Since the beginning of this year, I was trying to figure out what to do in my future. I’m still doing my PhD, but what could I do after that ?

Before

My current job is to find a model for datasets.

A lot of datasets can be explained by a small number of parameters. For instance identity photos of a single person can be explained by 3 translations and 3 rotations. So my algorithms did that: find the parameters (or something that is close enough) and create a mapping between the parameters and the original space.

During this research, I learnt what is scientific computing. I did not explore everything in this field, but I covered the basics. That’s where I found about Python, but also C++ (which is the first language I really used). My thirst for information lead me to read a lot of books on several matters (architectural design, process, but also parallel computing and its different flavors). This led me to search for a job that would interest me the most.

After

So starting from September I’ll move to Pau, a town in the South of France. This is where the biggest research center of Total S.A. is located. I will work on oil exploration.

Although the theory behind this are well known (acoustic wave propagation and inverse problem), this does not mean that research in this field is over. For instance, the power needed for solving these problems are enormous. So their implementation must be well thought. And even if you managed to find a solution to your problem, you are not done. Total’s goal is not to be able to see if acoustic waves propagate fast in some places and slowly in others. Its goal is to find oil and gas. So now that one has an acoustic model, one must see with the geologists if there are some odds that there is oil or gas. And that’s also a big interesting challenge.

Meanwhile

For those who were interested in manifold learning, don’t worry, I’m not finished in exposing my research. I will go on with some new posts about the mapping between the two spaces and how it can be used to test new samples. The scikit is now almost available. I still have to finish the tutorial and test if everything is OK.

I hope I will be able to continue with other subjects on this blog, there is no reason I cannot do this. Although what I’ll be doing at Total is secret, there are a lot of fields I’d like to talk about.