About the Lab

LIP6, a joint research unit (UMR 7606) of Sorbonne University (SU) and the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), is a computer science research laboratory with an averaging 450 members, including over 170 permanent researchers.

Its research activities are carried out by eighteen teams across four transversal research axes:

• Artificial intelligence and data science
• Architecture, Systems, and Network
• Safety, security and reliability
• Theory and mathematics of computing

From electronics to AI, quantum information, IT security, computer algebra and systems/networks, our lab covers nearly all areas of computer science. Precisely, it is dedicated to modeling and solving fundamental, application-driven problems, as well as implementing and validating solutions through academic and industrial partnerships.

Key sectors such as Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), e-health, finance, energy, defense, education, transportation, and space provide as many industrial anchor points that drive our research, teachings, and collaborations.

Among more than 200 research projects, LIP6 currently hosts two that are funded by the European Research Council (ERC): In situ Topological Reduction of Scientific 3D Data (TORI, consolidator, led by Julien Tierny), and Dynamic Selection and Configuration of Black-box Optimization Algorithms (dynaBBO, consolidator, led by Carola Doerr).

In recent years, four additional ERC projects have been conducted: Quantum Superiority with Coherent State (QUSCO, starting, led by Eleni Diamanti), Modular Open Platform for Static Analysis (MOPSA, consolidator, led by Antoine Miné), Algorithmic and Mathematical Cryptology (Almacrypt, advanced, led by Antoine Joux), and Flow Machines (FlowMachines, advanced, led by François Pachet).

LIP6’s members have been widely recognized for their contributions. Nine teachers/researchers are, or have been, members of the Academic Institute of France (IUF). Our lab also hosted several Chairs for Research & Teaching Excellence: Isabelle Bloch (Knowledge Representation and Interpretation of Images Guided by Models: Contribution of Hybrid AI), Vanda Luengo (Digital Environments for Human Learning), and Giovanni Pau (Smart Mobility, with support from ATOS and Renault).

LIP6’s scientific production averages 300 publications per year. Its research has led to approximately 30 patents, over 80 software innovations, and the creation of several start-ups, including Welinq and Green Communications. On average, 40 PhD thesis are defended at LIP6 each year.

International cooperation is central to LIP6’s activities. Our lab maintains close relationships with universities worldwide, including in Brazil, the United States, Japan, China and in numerous European countries. Beyond academia, LIP6 has a long history of collaboration with industrial partners such as Thales, Airbus, Gandi, EDF, Sony, and Toyota, through many national, European, and international projects.

At the local level, LIP6 is very active within Sorbonne University’s ecosystem and fosters transdisciplinary collaborations with various research units. It is especially involved in three major Sorbonne University initiatives: SCAI (Sorbonne Center for Artificial Intelligence), QICS (Quantum Information Center Sorbonne), and IUIS (University Institute of Health Engineering).

LIP6 is also strongly engaged in research-oriented teaching at master’s level within Sorbonne University’s Faculty of Science and Engineering. The Paris doctoral school EDITE supervises almost all of our 147 PhD students.

History

Founded in 1997, LIP6 is one of two French research units to be the direct heirs of the Blaise Pascal Institute of CNRS, the very first research structure in France dedicated to computer science. It was created in 1946, at a time when the word “informatique” – the French word for “computer science” or “informatics” – did not yet exist in the French language (it appears to have been progressively introduced in the 1950s).

Thus, many areas within computer science have been studied at LIP6 (and in the units that preceded it) for several decades. It is particularly the case for areas such as artificial intelligence, operating systems, networks, algorithms and programming, optimization, numerical and high-performance computing, computer architecture, etc. In these fields in particular, many colleagues who brought significant contributions have come from our ranks.

The same expertise extends to LIP6’s IT service, which maintains a sovereign experimental infrastructure in our computing center.