Currently on leave.
Bickel Group
Computer Graphics and Digital Fabrication
We are currently witnessing the emergence of novel, computer-controlled output devices that provide revolutionary possibilities for fabricating complex, functional, multi-material objects and meta-materials with stunning optical and mechanical properties. Leveraging the potential of advanced 3D printing technology is tightly coupled to efficient methods for content creation.
Bernd Bickel is a computer scientist interested in computer graphics and its overlap into animation, biomechanics, material science, and digital fabrication. The main objective of his research group is to push the boundaries of how functional digital models can be efficiently created, simulated, and reproduced. Given the digital nature of the process, three factors play a central role: computational models and efficient representations that facilitate intuitive design, accurate and fast simulation techniques, and intuitive authoring tools for physically realizable objects and materials. Accordingly, the work of the Bickel group focuses on two closely related challenges: (1) developing novel modeling and simulation methods, and (2) investigating efficient representation and editing algorithms for materials and functional objects.
Group Leader
Administrative Support
Christine Francois
Assistant to Professors
+43 2243 9000 1098
Team
Current Projects
Computational synthesis of metamaterials | Soft robotics |Interactive design systems | Design of cyber-physical systems
Publications
Bhargava M, Schreck C, Freire M, Hugron PA, Lefebvre S, Sellán S, Bickel B. 2025. Mesh simplification for unfolding. Computer Graphics Forum. 44(1), e15269. View
Rao P, Fox G, Meka A, Mallikarjun BR, Zhan F, Weyrich T, Bickel B, Pfister H, Matusik W, Elgharib M, Theobalt C. 2024. Lite2Relight: 3D-aware single image portrait relighting. Proceedings – SIGGRAPH 2024 Conference Papers. SIGGRAPH: Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques Conference, 41. View
Tojo K, Shamir A, Bickel B, Umetani N. 2024. Fabricable 3D wire art. SIGGRAPH ’24: ACM SIGGRAPH 2024 Conference Papers. SIGGRAPH: Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques Conference, 134. View
Rao P, Mallikarjun BR, Fox G, Weyrich T, Bickel B, Pfister H, Matusik W, Zhan F, Tewari A, Theobalt C, Elgharib M. 2024. A deeper analysis of volumetric relightiable faces. International Journal of Computer Vision. 132, 1148–1166. View
Chen B, Jindal A, Piovarci M, Wang C, Seidel HP, Didyk P, Myszkowski K, Serrano A, Mantiuk RK. 2023. The effect of display capabilities on the gloss consistency between real and virtual objects. Proceedings of the SIGGRAPH Asia 2023 Conference. SIGGRAPH: Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques Conference, 90. View
ReX-Link: Bernd Bickel
Career
Since 2020 Professor, Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA)
2021 – 2024 Vice President for Technology Transfer, Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA)
2015 – 2020 Assistant Professor, Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA)
2012 – 2014 Research Scientist and Research Group Leader, Disney Research Zurich, Switzerland
2011 – 2012 Visiting Professor, TU Berlin, Germany
2011 – 2012 Postdoc, Disney Research Zurich, Switzerland
2010 PhD, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Selected Distinctions
2017 ACM SIGGRAPH Significant New Researcher Award
2016 ERC Starting Grant
2015 Microsoft Visual Computing Award
2012 EUROGRAPHICS Best PhD Thesis
2011 ETH Medal for outstanding dissertation
