Kui Wu 武奎

Principal Researcher

LightSpeed Studios, Tencent America

Ph.D., University of Utah

Email: walker dot kui dot wu at gmail dot com

Google Scholar

About me

I'm a principal research scientist in LightSpeed Studios, Tencent America. Previously, I was a postdoctoral associate in the Computational Design & Fabrication Group under the guidance of Prof. Wojciech Matusik at MIT CSAIL. I received my PhD degree in Computer Science from University of Utah in 2019, advised by Prof. Cem Yuksel. My research interests are computer graphics, especially on mesh processing, knitting, real-time rendering, and physical-based simulation.

I received 2019 University of Utah SoC Outstanding Dissertation Award and 2023 Symposium on Computer Animation (SCA) Early Career Researcher Award.

* If you are interested in doing a research internship at Tencent Games
in US and China, please drop me an e-mail with your CV
and a short summary of your research interests.

Knitted Bunny with Siggraph Logo


Publications

(* indicates equal contributions)

2024

Volumetric Homogenization for Knitwear Simulation
Chun Yuan*, Haoyang Shi*, Lei Lan, Yuxing Qiu, Cem Yuksel, Huamin Wang, Chenfanfu Jiang, Kui Wu, Yin Yang
ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proceedings of SIGGRAPH Asia 2024)
[Paper][Video]

Real-time Physically Guided Hair Interpolation
Jerry Hsu, Tongtong Wang, Zherong Pan, Xifeng Gao, Cem Yuksel, Kui Wu
ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 2024)
[Project Website]

Proxy Asset Generation for Cloth Simulation in Games
Zhongtian Zheng, Tongtong Wang, Qijia Feng, Zherong Pan, Xifeng Gao, Kui Wu
ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 2024)
[Project Website]

Kinetic Simulation of Turbulent Multifluid Flows
Wei Li, Kui Wu, Mathieu Desbrun
ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 2024)
[Project Website]

Adaptive Tactile Interaction Transfer via Digitally Embroidered Smart Gloves
Yiyue Luo, Chao Liu, Young Joong Lee, Joseph DelPreto, Kui Wu, Michael Foshey, Daniela Rus, Tomas Palacios, Yunzhu Li, Antonio Torralba, Wojciech Matusik
Nature Communications, 2024
[Paper]

Visual-Preserving Mesh Repair
Zhongtian Zheng, Xifeng Gao, Zherong Pan, Wei Li, Peng-Shuai Wang,
Guoping Wang, Kui Wu
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG), 2024
[Project Website]

Learning Reduced Fluid Dynamics
Zherong Pan, Xifeng Gao, Kui Wu
AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-24)
[Paper]

Provably Feasible Semi-Infinite Program Under Collision Constraints via Subdivision
Duo Zhang, Chen Liang, Xifeng Gao, Kui Wu, Zherong Pan
IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO), 2024
[Paper]

Second-Order Convergent Collision-Constrained Optimization-Based Planner
Chen Liang, Xifeng Gao, Kui Wu, Zherong Pan
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), 2024
[Paper]

Learning Neural Traffic Rules
Xuan Zhang, Xifeng Gao, Kui Wu, Zherong Pan
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), 2024
[Paper]

2023

Real-time Height-field Simulation of Sand and Water Mixtures
Haozhe Su, Siyu Zhang, Zherong Pan, Mridul Aanjaneya, Xifeng Gao, Kui Wu
SIGGRAPH Asia 2023 (Conference Track)
[Project Website]

High-Order Moment-Encoded Kinetic Simulation of Turbulent Flows
Wei Li, Tongtong Wang, Zherong Pan, Xifeng Gao, Kui Wu, Mathieu Desbrun
ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proceedings of SIGGRAPH Asia 2023)
[Project Website]

Texture Atlas Compression Based on Repeated Content Removal
Yuzhe Luo, Xiaogang Jin, Zherong Pan, Kui Wu, Qilong Kou, Xiajun Yang, Xifeng Gao
SIGGRAPH Asia 2023 (Conference Track)
[Project Website]

Learning based 2D Irregular Shape Packing
Zeshi Yang, Zherong Pan, Manyi Li, Kui Wu, Xifeng Gao
ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proceedings of SIGGRAPH Asia 2023)
[Paper]

