RGL
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Wenzel Jakob

BC 364
Station 14
CH-1015 Lausanne
Switzerland

I am an as­so­ci­ate pro­fess­or lead­ing the Real­ist­ic Graph­ics Lab at EPFL's School of Com­puter and Com­mu­nic­a­tion Sci­ences.

My re­search re­volves around in­verse graph­ics, ap­pear­ance mod­el­ing and phys­ic­ally based ren­der­ing al­gorithms. The mo­tiv­at­ing idea is eas­ily ex­plained: if one could back­propag­ate de­riv­at­ives through a ren­der­ing al­gorithm, then it should be pos­sible to em­ploy a vari­ant of gradi­ent des­cent to run a ren­der­ing al­gorithm “in re­verse” and re­con­struct the world from im­ages or oth­er kinds of data. This turns out to be harder than one would think, which makes it an in­ter­est­ing re­search top­ic. I also en­joy work­ing on com­pilers + sys­tems and tinker­ing with op­tic­al as­sem­blies in our meas­ure­ment lab. I would like to build a truly ro­bust and gen­er­al “Tensor­Flow” for phys­ic­ally real­ist­ic in­verse graph­ics and con­nect it to use­ful ap­plic­a­tions in dif­fer­ent sci­entif­ic do­mains.

I have re­ceived the ACM SIGGRAPH Sig­ni­fic­ant Re­search­er award, the Euro­graph­ics Young Re­search­er Award, and an ERC Start­ing Grant. My group de­vel­ops the Mit­suba ren­der­er, a re­search-ori­ented ren­der­ing sys­tem, and I am one of the au­thors of the third and fourth edi­tions of Phys­ic­ally Based Ren­der­ing: From The­ory To Im­ple­ment­a­tion. As part of my re­search, I have cre­ated widely used open source frame­works, in­clud­ing py­bind11, In­stant Meshes (SGP Soft­ware Award re­cip­i­ent), NanoGUI, nan­o­bind, and En­oki.

See the fol­low­ing two videos for an over­view of some of our on­go­ing work on Mit­suba 3 (the sys­tem), dif­fer­en­ti­able ren­der­ing (the al­gorithms) and ma­ter­i­al ac­quis­i­tion (op­tic­al meas­ur­ments done at EPFL). You can also find me on Mas­to­don and Twit­ter.

Bio: I com­pleted my Ph.D. at the De­part­ment of Com­puter Sci­ence at Cor­nell Uni­versity, where I was ad­vised by Steve Marschner. Be­fore com­ing to EPFL, I was a Mar­ie Curie postdoc­tor­al fel­low at ETH Zürich's In­ter­act­ive Geo­metry Lab work­ing with Olga Sork­ine-Hornung.

Peer-reviewing conflicts

Automatically generated from publications in the last two years: Diego Gutierrez, Adrian Jarabo, Alexander Keller, Steve Marschner, Thomas Müller, Baptiste Nicolet, Jan Novák, Nicolas Roussel, Fabrice Rousselle, Delio Vicini, Ekrem Fatih Yilmazer, and Ziyi Zhang.

Teaching

Wenzel Jakob, Ziyi Zhang, Ekrem Yilmazer, and Benjamin Chislett
Spring 2024
Wenzel Jakob, Miguel Crespo, Baptiste Nicolet, Ziyi Zhang, Ekrem Yilmazer, and Vishal Pani
Spring 2023
Wenzel Jakob, Miguel Crespo, Baptiste Nicolet, Ziyi Zhang, Andrei Atanov, and Dongqing Wang
Fall 2022
Wenzel Jakob, Miguel Crespo, Ziyi Zhang, and Baptiste Nicolet
Spring 2022
Wenzel Jakob, Baptiste Nicolet, Martin Nicolas Everaert, and Krzysztof Lis
Fall 2021
Wenzel Jakob, Delio Vicini, and Baptiste Nicolet
Spring 2021
Wenzel Jakob, Merlin Nimier-David, Delio Vicini, and Tizian Zeltner
Fall 2020
Wenzel Jakob, Delio Vicini, and Tizian Zeltner
Spring 2020
Wenzel Jakob, Arash Pourhabibi, and Siddharth Gupta
Fall 2019
Wenzel Jakob, Merlin Nimier-David, and Delio Vicini
Spring 2019
Wenzel Jakob, Helge Rhodin, Merlin Nimier-David, Tizian Zeltner, and Delio Vicini
Fall 2018
Wenzel Jakob, Tizian Zeltner, and Merlin Nimier-David
Spring 2018
Wenzel Jakob, Tizian Zeltner, Jan Bednarík, and Sami Arpa
Fall 2017
Wenzel Jakob, Tizian Zeltner, Michalina Pacholska, and Leonardo Impett
Spring 2017
Wenzel Jakob, Andreas Finke, Bugra Tekin, Julia Proskurnia, and Leonardo Impett
Fall 2016
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Publications

