I have had the privilege of advising and working with some
incomparable graduate students and postdocs, among them several that
won the following major awards, and I am proud of the diversity of
outstanding dissertations (linked below) that my students have
produced.
* ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award
* UCLA HSSEAS Edward K. Rice Outstanding Doctoral Student Award
* UCLA HSSEAS Edward K. Rice Outstanding Master's Student Award
* UCLA CSD Outstanding Graduating PhD Student Award
* UCLA CSD Outstanding Graduating MS Student Award
* UCLA CSD Northrop Grumman Outstanding Graduate Student Research Award
* UCLA CSD Google Graduate Student Research Award
* UCLA CSD Cisco Graduate Student Research Award
* UCLA CSD Outstanding Mentorship Award
* MIT Technology Review TR100 / Innovators Under 35
Current PhD Students
- Junli Cao
- Nanxi Chen
- Yaowei Guo
- Alex Ling Yu Hung
- Arulsaravana Jeyaraj
- Zhi Li
- Noor Nakhaei*
- Shuwen Qiu
- Chang Yu
- Tianyi Xie
- Ziheng (Joseph) Zhou
Graduated Doctoral Students
- Qian Long
- "Multi-agent systems: Enhancing scalability, task-agent adaptiveness and benchmarking"
(2024) UCLA CS
- Sirui Xie
- "A generative account of latent abstractions"
(2024) UCLA CS
- Danfeng Guo
- "Applying medical language models to medical image analysis"
(2024) UCLA CS
- Wuyue Lu
- "Learning-based, muscle-actuated biomechanical human animation: Bipedal locomotion control and
facial expression transfer"
(2024) UCLA CS
- Ran Gong
- "Advancing the cognitive abilities of embodied agents: Large-scale simulations and multi-agent collaborations"
(2024) UCLA CS
- Yadi Cao
- "Advancing physics-based simulations: Integrating conventional and machine-learning approaches for enhanced computational efficiency"
(2024) UCLA CS
- Haoxin Zheng
- "Learning-based diagnostic models incorporating imaging and clinical information"
(2024) UCLA CS
- Yuxing Qiu
- "Scalable and efficient material point methods on modern computational platforms"
(2024) UCLA CS
- Andrew Sang-Jin Choi
- "Simulation of deformable objects for sim2real applications in robotics"
(2023) UCLA CS
- Alan U. Litteneker
- "Towards intelligent computational tools for virtual cinematography"
(2022) UCLA CS
- Xiao Zeng
- "Bio-inspired simulation with learning-based automatic motion control"
(2022) UCLA CS
- Ali Hatamizadeh
*
- "Deep learning of unified region, edge, and contour models for automated image segmentation"
(2020) UCLA CS
- Abdullah-Al-Zubaer Imran
- "From fully-supervised, single-task to scarcely-supervised, multi-task deep learning for medical image analysis"
(2020) UCLA CS
- Tao Zhou
*
- "Core training: Learning deep
neuromuscular control of the torso for anthropomimetic animation"
(2019) UCLA CS
- Garett
D. Ridge - "An online
collaborative ecosystem for educational computer graphics" (2018)
UCLA CS
- Tomer Weiss -
"A constraint-based approach to
crowd simulation and layout synthesis" (2018) UCLA CS
- Masaki Nakada *
- "Deep learning of neuromuscular
and sensorimotor control with biomimetic perception..." (2017)
UCLA CS (JASSO Scholar)
- Noah Duncan -
"...New computational tools for
open-ended geometric design" (2017) UCLA CS
- Eduardo Ribeiro Poyart -
"Parallel, data-driven simulation
and visualization of the heart" (2016) UCLA CS
- Matthew Wang -
"Simulation, stitching, and
interaction techniques for large-scale ultrasound datasets" (2016)
UCLA CS
- Sharath Kumar Gopal -
"Unified deterministic/statistical
deformable models for cardiac image analysis" (2016) UCLA CS
- Gergely Klár -
"Simulation of granular media with
the material point method" (2016) UCLA CS (Fullbright Fellow)
- Xiaowei Ding -
"Automated quantitative analysis of
cardiac medical images" (2015) UCLA CS
- Chenfanfu Jiang
* - "The material point method for the