Joint UV Optimization and Texture Baking
Julian Knodt, Zherong Pan, Kui Wu, Xifeng Gao
ACM Transactions on Graphics (To be presented at SIGGRAPH Asia 2023)
[Paper]

Learning Reduced-Order Soft Robot Controller
Chen Liang, Xifeng Gao, Kui Wu, Zherong Pan
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2023)
[Paper]

MagKnitic: Machine-knitted Passive and Interactive Haptics Textiles with Integrated Binary Sensing
Yiyue Luo, Junyi Zhu, Kui Wu, Cedric Honnet, Stefanie Mueller, Wojciech Matusik
ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST 2023)
[Project Website]

Sag-Free Initialization for Strand-Based Hybrid Hair Simulation
Jerry Hsu, Tongtong Wang, Zherong Pan, Xifeng Gao, Cem Yuksel, Kui Wu
ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 2023)
Best Siggraph Technical Paper Award, Honorable Mention
[Project Website]

Robust Low-Poly Meshing for General 3D Models,
Zhen Chen, Zherong Pan, Kui Wu, Etienne Vouga, Xifeng Gao,
ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 2023)
[Project Website]

Differentiable Learning of Scalable Multi-Agent Navigation Policies
Xiaohan Ye, Zherong Pan, Xifeng Gao, Kui Wu, Bo Ren
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), 2023
[Paper]

First-Order Topology Optimization via Inexact Finite Element Analysis
Zherong Pan, Xifeng Gao, Kui Wu
Computer-Aided Design (CAD), 2023
[Link]

2022

Environment Warped Gait Trajectory Optimization for Complex Terrains
Zherong Pan, Tan Chen, Xianzhong Fang, Timothy Bretl, Xifeng Gao, Kui Wu
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), 2022
[Paper]

Fluidic Topology Optimization with an Anisotropic Mixture Model
Yifei Li, Tao Du, Sangeetha Grama Srinivasan, Kui Wu, Bo Zhu, Eftychios Sifakis, Wojciech Matusik
ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proceedings of SIGGRAPH Asia 2022)
[Project Website]

Occluder Generation for Buildings in Digital Games
Kui Wu, Xu He, Zherong Pan, Xifeng Gao
Computer Graphics Forum (Proceedings of Pacific Graphics 2022)
[Paper] [Video]

Low-poly Mesh Generation for Building Models
Xifeng Gao, Kui Wu, Zherong Pan
SIGGRAPH 2022 (Conference Track)
[Project Website]

A General Two-Stage Initialization for Sag-Free Deformable Simulations
Jerry Hsu, Nghia Truong, Cem Yuksel, Kui Wu
ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 2022)
[Project Website]

DiffCloth: Differentiable Cloth Simulation with Dry Frictional Contact
Yifei Li, Tao Du, Kui Wu, Jie Xu, Wojciech Matusik
ACM Transactions on Graphics (Presented at SIGGRAPH 2022)
[Project Website]

DiffPD: Differentiable Projective Dynamics
Tao Du, Kui Wu, Pingchuan Ma, Sebastien Wah, Andrew Spielberg, Daniela Rus, Wojciech Matusik
ACM Transactions on Graphics (Presented at SIGGRAPH 2022)
[Project Website]

Digital Fabrication of Pneumatic Actuators with Integrated Sensing by Machine Knitting
Yiyue Luo, Kui Wu, Andrew Spielberg, Michael Foshey, Tomas Palacios, Daniela Rus, Wojciech Matusik
SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2022), 2022
[Project Website]

An Integrated Design Pipeline for Tactile Sensing Robotic Manipulators
Lara Zlokapa, Yiyue Luo, Jie Xu, Michael Foshey, Kui Wu, Pulkit Agrawal, and Wojciech Matusik
IEEE Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2022)
[Project Website]

2021

Knit Sketching: from Cut & Sew Patterns to Machine-Knit Garments
Alexandre Kaspar, Kui Wu, Yiyue Luo, Liane Makatura, Wojciech Matusik
ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 2021)
[Project Website]

DiffAqua: A Differentiable Computational Design Pipeline for Soft Underwater Swimmers with Shape Interpolation
Pingchuan Ma, Tao Du, John Z. Zhang, Kui Wu, Andrew Spielberg, Robert Katzschmann, Wojciech Matusik
ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 2021)
[Project Website]

