education
PhD in computer science, ETH Zurich
MSc in computer science, Universität Karlsruhe (TH)
student exchange, ENSIMAG
positions
Director, USC Institute for Creative Technologies
CEO & co-founder, Pinscreen
assistant professor, University of Southern California
visiting professor, Weta Digital
research lead, Industrial Light & Magic
postdoctoral fellow, Columbia University
visiting postdoctoral researcher, Princeton University
visiting and postdoctoral researcher, EPFL
research intern, Industrial Light & Magic
visiting researcher, Stanford University
research assistant, ETH Zurich
visiting scholar, National University of Singapore
interests
human digitization - facial animation - hair modeling - 3D scanning - performance capture - non-rigid registration - data-driven techniques - deep learning - geometry processing - virtual and augmented reality
2006 - 2010
2001 - 2006 2002 - 2003
since 2016
since 2015
since 2013
2014
2012
2011
2011
2010
2009
2008
2006
2006
Copyright © 2018 Hao Li
What up yo! This is Hao, I’m a German born punky of Taiwanese descent doing computer graphics. I know, #epicfail. But I’m also a tenure-track assistant professor, fashion mödel, and zombie at the Computer Science Department of the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, CEO of Pinscreen, a well-funded startup bringing AR to mobile communication, as well as the director of the vision and graphics lab of the USC Institute for Creative Technologies. Here is our USC website and my official song! Before my faculty appointment, I was a research lead at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) where I developed the next generation real-time performance capture technology for visual effects. Prior to joining the force, I spent an exciting year as a postdoc at Columbia and Princeton Universities. I worked on geometric capture of human performances with Eitan Grinspun and Szymon Rusinkiewicz who helped me bridge the gap between data capture and physical simulation. Right after obtaining my PhD from ETH Zurich, I spent a few months at EPFL, visiting my PhD advisor Mark Pauly. During grad school, I spent a wonderful summer at ILM and another one at Stanford University visiting Leo Guibas. I got my Master’s degree in CS from the University of Karlsruhe in Germany and went to a French high school in a boonie town called Saarbrücken.
My algorithms on dynamic shape reconstruction and non-rigid registration are widely deployed in the industry, ranging from leading visual effects studios to defense projects and manufacturers of state-of-the-art radiation therapy systems. My work on depth sensor-driven facial animation has also led to the Animoji feature on Apple’s iPhone X. Hey, some of my stuff even works in industry! I received the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Award in 2018, Google Faculty Research Award, the Okawa Foundation Research Grant, and the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Early Career Chair in 2015. I’ve been named one of the world’s top 35 innovator under 35 by MIT Technology review in 2013 and NextGen 10: Innovators under 40 by C-Suite Quaterly in 2014. I am ranked #1 in 2016, on the Top 10 Leaderboard of Computer Graphics research for the past five years by Microsoft Academic. My research is also featured in the March 2014 issue of Wired magazine. I was awarded the SNF fellowship for prospective researchers in 2011 and Best Paper Award at SCA 2009. Our 3D hair scanning technology is deployed at Weta Digital, where I also worked on the 3D facial tracking for animating the digital Paul Walker in Furious 7. Oh! That gives me an Erdös-Bacon number of 5. In collaboration with Artec Group, we developed Shapify.me, a free software that allows anyone to create their own 3D miniature from home. I’m also the creator of the dynamic geometry processing tool, BeNTO3D, and the original co-author of the Kinect-based facial performance capture software, faceshift (acquired by Apple). Together with Oculus & Facebook, we prototyped the world’s first facial performance sensing virtual reality HMD to enable social interactions in cyberspace. Here is my interview on this technology from Oculus Connect 2. I’m co-curator for virtual and augmented reality at the World Economic Forum (WEF) and member of ACM SIGGRAPH, the Eurographics Association, the National Academy of Inventors, and the World Future Society (WFS). I have absolutely no clue why that even matters, but who cares? Oh, and I’m also sometimes on TV (CBS News, ABC News, Das Erste ARD, ABC Australia), in the NY Times, in the LA Times (2015, 2018), and PC Mag! Ahahahaha!
Facebook / Oculus VR - Industrial Light & Magic - Weta Digital - Disney Research - Artec Group - Pelican Imaging - Activision - Innored - 3Gear Systems - 8i - Tuxedo Agency - Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems - C-RAD - Aguru Images - XYZ RGB - Marza Animation Planet - Manhattan Mocap - L Squared Capital Partners - Embodee - Huawei - LEIA
con$ulting
“What the fuck have you guys smoked to come up with that shit? It’s fucking brilliant! It’s kinda weird too, I actually had a role in a film called Face/Off...”
– Nick Cassavetes on our Face/Off live facial puppetry technology.
