"Do only what only you can do." - Edgar Dijkstra
According to the Mathematics Genealogy Project, the students below can trace back their "academic roots" as follows: Hao Zhang (Toronto), Eugene Fiume (Toronto), Alain Fournier (UT Texas), Zvi Kedem (Technion), Azaria Paz (Technion), Michael Rabin (Princeton), Alonzo Church (Princeton), Oswald Veblen (Chicago), E. H. Moore (Yale), H. A. Newton (Yale), Michel Chasles (Ecole Polytechnique), Simeon Poisson (Ecole Polytechnique), Joseph Lagrange (Pierre-Simon Laplace, too), Leonard Euler (Universitat Basel), Johann Bernoulli (Universitat Basel), Jacob Bernoulli (Universitat Basel), and Gottfried Leibniz (Universitat Altdorf, 1666).

See a version with pictures from David Mould's page and a version with graph-vis from Mario Sousa's page.

Oh, by the way, my Erdös number is at most 3.


Current students and research associates

Qimin Chen Zhiqin Chen Perla Sai Raj Kishore Yilin Liu Akshay Gadi Patil Maham Tanveer Aditya Vora Ruiqi (Sui-Kei) Wang Yizhi Wang Dingdong Yang Fenggen Yu Hang Zhou

Postdocs, visitors, and other research personnel

  1. Yizhi Wang, Postdoc.
    Ph.D., Peking University (PKU), China, 2022.
    January 13, 2023 - current.

  2. Hang Zhou, Postdoc.
    Ph.D., University of Science and Technology (USTC), China, 2020.
    Jan. 8, 2021 - June 15, 2023.

Ph.D. students

  1. Qimin Chen, M.Sc., UC San Diego, 2020.
    Ph.D., January 2021 - current.
    Adobe Internship, Summer 2023.
    Committee: Ali Mahdavi-Amiri.

  2. Zhiqin Chen, M.Sc., SFU, 2019; B.Sc., Shanghai Jiaotong University, China.
    Best Student Paper Award, CVPR 2020.
    Google PhD Fellowship, 2021-22.
    NVIDIA Graduate Fellowship Finalist 2021.
    Google Student Researcher, Spring 2022.
    NVidia Internship, Summer 2021.
    Adobe Internship, Summer 2020.
    Ph.D., September 2019 - current.
    Committee members: Yasu Furukawa.
    Examiners: Andrea Tagliasacchi (internal) and Matthias Niessner (external) from Technical University of Munich.

  3. Yilin Liu, M.Sc., Shenzhen University, China.
    SFU Graduate Dean's Entrance Scholarship (GDES), $21K/year for four years.
    Ph.D., September 2022 - current.
    Committee: .

  4. Akshay Gadi Patil, M.Tech., Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, India, 2016.
    Best Paper Award at the CVPR 2020 Workshop on Text and Documents in the Deep Learning Era.
    Amazon Internship, Vancouver, Summer-Fall 2022.
    Adobe Internship, Summer 2021.
    Amazon Internship, December 2018 - March 2019.
    Ph.D., September 2016 - current.
    Committee members: Manolis Savva.
    Examiners: Daniel Cohen-Or (internal), from Tel-Aviv University and as adjunct professor at SFU, and Qixing Huang (external) from University of Texas at Austin.

  5. Maham Tanveer, M.Sc., Georgia Tech., USA, 2020.
    Ph.D., May 2021 - current.
    Committee: Ali Mahdavi-Amiri.

  6. Aditya Vora, M.Sc., Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, India, 2017.
    Ph.D., January 2021 - current.

  7. Dingdong Yang, M.Sc., University of Michigan, 2018; B.Sc., Nanjing University, China, 2016.
    Special Graduate Entrance Scholarship (SGES), $10K.
    Ph.D., January 2023 - current.
    Committee members: Ali Mahdavi-Amiri (co-senior supervisor).

  8. Fenggen Yu, B.Sc. and M.Sc., Nanjing University, China, 2019.
    SFU Graduate Dean's Entrance Scholarship (GDES), $21K/year for four years.
    Amazon Internships, Vancouver, Summer-Fall 2022, Summer 2023.
    Facebook Internship, Fall 2021.
    Huawei Canada Internship, Summer 2021.
    Ph.D., September 2019 - current.
    Committee members: Kai Xu.

