JCQ's website

Where I worked and where I went...

Yes, this page gathers all sort of positions. Not only where I worked, but also the places I visited during internships, postdocs and conferences.

Please click on any place to get more information and use the Google Maps interface to explore and get details. I would gladly answer to anyone willing to get information on places I know (i.e. those where I worked for a long time). So do not hesitate to send an email to quintonj(at)loria(dot)fr.

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Research positions

Postdoc in computational neuroscience (2009-2011)

Title: Multimodal learning of connectionist models for sensori-motor tasks
Location: INRIA Nancy - Grand Est, CORTEX project (LORIA, Nancy, France)
Supervisor: Bernard Girau

To continue my exploration of the cognitive science fields dealing with sensorimotor development and coordination, I applied for a postdoctoral position in the CORTEX project (based in Nancy). The general research topics of the team are "the development of neural networks to understand information processing in the brain" and "the design of numerical distributed and adaptive algorithms in interaction with biology and medical science". In this context, I address the temporal and predictive aspects of sensorimotor activities. I also benefit from the team experience on dynamic competition and distributed asynchronous numerical systems (specially when modelling dynamic neural fields).

Visiting research fellow (2009)

Title: Minimal agency and sensorimotor development
Location: Center for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics (CCNR, University of Sussex, UK)
Supervisors: Ezequiel Di Paolo, Luc Berthouze

After finishing my PhD thesis in France and giving all my teachings at ENSEEIHT, I could work for a few months at the University of Sussex. Immersed in a motivating environment made of philosophers, biologists, neuroscientists and computer scientists, I could refine my theoretical developments and think about several fundamental issues in the field of evolutionary robotics and cognition (for instance the role of anticipation to increase adaptativity). This was also the opportunity to continue my technical developments and learn how to better characterize dynamical attractors in the kind of complex systems I study. Although hindered by recurrent health problems at that time, I keep very good memories (professional and personal) of my days there.

Robotics internship (2007)

Title: Human-robot interactions
Location: National Institute of Informatics (NII, Tokyo, Japan)
Supervisor: Tetsunari Inamura

I add the opportunity during my PhD thesis to work at the NII, the national institute of informatics in Japan in close relation with top institutions such as the university of Tokyo. I was lucky enough to work with the HOAP3 humanoid robot to introduce regulatory systems at the sensori-motor level and interface it with higher level programs. I was also given the chance to work on the Playstation3 to test performances with different levels of parallel programming achievable on the system under Yellowdog Linux, as well as how much efforts needed to be put in the code transformations.

PhD thesis (2005-2008)

Title: Implicit coordination of sensorimotor interactions as a cornerstone of cognition
Location: Computer Science Research Laboratory (IRIT, Toulouse, France)
Supervisor: Jean-Christophe Buisson

The subject is labelled as an artificial intelligence research but is more likely to be a cognitive science one. More precisely after this formal presentation, I'm investigating the development of adapted behaviors in a cognitive contructivism approach, as an extension and stabilization process of interaction networks. Interactions take place within the agent or between the agent and the environment. This thesis mainly resulted in the production of a cognitive infrastructure fundamentally based on the implicit coordination of anticipative processes all interacting in parallel with their local environment.

Master thesis (2004-2005)

Title: Piagetian sensori-motor schemes applied to visual tracking
Location: Computer Science Research Laboratory (IRIT, Toulouse, France)
Supervisor: Jean-Christophe Buisson

Even though I was already deeply interested in artificial intelligence in secondary school, I first got in touch with my current topic during my 2nd year in engineering school. I discovered Jean Piaget's work in spring, and never let down this Swiss psychologist and epistemologist, especially his work on the sensorimotor stages (before language appears). Then by reading papers dealing with Enaction and interactivism the following year, I became convinced they were practical theories for human cognition. I was offered the chance to explore this field a bit more by doing my Master internship on the same topic. This work was focused on the tracking of moving object in complex scenes without the agent having to understand anything about them, but anticipating the position of her target. The application produced uses proprioception and fuzzy logic to combine anticipation and reactivity.

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Teaching positions

University of Nancy (2010)

Status: Part-time lecturer (vacataire)
Level: Master 1 (40 hours)
Content: Web technologies (HTML, PHP, SQL), Document structuring (XML and its instantiations)

ENSEEIHT - National Polytechnic Institute of Toulouse (2008-2009)

Status: Teaching assistant (ATER complet)
Level: Licence 3 - Master 2 (~200 hours)
Content: Computer architecture (electronic circuits, processors, FPGA), Functional (Caml) imperative (C/Fortran) and declarative (Prolog) programming, Artificial intelligence (multi-agent systems, natural language, logics, data mining, learning algorithms), Systems and tools (UNIX, Shell, scripts, LaTeX, processes, kernel primitives...), CG graphics (2D/3D modelling, rendering pipelines, OpenGL)

ENSEEIHT - National Polytechnic Institute of Toulouse (2005-2008)

Status: Teaching assistant (Moniteur)
Level: Licence 3 - Master 2 (~250 hours)
Content: Computer architecture (electronic circuits, processors, FPGA), Functional (Caml) imperative (C/Fortran) and declarative (Prolog) programming, Artificial intelligence (multi-agent systems, natural language, logics, data mining, learning algorithms), Systems and tools (UNIX, Shell, scripts, LaTeX, processes, kernel primitives...), CG graphics (2D/3D modelling, rendering pipelines, OpenGL)

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Attended conferences, workshops and meetings

EuCogII 2nd members conference (EuCogII network)

4th International Conference on Cognitive Systems (CogSys'2010)

EuCogII 1st members conference (EuCogII network)

CNRS Robotics GDR meeting & workshop

IEEE/RSJ 2008 International Conference on Intelligent RObots and Systems (IROS'08)

Epigenetic Robotics 2008 (EpiRob'08)

Artificial General Intelligence 2008 (AGI'08)

Epigenetic Robotics 2007 (EpiRob'07)

Interactivist Summer Institute 2007 (ISI'07)

1st International Symposium on Information and Robot Technology (ISIRT'07)

3rd International Conference on Enactive Interfaces (Enactive'06)

CNRS Summer School (Enaction and Constructivism)

Symposium for the EDIT PhD students 2006

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Visits and given seminars

CORTEX seminar presentation

Talk for the Life & Mind seminars at the Sussex University

Presentation at the ISIR laboratory

Talk for the MISN seminars at the LORIA laboratory

Young researcher delegation in Norway