Francisca T. Gil-Ureta

I'm a 3D Applied Scientist at Amazon Imaging Science, in New York. My research focuses on devising new methods to reconstruct 3D objects from a set of sparse visual inputs.

Before joining Amazon, I completed my Ph.D. in Computer Graphics at the Geometric Computing Lab at New York University under the supervision of Denis Zorin.

I earned my Bachelors degree in Computer Science from Universidad Catolica de Chile, where I worked with Prof. Miguel Nussbaum. My master thesis was awarded the Roberto Ovalle Aguirre Award (Best Thesis Project) in 2012, by the Institute of Engineers of Chile.

I have a strong background in linear algebra, computational geometry, and 3D visualization. My research interests are in 3D modeling, interactive computer graphics, and creativity. You can see my publications below and other interesting projects I worked on.

Publications

Design for Customized Manufacturing

  • Francisca Gil-Ureta

PhD diss., New York University, 2019.

In this thesis, I present three projects where we reexamine the tools and workflows used for customized design. Compared with traditional methods, we design for an unknown or changeable manufacturing process, which affects the life-cycles of design. Our goal is to create tools that simplify the modification, optimization, and evaluation of designs such that they can be easily altered to fit manufacturing and personal constraints. [thesis]

Intersection-free Rigid Body Dynamics

ACM Trans. on Graphics (SIGGRAPH), 2021

We introduce the first implicit time-stepping algorithm for rigid body dynamics, with contact and friction, that guarantees intersection-free configurations at every time step. [paper]

Reinforcement of General Shell Structures

ACM Trans. on Graphics - Presented at SIGGRAPH 2020

Developed optimization algorithm to increase strength of 3D printed shells; results in 3x smaller deformations than non-optimized shells of equivalent weight. [paper]

Interactive Modeling of Mechanical Objects

(SGP 2016)

Created a Maya plugin for semi-automatic design of 3D printable mechanical joint; user testing showed a 3.3x speedup over modeling with standard tools [paper] [extra] [video]

First Colony: Learning physics with Augmented Reality

  • Francisca Gil-Ureta

Master diss,. CS Department, UC Chile, 2010.

AR collaborative to teach electrostatic. Implemented a physics engine for 3d rigid bodies, simulating linear momentum and charge interaction. Used Microsoft XNA and Goblin XNA (by Columbia CGUI Lab) [pdf] [video] [pictures].

Exploring different technological platforms for supporting co-located collaborative games in the classroom

  • Echeverría, A.
  • Améstica, M.
  • Gil, F.
  • Nussbaum, M.
  • Barrios, E.
  • Leclerc, S.

Computers in Human Behavior 28.4 (2012): 1170-1177.

[video]

A framework for the design and integration of collaborative classroom games

  • Echeverría, A.
  • García-Campo, C.
  • Nussbaum, M.
  • Gil, F.
  • Villalta, M.
  • Améstica, M.
  • Echeverría, S.

Computers & Education 57.1 (2011): 1127-1136.

Small Projects

These are some WebGl projects I created for the Computer Graphics course in 2013!. I'm honestly surprised most still work. Click on the image to go to the project.

Keyframe Animation

Mix

Fire

Lights

Force Field

CSS Glow I

CSS Glow II

Splines

Art Blog

Here are some of the drawings I've published on my art blog