Research and Publications

My research themes focus on computer graphics and visualization techniques. Themes we are currently exploring, or have explored in the past, include: global illumination, photo-realistic rendering algorithms, physically-based rendering, image-based rendering & relighting, alternative geometry representations, point-based graphics, intuitive control for fluid simulations, procedural modeling, BRDF models, texture synthesis, procedural noise functions, voxel-based graphics, visibility algorithms, acceleration techniques for ray tracing, participating media, machine learning for rendering algorithms.

Research profiles:

Papers and publications:

Books:

Positions as (associate) editor at journals:

    • Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Vizualization and Computer Graphics (member of editorial board), January 2006 − December 2009.

    • Associate Editor for ACM Transactions on Graphics (member of Editiorial Board), October 2009 − October 2012.

    • Associate Editor for Computer Graphics Forum (Editorial Board), January 2011 – December 2013.

Program Chair:

  • Co-Chair for Eurographics 2009 Papers Program (with Marc Stamminger, University of Erlangen)

  • Co-chair for Eurographics STAR 2008 (with Theo Theoharis, University of Athens), Crete, Greece.

  • Program Chair (with Kavita Bala, Cornell University) of the Eurographics Symposium on Rendering 2005, Konstanz, June 2005. Organizing chairs: Oliver Deussen (Univeristy of Konstanz) and Alexander Keller (Univerisity of Ulm)

Organizing Chair:

    • Organizing chair (with dr. ir. Frank Suykens-De Laet) of Eurographics Symposium on Rendering, held in Leuven, June 2003. Program chairs: Per Christensen (PIXAR Inc.) and Daniel Cohen-Or (University of Tel-Aviv)

Member of International Program Committees (I might have missed a few :-))

    • SIGGRAPH 2022 Conflicts of Interest Coordinator

    • SIGGRAPH ASIA 2021 Conflicts of Interest Coordinator

    • Eurographics Symposium on Rendering 2020 Program Committee (London, UK, July 2020)

    • Eurographics Symposium on Rendering 2019 Program Committee (Strasbourg, France, July 2019)

    • European Conference on Visual Perception 2019 (Leuven)

    • Eurographics Symposium on Rendering 2018 Program Committee (Karlsruhe, Germany, July 2018)

    • Eurographics 2018 STAR (State of the Art Reports) Committee Member (Delft, The Netherlands, April 2018)

    • SEFI Anual Conference 2017 - "Education Excellence for Sustainable Development" (Azores, Portugal, September 2017)

    • Eurographics Symposium on Rendering 2015

    • Eurographics 2015 Paper Committee (Zürich, Switzerland)

    • SIGGRAPH 2014 Paper Committee (Vancouver, 2014)

    • Eurographics Symposium on Rendering 2014 (Lyon, 2014)

    • SIGGRAPH 2013 Paper Committee (Anaheim, 2013)

    • Eurographics 2013 Paper Committee (Girona, 2013)

    • Eurographics Symposium on Rendering 2011 Papers Committee (Vienna, June 2011) EUROGRAPHICS 2011 (Bangor, Wales, April 2011)

    • SIGGRAPH 2010 (Los Angeles, July 2010)

    • Afrigraph 2010 (June 2010, Franschhoek, South Africa)

    • Eurographics Symposium on Rendering 2010 Papers Committee (Saarbruecken, June 2010)

    • Eurographics 2009 Short Papers Program (Muenchen, May 2009)

    • Eurographics 2009 Main Conference (co_chair, Muenchen, May 2009)

    • International Conference on Multimedia & Expo Track chair (Hannover, June 2008)

    • Eurographics Symposium on Rendering 2008 Papers Committee (Sarajevo, June 2008)

    • Eurographics 2008 Papers Committee (Crete, Greece, April 2008)

    • Vision, Modeling, Visualization 2007 Program Committee (Saarbrücken)

    • Eurographics Symposium on Rendering 2007 Papers Committee (Grenoble, June 2007)

    • CASA 2007 International Conference on Computer Animation and Social Agents (Hasselt, Juni 2007)

    • Interactive Ray Tracing Papers 2006 Committee, Salt Lake City, September 2006

    • Eurographics 2006 Papers Committee (Vienna, September 2006)

    • ACM SIGGRAPH 2006 Papers Committee (Boston, July 2005)

    • Symposium on Point-based Graphics 2006 (Boston, July 2006)

    • Eurographics Symposium on Rendering 2006 (Cyprus, June 2006)

    • Computer Graphics Theory and Applications (GRAPP) 2006 (Setubal, Portugal, February 2006)

    • Afrigraph 2006 (Capetown, January 2006)

    • Virtual Systems and Multimedia (VSMM) 2005 (Gent, October 2005)

    • ACM SIGGRAPH 2005 Papers Committee (Los Angeles, August 2005)

    • Symposium on Point-based Graphics 2005 (New York, June 2005)

    • Eurographics Symposium on Rendering 2004 (Norkopping, June 2004)

    • Afrigraph 2004 (Stellenbosch, November 2004)

    • Symposium on Point Rendering 2004 (Zürich, June 2004)

    • Eurographics 2002 Short Papers and Posters (Saarbrücken, September 2002)

    • 10th Eurographics Workshop on Rendering (Barcelona, June 1999)

    • International Association of Science and Technology for Development (IASTED) Computer Graphics and Imaging (Halifax, June 1998)

