My Journey
In this post, I present my journey, what I’ve done and learned, and what I plan to do in the future.
First of all, my name is Antonin. I’ve always been passionate about science from a very young age. Although I became familiar with computers relatively early, it was only later that I truly discovered computer science as a discipline.
I got a Scientific Baccalaureate with the ISN option (Computer Science and Digital Sciences). During that time, I really started coding, working on small web projects and learning Python, particularly with Tkinter for building graphical interfaces. I also developed a small post-apocalyptic survival game using Unity.
University
After high school, I entered an engineering school, but after a year, I decided to switch to a bachelor’s degree in computer science. During this program, I was able to develop many skills:
- Programming in C/C++, Java
- Relational database modeling: MySQL, Oracle
- Scripting: Bash
- Data structures: lists, stacks, queues, graphs, trees, …
- Sorting, searching, (de)compression algorithms
- Graph theory and automata
- Complexity analysis
- Concurrent and distributed programming
At the end of my bachelor’s, I had the opportunity to complete a 10-week internship in a research laboratory where I worked on the capacitated $p$-center problem. I implemented a heuristic called the Feasibility Pump for this problem, and began running performance tests and benchmarks.
I then pursued a Master’s degree in computer science at the University of Picardie Jules Verne, where I am still deepening my knowledge in networks and systems. Alongside the Master’s, I am doing a work-study program at the MIS laboratory in Amiens. As part of this work-study, I am working on a variant of a location problem (still the $p$-center problem!).
During this experience, I have been able to:
- Carry out an in-depth state of the art
- Mathematically model my problem (LP, MIP)
- Propose heuristics
- Generate instances
- Conduct benchmarks and create graphical visualizations
- Contribute to writing scientific articles
I was fortunate to present this work at ROADEF 2025 as well as at the international CoDiT 2025 conference. These experiences have strengthened my desire to pursue a PhD in this field.
Why a PhD?
The idea of pursuing a doctorate came quite early, when I realized I wanted to become a teacher-researcher. Several reasons have led me to consider this path:
The desire to contribute to research: Optimization and research are constantly evolving fields. Many complex problems remain unsolved or require more efficient approaches. Contributing to these advances is an intellectually stimulating challenge that could also have practical applications.
A passion for exploring and solving difficult problems: Since my early experiences in algorithms, I have always enjoyed solving problems that require reflection, methodology, and experimentation. A PhD would allow me to go even further, aiming to develop new approaches and innovative techniques.
My research interests for the PhD
If I had to choose a PhD topic, it would focus on:
- Combinatorial optimization, exploring the efficiency of heuristics and metaheuristics to solve NP-hard problems.
- Integrating machine learning into optimization, studying how predictive models can help accelerate existing algorithms or guide the search toward promising solutions.
- Variants of real-world related problems, to contribute to concrete applications in fields such as logistics, planning, or resource allocation.
- Exploring the links between operations research and quantum computing, by studying how quantum algorithms could revolutionize the solving of certain optimization problems.