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Yann LeCun, ESIEE Paris alumni and 2019 Turing Award winner
A longstanding common history leading to today’s revolution in artificial intelligence! Discover the web series.
Yann LeCun, a graduate of ESIEE Paris (class of 1983) is one of the inventors of Deep Learning
- Chief AI Scientist at Facebook
- Professor at New York University
Yann LeCun was awarded for his pioneering work on deep learning (enabling machines to do tasks that require reasoning), which has made a significant contribution to the current revolution in artificial intelligence.
The award is given by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the world's largest learned society for computing. Yann LeCun is the second French person, after Joseph Sifakis in 2007, to receive this award.
Episode #1 The school where it all began
(in French)
Denis Bureau, a faculty member at ESIEE Paris, tells us about Yann LeCun's early days at the school when he started his first experiments on deep learning and discovered the backpropagation algorithm for the gradient which is the basis of the set of algorithms that have earned him this prestigious award.
Screened: Tuesday 19 November 2019
Episode #2 A pioneering school in AI
(in french)
In 1984, Gilles Bertrand, Professor Emeritus at ESIEE Paris, created the first research laboratory at the school in artificial intelligence and image analysis (IAAI). At the time, this was an extremely innovative subject. Gilles Bertrand explains the revolutionary learning algorithm invented by Yann LeCun. In 1985, ESIEE Paris introduced the first artificial intelligence course in the engineering students' curriculum.
Screened: Tuesday 26 November 2019
Episode #3 Ongoing collaborations
(in french)
Laurent Najman, a faculty member teaching computer science at ESIEE Paris, and Yann LeCun worked in the same research laboratory. They have been working together for twenty years. Laurent Najman supervised the thesis of Camille Couprie, an ESIEE Paris graduate (class of 2009) who currently works with Yann LeCun at Facebook. Laurent and Yann also co-supervised the thesis of Clément Farabet, now Vice-President of Nvidia's AI infrastructure. All four of them have co-authored several articles, including one in particular in 2012 that contributed to the current craze for neurons. A new thesis is likely to be launched on the subject of unsupervised learning.
Screened: Tuesday 3 December 2019
Episode #4.1 AI and image analysis research at ESIEE Paris (Part 1)
(in french)
Jean Cousty, a faculty member teaching computer science at ESIEE Paris, is part of the “A3SI” research team of the Gaspard Monge Computer Science Laboratory, which is recognised worldwide for its high level of expertise in artificial intelligence applied to images and in particular in mathematical morphology and discrete topology.
This research has very concrete applications in fields such as deepfake detection, cardiology, astronomy, etc.
Screened: Tuesday 10 December 2019
Episode #4.2 The watershed: an example of research at ESIEE Paris (part 2)
(in french)
Jean Cousty, a faculty member teaching computer science at ESIEE Paris, continues his explanations, presenting a concrete example of fundamental research at ESIEE Paris: the watershed. The researchers developed the theoretical and algorithmic framework for this fundamental imaging operation. The idea in mathematical morphology is to interpret data or an image such as a topographic relief. Extremely fast calculation algorithms are used in many artificial intelligence applications, particularly in combination with the deep learning algorithms developed by Yann LeCun at ESIEE Paris 35 years ago.
Screened: Tuesday 17 December 2019