilités offertes par ces technologies paradoxalement plus puissantes que jamais. En masquant la complexité plutôt qu'en aidant à la maîtriser, en entretenant le mythe qu'avec ces dispositifs il est aisé pour chacun de faire beaucoup sans efforts, la tendance est à sacrifier le potentiel de l'outil informatique et la performance des utilisateurs pour la rapidité de prise en main, sans permettre un usage plus avancé, plus performant, et peut-être plus gratifiant pour l'utilisateur.

Cet équilibre entre simplicité d'usage et puissance de l'outil est un compromis difficile à trouver, et c'est selon nous un des défis et une difficulté majeure de l'IHM : observer et comprendre les phénomènes sensorimoteurs et psychomoteurs, cognitifs, sociaux et technologiques mis en œuvre lors de l'interaction entre des personnes et des systèmes afin d'améliorer cette interaction et d'en guider la conception pour encapaciter les utilisateurs. Le but étant finalement de leur permettre de réaliser ce qu'il leur serait impossible de faire sans cet outil, même si cela requiert de leur part des efforts certains d'apprentissage.
Dans ce séminaire, nous commencerons par présenter ce qu'est l'Interaction Homme-Machine en tant que domaine de recherche avec ses objectifs, ses méthodes et ses pratiques.

Ensuite, au travers d'une brève histoire de l'informatique sous le prisme de l'interaction, nous évoquerons quelques innovations d'aujourd'hui qui découlent des visions de pionniers du domaine, en considérant notamment ce compromis simplicité / puissance de l'outil. Nous verrons aussi avec des exemples et contre-exemples issus de nos environnements numériques actuels, ainsi qu'avec des travaux de recherche récents, que ces visions portent encore de nombreux défis présents et futurs de l'IHM. En particulier, nous conclurons en discutant de la nécessité d'adopter une approche centrée utilisateur et interaction à l'heure des grands défis scientifiques, technologiques et sociétaux du numérique tels que la conception des systèmes autonomes ou le traitement et l'exploitation automatique des données.

Mots-clés : Machines et langages Algorithme Interaction Homme machine (IHM).
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Liliad
Wed 31st Jan
4:00 pm
5:30 pm
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Cours extérieur de Gérard Berry du Collège de France

Le centre Inria Lille - Nord Europe reçoit Gérard Berry, du Collège de France pour son cours sur la photographie numérique. Ce cours se prolongera par un séminaire de Stéphane Huot, responsable de l'équipe Mjolnir. Cette manifestation sera suivie d'un cocktail au cours duquel Isabelle Herlin, directrice du centre de recherche Inria Lille - Nord Europe présentera ses voeux.

Date : 31/01/2018
Lieu : Lilliad, Campus Université Lille - sciences et technologies - 2 avenue Jean Perrin, Villeneuve d'Ascq

Programme

15h30 : Accueil

15h45 : Introduction par Isabelle Herlin

16h - 17h30 : Cours de Gérard Berry, "La photographie numérique, un parfait exemple de la puissance de l'informatique"

17h30 - 18h30 : Séminaire de Stéphane Huot, "Interaction humain-machine : passé composé et futur simple... ou l'inverse"

18h30 - 18h45 : Questions aux deux orateurs

19h - 20h30 : Cocktail

Cours de Gérard Berry

Bio express : Gérard Berry est informaticien, professeur au Collège de France où il est titulaire de la chaire d'Algorithmes, machines et langages.


Résumé

L’appareil photo numérique est un excellent exemple de l’évolution actuelle des systèmes cyberphysiques, c’est-à-dire des systèmes couplant intimement mécanique, physique, électronique et logiciel. C’est aussi un exemple merveilleux et accessible à tous de la puissance des méthodes de l’informatique par rapport à celles de la physique et de la mécanique seules. Le cours présentera la panoplie des algorithmes embarqués dans les appareils photos modernes et dans les logiciels de postproduction, puis discutera l’impact majeur qu’ils ont sur la conception des appareils et des objectifs, totalement bouleversée en ce moment, et celui qu’ils ont sur les photographes professionnels ou amateurs.

La photographie argentique, fort ancienne, n’a que lentement progressé au cours du XXe siècle : amélioration lente des pellicules et papiers, introduction de l’exposition automatique calculée analogiquement à partir de cellules photo-électriques, visée télémétrique ou reflex, tout cela a demandé des dizaines d’années. Au contraire, à partir de la commercialisation du premier appareil numérique en 1990, la photographie numérique a évolué extrêmement vite. En 2003, on trouvait déjà des appareils semi-professionnels corrects et, dès 2009, des appareils reflex de haute qualité à un prix abordable. Maintenant, il existe toute une panoplie d’appareils de tailles variées, tous capables de fournir des images de grande qualité. Même les téléphones sont devenus de très bons appareils photos et caméras vidéo, principalement grâce aux algorithmes qu’ils mettent en œuvre. Comme ils savent faire bien d’autres choses, par exemple envoyer immédiatement les images sur Internet, ils sont en train de remplacer les anciens petits appareils compacts et de servir d’équipement unique pour les photographes occasionnels et pour tous dans les pays où la photo argentique était d’un coût inabordable pour les habitants. La logique de la photo numérique est ainsi devenue très différente de celle de l’argentique, ce qui n’empêche cependant pas que cette dernière garde toujours les faveurs de certains artistes.

Qu’est-ce qui a permis cette révolution et pourquoi est-elle allée aussi vite ? Il y a trois raisons principales : la conception par les physiciens et la fabrication industrielle en grand volume de capteurs de haute qualité ; l’augmentation considérable de la puissance et la diminution de la dépense énergétique des ordinateurs embarqués, grâce à la fameuse loi de Moore ; enfin, et surtout, l’amélioration continue des algorithmes de la photographie, qui jouent en fait un rôle plus important que celui des capteurs. Dans les quinze dernières années, nous avons gagné au moins 4 degrés de sensibilité, dont les trois quarts grâce aux algorithmes. Même des appareils aux capteurs relativement petits savent faire des photos de très haute qualité à 3200 ISO, ce qui était complètement impossible avec l’argentique.

Le cours détaillera d’abord la suite des transformations algorithmiques subtiles qui permettent le développement des images des données numériques du capteur, aboutissant à l’image finale en gérant au mieux la lumière, la netteté et le bruit. Ensuite, il étudiera les algorithmes dédiés à la correction automatique des divers défauts optiques des objectifs ; il montrera que la puissance de ces algorithmes fait que ces objectifs ne seront plus conçus comme auparavant : leur conception intègre désormais totalement physique et algorithmique, fournissant des optiques de meilleure qualité, moins encombrantes, plus légères et moins chères. Il insistera sur l’importance que prennent les nouveaux traitements fondés sur la fusion de prises de vue successives pour l’amélioration de la qualité selon divers objectifs (lumière, bruit, profondeur de champ, etc.), en particulier pour les téléphones. Il montrera pourquoi fonder les nouveaux appareils directement sur les algorithmes modifie de plus en plus le cœur de leur conception, ce qui fait que bien d’autres nouveautés surprenantes pourront apparaître. Des évolutions similaires bouleversent d’ailleurs tout autant les imageries médicale et astronomique.

Enfin, le cours soulignera l’importance des nouveaux algorithmes destinés à l’amélioration de l’ergonomie de la prise de vue, qui rendent la vie technique du photographe bien plus facile sur quasiment tous les aspects : interaction humain-machine bien conçue, stabilisation du capteur et de l’objectif pour supprimer le flou de bougé, gestion sophistiquée de la lumière et de la mise au point, nombreuses aides à la prise de vue dans le viseur devenant électronique, liaison directe avec les ordinateurs et téléphones.
Séminaire de Stéphane Huot

Résumé

Bien avant l'avènement des ordinateurs personnels, de l'internet et des smartphones , l'Interaction Homme-Machine (IHM) était déjà une préoccupation au cœur de certaines des visions qui ont contribué à forger l'informatique moderne, qu'elle soit personnelle ou professionnelle. Pour autant, la conception et l'étude des interactions est encore souvent considérée comme secondaire dans la conception des systèmes, la priorité étant souvent mise sur le développement des fonctionnalités plutôt que sur les moyens pour les utiliser.