    • 9th Eurographics Workshop on Rendering (Vienna, June 1998)

Finished Ph.D. Theses (as promotor)

    • Vincent Masselus (2004) A Practical Framework for Fixed Viewpoint Image-Based Relighting

    • Pieter Peers (2006) Sampling Reflectance Functions for Image-Based Relighting

    • Bart Adams (2006) Point-Based Modeling, Animation and Rendering of Dynamic Objects

    • Karl Vom Berge (2007) Compact Factored Representations for Reflectance of Complex Materials

    • Ares Lagae (2007) Tile-based Methods in Computer Graphics

    • Muath Sabha (2008) Sample-Based Texture Synthesis

    • Peter Vangorp (2009) Human Visual Perception of Materials in Realistic Computer Graphics

    • Toon Lenaerts (2009) Unified Particle Simulations and Interactions in Computer Animation

    • (with prof. Pol Coppin) Dimitrios Biliouris (2010) Describing biophysical and optical characteristics of forests through computer modelling and visualisation

    • Jurgen Laurijssen (2011) Interactive Visualization of Glossy Reflections

    • (with prof. Peter Hanselaer) Fréderic Leloup (2012) New Methods and Models Improving the Prediction of Visual Gloss Perception

    • (with prof. Abram Aertsen) Sander Govers (2016) Functional phenotypic heterogeneity within stressed clonal populations of Escherichia coli

    • Tuur Stuyck (2017) Natural Media Simulation and Art-Directable Simulations for Computer Graphics

    • Niels Billen (2018) Improving Efficiency in Illumination Algorithms using Stochastic Visibility Evaluation and Line Sampling

I was member or reviewer for the following PhD juries (outside Belgium, I might have missed a few ...)

  • Reviewer of Ph.D. Thesis of Jan Novak, Karlsruhe Institue of Technology, promotor prof. dr. Carsten Dachsbacher, Spring 2014.

  • Member of Ph.D. Jury of Jacobus (Jacco) Bikker, "Ray Tracing in Real Time Games", Technische Universiteit Delft, November 2012, promotor prof. dr. ir . Erik Jansen

  • Examiner in the Doctoral Commitee of Timo Stich, "SpaceTime Interpolation Techniques", T.U.Carola Wilhelmina zu Braunschweig, April 2009, advisor prof. dr.ing. Marcus Magnor.

  • External Examiner for the Ph.D. of Abhijeet Ghosh, The University of British Columbia, June 2007, “Realistic Materials and Illumination Environments“, advisor prof. dr. Wolfgang Heidrich

  • Opponent for the Ph.D. of Janne Kontkanen, Helsinki University of Technology, February 2007, “Novel Illumination Algorithms for Offline and RealTime Rendering”, advisor prof. Lauri Savioja

  • Member of Ph.D. committee of Pascal Gautron, Université de Rennes, September 2006, “Cache de Luminance et cartes graphiques: une approche pour la simulation d’éclairage temps réel dans des scènes animées”, advisor prof. Kadi Bouatouch

... and inside Belgium, but outside KULeuven (I probably missed a few ...):

  • Member of Ph.D. Jury of Tom Cuypers, 'A Geometric Optics Approach to Simulating Light Wave Phenomena in Computer Graphics', Universiteit Hasselt, Mei 2012, promotor prof. dr. Philippe Bekaert

  • Member of Ph.D. committee of Bert De Decker, "Video Manipulation using External Cues", Universiteit Hasselt, March 2010, advisor prof. dr. Ph. Bekaert

  • Member of Ph.D. committee of Yannick Francken, "Mesostructure Acquisition With Planar Illuminants", Universiteit Hasselt, February 2010, advisor prof. dr. Ph. Bekaert, coadvisor prof. dr. Fr Van Reeth

  • Member of Ph.D. committee of Cosmin Ancuti, "Low Level Vision Features for Enhancing Images and Videos", Universiteit Hasselt, July 2009, advisor prof. dr. Ph. Bekaert.

  • Member of Ph.D. committee of Erik Hubo, “Compression Techniques for Massive Point Set Surfaces, with Application to Ray Tracing“, University of Hasselt, November 2007, advisor Prof. dr. Ph. Bekaert, coadvisor Prof. dr. Fr. Van Reeth

  • Member of Ph.D. committee of Denis Haumont, Université Libre de Bruxelles, May 2006, “Calcul et représentation de l’information de visibilité pour l’exploration interactive de scènes tridimensionelles“, advisor Prof N. Warzeé

  • Member of Ph.D. committee of Tom Mertens, Universiteit Hasselt, Juli 2005, "Efficient rendering of translucent objects using the diffusion approximation", advisor Prof. dr. Ph. Bekaert

Prizes for Master Theses, completed under my supervision

    • Bjorn Engelen, LUCIAD Prijs 2012 voor "Stochastische Visibiliteit in Rendering Algoritmes"

    • Bart Adams was awarded the "IBM Belgium Prijs voor Informatica" for his Ms. Thesis "Surfels als geometrische primitieven voor computer graphics", 2003

    • Ares Lagae was awarded the Jos Schepens Memorial Fund Prize for best Ms. Thesis, 2002

    • Liesbeth Roose was awarded the KVIV Ingenieursprijs Promotie 2003 (co-promotor samen met P. Suetens)

Other:

    • Global Illumination Compendium: a collection of useful formulas and equations I compiled, related to global illumination algorithms. Not updated anymore.

Fun: