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The Laboratoire d’Informatique, de Robotique et de Microélectronique de Montpellier (Laboratory of Computer Science, Robotics and Microelectronics of Montpellier) is a major multi-disciplinary French research center located in the South of France. It is affiliated with the University of Montpellier and the French National Center for Scientific Research (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CNRS).

It conducts research in Computer Science, Microelectronics and Robotics and is organized along 3 departments comprising 19 international research teams assisted by central services personnel.

History

LIRMM was created in 1992, the result of the merger of the CRIM and LAM laboratories, under the leadership of the CNRS (French National Center for Research) and the University of Montpellier II. The project’s intent was to promote information science and technology within an integrated research unit. At the time, this type of research organization was unique in France. Initially organized in four research departments (Knowledge Acquisition and Representation, Theoretical and Applied Computer Science, Microelectronics, and Robotics), this laboratory subsequently combined its two Computer Science departments into one and added research teams in 2002. It also developed a long-term partnership with INRIA, another prestigious French research unit. In the last decade, several new teams have been added or have joined the Lab.

Staff

Today, LIRMM’s three research departments comprise 22 research teams, among which 3 INRIA teams and one team from the University of Perpignan Via Domitia. The teams total 104 Full and Associate Professors from the University of Montpellier (UM), 8 from Paul Valery University in Montpellier (UPV), 6 from the University of Perpignan (UPVD), 41 CNRS Researchers and 11 from INRIA. With more than 40 nationalities in its talented staff, and with numerous collaborative projects in France and around the world, LIRMM has become a renowned, diverse, and multi-disciplinary research organization entirely dedicated to conducting sound and enlightened scientific research for the benefit of society.


The Computer Science Department’s research activities range from fundamental mathematics to applied research, and include: algorithmic graphs, bioinformatics, cryptography, networks, databases and information systems (data integration, data mining, consistency maintenance); software engineering (programming languages, objects, components, models); artificial intelligence (learning, constraints, knowledge representation, multi-agent systems); and human-machine interactions (natural language, visualization, semantic web and e-learning).


Harnessing the vitality of emerging technologies, LIRMM’s Microelectronics Department conducts specialized research on innovative solutions to embed additional intelligence into integrated electronic systems. The resulting scientific challenges include assessing the quality, reliability, testing, adaptability, efficiency, and security of these systems, while paying particular attention to digital security, energy efficiency, resilience, and handling complexity. Most of our activities find applications in high-performance computing hardware architecture, communicating objects for living things and environments, including harsh (spatial, radiative, high temperature) environments.


The research activities of the Robotics department focus on medical and parallel robotics (DEXTER team), perception and underwater exploration robotics (EXPLORE and ICAR teams) as well as human-robot physical interaction and humanoid robotics (IDH team). These activities are notably applied to manufacturing industry, healthcare, environment and human in his daily environment.

LIRMM’s research finds applications in a vast and diverse range of domains, such as biology, chemistry, telecommunications, healthcare, the environment, etc., but also in our own fields of expertise – Computer Science, Electronics and Automation. Our overall mission is therefore to:
  • Advance knowledge (average of 300 international publications per year)
  • Train and groom scientific researchers, directly (doctors, postdocs) or indirectly (LMD participation)
  • Design and build material objects, systems and/or prototype software
  • Generate economic activity (industrial partnerships, innovative startups)
  • Advocate for Science at the national and international levels