Colloquia / Seminars / Industry Talks

Our world is composed of various materials with rich appearance: for example, plastic exhibits a specular highlight under a spot light, and brushed metal has complex anisotropic reflection patterns. Efficient processing of material appearance is crucial for adding realism to feature films and computer games, and for designing physical materials of desired appearance, such as car paint. However, two major challenges limit the applications of digital material appearance: the complexity of high-dimensional general appearance data, and the lack of an intuitive design interface. In this talk, I will introduce my past and on-going research projects for addressing these fundamental challenges. Specifically, I will focus on efficient modeling, rendering, editing and fabricating of general material appearance.

Hongzhi Wu is a Ph.D. candidate in Computer Graphics Group, Department of Computer Science, Yale University. His research focuses on the development of fundamental algorithms for efficiently processing material appearance. He is also interested in real-time / photo-realistic rendering. Hongzhi has maintained a good collaborative relationship with the industry, including PSA Peugeot Citroen and RTT AG. Prior to attending Yale, he was a visiting student in Internet Graphics Group, Microsoft Research Asia. He was born in Shanghai, China and received his B.Sc. from Fudan University. More detailed information can be found from his homepage: http://graphics.cs.yale.edu/hongzhi/