  9. Ruiqi (Sui-Kei) Wang, M.Sc. in ML and Computer Vision, Australian National University (ANU).
    Ph.D., May 2023 - current, after direct transfer from M.Sc. program (September 2021 - April 2023).
    Committee members: TBD.

M.Sc. students

  1. Perla Sai Raj Kishore, B.Sc., Institute of Engineering & Management (IEM), MAKAUT, India.
    M.Sc., September 2020 - current.
    Committee members: TBD.

Graduated students and other research personnel supervised

Wallace Pinto Lira Haisen Zhao Johannes Merz Manyi Li Jiongchao Jin Kangxue Yin Xiaogang Wang Azmarie Wang Zhiqin Chen Jon Liu Chenyang Zhu Ali Mahdavi-Amiri Zili Yi Changqing Zou Rui Ma Shuhua Li Han Liu Jaime Vargas Warunika Ranaweera Zeinab Sadeghipour Ibraheem Alhashim Shuyang Sun Honghua (Howard) Li Sushant Joshi Ruizhen Hu Anna Mewhort Andrea Tagliasacchi Yuan (Karen) Liu Oliver van Kaick Amy (Xiaoming) Li Hui Wang Nima Aghdaii Yanzhen (Eric) Wang Matt Olson Kai (Kevin) Xu Ramsay Dyer Joe Kahlert Rong (Frank) Liu Shy Shalom Jeff (Jun) Yu John Li Xiaoxing (Ginger) Li Varun Jain

Ph.D.'s graduated

  1. Kangxue Yin, Ph.D., 2020.
    Now research scientist, NVidia Toronto AI Lab.
    Adobe Fellowship Finalist, 2018 and Adobe Internship, June - September, 2019.
    China Scholarship for Outstanding Self Finance Students Abroad, 2018.
    Ph.D. thesis: Learning Shape-to-Shape Transformation (Distinction: "Defense and thesis passed as is").
    Committee members: Hao Zhang, Hui Huang, and Daniel Cohen-Or.
    Examiners: Manolis Savva (internal) and Matthias Zwicker (external) from University of Maryland, USA.

  2. Chenyang Zhu, Ph.D., 2019.
    Now Associate Professor at Dept. of Computer Science, National University of Defense Technology (NUDT), China.
    China Scholarship Council Four-Year PhD Scholarship.
    Ph.D. thesis: Learning to Correspond and Compose Shape Structures.
    Committee members: Hao Zhang and Daniel Cohen-Or.
    Examiners: Manolis Savva (internal) and Hongbo Fu (external) from City University of Hong Kong, China.

  3. Rui Ma, Ph.D., 2017.
    Now Associate Professor at School of Artificial Intelligence, Jilin University, China.
    Previously, computer vision research scientist at Huawei Canada, Burnaby, BC.
    MITACS Globalink Research Award - Intership at Microsoft Research Asia, September 2015 - Feburary 2016.
    Ph.D. thesis: Sub-Scene Level Analysis and Synthesis of 3D Indoor Scenes (Distinction: "Defense and thesis passed as is").
    Committee members: Hao Zhang and Ze-Nian Li.
    Examiners: Yasu Furukawa (internal) and Oliver Deussen (external) from University of Konstanz, Germany.

  4. Ibraheem Alhashim, Ph.D., 2015.
    Now Senior Research Scientist at NCAI.
    2015 Alain Fournier Award (Best Doctoral Dissertation in Computer Graphics in Canada) (SFU news coverage).
    Ph.D. thesis: Topology-Varying Shape Matching and Modeling. (Distinction: "Defense and thesis passed as is").
    Committee members: Hao Zhang and Ghassan Hamarneh.
    Examiners: Ping Tan (internal) and Niloy J. Mitra (external) from University College London, UK.

  5. Honghua (Howard) Li, Ph.D., 2015.
    Now research scientist at XR Lab, Alibaba Damo Academy, Hangzhou, China.
    China Scholarship Council Four-Year PhD Scholarship, 2010-2014,.
    Ph.D. Thesis: Shape Compaction via Stacking and Folding.
    Committee members: Hao Zhang, Daniel Cohen-Or, and Ze-Nian Li.
    Examiners: Ping Tan (internal) and Karan Singh (external) from University of Toronto.

