Thinking Geometrically in the World of Data-driven Models by Niloy J. Mitra

Title: Thinking Geometrically in the World of Data-driven Models

Abstract:
As learning models grow in scale and capacity, a natural question arises: is it still relevant to think geometrically, or should we seek more data? In this talk, I will argue that geometry remains essential, not just for interpretability, but for enabling control, structure, and generalization. I will illustrate this through three examples. First, how to distil image diffusion features to enrich geometric models by combining projection operation with diffusion features. Second, in video generation, 3D awareness proves critical for spatial control, object permanence, and task awareness in multimodal LLMs. Finally, I will present a neural surface representation that exposes direct access to first and second fundamental forms, enabling a new approach to defining Laplace operators on neural surfaces. Together, these examples highlight that geometry continues to offer powerful tools, perhaps more so now than ever. For more details, please visit https://geometry.cs.ucl.ac.uk/.

Bio:
Niloy J. Mitra leads the Smart Geometry Processing group in the Department of Computer Science at University College London and the Adobe Research London Lab. He received his PhD from Stanford University under the guidance of Leonidas Guibas. He was an assistant professor at IIT Delhi from 2007-2009. His research focuses on developing machine learning frameworks for generative models for high-quality geometric and appearance content for CG applications. He was awarded the Eurographics Outstanding Technical Contributions Award in 2019, the British Computer Society Roger Needham Award in 2015, and the ACM SIGGRAPH Significant New Researcher Award in 2013. He was elected as a fellow of Eurographics in 2021 and served as the Technical Papers Chair for SIGGRAPH in 2022. His work has also earned him a place in the SIGGRAPH Academy in 2023. Besides research, Niloy is an active DIYer and loves reading, cricket, and cooking. For more, please visit https://geometry.cs.ucl.ac.uk