My research focuses on concepts and practical algorithms for the creation and manipulation of digital shape representation. I am especially interested in how geometry processing intersects with artistic modelling and digital fabrication. My primary goal is to push the boundaries of current industrial production pipelines by exploiting the theoretical foundations in geometry processing. This includes mesh parametrization, surface abstraction and global optimization applied to the entertainment industry, digital fabrication and architectural geometry.


Short BIO

September 2017 Senior Lecturer at UTS Sydney

January 2013
Permanent researcher   at Visual Computing Lab at cnr of Pisa in Italy.

May 2010 Back to Italy, post-doc  at Visual Computing Lab at cnr of Pisa in Italy.

November 2009 – April 2010 Visiting Academic at Media Research Laboratory, New York University New York City,
NY,USA under the supervision of prof. Denis Zorin and prof. Olga Sorkine
 
May 2009  Got the PHD in Computer Science at the university of Genova under the supervision of Fabio Ganovelli, Paolo Cignoni and Enrico Puppo.

September 2006 – February 2007 Visiting PHD at Computer Graphics Lab, ETH Zurich, Switzerland, under the supervision of prof. Miguel A. Otaduy and prof. Markus Gross

May 2004 Got my Master Degree, Computer Science, Dipartimento di informatica, University of Pisa. And  joined the Visual Computing Lab at cnr of Pisa in Italy.

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Recent Major Projects


ACM SIGGRAPH 2020LoopyCuts: Practical Feature-Preserving Block Decomposition

We present a new fully automatic block-decomposition algorithm for feature-preserving, strongly hex-dominant meshing, that yields results with a drastically larger percentage of hex elements than prior art. We decompose the solid into coarse blocks by iteratively cutting it with surfaces bounded by these loops. The vast majority of the obtained blocks can be turned into hexahedral cells via simple midpoint subdivision.



ACM SIGGRAPH 2020Reinforcement of General Shell Structures

We introduce an efficient method for designing shell reinforcements of minimal weight.  Our method includes new algorithms for determining the layout of reinforcement structure elements, and an efficient algorithm to optimize their shape, minimizing a non-linear non-convex functional at a fraction of the cost and with better optimality compared to standard solvers.



CGF 2020 : Pacific GraphicsAutomatic Design of Cable-Tensioned Glass Shells

We propose an optimization algorithm for the design of post-tensioned architectural shell structures, composed of triangular glass panels, in which glass has a load-bearing function.



 SIGGRAPH ASIA 2019QuadMixer: Layout Preserving Blending of Quadrilateral Meshes

We propose QuadMixer, a novel interactive technique to compose quad mesh components preserving the majority of the original layouts. The resulting mesh preserves the designed edge ow that, by construction, is captured and incorporated to the new quads as much as possible. We present our technique in an interactive tool to show its usability and robustness.


ACM SIGGRAPH  2019 Volume-Aware Design of composite molds 

We propose a novel technique for the automatic design of molds to cast highly complex shapes. The technique generates composite, two-piece molds.  Our approach can robustly handle thin protruding features and intertwined topologies that have caused previous methods to fail. We compare our results with state of the art techniques, and we demonstrate the casting of shapes with extremely complex geometry.


ACM SIGGRAPH ASIA 2018 FlexMaps: Computational Design of Flat Flexible Shells

FlexMaps can be fabricated from an almost rigid material, such as wood or plastic, and are made  exible in a controlled way by using computationally designed spiraling microstructures.

SIGGRAPH 2018 Metamolds: computational design of silicone molds

Metamolds automatically define the cuts that are needed to extract the cast object from the silicone mold. The shape of metamolds is designed through a novel segmentation technique, which takes into account both geometric and topological constraints involved in the process of mold casting.

Computer Graphics Forum 2017 State of the Art on Stylized Fabrication

Digital fabrication devices are powerful tools for creating tangible reproductions of 3D digital models. Most available printing technologies aim at producing an accurate copy of a tridimensional shape. However, fabrication technologies can also be used to create a stylistic representation of a digital shape. We refer to this class of methods as "stylized fabrication methods."

ACM SIGGRAPH ASIA 2017 Position-Based Tensegrity Design

We propose a novel framework for the computational design of tensegrity structures, which are constructions made of struts and cables, held rigid by continuous tension between the elements. Tensegrities are known to be difficult to design. Existing design methods are often restricted to using symmetric or templated configurations, limiting the design space to simple constructions.

SIGGRAPH ASIA 2016 FlexMolds: Automatic Design of Flexible Shells for Molding

We present FlexMolds, a novel computational approach to automatically design flexible, reusable molds that, once 3D printed, allow us to physically fabricate, by means of liquid casting, multiple copies of complex shapes with rich surface details and complex topology. The approach to design such flexible molds is based on a greedy bottom-up search of possible cuts over an object, evaluating for each possible cut the feasibility of the resulting mold.



PACIFIC GRAPHICS 2016 Tracing Field-Coherent Quad Layouts

Given a cross field over a triangulated surface we present a practical and robust method to compute a field aligned coarse quad layout over the surface. The method works directly on a triangle mesh without requiring any parametrization and it is based on a new technique for tracing field-coherent geodesic paths directly on a triangle mesh.




SIGGRAPH 2015 Elastic Textures for Additive Fabrication

We introduce elastic textures: a set of parametric, tileable, printable, cubic patterns achieving a broad range of elastic material properties: the softest pattern is over a thousand times softer than the stiffest, and the Poisson ratios range from below zero to nearly 0.5. Using a combinatorial search over topologies followed by shape optimization, we explore a wide space of wireframe-like, symmetric 3D patterns to obtain a small family.


SIGGRAPH 2015 Data-Driven Interactive Quadrangulation 

We propose an interactive quadrangulation method based on a large collection of patterns that are learned from models manually designed by artists. The patterns are distilled into compact quadrangulation rules and stored in a database. At run-time, the user draws strokes to define patches and desired edge flows, and the system queries the database to extract fitting patterns to tessellate the sketches' interiors...

EUROGRAPHICS 2015 Statics Aware Grid Shells

We introduce a framework for the generation of polygonal grid-shell architectural structures, whose topology is designed in order to excel in static performances....



ACM SIGGRAPH 2014 Robust Field-aligned Global Parametrization

We present a robust method for computing locally bijective global parametrizations aligned with a given cross-field. The singularities of the parametrization in general agree with singularities of the field, except in a small number of cases when several additional cones need to be added in a controlled way.

ACM SIGGRAPH Asia 2014Field-Aligned Mesh Joinery

 
Mesh joinery is an innovative method to produce illustrative shape approxi- mations suitable for fabrication. Mesh joinery is capable of producing com- plex fabricable structures in an efficient and visually pleasing manner. We represent an input geometry as a set of planar pieces arranged to compose a rigid structure, by exploiting an efficient slit mechanism. Since slices are planar, to fabricate them a standard 2D cutting system is enough. We automatically arrange slices according to a smooth cross field defined over the surface. Cross fields allow representing global features that char- acterize the appearance of the shape. Slice placement conforms to specific manufacturing constraints.