  6. Andrea Tagliasacchi, Ph.D., 2013.
    Now Associate Professor at SFU and staff research scientist at Google.
    Previously Assistant Professor at University of Victoria, Canada, and postdoc at EPFL.
    NSERC's Alexander Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship, 2011.
    Best Student Paper Award for MITACS-related research, 2009.
    Gold medal for best graduate student in computer engineering at Politecnico di Milano, 2007.
    Ph.D. Thesis: Skeleton Extraction and Skeleton-Driven Processing of Incomplete Data (Distinction: "Defense and thesis passed as is").
    Committee members: Hao Zhang and Ghassan Hamarneh.
    Examiners: Kamal Gupta (internal) and Paolo Cignoni (external) from ISTI/CNR, Italy.

  7. Oliver van Kaick, Ph.D., 2011.
    Now Associate Professor at Carleton University, Canada. Previously a postdoc at Tel Aviv University.
    Azrieli Postdoc Fellowship at Tel Aviv University, 2013.
    MITACS Elevate Postdoc Fellowship. with PDFTron Inc., 2011-2012.
    Ph.D. Thesis: Matching Dissimilar Shapes (Distinction: "Defense and thesis passed as is").
    Committee members: Hao Zhang and Ghassan Hamarneh.
    Examiners: Greg Mori (internal) and Michael Kazhdan (external) from John Hopkins University.

  8. Matt Olson, Ph.D., 2011.
    Now Senior Software Developer at Mercury.
    Precarn Scholarship 2008.
    Ph.D. Thesis: A Plane View of Geometric Silhouettes.
    Committee members: Hao Zhang and Torsten Moeller.
    Examiners: Bruce Gooch (external) from University of Victoria.

  9. Ramsay Dyer, Ph.D., 2010 (co-supervised with Torsten Moeller).
    Last known as "custodiani" at Tahsis Centre for Applied Geometry.
    Formerly, postdoc at Groningen University in the Netherlands
    Best Paper Award at SGP 2008 and Best Student Paper Award for MITACS-related research, 2008.
    Ph.D. Thesis: Self-Delaunay Meshes for Surfaces.
    Previously postdoc at the Geometrica group in INRIA. Committee members: Hao Zhang and Torsten Moeller.
    Examiners: Binay Bhattacharya (internal) and Leonidas Guibas (external) from Stanford University.

  10. Rong (Frank) Liu, Ph.D., 2009.
    Now senior software engineer at Microsoft, Redmond.
    Ph.D. thesis: Spectral mesh segmentation.
    Previously at PDFTron, Vancouver, Canada.
    Committee members: Hao Zhang, Ghassan Hamarneh, and Torsten Moeller.
    Examiners: Mirza Beg (internal) and Karan Singh (external) from University of Toronto.

SFU postdocs and research students supervised

  1. Wallace Pinto Lira, former Ph.D.
    Now Research Engineer at Huawei Vancouver.
    SFU CD Nelson Entrance Scholarship, $21K/year for four years.
    Huawei Canada Internship, Spring 2022.
    B.Sc. and M.Sc., Universidade Federal do Para, Brazil.

  2. Johannes Merz, former Ph.D.
    Now Machine Learning at Image Engine Design Inc.
    SFU Graduate Dean's Entrance Scholarship (GDES), 21K/year for four years.
    B.Sc. and M.Sc., Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany.

  3. Manyi Li, Postdoc, July 15, 2019 - July 14, 2021.
    Now Associate Researcher at School of Software, Shandong University, China.
    Ph.D., Shandong University, China, 2018.

  4. Ali Mahdavi-Amiri, postdoc (awarded two-year NSERC Postdoc Fellowship), 2016-2018.
    Now Assistant Professor at SFU.
    B.Sc., Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran, 2006;
    M.Sc., Sharif University of Technology, Iran, 2009;
    Ph.D., University of Calgary, Canada, 2015.

  5. Changqing Zou, co-supervised with Ping Tan, June 2015 - September 2017.
    Now Tenure Track Professor at Zhejiang University.
    Formerly Principal Research Scientist & Research Manager, Huawei Canada, Vancouver,
    B.Sc., Harbin Institute of Technology, China, 2005;
    Ph.D., Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, 2014.

  6. Han Liu, co-supervised with Oliver van Kaick, June 2016 - July 2017.
    Now Senior AI Scientist at Electronic Arts, California, USA.
    B.Sc., Huangshang University, China, 2007;
    M.Sc., Xiamen University, China, 2010;
    Ph.D., King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia, 2016.

