We are pleased to announce that applications are now open for a fully-funded PhD position in Natural Language Processing at the Laboratoire Informatique, Image et Interaction (L3i) of La Rochelle University. 🏛️ Topic: NLP-Driven Digital Twins for the Preservation of Coastal Historical Heritage Coastal historical buildings represent centuries of heritage but face existential threats from climate change. While physical restoration is urgent, the critical historical and technical data required for accurate reconstruction is often locked in unstructured textual formats (historical archives, architectural logs, and damage reports). Current Digital Twins are often "semantically empty" as they contain geometry but lack historical context. We lack automated methods to interpret complex, often archaic, textual descriptions and map them to digital models for accurate restoration. This thesis aims to revolutionize heritage conservation by integrating Natural Language Processing (NLP) into the Digital Twin pipeline. The research will focus on fine-tuning LLMs to parse and structure data from historical corpora regarding building materials, past interventions, and degradation history and constructing a dynamic Knowledge Graph that links linguistic data to 3D architectural elements. The outcome will be a system that empowers engineers and historians to interact with heritage data via Natural Language, ensuring that the reconstruction of these landmarks is not just structurally sound, but historically accurate. 📌 Supervised by: Dr. Georgeta Bordea [https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgeta-bordea-7116851a/] (La Rochelle Université [https://www.linkedin.com/company/la-rochelle-universite/]) and Prof. Ana - Cornelia BADEA [https://www.linkedin.com/in/anacorneliabadea/] (Universitatea Tehnică de Construcții București [https://www.linkedin.com/company/utcbro/]). 🔗More information: * LRUniv website: https://www.univ-larochelle.fr/en/research-and-innovation/phd/eu-docs-for-sm... [https://www.univ-larochelle.fr/en/research-and-innovation/phd/eu-docs-for-sm...] * Euraxess: https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/380133 [https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/380133] * Association Bernard Gregory: https://www.abg.asso.fr/fr/recruteurOffres/show/id_offre/133799 [https://www.abg.asso.fr/fr/recruteurOffres/show/id_offre/133799] 📅 Application deadline: 𝟭𝟮 𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