AI@IMT Responsible AI for Industry and Society – AI@IMT

This submission outlines the Institut Mines-Télécom (IMT) ambition to realise the strategic objective of enhancing its research agenda in the priority area of Artificial Intelligence and expanding its already substantial PhD program. In line with its 2018-2022 Strategic Plan, IMT aims to expand its PhD cohort by 400 candidates by 2022, with particular attention focused on AI projects that promise outcomes in the national strategic priority domains of health, transport, defence and security and environment. The current submission, requesting co-financing for 27 doctoral candidatures in AI, responds to these strategic imperatives by:
1. Enhancing present research in AI through doctoral participation in new or existing projects;
2. Foster research in AI with particular focus on industry transformation, energy transition, sustainable development, cybersecurity, e-health and AI applied to Data Science;
3. Developing research to serve the needs of the industry and the society.

The current submission involves participation from several IMT schools (this is further explained hereafter) and aligns with extant research in AI, both within the framework provided by the national AI for Humanity strategic plan and within the current IMT strategy. The submission proposes AI PhDs in the context of multidisciplinary projects, with the advantage of exploiting the research interaction, stemming from different disciplines within AI and connected with AI. Additionally, IMT conducts initiatives such as TeraLab, a platform that accelerates research, innovation and education in AI and Big Data, and several AI related chairs such as the IMT-BS Chairs “Good in Tech” (2019) and “Digital platform and performance of artificial intelligence algorithms” (2020). IMT schools are involved in numerous large-scale collaborations on AI with international partners. These initiatives represent the larger institutional focus on AI.
Given the dynamic research environment and its specific focus on AI, the development of further doctoral projects through co-financed scholarships marks a valuable opportunity for prospective candidates to engage in world-class projects and develop their own research agenda, which aims at combining scientific excellence cross-fertilization stemming out of multidisciplinary projects, in relationship with socio-economic challenges identified and addressed by socio-economic stakeholders who will co-fund the proposed PhDs.