IC Spring Seminar Series with Chenfanfu Jiang

Abstract

As we move toward the era of physical AI systems that perceive, reason, and act, the demand for virtual worlds that behave like reality has never been higher. My work targets this challenge through 'Physically Grounded Visual Computing': a perspective that bridges high-fidelity computer graphics engines with modern 3D vision, generative AI, and robots. I will present our breakthroughs in robust graphical simulations, specifically showing how continuum mechanics and contact mechanics provide the mathematical guarantees needed to model complex phenomena, from glacial calving to tactile manipulation. Beyond dynamic simulations, I will discuss how we are fusing these engines with generative models, such as physics-informed 3D Gaussian Splatting, video diffusion, and 3D reconstruction models, to create digital twins that look photorealistic and act physically valid. We build towards a roadmap for using these physics-based world engines to generate synthetic data at scale and equip agents with the physical intuition they need to succeed in the real world.

Bio

Chenfanfu Jiang (PhD’15) is a Professor of Mathematics and the director of the Artificial Intelligence and Visual Computing (AIVC) Lab at UCLA. He primarily works on computer graphics and its interdisciplinary synergies with 3D vision, generative AI and physical AI. He has led the development of widely-adopted simulators with Particle-In-Cell, Material Point, and Incremental Potential Contact methods. He received the dissertation award from UCLA, NSF CAREER, and multiple faculty awards from Amazon, Style3D, and Sony, as well as best paper awards/honorable mentions at SIGGRAPH, SCA, MIG, ICRA, and IROS.