Associate Professor and Director of Metaverse Lab, Department of Computer Vision, MBZUAI
Dr Hao Li is an Associate Professor in the Computer Vision Department and Director of Metaverse Lab at Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI).
Biography
Dr. Hao Li is an associate professor of computer vision at MBZUAI and the CEO of Pinscreen. His area of expertise lies at the intersection of computer vision, computer graphics, and machine learning, with a focus on virtual humans, reality capture, and AI synthesis. His goal is to enable new AI and immersive technologies that can make the concept of the metaverse possible and enhance our lives with digital experiences that are otherwise not possible in the physical world.
Dr. Li’s work in computer vision and graphics focuses on 3D digitization and neural synthesis for immersive technologies and content creation. His research involves the development of novel deep learning, data-driven, and geometry processing algorithms. Li is known for his seminal work in avatar creation, facial animation, hair digitization, dynamic shape processing, as well as his recent efforts in AI media synthesis and deepfake detection.
Prior to joining MBZUAI, Dr. Li was a Distinguished Fellow of the Computer Vision Group at UC Berkeley and Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southern California (USC), where he was also Director of the USC Institute for Creative Technologies. He has also served as a visiting professor at Weta Digital, a research lead at Industrial Light & Magic / Lucasfilm, and a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia and Princeton universities. Li obtained his Ph.D. at ETH Zurich and his MSc at the University of Karlsruhe (TH). Li has published more than 75 papers at top conferences/journals including SIGGRAPH, SIGGRAPH Asia, CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, NIPS, and has presented nine times at SIGGRAPH Real-Time Live.
Since 2019, Li has also been named to the DARPA ISAT Study Group, which brings together 30 of the top US computer scientists from leading universities and selected corporations to identify breakthrough technologies for national security.
Dr. Li has been named as one of the top innovators under 35 by MIT Technology Review (2013) and was featured in the first season of Amazon’s documentary series, re: Mars Luminaries (2022). He has also been a speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos 2020 and exhibited a cutting-edge avatar-based virtual-try on technology at SXSW 2022.
He is the recipient of many awards including the Google Faculty Award (2013), the Okawa Foundation Research Grant (2013), the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Early Career Chair (2013), the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Award (2018), and the ACM SIGGRAPH Real-Time Live! ‘Best in Show’ Award (2020).
In addition, his startup, Pinscreen, was responsible for all the avatars for the official Expo 2020 app in Dubai. Pinscreen was named Best Los Angeles Startups in 2021, top 10 VR companies by Welp Magazine, and won an Epic MegaGrants in 2020.
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About Hao Li
Dr Hao Li is an Associate Professor in the Computer Vision Department and Director of Metaverse Lab at Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI).
Biography
Dr. Hao Li is an associate professor of computer vision at MBZUAI and the CEO of Pinscreen. His area of expertise lies at the intersection of computer vision, computer graphics, and machine learning, with a focus on virtual humans, reality capture, and AI synthesis. His goal is to enable new AI and immersive technologies that can make the concept of the metaverse possible and enhance our lives with digital experiences that are otherwise not possible in the physical world.
Dr. Li’s work in computer vision and graphics focuses on 3D digitization and neural synthesis for immersive technologies and content creation. His research involves the development of novel deep learning, data-driven, and geometry processing algorithms. Li is known for his seminal work in avatar creation, facial animation, hair digitization, dynamic shape processing, as well as his recent efforts in AI media synthesis and deepfake detection.
Prior to joining MBZUAI, Dr. Li was a Distinguished Fellow of the Computer Vision Group at UC Berkeley and Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southern California (USC), where he was also Director of the USC Institute for Creative Technologies. He has also served as a visiting professor at Weta Digital, a research lead at Industrial Light & Magic / Lucasfilm, and a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia and Princeton universities. Li obtained his Ph.D. at ETH Zurich and his MSc at the University of Karlsruhe (TH). Li has published more than 75 papers at top conferences/journals including SIGGRAPH, SIGGRAPH Asia, CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, NIPS, and has presented nine times at SIGGRAPH Real-Time Live.
Since 2019, Li has also been named to the DARPA ISAT Study Group, which brings together 30 of the top US computer scientists from leading universities and selected corporations to identify breakthrough technologies for national security.
Dr. Li has been named as one of the top innovators under 35 by MIT Technology Review (2013) and was featured in the first season of Amazon’s documentary series, re: Mars Luminaries (2022). He has also been a speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos 2020 and exhibited a cutting-edge avatar-based virtual-try on technology at SXSW 2022.
He is the recipient of many awards including the Google Faculty Award (2013), the Okawa Foundation Research Grant (2013), the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Early Career Chair (2013), the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Award (2018), and the ACM SIGGRAPH Real-Time Live! ‘Best in Show’ Award (2020).
In addition, his startup, Pinscreen, was responsible for all the avatars for the official Expo 2020 app in Dubai. Pinscreen was named Best Los Angeles Startups in 2021, top 10 VR companies by Welp Magazine, and won an Epic MegaGrants in 2020.
| 2022 - Present | Associate Professor, Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence ‐ Department of Computer Vision | |
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Disciplines
Research Interests
Professional Service and Affiliations
| 2022 | Editor, International Journal of Computer Vision Special Issue | 2016 - 2022 | Reviewer, IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition | 2010 - 2022 | Reviewer, ACM SIGGRAPH Asia | 2021 | Chair, DARPA ISAT Study 2021: Metaverse Augmentation for Defense (MAD) Chair (Co-Chair: Jaron Lanier, Micha | 2021 | Chair, DARPA ISAT Virtual Woods Hole 2021, “Cool Stuff” Chair | 2020 | Reviewer, Nature Communications | 2017 - 2020 | Co-Curator and Member of the Global Future Councils, World Economic Forum (WEF) - Virtual and Augmented Reality Transformation Maps | 2016 - 2019 | Associate Editor, Computer Graphics Forum |
Honors and Awards
- Epic MegaGrants Recipient, 2021
- ACM SIGGRAPH 2020 Real-Time Live! “Best in Show” Award, 2020
- DARPA Information Science and Technology (ISAT) Study Group Member, 2019
- Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Program (YIP) Award, 2018
- USC Stevens Commercialization Award, 2017
- Andrew and Erna Viterbi Early Career Chair, 2015
- Okawa Foundation Research Grant, 2015
- Google Faculty Research Award, 2015
- MIT TR35: World’s top 35 Innovator Under 35 by MIT Technology Review, 2013
- Swiss National Science Foundation Fellowship, 2011
- ACM Symposium on Computer Animation Best Paper Award, 2009
