Description of the thesis topic

Maritime traffic plays a crucial role in the exchange of goods throughout the world. It is responsible for 3% of greenhouse gas emissions, with growth expected to reach 17% by 2050, and terrible air and water pollution. It is therefore a prime target for social or environmental movements (strikes or blockades in ports or on ships).

The impact of such actions is poorly known, but currently available data (Lloyd's registers and GPS traces in particular) open up new perspectives. We propose a collaboration between computer scientists, geographers and sociologists to explore them. This will involve developing methodologies anchored in network analysis to study the impact of past actions, such as for example the 10-day dockers' strike on the west coast of the USA in 2002 or the blockade of the largest coal port. of the world by ecologists in kayaks in November 2023.

For more details see: https://www.complexnetworks.fr/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/sujet_these_perturbation.pdf

Work Context

The thesis will be carried out in the Complex Networks team at LIP6, one of the largest computer science laboratories in France, which covers all of the major themes in the field. The team specializes in the analysis of large networks, and several people work there on themes close to the thesis. Although anchored in computer science, the thesis also has an interdisciplinary component carried out in collaboration with geographers and sociologists from outside the laboratory.

Additional Information

The position is potentially open to candidates who do not necessarily have their initial training in computer science.