March 2026 - SIPTA News - lists.sipta.org

PhD position in artificial intelligence for fisheries resource management

by Sébastien Ramel

* TITLE Evidential prediction uncertainty quantification for fish life traits from 3D otolith images * THEME Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Science * KEYWORDS Dempster-Shafer theory, uncertainty quantification, life traits, marine ecosystems, otolith. * STARTDATE AND DURATION September/October 2026, 36 months * FUNDING 50% IFSEA / 50% Artois University (requested) * LOCATION The work will be carried out in collaboration between the Laboratory of Computer Engineering and Automation of Artois (LGI2A) in Béthune and the Laboratory of Informatics, Signal and Image of the Opal Coast (LISIC) in Calais. * SUBJECT Understanding fish life traits (habitat, age, growth, reproduction, longevity, position in the water column, …) is an essential aspect of effective and sustainable management of marine fish stocks. Calcified structures — particularly otoliths, which are the only metabolically inert elements — provide a valuable source of information for this purpose. Notably, their external shape, historically characterized from 2D images and more recently studied in 3D, makes it possible to predict these life traits with high precision. Although 3D images are more informative, they are also more costly to acquire and relatively recent, and therefore less abundant. It is thus necessary to make the best possible use of this rich yet limited source of information in order to obtain the most reliable and accurate predictions. The theory of evidence, also known as Dempster–Shafer theory or the theory of belief functions, is a generalization of the probabilistic framework for reasoning under uncertainty. Its use for uncertainty quantification in predictive modeling is particularly suitable in cases where data are scarce. This PhD project therefore aims to develop predictive methods based on this theory and adapted to current approaches for predicting fish life traits from 3D otolith images. Given the nature of this application, the prediction of ordinal variables will be at the core of the methodological developments. More detail available here: https://www.lgi2a.univ-artois.fr/spip/en/open_positions/open-position-32 * SUPERVISION Supervisor: Prof. Frédéric Pichon (frederic.pichon(a)univ-artois.fr) Artois University, LGI2A Co-supervisor: Prof. Emilie Poisson Caillault (emilie.caillault(a)univ-littoral.fr) University of the Littoral Opal Coast (ULCO), LISIC Scientific advisor: Dr. Sébastien Ramel (sebastien.ramel(a)univ-artois.fr) Artois University, LGI2A * PROFILE SOUGHT The candidate must hold a master degree or an engineer degree in computer science, applied mathematics or related field. Knowledge in artificial intelligence (machine learning) and/or image processing will be an asset, as well as an awareness of uncertainty management methods. Qualities required to successfully complete a doctoral program such as curiosity, creativity, autonomy, critical thinking, and enthusiasm will be necessary. * APPLICATION Send *before April 30, 2026* an e-mail, with all supervisors of the thesis in copy, containing the following documents in a single pdf file: your CV, a cover letter, your transcripts (with rankings) of the current year (master or equivalent) and previous years, and, optionally, up to two letters of recommendation.

