Jean-Philippe Cointet is an associate professor at Sciences Po. He devises methods for modeling digital traces in order to map public space and its dynamics. He was one of the first graduates of the master's program AIRE-LiSc<\/a> (Life Sciences) at Learning Planet Institute<\/a> (formerly CRI). Meet us.<\/em><\/p>\n Jean-Philippe Cointet is an engineer and researcher. He holds a PhD in complex systems and was trained at the \u00c9cole Polytechnique. Today, he is an associate professor at Sciences Po<\/a>, and affiliated with the INCITE<\/a> from Columbia University in the United States, he defended his habilitation in social sciences at the\u2019\u00c9cole Normale Sup\u00e9rieure<\/a> (ENS) in 2017.<\/p>\n To omit the Learning Planet Institute would be to overlook an element of Jean-Philippe's brilliant career path, as he was part of the very first class of the AIV (Approches Interdisciplinaires du Vivant) master's program. \u00abWe had a weekly meeting, and student presentations all year round.\u00bb<\/em>, says Jean-Philippe. \u00abEverything was improvised. We were in a corridor in the ENS canteen!, <\/em>he smiles. <\/em>However, this does not detract from the quality of the teaching and the experiments carried out by the highly autonomous students. \u00abWe were told: \u00bbMake your own route, you'll manage'. <\/em>The master's program, which is devoid of lectures, emphasizes critical and entrepreneurial thinking. \u00abWe could choose any lab, any article to work on. <\/em>Scientific articles were scrutinized: the students deconstructed the protocol to find and remedy any flaws. \u00abWe were also doing the same thing on a book scale.<\/em><\/p>\n In this program of around twenty people, Jean-Philippe is impressed by the overall level. \u00abAll my classmates were very bright: biologists, mathematicians, physicists, some from the ENS, some in their theses, others from abroad...\u00bb.\u00bb <\/em>said the only student from Polytechnique. \u00abWe were a nice, fun group,<\/em> adds Jean-Philippe, referring to both his classmates and teachers. \u00abOn the teaching team, we had a funny physicist, St\u00e9phane Douady, who talked to us about the physics of grains of sand and the morphogenesis of cabbages, Pierre Sonigo, a doctor in biology and medicine, who told us about epigenetics, and the founders of the CRI. Ariel Lindner<\/a> and Fran\u00e7ois Taddei<\/a>, whose background was very similar to mine\u00bb.<\/em><\/p>\n Jean-Philippe goes to see Fran\u00e7ois Taddei to talk about his thesis project, and to explain how much he needs to mature it.<\/p>\n \u00abGenerally speaking, there was a real generosity towards young people within the master's program. It wasn't \u00abyou young people don't know anything\u00bb, it was quite the opposite! People were interested in the pedagogical experience in the strongest sense of the word.\u00bb<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Jean-Philippe is taking advantage of his three Master's internships to explore different environments: the first in network computing, the second in neuroscience (in experimental psychology) and the third, in social network modeling, in the CR\u00c9A<\/a> (Centre de recherche en \u00e9pist\u00e9mologie appliqu\u00e9e de l'\u00c9cole Polytechnique). \u00abI learned my scales at CR\u00c9A, and I've become acculturated to it. It's a long-distance job, <\/em>explains the researcher.<\/p>\n Jean-Philippe Cointet is doing his thesis at the \u00c9cole Polytechnique's CR\u00c9A, in conjunction with the Institut des Syst\u00e8mes Complexes.<\/p>\n \u00abThe majority were physicists and mathematicians, who wanted to acquire additional training through research. <\/em>Jean-Philippe is already familiar with the world of research, and is particularly stimulated by CR\u00c9A: \u00abIt's an incredible laboratory. A club of philosophers, mathematicians, researchers and nerds, closely linked to the history of cognitive science\u00bb. <\/em>With Paul Bourgine and Pierre-Benoit Joly as his thesis supervisors, Jean-Philippe combines network science with the controversial subjects that were shaking up the world of agriculture at the time, such as GMOs (genetically modified organisms) and nanotechnologies. He analyzes political blogs (\u00abthe Twitter of the time, it's 2004 and therefore far from Cambridge Analytica!\u00bb)<\/em>, and automatic language processing. He uses this mapping of textual traces as a methodology for investigation in the social sciences.<\/p>\n INRAE offers him a position as a research engineer at INRA-SenS (now INRA-SenS). LISIS<\/a>), giving him considerable freedom to develop innovative computational social science methods. \u00abIt answers real social science questions <\/em>\u00bb. For example, Jean-Philippe studies topical issues and social and political phenomena, enabling him to analyze more global socio-political dynamics.<\/p>\n \u00abThe most interesting are networks and blogs. We work on social phenomena, starting with the way individuals communicate, the text behind it, the acts of enunciation.\u00bb<\/em>, he explains.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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