KnitUI: Fabricating Interactive and Sensing Textiles with Machine Knitting
Yiyue Luo*, Kui Wu*, Tomas Palacios, Wojciech Matusik
SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2021)
Best Paper Honorable Mention Award
[Project Website]

Learning Human-environment Interactions using 3D Conformal Functional Textiles
Yiyue Luo, Yunzhu Li, Pratyusha Sharma, Wan Shou, Kui Wu, Mike Foshey, Beichen Li, Tomas Palacios, Antonio Torralba, Wojciech Matusik
Nature Electronics, 2021
Selected as Nature Electronics, Volume 4 Issue 3 (March 2021) Cover Image [Link]
[Project Website] [Paper (external link)]

Wearable 3D Machine Knitting
Kui Wu, Marco Tarini, Cem Yuksel, Jim McCann, Xifeng Gao
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG), 2021
Presented at SGP 2021
[Project Website]

2020

Functional Optimization of Fluidic Devices with Differentiable Stokes Flow
Tao Du, Kui Wu, Andrew Spielberg, Wojciech Matusik, Bo Zhu, Eftychios Sifakis
ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proceedings of SIGGRAPH ASIA 2020)
[Project Website]

Earlier

Modeling, Rendering, and Simulating Knits
Kui Wu
Ph.D. Thesis, University of Utah, August 2019
University of Utah SoC Outstanding Dissertation Award
[PDF(106.7Mb)]

Visual Knitting Machine Programming
Vidya Narayanan*, Kui Wu*, Cem Yuksel, Jim McCann
ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 2019)
[Paper][Video][Project Website]

Knittable Stitch Meshes
Kui Wu, Hannah Swan, Cem Yuksel
ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG), 2019
(Presented at SIGGRAPH 2019)
[Project Website]

GPU Optimization of Material Point Methods
Ming Gao*, Xinlei Wang*, Kui Wu*, Andre Pradhana, Eftychios Sifakis, Cem Yuksel, Chenfanfu Jiang
ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proceedings of SIGGRAPH ASIA 2018)
[Paper] [Tech doc] [Video] [Code] [CUDA 3x3 SVD Code]

Stitch Meshing
Kui Wu, Xifeng Gao, Zachary Ferguson, Daniele Panozzo, Cem Yuksel
ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 2018)
[Project Website]

Fast Fluid Simulations with Sparse Volumes on the GPU
Kui Wu, Nghia Truong, Cem Yuksel, Rama Hoetzlein
Computer Graphics Forum (Proceedings of EUROGRAPHICS 2018)
[Project Website]

Real-time Cloth Rendering with Fiber-level Detail
Kui Wu, Cem Yuksel
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG), 2017
[Project Website]

Real-time Fiber-level Cloth Rendering
Kui Wu, Cem Yuksel
ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics and Games (I3D 2017)
The 3rd Best Paper Award
The 2nd Best Presentation Award
[Project Website]

Direct Multifield Volume Ray Casting of Fiber Surfaces
Kui Wu, Aaron Knoll, Benjamin Isaac, Hamish Carr, Valerio Pascucci
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (VIS 2016)
Also presented in TVCG Session on Advances in Data Visualization in SIGGRAPH 2017
[Project Website]

Real-time Hair Simulation
Kui Wu, Cem Yuksel
ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics and Games (I3D 2016)
[Project Website
]

Talks


Open-World Water Rendering and Real-Time Simulation
Zhenyu Mao, Kui Wu
Game Developers Conference (GDC), 2023

Efficient Hybrid Eulerian-Lagrangian Simulation on the GPU
Kui Wu
GPU Technology Conference (GTC), 2019

Service


Program committee: Siggraph Asia 24, EG 25, PG 23-24, SCA 23-24, I3D 24, SGP 24


Awards


2023 SCA Early Career Researcher Award, at SCA 2023

2023 Best Technical Paper Award, Honorable Mention, at SIGGRAPH 2023

2021 Best Paper Award, Honorable Mention, at CHI 2021

2020 SoC Outstanding Dissertation Award, University of Utah

2018 Graduate Research Fellowship, University of Utah

2017 Best Paper Award (3rd place), at I3D 2017

2017 Best Presentation Award (2nd place), at I3D 2017

2014 University Fellowship, University of Utah