March 30, 2026

ICML Workshop on Imprecise Probabilities

by Michele Caprio

Dear colleagues, We are pleased to invite submissions to the 2nd Workshop on Epistemic Intelligence in Machine Learning (EIML@ICML 2026), to be held on 11 July 2026 in Seoul, South Korea, co-located with ICML 2026. ------------------------------------------------------- WORKSHOP OVERVIEW ------------------------------------------------------- As ML systems are deployed in increasingly open-ended and high-stakes environments, fundamental limitations emerge: distribution shift, adversarial manipulation, hallucinations, catastrophic forgetting, and misalignment all reflect the difficulty of operating reliably under incomplete information. EIML brings together researchers from diverse subfields of machine learning whose work confronts epistemic uncertainty from complementary angles. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: - Foundations of uncertainty modelling - Uncertainty-aware generative AI and foundation models - AI safety as an epistemic problem - AI alignment under objective uncertainty - Lifelong and continual learning in open worlds We welcome both theoretical contributions and applied case studies. Submissions that challenge prevailing assumptions, propose novel benchmarks, or provide insights into the philosophical and foundational dimensions of uncertainty in AI are especially encouraged. ------------------------------------------------------- IMPORTANT DATES ------------------------------------------------------- Submission opens: 20 March 2026 Paper deadline: 20 April 2026 Review period: 27 April – 27 May 2026 Author notification: 4 June 2026 Camera-ready deadline: 15 June 2026 Workshop: 10–11 July 2026 ------------------------------------------------------- SUBMISSION ------------------------------------------------------- Please visit our website for full submission instructions: https://sites.google.com/view/eimlicml2026/home For any queries, please contact us at: pc.eiml.workshop(a)gmail.com<mailto:pc.eiml.workshop@gmail.com> ------------------------------------------------------- ORGANISING COMMITTEE ------------------------------------------------------- Sahar Abdelnabi (ELLIS Institute Tübingen & MPI-IS) Michele Caprio (University of Manchester) Siu Lun Chau (Nanyang Technological University) Arnaud Doucet (Google DeepMind) Shireen Kudukkil Manchingal (Oxford Brookes University) Krikamol Muandet (CISPA Helmholtz Center) We look forward to your contributions and to seeing you in Seoul! Best regards, The EIML@ICML 2026 Organising Committee

March 21, 2026

Reminder: SIPTA virtual talk at 3pm Paris time

by sdesterc

Dear Siptians, This is just a small reminder that Arthur Van Camp will be talking in a bit less than one hour, at the following link: https://utc-fr.zoom.us/j/82696376560 See you soon! -- ==================================== Sebastien Destercke, Ph. D. CNRS researcher in computer science. Université de Technologie de Compiegne U.M.R. C.N.R.S. 7253 Heudiasyc Avenue de Landshut F-60205 Compiegne Cedex FRANCE Tel: +33 (0)3 44 23 79 85 Fax: +33 (0)3 44 23 44 77 ====================================

March 20, 2026

SIPTA Summer School

by Eyke Hüllermeier

To SIPTA community and interested researchers, We are pleased to announce that the SIPTA Summer School 2026 will take place in Munich, Germany, from Monday 27 July to Friday 31 July 2026. More information about the summer school, including the tentative program and practical details, is available on the website: https://www.ifi.lmu.de/kiml/en/school26/ Further information on registration, speakers, and additional organisational details will follow very soon. We will share updates both via this mailing list and on the homepage. We look forward to welcoming you in Munich and invite you to contact us at school26(a)sipta.org in case of any questions or suggestions. Best regards, Eyke Hüllermeier (on behalf of the summer school orga team) -- Prof. Dr. Eyke Hüllermeier Chair of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Institute of Informatics University of Munich (LMU) https://www.ifi.lmu.de/kiml/en/

March 20, 2026

Next SIPTA seminar the 20th of March: Arthur Van Camp on choice functions to model uncertainty

by sdesterc

Dear colleagues, We are delighted to announce our upcoming SIPTA online seminar on imprecise probabilities (IP). These monthly events are open to anyone interested in IP, and will be followed by a Q&A and open discussion. They also provide an occasion for the community to meet, keep in touch and exchange between in-person events. The next seminar will take place on the 20th of March (Friday). The zoom link for this seminar is https://utc-fr.zoom.us/j/82696376560 For this new seminar, we are very happy to have Arthur Van Camp as our speaker. Arthur Van Camp is currently is currently assistant professor at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence Group. His research focuses on cautious uncertainty models, with a particular interest on models using choice functions as their basic building tools. On the 20th of March, at 15:00 Paris time (up to 17:00, with a talk duration of 45min/1h), he will talk about "What is a good notion of independence for choice functions?”. Curious? Then check out the abstract on the webpage of the SIPTA seminars: sipta.org/events/sipta-seminars. The zoom link for attending the seminar can be found on that same page. So please mark your calendars on the 20th of March, and join us for the occasion. And for those who missed the previous seminar and want to catch up, or simply want to see it again and again, it is online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvDkbc0BuJU See you at the seminar! Sébastien, Enrique and Jasper

