my face


E-mail: edchien@bu.edu

Snail mail:
Boston University
Department of Computer Science
665 Commonwealth Ave, Rm 836
Boston, MA 02215

Overview

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science here at Boston University.

Research interests: geometry processing, computational fabrication, hex meshing, optimal transport, harmonic and bounded distortion mappings

I obtained my Ph.D. in Mathematics in 2015 from Rutgers University under Prof. Feng Luo, studying low-dimensional topology and geometry. More specifically, my thesis constructed square tilings of surfaces arising from discrete harmonic differential 1-forms.

Afterwards, I transitioned to applied work, working as a postdoc with Prof. Ofir Weber at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. While there, I focused on harmonic and bounded distortion methods for mapping, parametrization, and interpolation.

For my second postdoc, I returned to the States for three years in the Geometric Data Processing Group at MIT, led by Prof. Justin Solomon. There I began research in hex meshing and applied optimal transport. My work continues in these directions today, with a recent focus on applications in computational fabrication. I have thoroughly enjoyed combining my theoretical training with complex engineering problems.

News

  • July 2023: Our paper Singularity-Free Frame Fields for Line Drawing Vectorization won an Honorable Mention for Best Paper at SGP 2023! Congratulations to the students involved: Olga Gutan, Shreya Hegde, and Erick Jimenez Berumen! And thanks to co-mentor Mikhail Bessmeltsev!
  • June 2023: We have a paper, "Singularity-Free Frame Fields for Line Drawing Vectorization," conditionally accepted to SGP 2023. See you in Genova!
  • May 2023: I gave a short talk "Harmonic Global Parameterizations, and Foliations for Knitting/Meshing" at the FRG Workshop on Discrete and Computational Geometry, Shape Analysis, and Applications, held at Rutgers University, May 19-21.
  • May 2023: Erick Jimenez Berumen, a graduating senior from Caltech with a concentration in Applied and Computational Mathematics, will be joining the lab in AY23/24! He will be joined by Audrey Ballarin from Wellesely, who will be joining Emily Whiting's lab. Welcome Erick & Audrey!
  • April 2023: We have a conference paper, Helix-Free Stripes for Knit Graph Design, conditionally accepted to SIGGRAPH 2023. See you in LA!