j o b s

No fragmoscaphe around here, just an aid for my job search.

In October 2001 I completed a PhD in computer science, and, while I go on working in the same field.

Here's first a cv,for a summary of my competences (in French, as Sophie did my website's translation and my English is limited to technical matters).

This formal information still doesn't give that many explanations about my professional fields of interest : virtual realities.

I'd rather talk about inhabited simulations, though. Simulations because they don't have to describe reality. Inhabited because they are peopled with actors gifted with behaviours. It can go from games to learning tools to CAD.

My PhD's subject was "scenario language for semi-autonomous actors". The autonomous actors who people simulations make a virtual environment believable. At any time, the user can show interest in any actor, this actor's behaviour will be coherent with the rest of the simulation. Moreover, this behaviour will permit, within certain limits, an adaptation to the user's actions.
On the other hand, behaviours will make the control of actors difficult. It's extremely difficult to program behavioural actors to get precise actions at just the desired moment. Simulations, even when on a small scale, are too unpredictable. The actors tend to "do what they want" a little.

The scenarios I propose start to sketch an answer to this problem. We can see them as disembodied behavioural entities, who ask the actors to produce certain actions, fitting with their behaviours, to direct the simulation towards the desired way. The scenarios can succeed or fail, depending on what actors are present, what they can do, their availability... High-priority scenarios can steal actors to secondary scenarios, which might then fail. Unless they find a replacement actor... We thus get almost predictable environments, and this makes them interesting.

This problematic remains an important point in my field of competence, but I'm also interested in other aspects of inhabited simulations. My PhD work allowed me, on top of behaviour, to create or work on user interface, graphical realisation, environment modelling, and a little on animation.

My current job, still in the same field, is more related to behavioural entities and virtual environement realisation.

j o b s