M. Sc. students supervised

  1. Zhiqin Chen, B.Sc., Shanghai Jiaotong University, China; M.Sc., June 2019.
    M.Sc. Thesis: Learning Implicit Fields for Generative Shape Modeling.
    Committee members: Daniel Cohen-Or and Vova Kim (examiner).
    Now Ph.D. at SFU.

  2. Jon Liu, B.Sc., National Tsinghua University, Taiwan; M.Sc., April 2019.
    M.Sc. Thesis: A Qualitative and Localized Evaluation for 3D Indoor Scene Synthesis.
    Committee members: Parmit Chilana and Manolis Savva (examiner).
    Now Ph.D. at SFU.

  3. Jaime Vargas, B.Sc., Mexico Post Secondary, Mexicoi; M. Sc., December 2016.
    M. Sc. Thesis: Towards Learning of a Joint Geometry-Structure Manifold for Shape Exploration.
    Committee: Hui Huang and Oliver van Kaick (examiner).
    Now Software Engineer at Koolhausdesign.

  4. Warunika Ranaweera, B. Sc., University of Colombo, Sri Lanka; M. Sc., December 2016.
    Best Paper Award at International Conference on CAD/GRAPHICS, 2017.
    M. Sc. Thesis: ExquiMo: An Exquisite Corpse Tool for Co-Creative 3D Shape Modeling.
    Committee: Daniel Cohen-Or and Parmit Chilana (examiner).
    Now software developer at Klipfolio Inc., previously at IBM Canada.

  5. Zeinab Sadeghipour Kermani, B. Sc., Sharif University of Technology, Iran; M. Sc., June 2016.
    M. Sc. Thesis: Learning 3D Scene Synthesis from RGB-D Images.
    Committee: Ping Tan and Zicheng Liao (examiner).
    Now Software Engineer at Meta.

  6. Shuyang Sun, B. Sc., Zhejiang University, China; M. Sc., June 2015.
    M. Sc. Thesis: Structural Co-Consolidation of Shape Collections.

  7. Sushant Joshi, B. Sc., Banaras Hindu University, India; M. Sc., November 2014.
    M. Sc. Thesis: A Non-Local Approach to Tree Peak Detection in LIDAR Data
    Now senior software engineer at Philips.

  8. Anna Mewhort, B. Sc., Thompson River University, Canada; M. Sc., September 2013.
    M. Sc. Thesis: Active Learning for Semantic Labeling of Airborne LiDAR Datai (Distinction: "Defense and thesis passed as is").
    Now Software Engineering for Earth Observation, BC.

  9. Yuan (Karen) Liu, B. Sc., Beijing University of Tech., China; M. Sc., 2013.
    M. Sc. Thesis: Explicit Memory Management for Mesh Traversal.
    Currently or last known as: software engineer at SAP Canada.

  10. Xiaoming (Amy) Li, B. Sc., Simon Fraser University, Canada; M. Sc., 2013.
    M.Sc. Thesis: A Comparative Study of Spectral Embedding Methods.
    Now data analysist at East Side Games.

  11. Nima Aghdaii, B. Sc., University of Tehran, Iran; M. Sc., 2012.
    M. Sc. Thesis: 5-6-7 Meshes.
    Now Technical Lead Manager at Snap Inc.

  12. Ibraheem Alhashim, B. Sc., Portland State University, USA; M. Sc., 2011.
    M. Sc. thesis: Detail-replicating shape stretching (demo video | code).
    Now Senior Research Scientist at NCAI.

  13. Joe Kahlert, B. Sc., UBC; M. Sc., 2009.
    M. Sc. thesis: Tiling surfaces using straight strips.
    Currently or last known at Forsite Consultants.

  14. Jeff (Jun) Yu, M. Sc., 2008.
    M. Sc. project: A Prototype Sketch-Based Architecture Modelling System with Traditional Design Habits.
    Last known at Electronic Arts.

  15. John Y. S. Li, B. Sc., Simon Fraser University, Canada; M. Sc., 2006.
    M. Sc. thesis: Nonobtuse Meshes with Guaranteed Angle Bounds.
    Last known at Slant Six Games, Vancouver, Canada.