physics-based simulation of solids and fluids" (2015) UCLA CS
- Jingyi (Franklin)
Fang - "The modeling and
animation of myriapoda" (2015) UCLA CS
- Wenjia Huang - "Door and doorway etiquette for virtual
humans" (2014) UCLA CS
- Jin Kyu Gahm - "Microstructural feature-based processing
and analysis of diffusion tensor MRI" (2014) UCLA CS
- Krešimir
Petrinec - "Patient-specific interactive
ultrasound image simulation with soft-tissue deformation" (2013)
UCLA CS
- Weiguang (Justin)
Si - "Realistic simulation
and control of human swimming and underwater movement" (2013) UCLA
CS
- William R. Hewlett
II - "Creating a cognitive
agent in a virtual world: Planning, navigation, and natural language
generation" (2013) UCLA CS
- Lap-Fai (Craig) Yu * - "Data-driven optimization for
modeling in computer graphics and vision" (2013) UCLA CS
- Gautam
Prasad - "Brain mapping
methods: Segmentation, registration, and connectivity analysis"
(2013) UCLA CS
- M. Alex
O. Vasilescu * - "A multilinear (tensor) algebraic
framework for computer graphics, computer vision, and machine
learning" (2009) UofT CS
- Sung-Hee
Lee * * - "Biomechanical modeling and control of the
human body for computer animation" (2008) UCLA CS
- Faisal
Z. Qureshi - "Intelligent
perception in virtual sensor networks and space robotics" (2007)
UofT CS
- Qinxin Yu - "A decision network framework for the
behavioral animation of virtual humans" (2007) UofT CS (NSERC
Postgraduate Scholar)
- Wei Shao - "Animating autonomous pedestrians"
(2006) NYU CS
- Sageev Oore - "Digital marionette: Augmenting
kinematics with physics for multi-track desktop performance
animation" (2001) UofT CS
- Petros
Faloutsos - "Composable
controllers for physics-based character animation" (2001) UofT CS
- Tamer F. Rabie -
"Animat vision: Active vision in
artificial animals" (1999) UofT ECE
- David L. Tonnesen
- "Dynamically coupled particle
systems for geometric modeling" (1998) UofT CS
- Radek
Grzeszczuk - "NeuroAnimator: Fast neural network
emulation and control of physics-based models" (1998) UofT CS
- Timothy J.
McInerney - "Topologically adaptable deformable
models for medical image analysis" (1997) UofT CS (NSERC
Postgraduate Scholar)
- Xiaoyuan Tu
* - "Artificial animals for computer animation:
Biomechanics, locomotion, perception, and behavior" (1996) UofT CS
- Hong Qin - "D-NURBS: Dynamic non-uniform rational
B-splines" (1995) UofT CS
- Luiz Velho - "Piecewise descriptions of implicit
surfaces and solids" (1994) UofT CS
- Dimitris
N. Metaxas - "Physics
based modeling of nonrigid objects for vision and graphics" (1992)
UofT CS
Graduated Master's Students
- Arrian Chi - "AlienGLRenderer: A simple 3D OpenGL renderer for simple scenes" (2024) UCLA CS
- Kashi de Leede - "A Unity Engine reimplementation of autonomous pedestrians with door and doorway etiquette" (2024) UCLA CS
- Zhi Li - "Embodied multi-agent systems in 3D environments" (2024) UCLA CS
- Oliver de Visser - "Applying machine learning to pick optimal fantasy premier league teams" (2024) UCLA CS
- Avalon Eleven Vinella - "Learning bipedal locomotion using central pattern generators and deep reinforcement learning" (2024) UCLA CS
- Richard Tang - "A front end for terrain diffusion generation" (2024) UCLA CS
- Wei Cui - "Real-time 3D visual effects in video streaming: A fragment shader and UDP socket approach" (2024) UCLA CS
- Thomas Scott - "Virtual Screen Extender: An app that streams desktop information for viewing with a mixed reality
headset" (2024) UCLA CS
- Joseph Cheng Lin - "Study of style transfer on MaskGIT with parameter-efficient fine-tuning methods" (2024) UCLA CS
- Xinyu Zhao - "Synergizing active learning with heterogeneous neural
networks for enhanced graph analysis" (2023) UCLA CS
