About us

THE CENTER

// Ambition

The global ambition of this new interdisciplinary center is to ensure AI and data empower business and society. It will provide a unique framework for research, education, innovation, and technology transfer to businesses. It will take advantage of cross-fertilization between fundamental sciences, technology, management and social sciences which are fields of excellence for both Institut Polytechnique de Paris and HEC Paris. It will also help to stimulate productive interactions between researchers, students and organizations, thus enabling the emergence of high-potential projects, up to startups. The Center’s ambition as regards AI and Data Analytics is to compete with the very best international institutions. Hi! PARIS will soon be a destination of choice for the most talented students and researchers from all over the world, all of whom address questions related to data science, artificial intelligence, their role in science, technology and business, and impact on society.

// Hi! PARIS foundation by HEC Paris and Institut Polytechnique de Paris Alliance

IP Paris and HEC Paris have created HI! PARIS to develop education, research and innovation in the fields of artificial intelligence and data analytics. Based on their joint expertise and a multidisciplinary approach, the Center addresses key challenges related to technological transformation and its impact on business and society. Theoretical and methodological research in AI and Data analytics is conducted at the highest level. The Center tackles managerial, legal, economic, ethical and societal issues emerging due to exponentially larger data sets harnessed through artificial intelligence.

The Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris) is a public higher education and research institution that brings together five prestigious French engineering schools: École Polytechnique, ENSTA Paris, ENSAE Paris, Télécom Paris and Télécom SudParis. Under the auspices of the Institute, they share their combined bicentennial expertise to fulfil two major ambitions: to develop educational programs of excellence and cutting-edge research in science and technology. Thanks to the academic foundations of its five founding schools and its alliance with HEC Paris, IP Paris positions itself as a leading academic and research institution, both in France and internationally. Specializing in education and research in management sciences, HEC Paris offers a complete and unique range of academic programs for the leaders of tomorrow: the Grande Ecole program, Specialized Masters and MSc, Summer School programs, the MBA, Executive MBA and TRIUM Global Executive MBA programs, the Ph.D. program and a wide range of programs for executives and managers. Founded in 1881 by the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry, HEC Paris has a full-time faculty of 140 professors, 4,500 students and 8,000 managers in executive education programs every year.

// Alliance of new members

In addition to IP Paris and HEC Paris, other institution are willing to contribute to the Hi! PARIS ambition. In July 2021, Inria has joined forces with Hi! PARIS.

Inria is the French national research institute for digital science and technology. World-class research, technological innovation and entrepreneurial risk are its DNA. In 200 project teams, most of which are shared with major research universities, more than 3,500 researchers and engineers explore new paths, often in an interdisciplinary manner and in collaboration with industrial partners to meet ambitious challenges. As a technological institute, Inria supports the diversity of innovation pathways: from open source software publishing to the creation of technological startups (Deeptech).

THE TEAM

Executive Director

Raphaëlle Gautier

Executive director
HEC Paris


Corporate Partnerships & Public Funds Director

Scientific Board

Gaël Richard

Scientific co-director
IP Paris Professor


Grand prix IMT-National Academy of Science 2020, IEEE Fellow

Nicolas Vieille

Scientific co-director
HEC Paris Professor


Lanchester Prize 2003 in Operations Research, Editor of Games and Economic Behavior, associate editor of Econometrica.

Eric Moulines

Scientific co-director
IP Paris Professor


CNRS Silver medal 2010, ORANGE Grand Prix of Science Academy 2011, Elected member of the French Academy of Sciences 2017, Elected member of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS) 2016.

Pedagogy coordination

One of the objectives of Hi! PARIS is to increase the teaching capabilities on methods, applications and societal implications of AI and data science in our partner schools. To this aim, the Pedagogy coordination directors’ mission are to:

  • create and maintain the link between Hi! PARIS, the activities proposed by the Center and the academic directors in charge of programs related to Data Science and AI within the partner schools;
  • promote the Hi! PARIS pedagogical activities addressed to students (e.g. hackathons, data bootcamps, summer schools, etc.) in order to bring the students’ skills to the best level on the topics covered by the Center;
  • foster collaboration between the Centre and the Corporate donors in the pedogical programs (contribution in terms of data sets, use-cases and business problems, which students can then explore programs).