“Creativity, not money is used to solve problems.”
“I love your hair!”
– Duncan Jones on my hair style.
“Adversity is my comfort zone.”
Assistant Professor of Computer Science
University of Southern California
awards
ONR YIP, Young Investigator Award
USC Stevens Commercialization Award
Microsoft Academic Top 10 in Graphics Research (Rank #1)
Andrew and Erna Viterbi Early Career Chair
Okawa Foundation Research Grant
C-Suite Quaterly NextGen 10: Innovators under 40
TR35, top 35 innovator under 35 by MIT Technology Review
SNF fellowship for prospective researcher
SCA best paper award 2009
2018
2017
2016
2015
2015
2015
2015
2014
2013
2011
2009
Liwen Hu, PhD student (MSc in 2013)
Kyle Olszewski, PhD student
Shunsuke Saito, PhD student
Tianye Li, PhD student
Zimo Li, PhD student
Zeng Huang, PhD student
Yi Zhou, PhD student
Sitao Xiang, PhD student (Yao Class)
Kyle Morgenroth, PhD Student
Pengda Xiang, PhD Student (Yao Class)
Haiwei Chen, PhD Student
Shichen Liu, PhD Student
Natalie Monger, BSc student
2014
2014
2015
2016
2016
2016
2016
2016
2018
2018
2018
2018
2016
teaching
FS 2018
SS 2018
FS 2017
SS 2017
FS 2015
SS 2015
FS 2014
SS 2014
service
team USC
SCA IMGD / CSGames Faculty Search Committee
CS Department PhD Admissions Committee
Annual Faculty Merit Review Committee
CS Department PhD Admissions Committee
CS Department Faculty Search Committee
CS Department PhD Admissions Committee
CS Department Faculty Search Committee
CS Department Transformative Committee
Co-Chair of CS Department Colloquium Committee
SS 2018
FS 2017
SS 2017
FS 2016
FS 2015
FS 2015
FS 2014
FS 2013
FS 2013
film credits
2017
2017
2015
2014
2014
2014
2013
2013
2013
2012
funding+gift
SRC / DARPA - IARPA - Office of Naval Research - Army Research Office - Facebook / Oculus VR - Google - Adobe - Nvidia - Intel - Embodee - Pelican Imaging - Sony - Huawei - Panasonic - USC IMSC - Okawa Foundation - United States SHARP Academy - RL Leaders - SOOVII - USC Shoah Foundation Institute
board
Tekcapital, Scientific Advisory Board
CVMP, Scientific Advisory Board
Pinscreen, Board of Director
Pelican Imaging, Technical Advisory Board
Artec Group, Principal Scientific Advisor
2017
2017
2015
2014
2011
Engadget, Wired, Vice, and Ars Technica
alumni
Lingyu “Cosimo” Wei, Pinscreen Inc. (PhD student in 2014)
Andrew Jones, Raxium Inc. (sr. research assoc. in 2016)
Ronald Yu, Stanford University (MSc student in 2016)
Chongyang Ma, Snap Inc. (postdoc in 2013)
2018
2018
2017
2014
and fx guide
visitors
Justin Solomon, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Qixing Huang, UT Austin
Sema Berkiten, Princeton University
Javier Romero, Max Planck Institute Tübingen
2014
2014
2015
2015
professional activities
Co-Curator: World Economic Forum (WEF)
Associate Editor: Computer Graphics Forum
Co-Organizer: 1st CONIX Mixed Reality Workshop 2018
Program Committee: ACM SIGGRAPH - ACM SIGGRAPH Asia - CVPR - Eurographics - SCA - SGP - 3DV - Pacific Graphics - NORDIA - CAD&CG - CASA -Shape Modeling International
Chair: ACM SIGGRAPH Session Chair - 3DV Area Chair
Reviewer: all top conferences/journals in graphics and vision
CEO & Co-Founder
Pinscreen, Inc.
Director of the Vision and Graphics Lab
USC Institute for Creative Technologies
Or simply: hao.li
University of Southern California
Department of Computer Science
941 Bloom Walk, SAL 244
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0781
faces & VR -
SIGGRAPH Asia 2016
team ICT
Kathleen Haase, producer
Yajie Zhao, postdoc
Jun Xing, postdoc
Weikai Chen, postdoc
Loc Huynh, PhD student
Kalle Bladin, research engineer
Pratusha Prasad, research engineer
Bipin Kishore, hardware engineer
Xinglei Ren, hardware engineer
Marcel Ramos, artist in residence
Christina Trejo, project coordinator
2016
2017
2017
2017
2017
2017
2017
2016
2017
2017
2016
featured in fx guide, Gizmodo, Daily Mail, 3ders, and Wired
featured in Wired, vfxblog, and 4Gamer