- Nuocheng Pan - "Dimension-aligned adaptive projector: A zero-shot method for transferring fine-tuned weights to larger LLMs" (2023) UCLA CS
- Yijun Chen - "CellScanGuard: A precision battery collapse detection model" (2023) UCLA CS
- Arulsaravana Jeyaraj - "Algorithm for mathematical modeling of virtual microphone array" (2023) UCLA CS
- Penghai Wei - "GPU-driven rendering optimization" (2023) UCLA CS
- Tanmay Sanjay Hukkeri - "Boundary-aware SwinUNETR for medical image segmentation" (2023) UCLA CS
- Zhuoran Liao - "A mesh distance field alternative to representing 3D models for path tracing" (2023) UCLA CS
- Tingfeng Xia - "Eye area facial expression recognition with
self-attention-based convolutional neural networks" (2023) UCLA CS
- William R. Varcho - "Minimal distances in pentagonal tilings" (2023) UCLA CS
- Tianyi Xie - "A contact proxy splitting method for Lagrangian solid-fluid coupling" (2023) UCLA CS
- Chang Xu - "Repeat buyers prediction competition" (2023) UCLA CS
- Feiyang Chen - "Revisiting unsupervised deep-learning-based saliency
detection in biomedical images" (2022) UCLA CS
- Tomoyori Iwao - "A deep learning approach to facial 3D reconstruction and super-resolution rendering" (2022) UCLA CS
- Xiaoyang Yu - "Physical simulation of a dynamical fluid" (2022) UCLA CS
- Yingge He - "A low-bandwidth smart surveillance system" (2022) UCLA CS
- Daniel Ahn - "Mesh image manipulation" (2022) UCLA CS
- Dennis Van Ee - "Path guiding for direct environment light sampling" (2022) UCLA CS
- Daisy Haiting Zheng - "JellySim: Modeling, simulation, and control of artificial jellyfish" (2022) UCLA CS
- Candice Zhang - "An LSTM-based RNN model for stock pairs trading prediction" (2022) UCLA CS
- Noor Nakhaei - "Spatial matching of 2D mammography images and specimen radiographs" (2022) UCLA CS
- Taasin Saquib - "Visual tracking with spiking neural networks in an oculomotor controller for a biomimetic model of the eye" (2022) UCLA CS
- Wuyue Lu - "Surface reconstruction via cooperative evolutions" (2022) UCLA CS
- Adrien Hadj-Chaib - "Upgrading Tiny Graphics to WebGL 2.0 and modern rendering standards" (2021) UCLA CS
- Ximing Chen - "Random network distillation for avoiding procrastination in reinforcement learning based autonomous agents" (2021) UCLA CS
- Surya Dwarakanath - "Neuromuscular animation of the face-head-neck biomechanical complex and FACS-based expression transfer from video via deep learning" (2021) UCLA CS
- Xiuxian Xu - "Efficient, coarse point-cloud registration of small objects based on image matching" (2021) UCLA CS
- Yuhui Huang - "Stock price prediction using a deep neural network" (2021) UCLA CS
- Andrew Choi - "An implicit contact method for tying discrete elastic knots" (2021) UCLA CS
- Jihoon Kim - "Dressing a SMPLified model with digital 3D garments" (2021) UCLA CS
- Yang Guo - "A web and mobile application framework for deep learning based image segmentation of cell nuclei" (2020) UCLA CS
- Attiano Purpura-Pontoniere - "Lugnut identification using state of the art regional and fully convolutional neural networks" (2020) UCLA CS
- Ali Hatamizadeh - "An artificial intelligence framework for the automated segmentation and quantitative analysis of retinal vasculature" (2020) UCLA CS
- Arnav Garg - "Virtualization for computer clusters" (2020) UCLA CS
- Xiao Zeng - "Semi-supervised object recognition in the tensor framework" (2019) UCLA CS
- Debleena Sengupta - "Deep learning architectures for automated image segmentation" (2019) UCLA CS
- Yajun Shi - "Neuromuscular control of a biomechanical human model performing sit-to-stand actions" (2019) UCLA CS
- Di Ma - "Projecting political ideology into photographs"
(2019) UCLA CS
- Zhengyuan Liu - "Image patch data augmentation for retinal
vessel segmentation based on fully convolutional networks" (2019) UCLA