  16. Ginger (Xiaoxing) Li, B. Sc., Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China; M. Sc., 2006.
    Award of Excellence (Technology) from MITACS internship program, 2007, Brightside Technologies Inc..
    MSc. thesis: Towards Expression-Invariant Face Recognition using Multiple Adaptive Attributes.
    Now Image Algorithm Engineer at Apple Inc., CA, USA; previously, research scientist at GE Global Research, NY.

  17. Andrew Clements, B. Sc., Guelph University, Canada; M. Sc., 2006.
    M. Sc. thesis: Minimum ratio contours for meshes.
    Last known at Action Pants Inc., Vancouver, Canada.

  18. Varun Jain, M. Sc., 2006.
    M. Sc. thesis: Robust correspondence and retrieval of articulated shapes.
    Now at Google Inc., Waterloo, Canada (was at Google Labs in India and D-Wave Systems Inc.)

Visiting Ph.D. and other research associates supervised (partial list)

  1. Haisen Zhao, Collaborating PhD and postdoc from Shangdong University, then University of Washington
    2015 - 2020.
    Now Professor at Shandong Universityi, China.
    Publication(s): two SIGGRAPH (2016, 2018) and one SIGGRAPH Asia (2020); see Haisen's homepage.

  2. Jiongchao Jin, Visiting PhD student from Beihang University, China,
    China Scholarship Council Scholarship, October 1, 2018 - September 30, 2020.
    Publication(s) on work during visit: first-author ECCV 2020.

  3. Xiaogang Wangi, Visiting PhD student from Beihang University, China,
    April, 2019 - April, 2020.
    Now Associate Professor in Southwest University, China.
    Publication(s) on work during visit: first-author NeurIPS 2020.

  4. Azmarie Wang, Visiting undergraduate student from SFU,
    May 1, 2019 - August 31, 2019.

  5. Manyi Li, Visiting Ph.D. from Shandong University, China
    China Scholarship Council Scholarship, September, 2017 - September, 2018.
    Publication(s) on work during visit: first-author ACM TOG 2019; co-authored SIGGRAPH Asia 2018.

  6. Zili Yi, Visiting Ph.D. from Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada
    September, 2016 - August, 2018.
    Now Associate Professor at Nanjing University.
    Publication(s) on work during visit: first-author ICCV 2017; first-author IEEE Trans. on Image Processing 2020.

  7. Shuhua Li, visiting Ph.D. from Dalian University of Technology, China.
    China Scholarship Council Scholarship.
    September, 2015 - October, 2017.
    Publication(s) on work during visit: first-author SIGGRAPH Asia 2018.

  8. Ruizhen Hu, visiting Ph.D. from Zhejiang University, China.
    China Scholarship Council Scholarship.
    September, 2012 - October, 2014.
    Now assistant professor at the Visual Computing Center, Shenzhen University, China.
    Publication(s) on work during visit: first-author SIGGRAPH Asia 2014; two first-author SIGGRAPH 2015.

  9. Joe Kahlert, M. Sc., SFU, 2009.
    Research lead in NSERC CRD project on LIDAR data processing with industrial partner Object Raku, 2011-2012.
    Publication(s) on work during visit: first-author paper in The Visual Computer.

  10. Hui Wang, visiting Ph.D. from Dalian University of Tech., China.
    China Scholarship Council Scholarship.
    September, 2011 - August, 2012.
    Now Associate Professor Shijiazhuang Tiedao University (STDU), China.
    Publication(s) on work during visit: first-author GI 2014.

  11. Yanzhen (Eric) Wang, visiting Ph.D. from National Univ. of Defence Tech., China.
    China Scholarship Council Scholarship.
    October, 2009 - September 2010; June 2011 - October 2011.
    Publication(s) on work during visit: first-author Eurographics 2011.

  12. Kevin (Kai) Xu, visiting Ph.D. from National Univ. of Defence Tech. (NUDT), China.
    China Scholarship Council Scholarship.
    November, 2008 - October, 2010.
    Best Ph.D. Thesis Award of NUDT.
    Now Full Professor at NUDT, China.
    Publication(s) on work during visit: three first-author SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 and 2010; one first-author SIGGRAPH 2011; one co-authored Eurographics 2011.

  13. Shy Shalom, visiting Ph.D. from Department of Computer Science, Bar Ilan University, Israel.
    September 1, 2008 - January 2, 2009.
    Publication(s) on work during visit: first-author SIGGRAPH Asia 2010.