CVI²

Didier Stricker

Director at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI GmbH), University of Kaiserslautern

Plenary Talk 1: Shape Matching and Alignment of Various ​Classes of Rigid and Non-Rigid Objects​ using the Gravitational Approach

Hao Li

                                     CEO & Co-Founder of Pinscreen, Inc.                                                                                                                                      

Plenary Talk 2: Virtual Avatars and Volumetric Teleportation

Biography:

Didier Stricker is Professor in computer science at the University of Kaiserslautern and Scientific Director at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI GmbH) in Kaiserslautern, where he leads the research department „Augmented Vision”. Between 2011-2016 he acted as honorary CEO of the International Network, GraphicsMedia.net, which includes prestigious organizations in the area of computer vision and graphics, i.e. Hasso-Plattner-Institute, Fraunhofer HHI, VicomTech, GraphiTech, CCG and Mivtech. Didier Stricker studied electrical engineering at the Technical University of Grenoble and at the Technical University of Karlsruhe and graduated from both universities. In 2002 he received his PhD from the Technical University of Darmstadt with the topic: “Computer Vision-based Calibration and Tracking Methods for Augmented Reality Applications”. From 2002 to 2008, Didier Stricker led the “Virtual and Augmented Reality” department of the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research (IGD) in Darmstadt. He acts as an expert for various European and national research organizations. His scientific focus is virtual and augmented reality, computer vision, human-computer interaction and user recognition. Didier Stricker received the Innovation Prize of the German Society of Computer Science in 2006. He organized as general chair the first “IEEE&ACM International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality” (ISMAR) 2002 in Darmstadt, Germany, and was member of the steering committee from 2000 to 2007.

Biography:

Hao Li is CEO and Co-Founder of Pinscreen, a startup that builds cutting edge AI-driven virtual avatar technologies. Before that, he was an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southern California, as well as the director of the Vision and Graphics Lab at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies. Hao’s work in Computer Graphics and Computer Vision focuses on digitizing humans and capturing their performances for immersive communication, telepresence in virtual worlds, and entertainment. His research involves the development of novel deep learning, data-driven, and geometry processing algorithms. He is known for his seminal work in avatar creation, facial animation, hair digitization, dynamic shape processing, as well as his recent efforts in preventing the spread of malicious deep fakes. He was previously a visiting professor at Weta Digital, a research lead at Industrial Light & Magic / Lucasfilm, and a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia and Princeton Universities. He was named top 35 innovator under 35 by MIT Technology Review in 2013 and was also awarded the Google Faculty Award, the Okawa Foundation Research Grant, as well as the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Early Career Chair. He won the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Award in 2018 and was named to the DARPA ISAT Study Group in 2019. Hao obtained his PhD at ETH Zurich and his MSc at the University of Karlsruhe (TH).