CS
- Arjun Lakshmipathy - "Biomimetic modeling of the eye and deep neuromuscular oculomotor control" (2018) UCLA CS
- Weichen (Reggie) Huang - "Skin lesion segmentation using
U-nets" (2018) UCLA CS
- Yutian Zhang - "Ship detection in aerial images using a
fine-tuned U-Net with a VGG16 encoder" (2018) UCLA CS
- Yingyue Qiu - "ONV2SEQ: Biomimetic perception learning for
sketch generation." (2018) UCLA CS
- Kevin Huynh - "Solving the problem of whole-language
simulation: A case study from Tongan loanword adaptation" (2018) UCLA
CS
- Xingjian Yan - "Fast and accurate self-supervised CNNs for
affine and deformable lung registration" (2018) UCLA CS
- Dan Fang - "MVFR: Multiple viewpoint face recognition" (2018)
UCLA CS
- Ziran Ling - "Deep learning for human biomechanical doodling" (2018)
UCLA CS
- Qi Qu - "See-Flower: Fine-grained flower image classification
using deep transfer learning" (2018) UCLA CS
- Taylor Caulfield - "YOLOTrainer: Automatic training set
creation with distance information and object tracking" (2018) UCLA
CS
- Luna X. Li - "Predicting mobile handovers using domain
knowledge independent models" (2018) UCLA CS
- Therese Horey - "An augmented reality android application
utilizing named data networking" (2018) UCLA CS
- Zhihao Wu - "Pulmonary nodule detection via 3D convnets in
Tensorflow" (2018) UCLA CS
- Pranav Sodhani - "Face recognition using space variant sensors"
(2017) UCLA CS
- Theresa Tong - "Evolution of prey and predator behavior in
a simulated environment" (2017) UCLA CS
- Tonislav Ivanov - "Early prediction of viable blastocysts
using automatically extracted embryo division timings" (2017) UCLA CS
(Nat Def Sci & Eng Fellow)
- Tianlin Chen - "The anxiety mitigator: Finding,
classifying, and presenting helpful web-based articles" (2017) UCLA
CS
- Praveen Sundar Govindarajan - "Learning-based AI for
autonomous combat games" (2016) UCLA CS
- Yuxi Zhang - "Simulation of an ecosystem involving predators
and prey" (2016) UCLA CS
- Brian Kim - "Virtual keyboard: An alternative to physical
keyboards with a touchless interface based on finger movements" (2016)
UCLA CS
- Huan-Sony Nguyen - "An implementation of ray tracing and path
tracing" (2016) UCLA CS
- Alan Ulfers Litteneker -
"Virtual cinematography
using optimization and temporal smoothing" (2016) UCLA CS
- Eric Kim - "A
part-based, multiresolution, tensorfaces approach to image-based
facial verification" (2016) UCLA CS
- Han Wang - "AcFR: Active face recognition using convolutional
neural networks" (2016) UCLA CS
- Tomer Weiss - "Optimizing the design of physical objects for
fabrication" (2016) UCLA CS
- Ziqiang Shi - "Creating low-poly art the easy way" (2016)
UCLA CS
- Ali Kouhzadi - "A comprehensive study of the seminal
Monte-Carlo-based image synthesis algorithms" (2016) UCLA CS
- Timothy David Chan - "A self-calibrating zoom stereo
system" (2015) UCLA CS
- Sunny Suthar - "Crowd-sourced 3D reconstruction using
uncalibrated stereo correspondence" (2015) UCLA CS
- Zhinan Xu * - "Stereo visual odometry with
windowed bundle adjustment" (2015) UCLA CS
- Daniel Roshan Doolabh - "An object-oriented approach to
Lindenmayer systems using recursion" (2015) UCLA CS
- Justin Allan Bass - "DNA sequence alignment non-gap penalties
and gains" (2015) UCLA CS
- Nicholas Brett Marcott - "Digit detection using adaptive spline
models" (2015) UCLA CS
- Tianyuan Qin - "Dynamic destruction of geometry using
Voronoi-based fracture patterns" (2015) UCLA CS
- Jorge Ivan Munoz - "An autonomous motor-based biomechanical
model of a salamander" (2014) UCLA CS
- Dhavalkumar Suthar - "Simulating ants: Behavior modeling and
pheromone-based communication" (2014) UCLA CS
- Xiaolong Jiang - "Kinematic modeling and simulation for human
reaching behaviors" (2014) UCLA CS
