Moores Professor of Computer Science
Director of Graduate Studies,
Director of Computer Graphics
& Interactive Media Lab,
Department of Computer Science,
University of Houston, Houston, TX
Office:
Phillip G. Hoffman Hall (PGH), Rm 228
Houston, TX 77204-3010
Tel: +1 713 743 1018
Fax: +1 713 743 3335
Email (preferred way to contact me):
zdeng4 (at) central.uh.edu
OR zhigang.deng (at) gmail.com
Mailing Address:
Phillip G. Hoffman Hall, Department of Computer Science,
3551 Cullen Blvd, Room 501,
Houston, TX, 77204-3010
Featured Projects
Flying Insect Modeling and Simulationefficient and practical models to simulate insect flights and wing deformations such as butterflies
Papers:
TOG'22,
MIG'22,
SIGGRAPH'24,
TVCG'24
[Video (TOG)], [Video (SIGGRAPH'24)], [Video (TVCG'24, Bee Simulation)], [Dataset] 
Large Scale Farm Scene Modelinga scalable framework for large-scale farm scene modeling that utilizes remote sensing data, specifically satellite images.
Video-based Facial Performance Modeling and Manipulationautomatic algorithms to real-time reconstruct 3D high-quality facial mesh sequences from video, as well as video-based facial expression manipulation and face swapping
Papers:
I3D'19,
CGF'19,
I3D'20,
TVCG'22,
MM'22
[Video (I3D'19)], [Video (CGF'19)], [Video (I3D'20)], [Video (TVCG'22)], [Video (MM'22)] 
User-Aware Human-VR Interactiona learning-based multimodal agent behavior generation framework that adapts to users’ in-situ behaviors
Analysis and Modeling Human Behaviors in Multiparty Conversationsquantifying, understanding, and modeling human behaviors and gestures when participants are involved with multiparty conversations
Papers:
CHI'17,
SCA'19 ,
PRESENCE'22 ,
MIG'22,
ICMI'23,
IVA'24,
ICMI'24
[Video (SCA'19)], [Video (PRESENCE'22)], [Video (MIG'22)] 
Skeletal Decomposition and Rigging from Mesh/Point Sequencesautomatic algorithms to extract rigid bones or optimal skeleton structure from input mesh sequences or point clouds
Visual Traffic Simulation, Modeling, and Evaluationdesign of efficient algorithms and systems to simulate large-scale realistic traffic in various road and urban settings, including mixed traffic, lane-changing, simulated traffic evaluation, and intersectional traffic simulation.
Papers:
CAVW'14a,
CAVW'14b,
CAVW'15a,
CAVW'15b,
SCA'16,
TVCG'17,
TVCG'18a,
TVCG'18b,
CGF'19,
ICCV'19,
ECCV'20,
CAVW'22
[Video (TVCG'17)], [Video (SCA'16)], [Video (TVCG'18b)] 
Interactive Object Modeling and Segmentation from Multi-view Images or RGB-D Inputdesign of novel interactive approaches to create high quality 3D models from multi-view image inputs or single RGB-D input.
Hexahedral Mesh Generation, Optimization, and Evaluationefficient algorithms to optimize the global structure of hex-meshes, generate hex-meshes, and evaluate the quality of hex-meshes
Papers:
SIGGRAPH'15,
TVCG'16,
SGP'17,
CGF'17,
SIGGRAPH Asia'17
[Video (SIGGRAPH'15)], [Video (TVCG'16)], [ Source Code (SGP'17)], [ Dataset (SGP'17)], [ Source Code (SIGGRAPH Asia'17)] 
Crowd Simulation and Evacuationnew algorithms and systems to simulate crowds or group behavior in unexpected hazard situations, computational model of crowd emotion evolution, or simulated crowds by integrating physical strength consumption
Color Harmony Estimation and ModelingColor composition (or color theme) is a key factor to determine how well a piece of art work or graphical design is perceived by humans. We develop novel color theme evaluation models to infer both color theme ratings and user aesthetic preferences.
Mesh Animation Compression/Accelerationefficient algorithms to compress mesh animation sequences through adaptive spatio-temporal segmentations in order to support progressive transmission over networks
Eye and Head Animationsdata-driven synthesis algorithms for realistic and coordinated eye and head movements based on (live or pre-recorded) speech input
Papers:
CAVW'05,
CG&A'05,
TASLP'07,
VR'09,
CHI'11,
TVCG'12 ,
SCA'19
[Video (VR'09)], [ Video (TVCG'12)], [Video (SCA'19)] 
Insect Swarm Simulationefficient algorithms to realistically simulate behavior patterns of a variety of insect swarms (including flying insects, ants, etc.) under various scenarios.
Feature-preserving Mesh/Points Denoisingeffective algorithms for robust feature-preserving denoising for 3D mesh models or point clouds in order to remove noise while maximally preserving geometric features
Human Motion Compression, Retrieval, and Processing/Synthesiseffective algorithms for compressing and retrieving character motions, or data-driven human motion synthesis
Tele-mentoring for Minimally Invasive Surgeriesdesign and development of a framework to facilitate tele‐mentoring between an operating surgeon and a remote surgeon for minimally invasive surgeries.
Visual-Haptic Interfacing for Robot-Assisted Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgerya novel human-in-the-loop, visual haptic interfacing system for planning and performing real-time MRI guided, robot-assisted, minimally invasive surgical interventions on the beating heart, with particular focus on aortic valve implantations. |
Other Projects
Sketch-based 3D Modelingdesign of sketch-based modeling algorithms and systems to intuitive create 3D objects (including faces or generic objects) from a single sketch input
Effective Representations for Geometric DeformationsAlgorithms to compute optimized marker layouts for facial motion acquisition/deformation and interactively construct cages for geometric deformation
Visual Speech Animation Synthesisautomated algorithms and systems to generate expressive visual speech animations based on novel typed or spoken input
Live Speech Driven Facial Animationfully-automated algorithms to generate realistic lip-sync and head-and-eye animations based on live speech input alone
Creative Virtual Tree Modeling and Morphingefficient algorithms to generate a set of morphologically diverse and inspiring virtual trees through hierarchical topology-preserving blending and to morph between two distinct trees
Perceptually Guided Facial Animationperceptually guided computational algorithms to generate expressive facial animation, and quantitatively evaluate visual speech animation
Blendshape Facial Animationalgorithms for automating or reducing time-consuming tuning efforts of the blendshape animation approach, including target interference reducing, cross-model mapping, and model construction
Indoor Layout Modeling and Generationautomated methods to synthesize plausible indoor scene layouts, including motion planning for convertible indoor scene layout design and layout programming via virtual navigation detectors
Facial Animation Editing and Transferringefficient and automated algorithms and systems for editing and transferring facial motions across different models or modalities, with intuitive and little user interaction
Group Formation Generation for Agent-based Simulationefficient approaches to generate arbitrary and precise group formations for agent-based simulations given user-specified inputs (like sketches or 2D images)
Papers:
GI'11,
CG&A'13,
CAVW'14,
CGF'14,
CAVW'19
[Video (GI'11)], [Video (CGA'13)], [Video (CGF'14)] 
Context-Aware Motion Diversification and Perception for Crowdsa novel scheme for dynamically controlling motion styles of agents to increase the motion variety of a crowd
Energy-efficient GPU and Mobile Graphics ComputingDesign of novel algorithms to statistically model and predict the power consumption of GPU-based computing, and perform in-depth quantitative analysis on the power consumption and runtime performance aspects of graphics computing and applications on mainstream smartphone devices
User-centric Interfaces for Mobile or Immersive Computingdesign various user-centric user interfaces for mobile computing, including an automated avatar interface is driven by the text messages, as well as single-handed mobile keyboard design
Improving Gaming Experience by Incorporating Physiological Feedback and Gamers' Profilesnovel methodology to improve users' gaming experience by real-time monitoring their physiological signals or their individualized gamer profile, and thus automatically adjusting the difficulty level of computer games
Papers:
CHI'09,
SandBox'10
Perceptual Understanding of Synthetic Facial Expressions, Animations, and Head Motionstudy the region-significance and culture-dependence of facial expressions and movements, in terms of subject identification, emotion perception of 3D facial expression, and visual perception of avatar head movements
Mutimodal Emotion Recognitioncomprehensive analysis and understanding of the strengths, limitations, and combinational aspects of multimodal emotion recognition algorithms and system, and extract dynamic facial expressions or emotion information from video or acoustic signals.
Spine Tracking and Segmentation in Neuron Imagesautomated algorithms to accurately track, detect, segment a large number of dentrite spines from time-lapse confocal microscopy neuron images, in both 2D image level and reconstructed 3D geometric level
Self-represented Avatars for Teen Physical Activitiesstudy the feasibility and effectiveness of using self-represented avatars for increasing teen physical activities
Visualization and Planning of Neurosurgical Interventionshighly efficient, GPU-accelerated visualization and planning techniques to allow interactive, quantitative or semi-quantitative comparison among various points of entrance for neurosurgical procedures that require straight access |
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