If you are interested in this position, please contact Dr. Chenfanfu Jiang at
Hi Prof. Zhang,
Greetings! I'm an assistant professor of University of Pennsylvania Computer and Information Science department (http://web.cs.ucla.edu/~cffjiang/). I'm accepting research summer intern applications on physics based simulation, particularly MPM.
I know you have been doing very related work. If you have recommended students, please let me know!
Project description: (http://cg.cis.upenn.edu/summer_research.html)
Particle based methods such as Position Based Dynamics (PBD) and Material Point Method (MPM) have been getting increasingly popular in physics based animation due to their simplicity and power in representing complex topology and modeling accurate material behaviors. The goal of the summer project is to explore cutting edge research directions in these methods. Topics may include (but not limited to) (1) Physical modeling of material discontinuity (fracture, crack); (2) Understanding and accurately simulating chemical reactions (such as corrosion, rusting) for animation; (3) Imposing hard constraints (such as incompressibility and rigidity) in a hybrid particle solver; (4) Fully implicit coupling between different particle solvers; (5) Non-convex optimization techniques for robustness and efficiency of particle based simulation methods; (6) Artistic control of granular material simulation etc. The student learns to design robust solid/fluid solvers and develops new features and experiments with research ideas. The student will also work with 3D software such as Houdini for modeling and rendering simulation geometry. C++ experience is required. Basic multivariable calculus and linear algebra are required. Knowledge in continuum mechanics, numerical methods, finite element method, nonlinear optimization, scientific computing are strongly recommended. Research accomplishments lead to publications and collaborations with animation/visual effect industry on state-of-art simulation techniques.
Funding is highly limited. Self support on living expense will be approximately $5000 for the summer.