Research
I left INRIA in Dec. 2021, thus ending my research scientist career.
From Mar. 2020 to Dec. 2021, I was stand-alone researcher at INRIA Bordeaux
From Dec. 2017 to Feb. 2020, I was a member of the AUCTUS team at INRIA Bordeaux
From 2011 to 2017, I was on leave from INRIA, working as Software Engineer at Google and then Apple in California
From 2003 to 2010, I was Research Scientist in the
Geometrica project-team at INRIA Sophia-Antipolis
I was interested in computer programming of geometric algorithms.
Mesh generation and the other algorithms developed by my co-workers from
Geometrica are of particular interest, as well
as any computational geometry algorithm you may find for example in
CGAL.
Programming issues of interest are: the efficiency of basic
certified
numerical routines (the geometric predicates and
constructions which are so critical to the robustness of geometric
algorithms), formal proofs of algorithms, parallel
algorithms and compact memory representations of data
structures. I am also interested in compiler optimizations and
programming languages, especially C++. Another important
direction of programming is the maintainability of large code bases
like CGAL, which triggers research on finding
concepts with broad applicability to help code factorization and
understandability, within the generic programming paradigm.
Publications and presentations
The list of all my publications on HAL-Inria, and on Google Scholar.
Below are some of my recent publications and presentations.
- My last paper should hopefully appear in 2022 in JoCG. "Improved polytope volume calculations based on Hamiltonian Monte Carlo with boundary reflections and sweet arithmetics", authored with Frédéric Cazals and Augustin Chevallier. Prepublication here.
- The arithmetic toolbox in CGAL (with video), given at the Mini-workshop on iRRAM/MPFR/MPC in Dagstuhl, April 19, 2018.
- La bibliothèque logicielle CGAL, Séminaire au Collège de France dans le cadre du cours « Géométrie algorithmique : données, modèles, programmes » de Jean-Daniel Boissonnat, 26 avril 2017.
Collaborative projects
Standardization
In connection to my research, I participate to the work of the following standardization committees:
- WG21 : the ISO
working group for the standardization of the C++ programming language.
Here is a list of my C++ work.
- IEEE-1788 :
standardization of interval arithmetic.
Software
Most of my developments are done around CGAL,
of which I am a member of the editorial
board (which I chaired from February 2006 to June 2010).
Watch the general presentation video !
- CGAL : I significantly contributed to:
- the 2D/3D triangulations,
- the geometric kernel,
- the arithmetic kernel (floating-point filters...),
- plenty of other stuff,
- the Python and
Scilab bindings,
- the overall technical direction of the project through the CGAL editorial board,
- the maturation of key parts which allowed the creation of
GeometryFactory in
2003, the company distributing CGAL, with which I am still
frequently in contact.
- Boost : I am a co-author of the
Boost.Interval library.
- CORE : I implemented
improvements to the root bound mechanism for floating-point input, and other optimizations.
- GCC : I implemented a few optimizations
helping interval arithmetic (some expression transformations).
- ♕ N-queens problem :
I used to hold the world record for N=21-23 using a distributed program.
- Miscellaneous: the Linux kernel, where I once added support for large swap
areas, and some other old programs.
Program committees and editorial responsibilities
Teaching
- Some courses I gave.
- Jury : I was member of the jury at the entrance examination of the
ENS (algorithmic and programming oral
exam), from 2007 to 2009.
Other responsibilities
- I was a member of the CUMIR (IT systems users comittee) at INRIA Bordeaux 2017-2020
- I was "responsable permanent" (sort of vice-head ?) in the AUCTUS team at INRIA Bordeaux 2017-2020
- I was "secrétaire du comité des projets" in 2010
- I was a member of the
CDL, the local
committee dealing with software development from 2004 to 2007.
- Jean-Paul Rigault and I organized a
WG21 Meeting
in Sophia Antipolis, in June 2008.
Miscellaneous
- What do I do in my free time ?
I like gardening, paragliding/flying, rock-climbing, biking...
See also some bike benchmarks.
- Some old archives of the mailing-list
std-interval (2006),
now hosted here.
- Some old information about the
FFJM
(French Federation of Mathematical and Logical games).