Emily Whiting

Associate Professor, Computer Science Department
Boston University

CONTACT
Center for Computing & Data Sciences
Rm 843, Dept of Computer Science
Boston University
665 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston MA 02215
whiting@bu.edu
Photo of Emily Whiting in Scotland

My research is in the area of computer graphics, with a focus on computational fabrication. My work is motivated by the way advancements in rapid prototyping technology are closing the gap between what we can simulate with computers and what we can build. The effect is rippling through industries from architecture to medicine where it is now possible to manufacture shapes of astounding complexity. Despite innovations in hardware, however, creating customized products that perform a specific function still depends on extensive expert knowledge. In my research I am developing computational tools that consider the full design to manufacturing pipeline, and are guided by the functionality of the objects being created. My research is a cross-pollination of digital geometry processing, engineering mechanics, and rapid prototyping, where the goal is to enable the design of functionally-valid and fabrication-ready real world objects.

Bio
I am an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Boston University, Director and Founder of the Shape Design & Computation Lab, and Co-Director of the BU Computer Graphics & HCI Lab. I am the recipient of the NSF CAREER Award (2021), Sloan Research Fellowship (2019), BU Innovation Career Development Professorship (2017), NSF CRII Award (2015), and Marie Curie/ETH Zurich Postdoctoral Fellowship (2012). Before joining BU I was an Assistant Professor at Dartmouth College. From 2011-2014 I was a Postdoctoral Fellow at ETH Zurich in the Interactive Geometry Lab with Olga Sorkine-Hornung. I received my PhD (2012) from MIT in Computer Graphics and Building Technology, advised by Frédo Durand and John Ochsendorf. I obtained my SM (2006) in Computational Design from the MIT Department of Architecture, and BASc (2004) in Engineering Science from the University of Toronto.

For more information on publications, classes, recent news, and my team members, please visit the Shape DeCo Lab website: shape.bu.edu.


News

07.30.2025
Zezhou Sun successfully defended his PhD
06.11.2025
Received unrestricted academic gift from Reality Labs Research, a division of Meta
03.31.2025
Xingjian Han successfully defended her PhD
01.27.2025
Serving on the SIGGRAPH 2025 Program Committee
06.01.2024
Serving on the UIST 2024 Program Committee
05.17.2024
Received a Teach Access Grant
04.01.2024
Serving as Program Co-Chair for Pacific Graphics 2024

Current Lab Members

PhD
Zezhou Sun
PhD
Sam Silverman
PhD
Abhinit Sati
PhD
Audrey Ballarin
PhD
Ruichen Richard Liu

Alumni

Postdoc
Xiaoting Zhang (now Senior Modeling Engineer at Roblox)
Postdoc
Christos Mousas (now Assistant Professor at Purdue University)
PhD
Xingjian Han
PhD
Athina Panotopoulou (now postdoc at University of Copenhagen)
MS
Benjamin Verdier (now at Onshape)
MS
Jamie Nelson (now at Akamai Technologies)
MS
Qiwei Zheng (now at Microsoft)
MS
Lingfeng Wang (now at Uber)
MS
Nook Harquail (now at Etsy)
MS
Marissa Allen
Undergrad
Emilio Latorre
Undergrad
Stanley To - BU UROP, Kilichand Keystone program
Undergrad
Dennis Henneman (now at MathWorks)
Undergrad
Tammy Qiu - College Prize: BU College of Arts & Sciences (now PhD student at Columbia)
Undergrad
Anthea Yichen Li - College Prize: BU College of Arts & Sciences, BU UROP Arts Initiative Summer Research Award (now PhD student at MIT)
Undergrad
Liane Makatura - Dartmouth Presidential Scholar, Adobe Research Women-In-Technology Scholar, Fulbright Scholar (now PhD student at MIT)
Undergrad
Lily Xu - Dartmouth Presidential Scholar, Adobe Research Women-In-Technology Honorable Mention (now faculty at Columbia)
Undergrad
Alex Weinberg - Dartmouth Presidential Scholar

Recorded Talks

TEDxBeaconStreet 2014

"3D Printing - The Physics of Objects"
Youtube

PBS NOVA: The Secret Life of Scientists & Engineers

Season 2 Episode 14
PBS


Theses

Design Of Structurally-Sound Masonry Buildings Using 3D Static Analysis
PhD Thesis, MIT 2011

Geometric, Topological & Semantic Analysis of Multi-building Floor Plan Data
MS Thesis, MIT Department of Architecture 2006