Biography
I'm currently a postdoctoral researcher at ETH Zurich, working with Prof. Otmar Hilliges in the Advanced Interactive Technologies lab at the Institute of Intelligent Interactive Systems. Prior to joining ETH I was a PhD student at University College London (2010-2014), where I earned my doctoral degree in the Virtual Environment and Computer Graphics group, under the supervision of Prof. Jan Kautz. I earned my BSc in Computer Science from Università degli Studi di Roma Torvergata, Italy (2008) and my MSc in Vision and Virtual Environment from University College London, UK (Distinction, 2009). Between June and October 2010 I have completed an internship at Disney Research Zurich under the supervision of Prof. Wojciech Matusik.
Research Interests
My research interests are in the human computer interaction (HCI) and computer vision (CV) fields,
with a particular focus on different aspects of virtual and augmented reality, machine learning, mobile interaction
and computational user interface design.
In my research I explore the novel challenges and research opportunities opened up by the
current digital trend, while advancing the state of the art in HCI.
To do so, I combine emerging input and output technologies in interesting
and novel ways, creating and studying interactive systems. In my work, I bring together several
fields, including computer vision, machine learning and computer graphics,
to explore novel ways in which people can interact with and within our increasingly digital word.
I build complex interactive systems that combine novel hardware and sensing technologies,
and that are paired with data-driven and computational methods to create prototypes that can
be evaluated with users, both quantitatively and qualitatively.
Academic and Professional Activities
Awards and Grants
- Honorable Mention Award at UIST 2017 for MagTics paper
- SNF Grant: "Deformation and Motion Modeling using Modular, Sensor-based Input Devices". 2016-2017
- ETH Zurich Postdoctoral Fellowship (Marie Curie Co-Fund) 2014--2016
- Honorable Mention Award at CHI 2013 for PanoInserts paper
- Rabin Ezra Scholarship 2010/2011 & 2011/2012
- BBC Research Best VIVE Master Project 2008/2009
- Microsoft Research Best VIVE Master Project 2008/2009
Invited Talks
- Future IT Workplace - Zurich, Switzerland, August 2016
- CS Colloquium - New York University, New York (NY), US, May 2016
- Harvard University, Cambridge (MA), US, May 2016
- Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy, December 2015
- Workshop on Interactive Geomertry - The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, Novemebr 2015
- Visual Computing Lunch - ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland, December 2013
- Dagstuhl Seminar on Real-World Visual Computing - Dagstuhl, Germany, October 2013
- Max-Planck-Institut für Informatik, Saarbrücken, Germany, October 2013
- BBC Research and Development, London, United Kingdom, June 2010
Teaching
- User Interface Engineering - M.Sc. module - Spring 2017, ETH Zurich
- ML for Interactive Systems and Advanced Programming Tools - M.Sc. module/Seminar - Fall 2016, ETH Zurich
- Visual Computing - B.Sc. module - Fall 2016, ETH Zurich
- User Interface Engineering - M.Sc. module - Spring 2016, ETH Zurich
- Human Computer Interaction - B.Sc. module - Fall 2015, ETH Zurich
- User Interface Engineering - M.Sc. module - Spring 2015, ETH Zurich
- Multimedia Computing - mixed M.Sc./B.Sc. module - Spring 2011 — 2013, UCL
- Computer Graphics - mixed MSc/BSc module - Fall 2011, UCL
- Advanced Modelling, Rendering and Animation - MSc module - Spring 2013, UCL
- Computational Photography - MSc module - Spring 2014, UCL
- Introduction to C++ - MSc module - Fall 2011 — 2013, UCL
- Publishing Scientific Papers with LATEX/BibTEX - 2010 — 2012, UCL
Student Supervision
- Adrian Spurr. Real-time Implementation of Shape Discriminative Exemplar SVM Ensemble for Unconstrained 2.5D Hand Pose Estimation (BSc thesis, completed)
- Ralph Aeschimann. Segmentation of Silhouettes using Neural Networks (MSc thesis, completed)
- Damian Karrer. Hybrid Approaches to Hand-Tracking (MSc thesis, completed)
- Krzysztof Lis. Remote AR Exploration for Micro Quadrotors (Semester Project, completed)
- Schilling Milan. Design and Evaluation of an App-Based User Interface for a Stair Climbing Wheelchair (Semester Project, completed)
- Marion Koelle. (Internship, completed)
- Manuel Kaufmann. A Neural Network Approach to Human Pose Infilling (MSc thesis, completed)
Technical Program Comittee Member
- IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (IEEE ISMAR '15)
- Shape Modeling International (SMI '17)
Reviewing
I routinely review papers for ACM CHI, UIST, SIGGRAPH, Eurographics, IEEE ISMAR, IEEE VR as well as for other conferences and many journal publications.
Publications
Video
Paper
Code
Honorable Mention Best Paper Award
Honorable Mention Best Paper Award
DataTheses
Videos in Context for Telecommunication and Spatial Browsing
High Dynamic Range for Dynamic Scenes
Student Theses
Research projects are available for ETH students interested in pursuing a Bachelor/Master thesis in HCI, Robotics and Vision related topics. Soon we will be publishing a list of available thesis here. You are welcome to suggest your own topics, and please feel free to contact me.