– No longer looking for applicants –
Context and goals:
Alcoholic fermentation is a crucial step in wine making. Generally performed in a batch reactor, it consists mainly of the bioconversion of sugar (from the grapes) into ethanol and CO2. It is the yeasts that carry out this conversion, from which they draw energy for their growth. They therefore play a central role, which explains the importance of studying them to control fermentation.
During the bioconversion of sugar to ethanol, other metabolites (glycerol, organic acids, aroma compounds, etc.) are also synthesized, some of which contribute to the aromatic profile of wine. Among them are esters – and higher alcohols to a lesser extent – which contribute to the fruity aroma of wines. As foreign consumers are increasingly attracted to these aromas, there is a willingness of the French winemakers to implement strategies that increase the ester concentration of wines to maintain their export market share. More generally, the challenge is to control the synthesis of aromas during fermentation in order to obtain a target aromatic profile and thus produce personalized wines that meet the different tastes of consumers.
This is the objective of the ANR project STARWINE, in which we aim to design strategies for real-time control of the wine aroma profile based on a model composed of ordinary differential equations. A major challenge in the implementation of real-time control strategies is the reliance of dynamical models upon hidden variables and parameters. These unknown quantities may be partially accessed through measurement but the reliability of the process may depend on the quality of their assessment. The goal of this internship is to propose methods and algorithms for the dynamical estimation of these partially measured quantities in order to solidify and complement the wine aroma control strategies.
Work environment:
For Master 2 students. The internship will take place in 2023 in Sophia Antipolis and will last 4 to 6 months.
Contact info: , ludovic.sacchelli@inria.fr