Ekrem Fatih Yilmazer, Delio Vicini, and Wenzel Jakob
To appear in Trans­ac­tions on Graph­ics (Pro­ceed­ings of SIG­GRAPH Asia 2024)
Ziyi Zhang, Nicolas Roussel, and Wenzel Jakob
In Trans­ac­tions on Graph­ics (Pro­ceed­ings of SIG­GRAPH Asia 2023)
Baptiste Nicolet, Fabrice Rousselle, Jan Novák, Alexander Keller, Wenzel Jakob, and Thomas Müller
In Trans­ac­tions on Graph­ics (Pro­ceed­ings of SIG­GRAPH 2023)
Wenzel Jakob, Sébastien Speierer, Nicolas Roussel, and Delio Vicini
In Trans­ac­tions on Graph­ics (Pro­ceed­ings of SIG­GRAPH 2022)
Delio Vicini, Sébastien Speierer, and Wenzel Jakob
In Trans­ac­tions on Graph­ics (Pro­ceed­ings of SIG­GRAPH 2022)
Merlin Nimier-David, Thomas Müller, Alexander Keller, and Wenzel Jakob
In Trans­ac­tions on Graph­ics (Pro­ceed­ings of SIG­GRAPH 2022)
Baptiste Nicolet, Alec Jacobson, and Wenzel Jakob
In ACM Trans­ac­tions on Graph­ics (Pro­ceed­ings of SIG­GRAPH Asia 2021)
Delio Vicini, Wenzel Jakob, and Anton Kaplanyan
In Trans­ac­tions on Graph­ics (Pro­ceed­ings of SIG­GRAPH 2021)
Tizian Zeltner, Sébastien Speierer, Iliyan Georgiev, and Wenzel Jakob
In Trans­ac­tions on Graph­ics (Pro­ceed­ings of SIG­GRAPH 2021)
Delio Vicini, Sébastien Speierer, and Wenzel Jakob
In Trans­ac­tions on Graph­ics (Pro­ceed­ings of SIG­GRAPH 2021)
Merlin Nimier-David, Zhao Dong, Wenzel Jakob, and Anton Kaplanyan
In Pro­ceed­ings of Euro­graph­ics Sym­posi­um on Ren­der­ing (DL-only Track)
Guillaume Loubet, Tizian Zeltner, Nicolas Holzschuch, and Wenzel Jakob
In Trans­ac­tions on Graph­ics (Pro­ceed­ings of SIG­GRAPH Asia 2020)
Ibón Guillén, Julio Marco, Diego Gutierrez, Wenzel Jakob, and Adrian Jarabo
In Trans­ac­tions on Graph­ics (Pro­ceed­ings of SIG­GRAPH Asia 2020)
Merlin Nimier-David, Sébastien Speierer, Benoît Ruiz, and Wenzel Jakob
In Trans­ac­tions on Graph­ics (Pro­ceed­ings of SIG­GRAPH 2020)
Tizian Zeltner, Iliyan Georgiev, and Wenzel Jakob
In Trans­ac­tions on Graph­ics (Pro­ceed­ings of SIG­GRAPH 2020)
Seung-Hwan Baek, Tizian Zeltner, Hyun Jin Ku, Inseung Hwang, Xin Tong, Wenzel Jakob, and Min H. Kim
In Trans­ac­tions on Graph­ics (Pro­ceed­ings of SIG­GRAPH 2020)
Stavros Diolatzis, Adrien Gruson, Wenzel Jakob, Derek Nowrouzezahrai, and George Drettakis
In In Com­puter Graph­ics For­um (Pro­ceed­ings of Euro­graph­ics Sym­posi­um on Ren­der­ing 2020)
Gilles Rainer, Abhijeet Ghosh, Wenzel Jakob, and Tim Weyrich
In Com­puter Graph­ics For­um (Pro­ceed­ings of Euro­graph­ics 2020)
Merlin Nimier-David, Delio Vicini, Tizian Zeltner, and Wenzel Jakob
In Trans­ac­tions on Graph­ics (Pro­ceed­ings of SIG­GRAPH Asia 2019)
Guillaume Loubet, Nicolas Holzschuch, and Wenzel Jakob
In Trans­ac­tions on Graph­ics (Pro­ceed­ings of SIG­GRAPH Asia 2019)
Alisa Jung, Alexander Wilkie, Johannes Hanika, Wenzel Jakob, and Carsten Dachsbacher
In Com­puter Graph­ics For­um (Pro­ceed­ings of Euro­graph­ics Sym­posi­um on Ren­der­ing 2019)
Delio Vicini, Vladlen Koltun, and Wenzel Jakob
In Trans­ac­tions on Graph­ics (Pro­ceed­ings of SIG­GRAPH 2019)
Wenzel Jakob and Johannes Hanika
In Com­puter Graph­ics For­um (Pro­ceed­ings of Euro­graph­ics 2019)
Gilles Rainer, Wenzel Jakob, Abhijeet Ghosh, and Tim Weyrich
In Com­puter Graph­ics For­um (Pro­ceed­ings of Euro­graph­ics 2019)
Jonathan Dupuy and Wenzel Jakob
