Jernej Barbic

A picture of Jernej Barbic

Professor of computer science,
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA.

Research interests: computer graphics, animation, interactive physics, FEM, model reduction, deformable models, anatomically based modeling, medical imaging, haptics.

Hand MRI dataset

Author of

Co-founder and CTO of

acquired by Unity Technologies.

Students:

• Jiahao Wen, PhD cand.
• Huanyu Chen, PhD cand.
• Zhiyuan Gao, PhD cand.
• Past students

Teaching:

Spring 2025: CS-520 Computer Animation and Simulation
Spring 2025: CS-420 Computer Graphics
Spring 2024: CS-520 Computer Animation and Simulation
Spring 2024: CS-420 Computer Graphics
Spring 2023: CS-520 Computer Animation and Simulation
Spring 2023: CS-420 Computer Graphics
Spring 2022: CS-520 Computer Animation and Simulation
Spring 2022: CS-420 Computer Graphics
Older classes

Awards:

Academy Award for Scientific and Technical Achievement, 2025
ACM Distinguished Member, 2020
Infinity Festival Monolith Award for Technology, 2019
USC Stevens Commercialization Award, 2017
Sloan Fellowship, 2014
Okawa Foundation Research Grant, 2014
MIT Technology Review,
35 Innovators Under 35 (in the world), 2011
NSF CAREER Award
Viterbi Early Career Chair, USC
Film credits: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013).

Publications:

Zhiyuan Gao, Jiageng Mao, Hong-Xing Yu, Haozhe Lou, Emily Yue-ting Jia, Jernej Barbič, Jiajun Wu, Yue Wang: Seeing the Wind from a Falling Leaf, Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) 2025
Gao and Mao contributed equally, and should be considered equal first authors.
Huanyu Chen, Jiahao Wen, Jernej Barbič: ANIME-Rod: Adjustable Nonlinear Isotropic Materials for Elastic Rods, ACM Transactions on Graphics 44(4) (SIGGRAPH 2025), Vancouver, Canada, 2025
Jiahao Wen, Jernej Barbič, Danny Kaufman: Optimal r-Adaptive In-Timestep Remeshing for Elastodynamics, ACM Transactions on Graphics 44(4) (SIGGRAPH 2025), Vancouver, Canada, 2025
Mianlun Zheng, Jernej Barbič: Multi-Resolution Real-Time Deep Pose-Space Deformation, ACM Transactions on Graphics 43(6) (SIGGRAPH Asia 2024), Tokyo, Japan, 2024
Jiahao Wen, Bohan Wang, Jernej Barbič: Large-Strain Surface Modeling using Plasticity, IEEE Trans. on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 30(8), 2024
Jiahao Wen, Jernej Barbič: Kirchhoff-Love Shells with Arbitrary Hyperelastic Materials, ACM Transactions on Graphics 42(6) (SIGGRAPH Asia 2023), Sydney, Australia, 2023
Huanyu Chen, Danyong Zhao, Jernej Barbič: Capturing Animation-Ready Isotropic Materials Using Systematic Poking, ACM Transactions on Graphics 42(6) (SIGGRAPH Asia 2023), Sydney, Australia, 2023
Mianlun Zheng, Bohan Wang, Jingtao Huang, Jernej Barbič: Simulation of Hand Anatomy Using Medical Imaging, ACM Transactions on Graphics 41(6) (SIGGRAPH Asia 2022), Daegu, South Korea, 2022
Zheng and Wang contributed equally, and should be considered equal first authors.
David Millard, James Preiss, Jernej Barbič, Gaurav Sukhatme: Parameter Estimation for Deformable Objects in Robotic Manipulation Tasks, International Symposium on Robotics Research 2022
Omey Manyar, Junyan Cheng, Reuben Levine, Vihan Krishnan, Jernej Barbič, Satyandra K. Gupta: Synthetic Image Assisted Deep Learning Framework for Detecting Defects During Composite Sheet Layup, ASME Computers and Information in Engineering Conference 2022, Best Paper Award
Danyong Zhao, Yijing Li, Timothy Langlois, Siddhartha Chaudhuri, Jernej Barbič: ERGOBOSS: Ergonomic Optimization of Body-Supporting Surfaces, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 28(12), 2022
Yi-Wei Chen, Rex Jomy Joseph, Alec Kanyuck, Shahwaz Khan, Rishi K. Malhan, Omey M. Manyar, Zachary McNulty, Bohan Wang, Jernej Barbič, Satyandra K. Gupta: A Digital Twin for Automated Layup of Prepreg Composite Sheets, ASME Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference; and ASME Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering, 2021
Mianlun Zheng, Yi Zhou, Duygu Ceylan, Jernej Barbič: A Deep Emulator for Secondary Motion of 3D Characters, CVPR 2021 (oral presentation)
Omey M. Manyar, Jaineel Ashok Desai, Nimish Deogaonkar, Rex Jomy Joseph, Rishi K. Malhan, Zachary McNulty, Bohan Wang, Jernej Barbič, Satyandra K. Gupta: A Simulation-Based Grasp Planner for Enabling Robotic Grasping during Composite Sheet Layup, ICRA 2021
Mianlun Zheng, Danyong Zhao, Jernej Barbič: Evaluating the Efficiency of Six-DoF Haptic Rendering-Based Virtual Assembly Training, IEEE Transactions on Haptics, 14(1), 2021
Bohan Wang, George Matcuk, Jernej Barbič: Modeling of Personalized Anatomy using Plastic Strains, ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG), 40(2), 2021
Bohan Wang, Jernej Barbič: CUDA Deformers for Model Reduction, ACM SIGGRAPH Conference on Motion, Interaction and Games (MIG), 2020
Bohan Wang, Mianlun Zheng, Jernej Barbič: Adjustable Constrained Soft-Tissue Dynamics, Pacific Graphics 2020 (Best Paper Award), and Computer Graphics Forum, 2020
Bohan Wang, George Matcuk, Jernej Barbič: Hand Modeling and Simulation Using Stabilized Magnetic Resonance Imaging, ACM Transactions on Graphics 38(4) (SIGGRAPH 2019), Los Angeles, CA, 2019
Yijing Li, Jernej Barbič: Multi-Resolution Modeling of Shapes in Contact, Symposium on Computer Animation (SCA) 2019, Los Angeles, CA; and Proc. of the ACM in Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (PACMCGIT), 2(2), 2019
Yijing Li, Jernej Barbič: Immersion of Self-Intersecting Solids and Surfaces, ACM Transactions on Graphics 37(4) (SIGGRAPH 2018), Vancouver, Canada, 2018
Danyong Zhao, Yijing Li, Jernej Barbič: 6-DoF Haptic Rendering of Static Coulomb Friction Using Linear Programming, IEEE Transactions on Haptics 2018, 11(3), 2018
Bohan Wang, Yili Zhao, Jernej Barbič: Botanical Materials Based on Biomechanics, ACM Transactions on Graphics 36(4) (SIGGRAPH 2017), Los Angeles, CA, USA
Hongyi Xu, Jernej Barbič: Example-Based Damping Design, ACM Transactions on Graphics 36(4) (SIGGRAPH 2017), Los Angeles, CA, USA
Yijing Li, Hongyi Xu, Jernej Barbič: Enriching Triangle Mesh Animations With Physically Based Simulation, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 23(10), 2017
Hongyi Xu, Jernej Barbič: 6-DoF Haptic Rendering using Continuous Collision Detection Between Points and Signed Distance Fields, IEEE Transactions on Haptics, 10(2), 2017
Danyong Zhao, Yijing Li, Jernej Barbič: Asynchronous Implicit Backward Euler Integration, Symposium on Computer Animation (SCA) 2016, Zurich, Switzerland
James Jacobs, Jernej Barbič, Essex Edwards, Crawford Doran, Andy van Straten: How To Build a Human: Practical Physics-Based Character Animation, DigiPro Symposium, 2016
Hongyi Xu and Jernej Barbič: Pose-Space Subspace Dynamics, ACM Transactions on Graphics 35(4) (SIGGRAPH 2016), Anaheim, CA, USA
Hongyi Xu and Jernej Barbič: Adaptive 6-DoF Haptic Contact Stiffness Using the Gauss Map, IEEE Transactions on Haptics, 9(3), 2016
Yijing Li and Jernej Barbič: Stable Anisotropic Materials, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 21(10), 2015
Hongyi Xu, Fun Shing Sin, Yufeng Zhu, Jernej Barbič: Nonlinear Material Design Using Principal Stretches, ACM Transactions on Graphics 34(4) (SIGGRAPH 2015), Los Angeles, CA, USA
Yu Wang, Alec Jacobson, Jernej Barbič, Ladislav Kavan: Linear Subspace Design for Real-Time Shape Deformation, ACM Transactions on Graphics 34(4) (SIGGRAPH 2015), Los Angeles, CA, USA
Koki Nagano, Graham Fyffe, Oleg Alexander, Jernej Barbič, Hao Li, Abhijeet Ghosh, Paul Debevec: Skin Microstructure Deformation with Displacement Map Convolution, ACM Transactions on Graphics 34(4) (SIGGRAPH 2015), Los Angeles, CA, USA
Hongyi Xu, Yijing Li, Yong Chen, Jernej Barbič: Interactive Material Design Using Model Reduction, ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG), 34(2), 2015
Hongyi Xu, Jernej Barbič: Continuous Collision Detection Between Points and Signed Distance Fields, Workshop on Virtual Reality Simulation and Physical Simulation, 2014
Yijing Li, Jernej Barbič: Stable Orthotropic Materials, Symposium on Computer Animation (SCA) 2014, Copenhagen, Denmark, Honorable Mention Best Paper Award
Hongyi Xu, Jernej Barbič: Signed Distance Fields for Polygon Soup Meshes, Graphics Interface 2014, Montreal, Canada
Hongyi Xu, Yili Zhao, Jernej Barbič: Implicit Multibody Penalty-based Distributed Contact, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 20(9), 2014
Xu and Zhao both contributed equally to this paper, and should be considered equal first authors.
Yili Zhao, Jernej Barbič: Interactive Authoring of Simulation-Ready Plants, ACM Transactions on Graphics 32(4) (SIGGRAPH 2013), Anaheim, CA, USA, July 2013
Fun Shing Sin, Daniel Schroeder, Jernej Barbič: Vega: Nonlinear FEM Deformable Object Simulator, Computer Graphics Forum, 32(1), 2013, p. 38-50. Video.
Jernej Barbič, Fun Shing Sin, Eitan Grinspun: Interactive Editing of Deformable Simulations, ACM Transactions on Graphics 31(4) (SIGGRAPH 2012), Los Angeles, CA, USA, August 2012
Jernej Barbič, Yili Zhao: Real-time Large-deformation Substructuring, ACM Transactions on Graphics 30(4) (SIGGRAPH 2011), Vancouver, Canada, August 2011
Jernej Barbič, Doug L. James: Subspace Self-collision Culling, ACM Transactions on Graphics 29(4) (SIGGRAPH 2010), Los Angeles, CA, USA, July 2010
Jernej Barbič, Marco da Silva, Jovan Popović: Deformable Object Animation Using Reduced Optimal Control, ACM Transactions on Graphics 28(3) (SIGGRAPH 2009), New Orleans, LA, USA, August 2009
Jernej Barbič, Jovan Popović: Real-time Control of Physically Based Simulations using Gentle Forces, ACM Transactions on Graphics 27(5) (SIGGRAPH Asia 2008), Singapore, Dec 2008
Jernej Barbič, Doug L. James: Six-DoF Haptic Rendering of Contact Between Geometrically Complex Reduced Deformable Models, IEEE Trans. on Haptics, 1(1), 2008, p. 39-52
Jernej Barbič, Doug L. James: Time-critical Distributed Contact for 6-DoF Haptic Rendering of Adaptively Sampled Reduced Deformable Models, Best paper-and-presentation award, Symposium on Computer Animation (SCA) 2007, p. 171-180, San Diego, CA, August 2007
Doug L. James, Jernej Barbič, Dinesh K. Pai: Precomputed Acoustic Transfer: Output-sensitive, Accurate Sound Generation for Geometrically Complex Vibration Sources, ACM Transactions on Graphics 25(3) (SIGGRAPH 2006), p. 987-995, Boston, MA, August 2006
Jernej Barbič, Doug L. James: Real-Time Subspace Integration for St.Venant-Kirchhoff Deformable Models, ACM Transactions on Graphics 24(3) (SIGGRAPH 2005), p. 982-990, Los Angeles, CA, August 2005
Jernej Barbič, Alla Safonova, Jia-Yu Pan, Christos Faloutsos, Jessica K. Hodgins, Nancy S. Pollard: Segmenting Motion Capture Data into Distinct Behaviors, Graphics Interface, p. 185-194, London, ON, Canada, 2004

Posters, Tech Reports, Courses, Conferences, Thesis:

Jingtao Huang, Bohan Wang, Zhiyuan Gao, Mianlun Zheng, George Matcuk, Jernej Barbič: Volume Rendering of Human Hand Anatomy, Technical Report, USC, 2024.
Jernej Barbič: Nonlinear durometer: A device to measure linear and nonlinear stiffnesses of elastic objects. Technical Report, Computer Science Department, USC, 26 March 2018.
Yijing Li, Hongyi Xu, Jernej Barbič: Enriching Triangle Mesh Animations With Physically Based Simulation. Technical Report, Computer Science Department, USC. Note: Journal version now available.
Conference chair, ACM SIGGRAPH/Eurographics Symposium on Computer Animation (SCA), 2015.
Co-organized a workshop on Computer Animation: Physically Based Methods in Barbados, 2013.
Jernej Barbič: Model reduction for deformable object simulations, Part 2 of ACM SIGGRAPH 2012 Course by Eftychios Sifakis and Jernej Barbič: FEM Simulation of 3D Deformable Solids: A practitioner's guide to theory, discretization and model reduction, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 2012.
Jernej Barbič: Exact Corotational Linear FEM Stiffness Matrix, Technical Report, Computer Science Department, USC, 2012.
Jernej Barbič, Gary Miller: A Quadratic Running Time Example for Ruppert's Refinement Algorithm, Technical Report, Computer Science Department, USC, 2012.
Wan-Chun Ma, Yi-Hua Wang, Graham Fyffe, Jernej Barbič, Bing-Yu Chen, Paul Debevec: A blendshape model that incorporates physical interaction, Poster, SIGGRAPH Asia 2011, Hong Kong.
Funshing Sin, Yufeng Zhu, Yongqiang Li, Daniel Schroeder, Jernej Barbič: Invertible Isotropic Hyperelasticity using SVD Gradients, Poster, Symposium on Computer Animation 2011, Vancouver, Canada. Poster video.
PhD thesis: Jernej Barbič: Real-time Reduced Large-Deformation Models and Distributed Contact for Computer Graphics and Haptics (pdf; 22 Mb), Computer Science Department, Carnegie Mellon University, August 2007 (note: text improved (errata incorporated) in June 2009)
Doug L. James, Jernej Barbič, Christopher Twigg: Squashing Cubes: Automating Deformable Model Construction for Graphics, Sketches & Applications of SIGGRAPH 2004, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Presentations (on my work and work of others) :

Project webpages (above) have slides for all of my conference presentations.
Multi-core architectures (5 Mb; class lecture slides 15-213 Introduction to Computer Systems; I updated the slides in 2007)
Voxmap-pointshell algorithm for 6-DOF haptic rendering (2.5 Mb; CMU graphics lab seminar)
2D mesh generation, Delaunay triangulations, Ruppert's algorithm (3 Mb; overview presentation with some research results)

Datasets, coding and demos:

Hand MRI dataset (world's first dataset of MRI scans of the human hand in multiple poses).
Vega FEM Library (a physics library for 3D deformable object simulation).
The rest of my code is available here (most of it is in Vega FEM now, however, including model reduction).
6-DoF haptic demo (SCA 2007 paper; large dynamic reduced deformations + collision detection + contact for complex geometry).
Real-time deformations demo ("StVK" SIGGRAPH 2005 paper; reduced geometrically nonlinear FEM).
Real-time sound demo ("PAT" SIGGRAPH 2006 paper).
How to compile, link and use ARPACK in Windows with Microsoft Visual Studio.
Motion capture player for ASF/AMC motion capture sequences from the CMU motion capture database.

Student Applications:

Prospective MS students: Faculty members are not involved with the MS admission process. This is handled by our staff.
Prospective PhD students: If you are interested in working with me, please include my name in your application.
Current MS students: If you are interested in working with me, please take one of my classes and perform well.

About me:

My name is pronounced like 'Yerney Barbeach'. Jernej is the Slovenian equivalent of Bartholomew. Sanctus Bartolomaeus => Shem-Bertelemej => Shem-ernej => Jernej.
I was born in 1976 in Šempeter pri Gorici, Slovenia, EU (Yugoslavia at the time).
I spent my childhood in western Slovenia, near the border with Italy, and two hours away from Venice. My hometown is in the Alps, not far from the Adriatic Sea. Here is my favorite wild animal: capra ibex.
As an undergrad, I lived in Ljubljana (capital of Slovenia).
I then lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, and Boston, Massachusetts, USA. I now live in Los Angeles, California.
I like sports. My favorite ones are triathlon, swimming, running and (mountain) biking.

Volunteer work, writing:

My poem about growing up, the complexity that inevitably replaces simplicity and the arrow of time (in Slovenian).
Since 2009, I have been trying to promote a social security agreement between the United States and Slovenia, to benefit citizens of both countries. I spoke to several high-ranking Slovenian officials, and promoted the cause in Slovenian media. Here is my blog posting from 2012 (in Slovenian) about why it is needed: blog Kvarkadabra. In March 2019, the agreement has been signed both by the parliament of Slovenia and US Congress. It entered into force on Feb 1, 2019. You can see it here.
My translation of "Južni otok", a well-known Slovenian poem by Kajetan Kovič, into English.
I wrote a guide for new Carnegie Mellon students to help them settle into their life in Pittsburgh.
I wrote a guide on applying to grad school in US (in Slovenian): Kako uspeti pri prijavi na študij na ameriške univerze.
(for Slovenian readers, interested in US higher education) Analiza visokega šolstva v ZDA in Sloveniji, s stališča mladega profesorja na začetku kariere.
(for Slovenian readers, interested in intellectual property and creativity) Ali so ustvarjalci dovolj nagrajeni za svoje delo? (esej)