March 13, 2026

[CFP] The 9th International Conference on Belief Functions (BELIEF 2026)

by David Mercier

********************************************************** The 9th International Conference on Belief Functions (BELIEF 2026) https://www.bfasociety.org/Belief2026 Dates: October 19-21, 2026 Location: Nanjing, China * April 30, 2026: Paper submission deadline * June 15, 2026: Author notification * June 30, 2026: Camera-ready copy due ********************************************************** The Theory of belief functions, also referred to as Evidence theory or Dempster-Shafer theory is a well-established mathematical framework for reasoning and decision-making with uncertainty, with applications to machine learning, statistical inference, information fusion, knowledge representation, risk analysis, etc. It is an extension of probability theory and it has well understood connections with related frameworks such as random sets and imprecise probabilities. Recently, generalised evidence theory, based on random fuzzy sets, has been proposed as a unifying framework encompassing both Dempster-Shafer and possibility theories. The biennial BELIEF conferences (sponsored by the Belief Functions and Applications Society) are dedicated to the confrontation of ideas, the reporting of recent achievements and the presentation of the wide range of applications of this theory. Previous editions of this conference series were held in Brest, France (2010); Compiègne, France (2012); Oxford, UK (2014); Prague, Czech Republic (2016); Compiègne, France (2018); Shanghai, China (2021); Paris, France (2022), and Belfast, UK (2024). To support cross-fertilization among researchers working in different subfields of AI and related disciplines, tutorials and special sessions will be proposed, with emphasis on the links between machine learning, statistical inference and uncertain reasoning, including topics such as quantification of prediction uncertainty, fusion rules for ensemble learning, belief propagation in deep neural networks, links with explainable and symbolic AI, etc. Submissions of papers combining several of these topics, or more generally at the cross-road of belief functions and other AI methods or uncertainty theories, along with relevant applications, are welcome. Proceedings BELIEF 2026 proceedings will be published by Springer-Verlag in the Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNCS/LNAI) series and indexed by: ISI Web of Science; EI Engineering Index; ACM Digital Library; dblp; Google Scholar; IO-Port; MathSciNet; Scopus; Zentralblatt MATH. IJAR Special issue Authors of selected papers from the BELIEF 2026 conference will be invited to submit extended versions of their papers for possible inclusion in a special issue of the International Journal of Approximate Reasoning. BELIEF 2026 Conference co-chairs Prof. Zhigang Su (zhigangsu(a)seu.edu.cn) Southeast University, China Prof. Thierry Denoeux (tdenoeux(a)utc.fr) Université de Technologie de Compiègne, France More information: https://www.bfasociety.org/Belief2026

March 13, 2026

IPMU 2026 - Deadline for EUSFLAT Student Grants application

by Davide Petturiti

****** PLEASE APOLOGIZE FOR MULTIPLE COPIES ****** ********************************************************** 21st International Conference on Information Processing and Management of Uncertainty in Knowledge-Based Systems (IPMU 2026) June 15th-19th, 2026, Rome, Italy https://www.sbai.uniroma1.it/conferenze/ipmu2026/ *********************************************************** We inform all interested colleagues that, in agreement with EUSFLAT, the deadline for EUSFLAT Student Grants application has been fixed to *25 March 2026*. We are pleased do recall that: · The EUSFLAT Board offers *5* student grants. *· *Each grant will cover *the early student registration fee.* Eligibility criteria and Application procedure are available here: https://www.sbai.uniroma1.it/conferenze/ipmu2026/student-grants.php Best regards, The IPMU 2026 Organizing Committee -- *Fai crescere le giovani ricercatrici e i giovani ricercatori*** *con il 5 per mille alla Sapienza* Scrivi il codice fiscale dell'Università *80209930587 **Cinque per mille <https://www.uniroma1.it/it/node/23149>*

March 6, 2026