Head of the Visual Computing Lab Research Director at CNR-ISTI ISTI (in English: Institute for Computer Science and Technologies) is an Institute of the Italian National Research Council (CNR) located in Pisa, Italy. Paolo Cignoni got a permanent researcher position at IEI-CNR in 1996, a PhD in Computer Science at the University of Pisa in 1998, Senior Researcher in 2001 at ISTI-CNR, Research Director in 2010 and since April 2019 he leads the Visual Computing Lab.

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Research Activities

His research interests include the following fields of Computer Graphics:

• Geometry Processing
• Digital Fabrication
• 3D Scanning and Cultural Heritages
• Architectural Geometry

He has been engaged in several research projects (funded by EU and national agencies) concerned with: multiresolution data modeling and rendering, 3D scanning, surface reconstruction, interactive graphics and virtual reality, scientific visualization, volume rendering. Cultural Heritage (CH) and Computer-Aided Medicine/Surgery are the main fields of application for the methodologies and technologies developed. He has given invited talks or tutorials in many international conferences.

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Publications

He published more than two hundred papers in international refereed journals/conferences/books, including papers in top conferences proceedings (ACM Siggraph, Eurographics, IEEE Visualization) and first-rank journals.

A complete list of recent papers is available on the Visual Computing Lab publications page.
Bibliometric addicts can find my h-index (~55) and more info on my google scholar page

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Software

Meshlab

MeshLab is an open source, portable, and extensible system for the processing and editing of unstructured 3D triangular meshes. It also supports processing of raw data produced with 3D digitization tools/devices, providing a set of tools for editing, cleaning, healing, inspecting, rendering, texturing and converting this kind of models.

HexaLab

HexaLab is a WebGL application for real time visualization, exploration and assessment of hexahedral meshes. This visualization tool targets both users and scholars that may use HexaLab to perform a detailed analysis of the mesh structure, isolating weak points and testing new solutions to improve on the state of the art and generate high quality images. The system also offers immediate access to a repository with meshes produced with the most recent techniques for hex mesh generation..

VCG library

The Visualization and Computer Graphics Library (VCG for short) is a open source portable C++ templated library for manipulation, processing and displaying with OpenGL of triangle meshes. The library, composed by more than 150k lines of code, is released under the GPL license, and it is the base of most of the software tools of the Visual Computing Lab.

Teaching

• 2024/25 3D GEOMETRIC MODELING & PROCESSING (Laurea Magistrale in Informatica 758AA)
• 2023/24 3D GEOMETRIC MODELING & PROCESSING (Laurea Magistrale in Informatica 758AA)
• 2022/23 3D GEOMETRIC MODELING & PROCESSING (Laurea Magistrale in Informatica 758AA)
• 2021/22 3D GEOMETRIC MODELING & PROCESSING (Laurea Magistrale in Informatica 758AA)
• 2020 Shape Analysis and Geometry Processing 2020 (for the Computer Science and Mathematics PhD School)
• 2019/20 Scientific and large data visualization (Laurea Magistrale in Informatica 656AA )
• 2018/19 Scientific and large data visualization (Laurea Magistrale in Informatica 656AA )
• 2018 Shape Analysis and Geometry Processing 2018 (for the Computer Science and Mathematics PhD School)
• Scientific and large data visualization 2017/18 (Laurea Magistrale in Informatica 656AA )
• FGT 16-17 Fondamenti di Grafica Tridimensionale (Laurea Magistrale in Informatica 342AA)
• FGT 15-16 Fondamenti di Grafica Tridimensionale (Laurea Magistrale in Informatica 342AA)
• FGT 14-15 Fondamenti di Grafica Tridimensionale (AA545) (342AA)
• FGT 12-13 Fondamenti di Grafica Tridimensionale (AA545) (342AA)
• FGT 11-12 Fondamenti di Grafica Tridimensionale (AA545)
• FGT 10-11 Fondamenti di Grafica Tridimensionale (AA545)
• FGT 09-10 Fondamenti di Grafica Tridimensionale (AA545)
• FGT 08-09 Fondamenti di Grafica Tridimensionale (AA545)
• FGT 07-08 Fondamenti di Grafica Tridimensionale (AA545)
• FGT 06-07 Fondamenti di Grafica Tridimensionale (AA545)
  
• FGT 05-06 Fondamenti di Grafica Tridimensionale(AA545)
• Geometric Mesh Processing (for the phd programme)
• CI 04-05 Costruzione di Interfacce (AA027)
• CI 03-04 Costruzione di Interfacce (AA027)
• CI 02-03 Costruzione di Interfacce (AA027)
• IUF (2001-2002) Interazione Uomo-Macchina: Fondamenti di Computer Graphics
• Ciclo di Seminari Dottorato 2000 su "Grafica Tridimensionale"
• IUF (2000-2001) Interazione Uomo-Macchina: Fondamenti di Computer Graphics
• IUF (1999-2000) Interazione Uomo-Macchina: Fondamenti di Computer Graphics
• IUF (1998-1999) Interazione Uomo-Macchina: Fondamenti di Computer Graphics
• IUP (1997-1998) Interazione Uomo-Macchina: Programmazione di interfacce grafiche

