Bio
CV
Teaching
Responsibilities
Research
Alumni
Extras

Short bio

Emmanuel Rachelson is professor of machine learning and optimization at ISAE-SUPAERO. He holds the ANITI research chair in Reinforcement Learning. Prior to joining ISAE-SUPAERO (2011), he held a researcher position at EDF Research and Development (2009, 2011) and postdoctoral positions at the University of Liège (2010) and the Technical University of Crete (2009). He received a PhD in artificial intelligence (2009) and the Habilitation degree (2020) from the University of Toulouse.

As a teacher, he has been involved in promoting artificial intelligence education. He has been responsible for the Intelligent Decision Systems minor track (MS, 2012-2015) and has founded and remains in charge of the Data and Decision Sciences major track (MS, 2015) in the ISAE-SUPAERO curriculum. He also co-founded the Artificial Intelligence and Business Transformation executive master program (2021) and co-organized the international Reinforcement Learning Virtual School (2021). Since 2023 he also teaches the reinforcement learning class of the MVA master degree. He teaches machine learning and optimization to master and PhD students, and in continuing education programs.

His research is in the field of reinforcement learning and related topics. He created the ISAE-SUPAERO Reinforcement Learning Initiative (SuReLI, 2016) which fosters interaction between PhD students, postdocs and permanents researchers on reinforcement learning topics and their interplay with other disciplines. He investigates the reliability of reinforcement learning methods from different points of view such as statistical generalization, robustness to uncertainty, transfer, simulation to reality, inductive biases, or frugal learning. He is also interested in the practical applications of reinforcement learning such as fluid flow control, parameter control in optimization problems, unmanned vehicles, air traffic management, software testing, or therapeutic planning. He holds the ANITI research chair in Reinforcement Learning. He is a member of the ACM and the AFIA, has published papers and is a reviewer in the main machine learning and artificial intelligence conferences and journals.

CV

Short summary of occupied positions:
2020-present Full Professor, ISAE-SUPAERO (Toulouse, France)
2011-2020 Associate Professor, ISAE-SUPAERO (Toulouse, France)
2011 Research engineer, EDF R&D (Clamart, France)
2010 Post-doctoral researcher, University of Liège (Belgium)
2009 Invited researcher, EDF R&D (Clamart, France)
2009 Post-doctoral researcher, Technical University of Crete (Chania, Greece)
2005-2008 PhD candidate, ONERA Toulouse (France)

Qualifications:
2020 HDR in Artificial Intelligence (habilitation to supervise research) - University of Toulouse (France)
2008 PhD in Artificial Intelligence - University of Toulouse (France)
2005 MS in Control Theory - University of Toulouse (France)
2005 Generalist and Aeronautics Engineer – SUPAERO (Toulouse, France)

Non-academic:
Paragliding instructor (and passionate pilot).

Teaching

Classes taught

Reinforcement Learning (MVA master, 2023-)
Algorithms in Machine Learning - Supervised and unsupervised learning (ISAE-SUPAERO graduate, 2015-)
Algorithms in Machine Learning - Deep learning (ISAE-SUPAERO graduate, 2015-)
Algorithms in Machine Learning - Reinforcement learning (ISAE-SUPAERO graduate, 2015-)
Reinforcement Learning in-depth (ISAE-SUPAERO graduate, 2020-)
Sequential Decision Making in AI (ISAE-SUPAERO AIBT MS, 2022)
Machine Learning (PhD students, 2017-2018)
ISAE-SUPAERO Hackathon (ISAE-SUPAERO graduate, 2016-2020)
Combinatorial Optimization (ISAE-SUPAERO graduate, 2011-2017)
Differentiable Optimization (ISAE-SUPAERO graduate, 2017-2019)
Being an Optimization engineer (ISAE-SUPAERO undergrad, 2012-2014)
Reinforcement Learning (ISAE-SUPAERO undergrad, 2012-2015)
Continuous Optimization (ENAC and ISAE-SUPAERO undergrad, 2006-2007 and 2011-2015)

I often lend a hand to colleagues, giving a few hours in Optimization and Statistics. I also occasionally give continuing education sessions.

On top of the modules above, I also coordinate (but don’t teach) classes on Statistics and Statistical modeling (ISAE-SUPAERO graduate), Applications of combinatorial optimization (ISAE-SUPAERO undergrad), and “in-depth” ML or data science classes (ISAE-SUPAERO graduate).

Responsibilities and community service

Research

Head of the ISAE-SUPAERO Reinforcement Learning Initiative (2016-)
General chair of the 17th European Workshop on Reinforcement Learning (2024)
Program chair of the 16th European Workshop on Reinforcement Learning (2023)
Program chair of the French Conference on Planning, Learning and Decision (2019) Head of the ML, Decision, Optimization research group at ISAE-SUPAERO (2019-2020)
Reviewer for Machine Learning and AI conferences and journals (2009-)

Teaching

Head of the Data and Decision Sciences final year major track in the ISAE-SUPAERO graduate curriculum (2015-2019 and 2023-)
Coordinator for the design of the Decision Sciences final year major track in the ISAE-SUPAERO graduate curriculum (2013-2015)
Head of the Intelligent Decision Systems final year minor track in the ISAE-SUPAERO graduate curriculum (2012-2015)

Community

Elected faculty member of the board at ISAE-SUPAERO (2023-)
ISAE-SUPAERO representative at the Toulouse Maths & CS doctoral school (2022-)

Research topics

My research lies in the fields of Reinforcement Learning and Sequential Decision problems, with a broader interest for Machine Learning and Operations Research.
Above all, I like to deeply understand the mechanisms of learning and optimization.
I like inspiring and diverse applications that fuel my research and challenge my comfort zone.
My current research interests are featured on the webpage of my research group, SuReLI.

Alumni

Full list here