  • Pedagogy coordination director for HEC Paris : Vincent Fraitot, HEC Paris
  • Pedagogy coordination director for IP PARIS : Emmanuel Gobet, École polytechnique, IP Paris

THE GOVERNANCE

Governance committee

The Governance Committee is the governance body of the Hi! PARIS Center’s partnership. Its missions are to :

  • validate and supervise the strategic training-research plan, validate the Center’s budget and its distribution and supervise its implementation ;
  • validate the annual activity and financial report;
  • oversee the prospect of new corporate donors, examine proposals of grant to researchers affiliated to the Center formulated by the Scientific Advisory Board ;
  • ensure consistency between the scientific policies of the Center and the partners (founding members and academic members);

Hi! PARIS Executive director
Hi! PARIS Scientific Directors
Jean-Yves Berthou, Inria
Benoit Deveaud, École polytechnique, IP Paris
Catherine Gaudy, GENES, IP Paris
Nicolas Glady, Télécom Paris, IP Paris
Johan Hombert, HEC Paris
Didier Janci, IP Paris
André Masini, HEC Paris
Christophe Perignon, HEC Paris
Eric Ponsonnet, HEC Paris

Scientific Advisory Board

Central to the Hi! PARIS governance, the International Scientific Advisory Board gathers 10 top scientists with recognized expertise in the research fields covered by the center.

Their core mission will be to provide independent, credible, and impartial recommendations on academic matters to the governance committee and the executive board of the center.

Hi! PARIS Scientific Directors
Hi! PARIS Executive Director
Francis Bach, Inria
Kathleen Carley, Carnegie Mellon University
Anindya Ghose, New York University
Avi Goldfarb, University of Toronto
Michael Jordan, University of California, Berkeley
Roni Michaely, University of Geneva
Masashi Sugiyama, University of Tokyo
Mariarosaria Taddeo, University of Oxford
Mihaela van der Schaar, Cambridge University
Lenka Zdeborova, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Academic Operating Committee

The academic Operating Committee groups representatives from the various institution in the center. In partnership with the executive board, its missions are to:

  • Drive the day-to-day scientific and pedagogical life of the Center
  • Manage calls for tenders (dissemination, selection and follow-up) within partner institutions
  • Propose actions originating from the academic community and/or companies
  • Disseminate within each school the topics handled by the Academic Operating Committee and the progresses made in order to mobilize the community, foster exchanges and boost initiatives.

Hi! PARIS Scientific Directors
Hi! PARIS Executive Director
Stephan Clémençon, Télécom Paris, IP Paris
Etienne Oillon, CNRS – ENSAE Paris, IP Paris
Arnak Dalayan, ENSAE Paris, IP Paris
François Goulette, ENSTA Paris, IP Paris
Ioana Manolescu / Oana Balalau, Inria et Ecole polytechnique, IP Paris
Yohan Petetin, Télécom SudParis, IP Paris
Maks Ovsjanikov, École polytechnique, IP Paris
Anne-Laure Sellier, HEC Paris
Shirish C. Srivastava, HEC Paris

Former members:
Thierry Foucault, Sylvie Putot, David Filliat, Sylvain Le Corff, Alexandre Gramfort, Philippe Choné

OUR RESEARCHERS

Affiliated researchers

Hi! PARIS support the researchers of HEC Paris, IP Paris schools and Inria Saclay by several means:

  • Recruitment of chair holders
  • Personal research grants, as Fellowship 
  • PhD fundings
  • Collaborative and scientific projects
  • Engineering Team research projects 

The researchers getting support from Hi! PARIS are referred as affiliates of the Center.

The complete list of researchers who accepted to be referrenced as affiliates of Hi! PARIS is available on the dedicated page HERE