- Andre Abrahamian - "Shallow water simulation for swimming
creatures" (2014) UCLA CS
- Jing Li - "Realistic water and complex scene rendering" (2014)
UCLA EE
- Vanna Bushong - "Facial feature detection for automatic head
modeling" (2013) UCLA CS
- Ming Gao - "FEM simulation of 3D deformable solids and
collision handling" (2013) UCLA CS
- Xinli Cai - "The development of VSIM: Triggering embedded
resources and new features for 3D content management" (2013) UCLA CS
- Alexander Rickett - "Position based cloth simulation" (2013)
UCLA CS
- Ali Gunes - "An implementation of separate human eye blink
detection in real time using online templates" (2013) UCLA CS
- Kevin Broom - "Real-time two-dimensional fluid dynamics using
the CPU" (2013) UCLA CS
- Matthew Wang - "Vision evolution: Adapting body and brain in a
competitive virtual environment" (2012) UCLA CS
- Konstantinos Sideris - "Parallelized Incomplete Poisson
Preconditioned Cloth Simulation" (2012) UCLA CS
- Alexander Lee - "Shopping mall site plan generation using
simulated annealing" (2012) UCLA CS
- Jason Au - "An L-system evolutionary algorithm for motion
synthesis" (2012) UCLA CS
- Damian Ancukiewicz - "GPU implementation of an
exemplar-based image inpainting algorithm" (2012) UCLA CS
- Joyce Kuo - "Making a splash: Rendering realistic water
splashes in a swimming pool" (2012) UCLA CS
- Miri Kim - "Generating door opening and entering motions for
virtual humans" (2012) UCLA CS
- Palash Agrawal - "Internet services for collaborative data
sharing (ISCDS)" (2012) UCLA CS
- Wilson Yan - "Biomechanical
simulation of the human hand and forearm" (2012) UCLA CS
- Chenfanfu Jiang - "Simulation of elastic solids with efficient
self-collision handling" (2012) UCLA CS
- Ankit Arora -
"Data-driven locomotion of
virtual humans in the unity game development tool" (2011) UCLA
CS
- Jasleen Singh - "A
framework for non-photorealistic 2D animation" (2011) UCLA CS
- Michael Au-Yeung - "Real-time photometric stereo using a
computer screen" (2011) UCLA CS
- Xiao Lei - "Multi-layer construction of KD-trees for dynamic
ray tracing" (2011) UCLA CS
- Gautam Prasad - "Segmentation of brain MR images
using a PCA atlas and nonrigid registration" (2010) UCLA CS
- Krešimir Petrinec - "Ultrasound trainer: Data acquisition,
volume reconstruction, simulation and visualization" (2010) UCLA CS
- Thomas Wolfley -
"Genetic programming for image
compression" (2010) UCLA CS
- Kangwon Lee - "The simulation of swarm behavior in ant
colonies" (2009) UCLA CS
- Michelle Fang - "Playing animation under time and space
constraints in a virtual world" (2009) UCLA CS
- Sean Thompson - "Interactive image-source techniques for
virtual acoustics" (2002) UofT CS (NSERC Postgraduate Scholar)
- Howard Zhang - "Physics-based muscle effects for real-time
character animation" (2002) UofT CS
- Grigore Pintilie
- "Interactive cutting of surface meshes for computer-aided surgical
planning" (2001) UofT CS (NSERC Postgraduate Scholar)
- Stewart
Andrews - "Interactive generation of feature curves on
surfaces: A minimal path approach" (2000) UofT CS
- Faisal
Z. Qureshi - "Constructing anatomically accurate
face models using computed tomography and cyberware data" (2000)
UofT CS
- Qinxin Yu -
"Synthetic motion capture for real-time virtual worlds" (1998) UofT CS
(NSERC Postgraduate Scholar)
- Petros Faloutsos -
"Physics-based animation and
control of flexible characters" (1995) UofT CS
- Radek
Grzeszczuk - "Automatic learning of muscle-based
locomotion through control abstraction" (1994) UofT CS
- Yuencheng Lee - "Construction and animation of functional
facial models from range/reflectance data" (1993) UofT CS
- M. Alex O. Vasilescu - "Dynamic adaptive meshes for visual
reconstruction" (1993) MIT EECS
- Timothy J.
