POSTDOC Position
Calibration and evaluation of MCMC algorithms
for Agriculture Life-cycle Management
Laboratoire MAPMO UMR CNRS 7349 – Orléans, France
1
General description
The funding project PALM-Product of Agriculture Life-cycle Management, PIA “Calcul intensif
et simulation numérique”, is concerned with the development of numerical technologies for agricultural management, through modelling, high-performance computing (HPC), simulation, and
optimization. The partners of PALM are: LIMAGRAIN (head), Cybeletech, the Digiplante team
from Ecole Centrale Paris, Axereal, and two laboratories LBLGC (écophysiologie des plantes) and
MAPMO (Mathématiques appliquées) from University of Orléans. This postdoc position is involved most specifically in the development of a core simulation code for prediction in agricultural
techniques and management, based on genetic and agri-environmental databases.
2
Objectives
Several plant growth models for prediction and uncertainty assessment has been developped, in
particular Bayesian models (Digiplante team, Ecole Centrale Paris, P.-H. Cournède and Y. Chen
PhD thesis, 2014). These models mostly involve Sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) and Markov Chain
Monte Carlo (MCMC). The postdoc will mainly focus on the development and implementation
of methods for calibration and evaluation of the MCMC algorithms involved: MCMC strategies
(homogeneous, adaptive, . . . ), tuning of the instrumental distributions, convergence assessment,
precision of the estimates. Parallel computing (HPC) will be involved. A package for the R
statistical software, tailored for MCMC evaluation through entropy criteria (based on Chauveau
and Vandekerkhove, 2012, 2014) is currently on preparation. A connected objective will be to
extend and experiment it on the MCMC algorithms for plant growth models, and to ultimately
publish it on the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN) for the R statistical software.
3
Candidates
The candidates will have a PhD in connection with the fields mentionned above: Statistics, computational statistics, numerical Monte Carlo and MCMC simulation. They will have good programming skills in R, C and C++ languages. Some knowledge in HPC and/or R package development
will be appreciated but not required.
4
Position
The postdoc will be located in laboratory MAPMO, University of Orléans, and interacting also
with the team Digiplante, Ecole Centrale Paris.
Duration: 18 mois, starting April-June 2016.
Gross monthly salary: about 2,400 euros.
Contact: Didier Chauveau, didier.chauveau@univ-orleans.fr, MAPMO, Orléans.