CS Events

PhD Defense From Physical Modeling to Interactive Systems for Physics-Based Graphics Simulation
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Speaker: Chengguizi Han

Bio

Location : Zoom

Committee: 

Professor Mridul Aanjaneya 

Professor He Zhu

Professor Kostas Bekris

Professor Yin Yang (External)

Event Type: PhD Defense

Abstract: Physics-based simulation has produced a wide range of vivid and realistic results in computer graphics, supporting a range of simulation goals across different application domains. Achieving such realism often requires carefully designed physical models that capture coupled physical processes and fine-scale detail. This work begins with a Lagrangian particle-based formulation for simulating deformation, fracture, and diffusion in thin membrane-like structures, such as aluminum foil, rubbery films, and seaweed flakes. The proposed deformation-diffusion coupling framework generates detailed and heterogeneous fracture growth for both in-plane and out-of-plane motions, producing geometrically rich fracture patterns induced by diffusion. In addition to material-scale phenomena, physics-based simulation is also applied to systems composed of large numbers of interacting discrete entities. The second contribution introduces an agent-to-agent contagion-immunity formulation for simulating infectious disease spread within moving crowds, where crowd motion is computed offline and disease propagation is evaluated interactively, allowing real-time exploration of infection scenarios and health interventions such as immunity and vaccination. While this approach enables interactivity at the application level, the simulation workflow still follows a staged design, with computation, visualization, and interaction handled separately. These limitations motivate the final contribution, Weber, an interactive, end-to-end, web-based framework for physics-based simulation that integrates computation, visualization, and interaction from the outset. Implemented in Rust and compiled to WebAssembly, Weber features a lightweight domain-specific language that allows users to define, modify, and experiment with simulation models and parameters directly in the browser. To address the performance constraints of web environments, Weber incorporates multiple levels of simulation-specific optimizations, enabling interactive execution while preserving numerical robustness. Experimental results demonstrate that Weber achieves performance modestly slower than native C++ implementations for grid-based simulations, while significantly improving accessibility, portability, and ease of experimentation. Together, these contributions demonstrate a progression from offline simulation toward integrated, accessible, and interactive physics-based modeling.

Organization: 

Contact  Professor Mridul Aanjaneya

Zoom Link: https://rutgers.zoom.us/j/97576084734?pwd=CyYbpasgLch5w2ts4D44ayr6PQtU2K.1