McInerney - "Finite element techniques for fitting deformable
models to 3D data" (1992) UofT CS (NSERC Postgraduate Scholar)
Graduated Bachelor's (Thesis) Students
- Emily Whiting
- "Realism in 3D virtual spaces: Improving texture quality ... through
application of HDR imagery" (2004) UofT Eng. Sci.
- Desmond Rivet - "Human animats and active vision systems in
realistic 3D virtual worlds" (2001) UofT Eng. Sci.
- Daniel Horner - "A practical framework for the extraction and
visualization of slices from volumentric data" (1998) UofT Eng.
Sci.
- Charlton Wang - "Implementation of the live wire technique for
the segmentation of medical images" (1998) UofT Eng. Sci.
- Kristin Hofstee - "Simulation of diffusion in 3D virtual
worlds" (1997) UofT Eng. Sci.
- Oliver Bengtsson - "Computational biological model of the
physiology and behavior of aquatic animals" (1995) UofT Eng. Sci.
Former Postdoctoral Scholars, Fellows, and Research Scientists
- Masaki Nakada - Posdoctoral Scholar (2018–19) UCLA CS
- Xiaowei Ding - Research Scientist (2016–18) UCLA CS
- Theodore F. Gast - Postdoctoral Scholar (2017–18) UCLA Math/CS
- Chenfanfu Jiang - Postdoctoral Scholar (2015–17) UCLA CS/Math
- Antonio Roque - CIA Postdoctoral Fellow, Research Scientist (2010–12) UCLA CS
- M. Alex O.
Vasilescu - Research Scientist (2009–13) UCLA CS
(2001–05) NYU CS
- Eftychios
Sifakis - Postdoctoral Scholar (2007–10) UCLA
CS/Math
- Sung-Hee
Lee - Postdoctoral Scholar (2008–09) UCLA CS
- Jinho Park -
Korea Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow (2008–09) UCLA
CS
- Tatsuo
Yotsukura - Postdoctoral Scholar (2006–07) UCLA CS
- Jinwook Kim - Postdoctoral Fellow
(2005–06) UCLA CS, NYU CS
- Mauricio Plaza-Villegas - Research Scientist (2003–04)
NYU CS
- Jared M. Silver -
Research Scientist (2003–04) NYU CS
- Yuencheng Lee - Research Scientist (2001–03) NYU CS
- Ghassan Hamarneh
- Research Scholar (2000–01) UofT CS
- Michel Pitermann - Postdoctoral Scholar (1998–00) UofT CS
& Queens U
- Jacques-Olivier
Lachaud - Lavoisier Fellow (1998–99) UofT CS
- Tamer
F. Rabie - Postdoctoral Scholar (1999–99) UofT CS
- Jianming Liang
- Research Scholar (1998–99) UofT CS
- Timothy J.
McInerney - NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow (1998–99) UofT
CS
- Jorge C. Lucero -
Postdoctoral Scholar (1996–97) UofT CS & Queens U
- Paul
Fieguth - NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow (1996–96) UofT
CS
Demetri Terzopoulos