Activities
I am professor at LIRIS lab where a I lead the research group on Data Mining and Machine Learning. I design exploratory data analysis methods by hybridizing numerical machine learning and symbolic reasoning techniques. Numerical machine learning methods excel at learning complex, noise-resistant models but are often opaque, intricate, and difficult to validate. In contrast, symbolic methods provide interpretable justifications for their results and are easier to explain, but they tend to be sensitive to noise and lack scalability. By integrating symbolic reasoning with neural networks, my work seeks to combine the strengths of both approaches while mitigating their respective limitations.
My research journey began with the development of pattern enumeration algorithms for constrained data mining. It subsequently expanded to the analysis of static and dynamic graphs. More recently, I have focused on hybridizing pattern mining with statistical machine learning methods. This includes constraining models to better leverage richer data and enhancing their interpretability.
Organisation & Invited Talks
- Co-Organiser of the MaDICS workshop EXMIA, 2025.
- Lecturer at Autumn Institute in Artificial Intelligence (IA2), GDR IA, october 2022.
- Lecturer at University of Bari, June 2022.
- Program Co-Chair of ECMLPKDD 2019, Würzburg, Germany.
- Lecturer at EMLyon Business School, January 2019.
- Journal Track Chair for ECMLPKDD 2016, Riva del Garda, Italy.
- Lecturer at Data Driven Approach to Networks and Language workshop, June 2016.
- Tutorials chair for ECMLPKDD 2014, Nancy France.
- Lecturer at the International Summer School Resource-aware Machine Learning at Technische Universität Dortmund, Germany, September 2014
- Program Co-Chair for IDA 2009, Lyon France.
Grants
- PI of PORTRAIT ANR project (INSA Lyon, Humans Matter) (2022-2026).
- PI of Wait4, PEPR project (INRAE, INRIA, CEA, INSA, AgroParisTech) (2022–2027).
- PI of Academics Scientific breakthrough of IDEX Lyon project (ENS Lyon, INSA Lyon, Université Jean Monnet) (2018-2021).
- PI of GRAISearch FP7 Marie Curie IAPP European project (Trinity College, INSA Lyon, Tapastreet) (2014-2018).
- PI of RESALI Labex IMU project (INSA Lyon, ENS Lyon) (2015-2019).
Editorial Board Memberships
- Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery (DAMI) since 2022.
- Knowledge and Information Systems (KAIS) 2020 – 2024.
Program Committees
- ACM SIGKDD Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (SIGKDD): Reviewer 2016–2020, Area Chair 2021-2025.
- International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, IJCAI: Area Chair 2017–2023.
- IEEE International Conference on Data Mining, IEEE ICDM: Reviewer 2008–2015, Area Chair 2016–2018.
- SIAM Data Mining, SDM: Reviewer 2010–2011, Area Chair 2012–2018.
- European Machine Learning and Data Mining Conference, ECMLPKDD: Reviewer 2006–2018, Area Chair 2020–2025.
- Intelligent Data Analysis, IDA: Reviewer 2007-2010, Area Chair 2023-2025.
- European Conference on Artificial Intelligence, ECAI: Reviewer 2023-2024.
Advising
Postdoctoral Researchers
- Alessio Ragno (2024–), PEPR WAIT4
- Anes Bendimerad (2019–2020), IDEX Lyon Academics
- Adriana Prado (2011–2012), ANR BINGO2.
Doctoral Researchers
- Elouan Vincent (2024–). Subject: Self-supervised learning on heterogeneous graphs with optimal transport: contribution to the analysis of animal behaviors and social dynamics. Co-supervised with Marc Plantevit. Funding: PEPR WAIT4.
- Ata Kamal (2022–). Subject: Interpretable deep neural networks. Co-supervised with Marc Plantevit.
- Arthur Batel (2022–). Subject: Improving the screening of psychiatric disorders using artificial intelligence. Co-supervised with Marc Plantevit. Funding: ANR PORTRAIT.
Past Ph.D students
- Rafael Ramos Tubino (2019–2023). Title: Machine Learning and Network Analysis for Understanding the Nature of Activities in Cryptocurrencies. Co-supervised with Rémy Cazabet. Funding: ANR JCJC BITUNAM.
- Timothée Chane-Hai (2020–2023). Title: Machine learning guidance for metaheuristics. Co-supervised with Thibaud Monteiro and Samuel Vercraene.
- Léonard Tschora (2020–2024). Title: Machine Learning Techniques for electricity prices forecasting. Co-supervised with Marc Plantevit.
- Luca Veyrin-Forrer (2019–2023). Title: Machine Learning meets Data Mining: Towards sparse and interpretable deep neural networks. Co-supervised with Marc Plantevit and Stefan Duffner. Funding: IDEXLYON Academics project.
- Mohamed Benabdelkrim (2017–2021). Title: Development of new algorithms for detecting communities in heterogeneous information networks. Co-supervised with Jean Savinien. Funding: emlyon Business School.
- Corentin Lonjarret (2018–2021). Title: Data mining methods for the analysis of social networks and opinions. Co-supervised with Marc Plantevit. Funding: CIFRE VISIATIV.
- Louis Duvivier (2018–2021). Title: Automatic detection of the structure of interactions within complex systems by modeling and compression of graphs. Co-supervised with Rémy Cazabet. Funding: ENS scholarship.
- Mohamed Ali Hammal (2016–2020). Title: Analysis of territorial systems and food networks using data mining and cartographic representation approaches. Co-supervised with Luc Merchez. Funding: Labex IMU, RESALI project.
- Aimene Belfodil (2016–2019). Title An Order Theoretic Point-of-view on Subgroup Discovery. Co-supervised with Mehdi Kaytoue. Funding: CIFRE Mobile devices.
- Ahmed Anes Bendimerad (2016–2019). Title : Mining Useful Patterns in Attributed Graphs. Co-supervised with Marc Plantevit. Funding: research agreement with Thales R & D. Thesis award, EGC 2020.
- Ronan Hamon (2012–2015). Title: Analysis of temporal networks by signal processing methods: application to the self-service bicycle system in Lyon. Co-supervised with Patrick Flandrin and Pierre Borgnat. Funding: regional scholarship. Thesis award from Abertis chair 2016.
- Ruggero Pensa (2003–2006). Title: Co-clustering under constraints. Co-supervised with Jean-François Boulicaut. Funding: ministerial scholarship.