Awards

• 2022 Member of the ACM Siggraph Academy since 2022
  First Italian to be selected for being a member of ACM SIGGRAPH Academy: "For contributions in geometry processing and computational fabrication, and for releasing important open-source tools".
• 2021 Eurographics Outstanding Technical Contributions Award 2021
  Award given for his "highly influential and is genuinely pioneering research. His primary technical contributions cover the entire 3D content creation pipeline, from scanning, analyzing, and processing 3D geometry to visualizing and digitally fabricating geometric models."
• 2021 IEEE VIS Test of Time Award for the 2006 paper Ambient Occlusion and Edge Cueing for Enhancing Real Time Molecular Visualization. Marco Tarini, Paolo Cignoni, Claudio Montani., The IEEE VIS Test of Time Award is an accolade given to recognize articles published at previous conferences whose contents are still vibrant and useful today and have had a major impact and influence within and beyond the visualization community.
• 2021 SGP Dataset Award for HexaLab, a WebGL application for real time visualization, exploration and assessment of hexahedral meshes. Award given "to encourage and recognize the importance of the distribution of high-quality datasets on which geometry processing algorithms are tested".
• 2017 SGP Software Award for MeshLab, the open source, portable, and extensible system for the processing and editing of unstructured 3D triangular meshes. Award given "to recognize researchers in the field who have contributed to the scientific progress in Geometry Processing by making their software available to the public such that others can reproduce the results and further build on them in their own research work".
• 2016 Fellow of the Eurographics Association,
  "Paolo Cignoni was elected as a Fellow of the Association in recognition of:
  • outstanding research contributions in visualization and geometry processing, many of those being presented at EG events;
  • leadership of open source projects in CG that help building a community;
  • service to the Eurographics community as executive board member, PhD awards committee member, Eurographics papers chair, IPC member of EG conferences and symposia, editorial member of CGF.
• First Eurographics "Young Researcher" Award 2004, “In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the development and use of advanced multiresolution techniques in computer graphics and scientific visualization”.
  
• Best Paper Award 2005, Computer & Graphics Journal (Pergamon Press - Elsevier), Dec. 2006, Vol. 25(6), pp. III-V, for the paper: P. Cignoni, R. Scopigno, M. Tarini, "A Simple Normal Enhancement Technique for Interactive Non-Photorealistic Renderings", Computers & Graphics
• Second Best Paper Award Eurographics 2003, for the paper: P. Cignoni, F. Ganovelli, E. Gobbetti, F. Marton, F. Ponchio, R. Scopigno, "BDAM - Batched Dynamic Adaptive Meshes for High Performance Terrain Visualization"
• Best Paper Award 2000, Computer & Graphics Journal (Pergamon Press - Elsevier), Dec. 2001, Vol. 25(6), pp. III-V, for the paper: P. Cignoni, C. Montani, F. Ganovelli, R. Scopigno, "Reconstruction of Topologically Correct and Adaptive Trilinear Isosurfaces", Computers & Graphics, Pergamon Press, Vol.24, no. 3, May 2000, pp.399-418.
• Second Best Paper Award (and Best Student Paper), Eurographics 2000, for the paper: M. Tarini, P. Cignoni, C. Rocchini, R. Scopigno, "Real Time, Accurate, Multi-Featured Rendering of Bump Mapped Surfaces", Computer Graphics Forum, NCC Blackwell, vol. 19(3), 2000, pp. 119-130.
• Second Best Paper Award 1998, Computer & Graphics Journal (Pergamon Press - Elsevier), Dec. 1999, Vol. 24(1), pp.3-4, for the paper: P. Cignoni, C. Montani, R. Scopigno, "A Comparison of Mesh Simplification Algorithm", Computers & Graphics, Pergamon Press, Vol. 22(1), 1998, pp. 37-54.

Editorial and professional activity

• IEEE Transaction of Visualization and Computer Graphics (2011-2016)
• Computer Graphics Forum (2010-2015)
• ACM Journal on Computers and Cultural Heritage (2007-2014)
• The Visual Computer (2006-2015)
• Computer and Graphics (2009-2011)

• 2019 Siggraph, IEEE Visualization, Eurographics, EG Short (as co-chair), EG Symposium on Geometry Processing (as co-organizer)
• 2018 Siggraph, IEEE Visualization, EG Symposium on Geometry Processing
• 2015 Siggraph Asia, Eurographics
• 2014 Eurographics, EG Symposium on Geometry Processing
• 2013 Eurographics (as Advisory Board), Visualization, EG Symposium on Geometry Processing
• 2012 Siggraph, Siggraph Asia, Eurographics (as co-chair), Visualization, EG Symposium on Geometry Processing
• 2011 Siggraph, Visualization, Eurographics, EG SGP, Pacific Graphics, VAST
• 2010 EG Symposium on Rendering, EG Symposium on Geometry Processing, Pacific Graphics, VAST, CAA
• 2009 Eurographics, EG Symposium on Rendering, EG Symposium on Geometry Processing, Pacific Graphics, VAST
• 2008 Siggraph, Eurographics, Pacific Graphics, VAST
• 2007 Siggraph, Pacific Graphics, EG Workshop on Parallel Graphics and Visualization, VAST
• 2006 Eurographics, EG Workshop on Parallel Graphics and Visualization, VAST
• 2005 Eurographics, Visualization, VAST, ACM Symposium on Solid and Physical Modeling