Hi,
we have a phd project co-supervised by lidar specialists (CNRS Rennes environmental sciences) & machine learning/image processing researchers (IRISA, Research Institute on Computer Sciences and Random Systems).
The project is called "MASSIV RIVER: Classification of massive 3D airborne topo-bathymetric lidar data in fluvial environments". It uses the latest generation of airborne dual-wavelength lidar (532 nm + 1064 nm) that we operate in our department.
You'll find details on the project on my webpage :
https://geosciences.univ-rennes1.fr/spip.php?rubrique95
Don't hesitate to circulate this info to prospective students or colleagues: we're looking for someone coming from applied maths, image analysis, machine learning or big data analysis. You don't have to be french (or even speak french ;-), but a good level in english is mandatory).
I'm posting this info here, as I expect that some of the algorithms that will be developped during this PhD project will be ultimately implemented in Cloudcompare ;-)