education

PhD in computer science, ETH Zurich

MSc in computer science, Universität Karlsruhe (TH)

student exchange, ENSIMAG

positions

CEO & Co-Founder, Pinscreen

Associate Professor, MBZUAI

Distinguished Fellow, University of California, Berkeley

Associate Professor, University of Southern California

Director, USC Institute for Creative Technologies

Visiting Professor, Weta Digital

Assistant Professor, University of Southern California

Research Lead, Industrial Light & Magic

Postdoctoral Fellow, Columbia University

Visiting Postdoctoral Researcher, Princeton University

Visiting Postdoctoral Researcher, EPFL

Research Intern, Industrial Light & Magic

Visiting Researcher, Stanford University

Research Assistant, ETH Zurich

Visiting Scholar, National University of Singapore

interests

virtual avatars - human digitization - facial animation - hair modeling - 3D scanning - performance capture - non-rigid registration - motion synthesis - geometry processing - virtual and augmented reality - metaverse - neural rendering - NeRF - deepfakes - deep learning - AI

2006 - 2010

2001 - 2006 2002 - 2003

since 2015

since 2022

2020 - 2022

2019 - 2020

2016 - 2020

2014

2013 - 2019

2012 - 2013

2011 - 2012

2011 - 2012

2010 - 2010

2009

2008

2006 - 2010

2006

Copyright © 2022 Hao Li

What up yo! This is Hao, I’m a German born punky of Taiwanese descent doing computer graphics. I know, #epicfail. I’m also the CEO of Pinscreen, a Los Angeles-based startup that builds the world’s most advanced AI-driven virtual avatars, as well as an Associate Professor of Computer Vision (tenured) at the Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI), in Abu Dhabi (UAE). Before that, I was a Distinguished Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, an Associate Professor (tenured) at the Computer Science Department of the University of Southern California (USC), as well as the director of the Vision and Graphics Lab of the USC Institute for Creative Technologies. Here is my official song! Prior to being a faculty, I was a research lead at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) where I developed the next generation real-time performance capture technology for visual effects and before I joined 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. In 2019, I have been named to the DARPA ISAT Study Group. My research is also featured in the March 2014 issue of Wired magazine and in MIT Technology Review in 2019. Here are some tips on how to write SIGGRAPH papers. 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. My work has been selected 8 times for SIGGRAPH Real-Time Live! (SIGGRAPH 2014, SIGGRAPH 2017, SIGGRAPH 2018, SIGGRAPH Asia 2018, SIGGRAPH 2019, SIGGRAPH Asia 2019 and twice at SIGGRAPH 2020, where we won the “Best in Show” award). The show celebrates the top jury-reviewed interactive novelties of the year. I’m member of the global future councils and co-curator for transformation maps 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, I’m also sometimes on TV shows (CBSN, ABC News, Buzzfeed’s Follow This, CBC’s The Fifth Estate, Takeshi Kitano’s Sekai Marumie TV) in the News (BBC, CNNBloomberg, Fox News, CNBC, Spectrum News, Fox 11 News, PBS Newshour, CNET, CBS News, ABC News, i24NEWS, AP News, CNN, CCTV, Das Erste ARD, ZDF Heute, Canal+, Nippon TV, ABC Australia, Al Jazeera), on radio (Science Friday) in the NY Times, the LA Times (2015, 2018), Forbes, the Washington Post, Scientific American, MIT Technology Review, The Verge, PC Mag, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, and fxguide! 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 - Munger, Tolles & Olson

con$ulting

“Do you like being Professor? When you’re tired of it, just quit, and do something big.”

Michael Bay at a pool party in LA.


“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.”

Robert Rodriguez


“I love your hair!”

Duncan Jones on my hair style.


“Adversity is my comfort zone.”

Chris Bregler

awards

2021

2021

2020

2020

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2015

2015

2015

2014

2013

2011

2009

teaching

SS 2019

FS 2018

SS 2018

FS 2017

SS 2017

FS 2015

SS 2015

FS 2014

SS 2014

service

ICT MxR Director Search Committee

SCA IMGD / CSGames Faculty Tenure Committee

CS Department PhD Admissions Committee

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

FS 2018

FS 2018

FS 2018

SS 2018

FS 2017

SS 2017

FS 2016

FS 2015

FS 2015

FS 2014

FS 2013

FS 2013

film credits

2021

2021

2021

2021

2020

2020

2020

2019

2018

2018

2017

2017

2015

2014

2014

2014

2013

2013

2013

2012

funding+gift

DARPA - IARPA - Office of Naval Research - Army Research Office - SRC - Softbank - Snap - 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

alumni

Kyle Olszewski, Snap (PhD student in 2015)

Zeng Huang, Snap (PhD student in 2016)

Yi Zhou, Adobe (PhD student in 2016)

Shunsuke Saito, Facebook (PhD student in 2015)

Weikai Chen, Tencent America (research associate in 2017)

Liwen Hu, Pinscreen Inc. (MSc in 2013, PhD student in 2014)

Jun Xing, miHoYo (postdoc in 2017)

Lingyu “Cosimo” Wei, Pinscreen Inc. (PhD student in 2014)

Andrew Jones, Raxium Inc. (sr. research assoc. in 2016)

Natalie Monger, Skydance Animation (BSc student in 2016)

Ronald Yu, UCSD (MSc student in 2016)

Chongyang Ma, Kwai (postdoc in 2013)

2020

2020

2020

2020

2019

2019

2019

2018

2018

2017

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 and GFC Member: World Economic Forum (WEF)

Associate Editor: Computer Graphics Forum

Organizer: 1st CONIX Mixed Reality Workshop 2018, ACM SIGGRAPH Asia 2019 Frontiers Workshop

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

Testimony: senate committee of the 66th Washington State Legislature SB 6513

Email:

Home page: www.hao-li.com

Facebook: li.hao

Pinscreen

team

Frances Chen, CFO

Lingyu “Cosimo” Wei, CTO (Yao Class)

Liwen Hu, VP of R&D

Lain Goldwhite, Sr. Software Engineer

Zejian Wang, Sr. Research Engineer

Huiwen Luo, Sr. Research Scientist

Andy Spielberg, Sr. Research Scientist

Aviral Agarwal, Senior Technical Artist

Zimo Li, Research Scientist

Lok Kuang, Concept Artist

Anda Deng, Digital Artist

Caleb Arthur, Digital Artist

Brandon White, Animator

David Rodriguez, Animator

CNN

Twitter: HaoLi81

LinkedIn: lihao

Instagram: haoli81

CEO & Co-Founder

Pinscreen, Inc.

Associate Professor

MBZUAI