Cette situation s'est progressivement améliorée, avec notamment l'avènement des dispositifs tactiles (smartphones et tablettes) ou de divertissement (consoles de jeux) pour lesquels l'argument de simplicité d'utilisation a détrôné celui de la puissance intrinsèque. Cela a bien évidemment permis de populariser et démocratiser l'accès à la technologie. Mais une conséquence est, selon nous, un relatif appauvrissement des possibilités offertes par ces technologies paradoxalement plus puissantes que jamais. En masquant la complexité plutôt qu'en aidant à la maîtriser, en entretenant le mythe qu'avec ces dispositifs il est aisé pour chacun de faire beaucoup sans efforts, la tendance est à sacrifier le potentiel de l'outil informatique et la performance des utilisateurs pour la rapidité de prise en main, sans permettre un usage plus avancé, plus performant, et peut-être plus gratifiant pour l'utilisateur.

Cet équilibre entre simplicité d'usage et puissance de l'outil est un compromis difficile à trouver, et c'est selon nous un des défis et une difficulté majeure de l'IHM : observer et comprendre les phénomènes sensorimoteurs et psychomoteurs, cognitifs, sociaux et technologiques mis en œuvre lors de l'interaction entre des personnes et des systèmes afin d'améliorer cette interaction et d'en guider la conception pour encapaciter les utilisateurs. Le but étant finalement de leur permettre de réaliser ce qu'il leur serait impossible de faire sans cet outil, même si cela requiert de leur part des efforts certains d'apprentissage.
Dans ce séminaire, nous commencerons par présenter ce qu'est l'Interaction Homme-Machine en tant que domaine de recherche avec ses objectifs, ses méthodes et ses pratiques.

Ensuite, au travers d'une brève histoire de l'informatique sous le prisme de l'interaction, nous évoquerons quelques innovations d'aujourd'hui qui découlent des visions de pionniers du domaine, en considérant notamment ce compromis simplicité / puissance de l'outil. Nous verrons aussi avec des exemples et contre-exemples issus de nos environnements numériques actuels, ainsi qu'avec des travaux de recherche récents, que ces visions portent encore de nombreux défis présents et futurs de l'IHM. En particulier, nous conclurons en discutant de la nécessité d'adopter une approche centrée utilisateur et interaction à l'heure des grands défis scientifiques, technologiques et sociétaux du numérique tels que la conception des systèmes autonomes ou le traitement et l'exploitation automatique des données.

Mots-clés : Machines et langages Algorithme Interaction Homme machine (IHM).
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Lililad
Wed 31st Jan
3:30 pm
8:30 pm
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Le centre Inria Lille - Nord Europe reçoit Gérard Berry, du Collège de France pour son cours sur la photographie numérique. Ce cours se prolongera par un séminaire de Stéphane Huot, responsable de l'équipe Mjolnir. Cette manifestation sera suivie d'un cocktail au cours duquel Isabelle Herlin, directrice du centre de recherche Inria Lille - Nord Europe présentera ses voeux.

Programme

15h30 : Accueil

15h45 : Introduction par Isabelle Herlin

16h - 17h30 : Cours de Gérard Berry, "La photographie numérique, un parfait exemple de la puissance de l'informatique"

17h30 - 18h30 : Séminaire de Stéphane Huot, "Interaction humain-machine : passé composé et futur simple... ou l'inverse"

18h30 - 18h45 : Questions aux deux orateurs

19h - 20h30 : Cocktail
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Liliad
Fri 19th Jan
10:00 am
12:00 pm
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Sylvain Salvati: "On magic set rewriting for Datalog"
Cet exposé se veut une introduction à la transformation de
programmes datalog. En particulier, je présenterai la transformation
appelée "supplementary magic set rewriting" qui permet d'obtenir des
programmes datalog dont l'évaluation semi-naïve se comporte de façon
similaire à l'évaluation des programmes originaux par résolution SLD. Je
montrerai l'algorithme et des exécutions de programmes sur des exemples
issus de problèmes d'analyses grammaticales.
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Lille B21

Permanent link to this article: https://team.inria.fr/links/seminars/