In Trans­ac­tions on Graph­ics (Pro­ceed­ings of SIG­GRAPH Asia 2018)
Tizian Zeltner and Wenzel Jakob
In Trans­ac­tions on Graph­ics (Pro­ceed­ings of SIG­GRAPH 2018)
David Körner, Jamie Portsmouth, and Wenzel Jakob
In Euro­graph­ics Sym­posi­um on Ren­der­ing (2018) - Ex­per­i­ment­al Ideas & Im­ple­ment­a­tions
Sebastian Werner, Zdravko Velinov, Wenzel Jakob, and Matthias Hullin
In Trans­ac­tions on Graph­ics (Pro­ceed­ings of SIG­GRAPH Asia 2017)
Benedikt Bitterli, Wenzel Jakob, Jan Novák, and Wojciech Jarosz
In ACM Trans­ac­tions on Graph­ics (2017), presen­ted at SIG­GRAPH 2018
Xifeng Gao, Wenzel Jakob, Marco Tarini, and Daniele Panozzo
In ACM Trans­ac­tions on Graph­ics (Pro­ceed­ings of SIG­GRAPH 2017)
Nico Schertler, Marco Tarini, Wenzel Jakob, Misha Kazhdan, Stefan Gumhold, and Daniele Panozzo
In ACM Trans­ac­tions on Graph­ics (Pro­ceed­ings of SIG­GRAPH 2017)
Wenzel Jakob
Book chapter Monte Carlo and Quasi-Monte Carlo Meth­ods (Spring­er Pro­ceed­ings in Math­em­at­ics & Stat­ist­ics)
Wenzel Jakob and Steve Marschner
In Com­mu­nic­a­tions of the ACM (Novem­ber 2015)
Wenzel Jakob, Marco Tarini, Daniele Panozzo, and Olga Sorkine-Hornung
In ACM Trans­ac­tions on Graph­ics (Pro­ceed­ings of SIG­GRAPH Asia 2015)
Tzu-Mao Li, Jaakko Lehtinen, Ravi Ramamoorthi, Wenzel Jakob, and Frédo Durand
In ACM Trans­ac­tions on Graph­ics (Pro­ceed­ings of SIG­GRAPH Asia 2015)
Henning Zimmer, Fabrice Rousselle, Wenzel Jakob, Oliver Wang, David Adler, Wojciech Jarosz, Olga Sorkine-Hornung, and Alexander Sorkine-Hornung
In Com­puter Graph­ics For­um (Pro­ceed­ings of Euro­graph­ics Sym­posi­um on Ren­der­ing 2015)
Shuang Zhao, Wenzel Jakob, Steve Marschner, and Kavita Bala
In Com­mu­nic­a­tions of the ACM (Novem­ber 2014)
Wenzel Jakob, Eugene D'Eon, Otto Jakob, and Steve Marschner
In ACM Trans­ac­tions on Graph­ics (Pro­ceed­ings of SIG­GRAPH 2014)
Wenzel Jakob, Miloš Hašan, Ling-Qi Yan, Jason Lawrence, Ravi Ramamoorthi, and Steve Marschner
In ACM Trans­ac­tions on Graph­ics (Pro­ceed­ings of SIG­GRAPH 2014)
Ling-Qi Yan, Miloš Hašan, Wenzel Jakob, Jason Lawrence, Steve Marschner, and Ravi Ramamoorthi
In ACM Trans­ac­tions on Graph­ics (Pro­ceed­ings of SIG­GRAPH 2014)
Wenzel Jakob and Steve Marschner
In ACM Trans­ac­tions on Graph­ics (Pro­ceed­ings of SIG­GRAPH 2012)
Shuang Zhao, Wenzel Jakob, Steve Marschner, and Kavita Bala
In ACM Trans­ac­tions on Graph­ics (Pro­ceed­ings of SIG­GRAPH 2012)
Shuang Zhao, Wenzel Jakob, Steve Marschner, and Kavita Bala
In ACM Trans­ac­tions on Graph­ics (Pro­ceed­ings of SIG­GRAPH 2011)
Wenzel Jakob, Christian Regg, and Wojciech Jarosz
In Com­puter Graph­ics For­um (Pro­ceed­ings of Euro­graph­ics Sym­posi­um on Ren­der­ing 2011)
Marios Papas, Wojciech Jarosz, Wenzel Jakob, Szymon Rusinkiewicz, Wojciech Matusik, and Tim Weyrich
In Com­puter Graph­ics For­um (Pro­ceed­ings of Euro­graph­ics)
Wenzel Jakob, Jonathan T. Moon, Adam Arbree, Kavita Bala, and Steve Marschner
In ACM Trans­ac­tions on Graph­ics (Pro­ceed­ings of SIG­GRAPH 2010)
Wenzel Jakob, Jonathan T. Moon, and Steve Marschner
In ACM Trans­ac­tions on Graph­ics (Pro­ceed­ings of SIG­GRAPH Asia 2009)
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Software

Benoît Ruiz, Tizian Zeltner, and Wenzel Jakob
Matt Pharr, Wenzel Jakob, and Greg Humphreys
Wenzel Jakob, Jason Rhinelander, and Dean Moldovan