Kui Wu

Kui Wu 武奎

Principal Researcher

LIGHTSPEED, 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, including modeling, rendering, simulation, and fabrication.

* 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.

Publications

(* indicates equal contributions)

2026

Interactive Yarn-level Knitwear with Nested Douglas-Rachford Splitting
Chun Yuan, Zixuan Lu, Haoyang Shi, Dewen Guo, Huamin Wang, Chenfanfu Jiang, Zherong Pan, Kui Wu, Yin Yang
ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 2026)
Global Discrete Optimization for Quad-Dominant Mesh Reduction
Yuzhe Luo*, Jingchen Gao*, Zherong Pan, Kui Wu, Xuebo Ji, Xiaogang Jin, Xifeng Gao
ACM SIGGRAPH 2026 (Conference Track)
[Paper]
HairLRM: Strand-based Hair Modeling via Large Reconstruction Models
Yuefan Shen*, Yican Dong*, Xiufeng Huang, Zhongtian Zheng, Youyi Zheng, Kui Wu
ACM SIGGRAPH 2026 (Conference Track)
[Project Website]
LightOpt: Lights Optimization for Real-time Rendering
Tuo Chen, Luyan Cao, Kui Wu, Shimin Hu
ACM SIGGRAPH 2026 (Conference Track)
[Project Website]
PoseShield: Neural Collision Fields for Human Self-Collision Resolution
Zhengyuan Li, Zeyun Deng, Yifan Shen, Liangyan Gui, Miaolan Xie, Joseph Campbell, Xifeng Gao, Kui Wu, Zherong Pan, Aniket Bera
European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV, 2026)
[Project Website]
Language-Guided Generation for Personalized Inspection Planning
Xingpeng Sun, Zherong Pan, Xifeng Gao, Kui Wu, Aniket Bera
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2026)
[Paper]
Spatial Eigenanalysis of 2D Deformation Energies
Haomiao Wu, Kui Wu, Theodore Kim
Computer Graphics Forum (Proceedings of SGP 2026), 2026
[Paper]
BC-ADMM: A Parallel Decoupled Non-convex Constrained Optimizer for Robot Applications
Zherong Pan, Kui Wu
International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR), 2026
[Paper]
Handle-based Mesh Deformation Guided By Vision Language Model
Xingpeng Sun, Shiyang jia, Zherong Pan, Kui Wu, Aniket Bera
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG), 2026
Practical Occluder Generation for Mobile Games
Hongyi Cao, Zhenghai Chen, Yongxin Wang, Xingyi Du, Zherong Pan, Kui Wu, Gang Xu, Xifeng Gao
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG), 2026
Efficient Differentiable Contact Model with Long-Range Influence
Xiaohan Ye, Kui Wu, Taku Komura, Zherong Pan
International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR), 2026
[Paper]

2025

SDRS: Shape-Differentiable Robot Simulator
Xiaohan Ye, Xifeng Gao, Kui Wu, Zherong Pan, Taku Komura
IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO), 2025
[Paper]
Auto Hair Card Extraction for Smooth Hair with Differentiable Rendering
Zhongtian Zheng, Tao Huang, Haozhe Su, Xueqi Ma, Yuefan Shen, Tongtong Wang, Yin Yang, Xifeng Gao, Zherong Pan, Kui Wu
ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proceedings of SIGGRAPH Asia 2025)
[Project Website]
RL-ACD: Reinforcement Learning-based Approximate Convex Decomposition
Yuzhe Luo, Zherong Pan, Kui Wu, Xingyi Du, Yun Zeng, Xiangjun Tang, Yiqian Wu, Xiaogang Jin, Xifeng Gao
ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proceedings of SIGGRAPH Asia 2025)
[Paper]
Kinetic Free-Surface Flows and Foams with Sharp Interfaces
Haoxiang Wang, Kui Wu, Hui Qiao, Mathieu Desbrun, Wei Li
ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proceedings of SIGGRAPH Asia 2025)
[Project Website]
Learning to Control Free-Form Soft Swimmers
Changyu Hu, Yanke Qu, Qiuan Yang, Xiaoyu Xiong, Kui Wu, Wei Li, Tao Du
NeurIPS 2025
[Project Website]
Fast Multi-Body Coupling for Underwater Interactions
Tianhong Gao, Xuwen Chen, Xingqiao Li, Wei Li, Baoquan Chen, Zherong Pan, Kui Wu, Mengyu Chu
Pacific Graphics 2025
[Paper][Video][Code]
Real-time Level-of-detail Strand-based Rendering
Tao Huang, Yang Zhou, Daqi Lin, Junqiu Zhu, Ling-Qi Yan, Kui Wu
Computer Graphics Forum (Proceedings of Eurographics Symposium on Rendering 2025)
[Project Website]
Real-Time Knit Deformation and Rendering
Tao Huang*, Haoyang Shi*, Mengdi Wang*, Yuxing Qiu, Yin Yang, Kui Wu
ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 2025)
[Project Website]
High-performance CPU Cloth Simulation Using Domain-decomposed Projective Dynamics
Zixuan Lu*, Ziheng Liu*, Lei Lan, Huamin Wang, Yuko Ishiwaka, Chenfanfu Jiang, Kui Wu, Yin Yang
ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 2025)
Best Siggraph Technical Paper Award, Honorable Mention
[Project Website]
Stable Cosserat Rods
Jerry Hsu, Tongtong Wang, Kui Wu, Cem Yuksel
ACM SIGGRAPH 2025 (Conference Track)
[Project Website]
Curl Quantization for Automatic Placement of Knit Singularities
Rahul Mitra, Mattéo Couplet, Tongtong Wang, Megan Hoffmann, Kui Wu, Edward Chien
ACM SIGGRAPH 2025 (Conference Track)
[Project Website]

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
ACM 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, 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

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]

Dissertation

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)]

Book chapters

Animating Water Using Profile Buffer
Haozhe Su, Wei Li, Zherong Pan, Xifeng Gao, Zhenyu Mao, Kui Wu
GPU Zen 3: Chapter 21
[Paper]
Flowmap Baking with LBM-SWE
Wei Li, Haozhe Su, Zherong Pan, Xifeng Gao, Zhenyu Mao, Kui Wu
GPU Zen 3: Chapter 20
[Paper]

Course

Fluid Simulation with the Lattice Boltzmann Method
Wei Li, Chaoyang Lyu, Mengyun Liu, Yixin Chen, Mathieu Desbrun, Kui Wu, Xiaopei Liu
SIGGRAPH 2026 course
[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

Selected awards

Professional service

Program committee: