Masaki Nakada, PhD

Computer Science Department
University of California, Los Angeles
H +1 424-666-5109
B nakada@cs.ucla.edu
Í www.masakinakada.com

Research Interests
ComputerGraphics
ComputerVision
MachineLearning

Physics-based modeling and animation, Biomechanical human simulation, Neuromuscularcontrol, Sensorimotor control, Shape design, Real-time optimization, Artificial life
Biomimetic perception, Active vision and sensorimotor control, Object recognition, Semantic
scene understanding, 3D object reconstruction, Object localization
Neural networks, Deep learning, Reinforcement learning, Evolutionary learning, Bayesian networks, Statistical data analysis

Academic Background
2011–2017 Ph.D., 2017, Computer Science, University of California, Los Angeles.
Advisor: Professor Demetri Terzopoulos
Thesis: Deep Learning of Neuromuscular and Sensorimotor Control with Biomimetic Perception for
Realistic Biomechanical Human Animation

2009–2011 M.S., 2011, Pure and Applied Physics, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan.
Advisor: Professor Shigeo Morishima
Thesis: Bipedal robot balancing with reinforcement learning

2005–2009 B.S., 2009, Applied Physics, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan.
Advisor: Professor Shigeo Morishima
Thesis: Grid based statistical database for 3D automobile shape design

Professional Experience
2018 Postdoctoral Scholar, UCLA Computer Graphics & Vision Laboratory, Computer Science
Department, University of California, Los Angeles.
Apr–Aug 2011 Software Engineer, Intel Corporation, Tokyo, Japan.
Summer 2010 Software Engineer, Barclays Capital, Tokyo, Japan.
Spring 2010 Sales Marketing in Fixed Income, Equity Derivatives, J.P. Morgan, Tokyo, Japan.
Fall 2007 Software Engineer, Nokia Corporation, Tokyo, Japan.
Spring 2007 Software Engineer, Ericsson Corporation, Tokyo, Japan.

Honors and Awards
March 2022 Best Poster Award at International Symposium on Intelligence Design, held at Universityof Tokyo.
January 2019 Institute for Digital Research and Education Postdoctoral Scholar Award, held at UCLA.
August 2018 SIGGRAPH 2018 Thesis Fast Forward, Honorable mention.
2011–2016 Japan Student Services Organization Fellowship, held at UCLA.
2009–2010 Rotary Ambassadorial Fellowship, held at UCLA.
2009–2011 Itoh Foundation Fellowship for Master Degree, held at Waseda University.
2009–2010 Entrepreneurship Foundation Fellowship, held at Waseda University.

2005–2009 Itoh Foundation Fellowship for Bachelor Degree, held at Waseda University.
2002–2005 Aoi Foundation Fellowship for High School.

Publications
2022 DeepFoids: Adaptive Bio-Inspired Fish Simulation with Deep Reinforcement Learning.
Y. Ishiwaka *, X. Zeng *, S. Ogawa, D. Westwater, T. Tone, M. Nakada
In NeurIPS 2022 Conference, U.S.A., December, 2022
2022 Motion Transition and Tiredness Controllers for Deep Reinforcement Learning based
Character Animation.
A. Hadj-Chaib, M. Nakada (**Best Poster Award)
In International Symposium on Intelligence Design 2022 Conference, U.S.A., December, 2022
2021 Foids: Bio-Inspired Fish Simulation for Generating Synthetic Datasets.
Y. Ishiwaka *, X. Zeng, M. Eastman, S. Kakazu, S. Gross, R. Mizutani, M. Nakada *In ACM SIGGRAPH Asia 2021 Conference, Japan, December, 2021
2021 Neuromuscular Control of the Face-Head-Neck Biomechanical Complex With LearningBased Expression Transfer From Images and Videos.
X. Zeng, S. Dwarakanath, W. Lu, M. Nakada, D. Terzopoulos
In International Symposium on Visual Computing 2021, U.S.A., August, 2021
2021 Facial Expression Transfer from Video Via Deep Learning.
X. Zeng, S. Dwarakanath, W. Lu, M. Nakada, D. Terzopoulos
In The 20th Annual Symposium on Computer Animation 2021, U.S.A., May, 2021
2021 Biomimetic Active Vision in a Simulated Human.
M. Nakada, H. Chen, A. Lakshmipathy, D. TerzopoulosIn International Conference on Pattern Recognition 2021, Italy, January, 2021
2020 Multimodal Post Attentive Profiling for Influencer Marketing.
S. Kim, JY. Jiang, M. Nakada, J. Han, W. Wan
In Proceedings of The Web Conference 2020., Taipei, Taiwan, April, 20202021 Deep Learning of Neuromuscular and Visuomotor Control of a Biomimetic Simulated
Humanoid.
M. Nakada, T. Zhou, H. Chen, A. Lakshmipathy, D. Terzopoulos
In In IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters Jornal, February, 20202019 Biomimetic Eye Modeling and Deep Neuromuscular Oculomotor Control.
M. Nakada, A. Lakshmipathy, T. Zhou, X. Ling, H. Chen, D. Terzopoulos
ACM SIGGRAPH Asia 2019 Conference, Brisbane, Australia, November 2019.
2018 Fast and Scalable Position-Based Layout Synthesis.
T. Tomer, A. Litteneker, N. Duncan, M. Nakada, C. Jiang, L. Yu, D. Terzopoulos
In IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG) 2018.
2018 Biomimetic Perception Learning for Human Sensorimotor Control.
M. Nakada, H. Chen, T. Zhou, D Terzopoulos
In International Symposium on Visual Computing (ISVC), Las Vegas, Nevada, December 2018.
2018 Deep Learning of Biomimetic Visual Perception for Virtual Humans.
M. Nakada, H. Chen, D. Terzopoulos
In ACM Symposium on Applied Perception (SAP), Vancouver, Canada, August 2018.
2018 Deep Learning of Biomimetic Sensorimotor Control for Biomechanical Human Animation.
M. Nakada, T. Zhao, H. Chen, T. Weiss, D. Terzopoulos
In ACM Transactions on Graphics, 37(4):1–14, August 2018. (Proceedings of ACM SIGGRAPH
2018, Vancouver, Canada, August 2018)

2018 Learning Biomimetic Perception for Human Sensorimotor Control.
M. Nakada, H. Chen, D. Terzopoulos
In IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) Workshop on Mutual
Benefits of Cognitive and Computer Vision, Salt Lake City, UT, June 2018, pp. 1–6
2017 Automated Layout Synthesis and Visualization From Images of Interior or Exterior
Spaces.
M. Nakada,T. Weiss, D. Terzopoulos
In IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) Workshop on Vision
Meets Cognition, Honolulu, HI, July 2017, pp. 41–47
2017 AcFR: Active Face Recognition Using Convolutional Neural Networks.
M. Nakada, H. Wang and D. Terzopoulos.
In IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) Workshop on Vision
Meets Cognition, Honolulu, HI, July 2017, pp. 35–40
2015 Deep Learning of Neuromuscular Control for Biomechanical Human Animation.
M. Nakada and D. Terzopoulos.
In Advances in Visual Computing, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 9474, G. Bebis
et al. (eds.), Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2015, pp. 339–348 (Proceedings of the International
Symposium on Visual Computing (ISVC), Las Vegas, NV, December 2015)2010 Learning Arm Motion Strategies for Balance Recovery of Humanoid Robots.
M. Nakada, B. Allen, S. Morishima and D. Terzopoulos.
2010 International Symposium on Learning and Adaptive Behavior in Robotic Systems, 2010
International Conference on Emerging Security Technologies, Canterbury, UK, September, 2010,
pp. 165–170
2009 Database and GUI Design for Automobile Shape Design.
M. Nakada, T. Hayakawa, S. Sugimoto and S. Morishima.
In Proceedings of the 2009 IEICE General Conference, Ehime, Japan, March 2009, pp. 109.

Invited Talks
Academic2022

2022

2019
2019
2018

2018

Foids and DeepFoids: Bio-Inspired Fish Simulation and Physics Based Environment
Simulation.
Invited Talk at Johns Hopkins in department of electrical and computer engineering, Baltimore,
U.S.A., October 26, 2022.
Bio-Inspired Fish Simulation.
International Symposium on Intelligence Design, Tokyo, Japan, March 14, 2022.
Deep Learning of Neuromuscular and Sensorimotor Control with Biomimetic Perception for Realistic Biomechanical Human Animation.
IDRE Early Career Research Day 2019, Los Angeles, U.S.A., November 20, 2019.
Artificial Life: How to Simulate a Human.
Terasaki Foundation 2019, Los Angeles, U.S.A, May 11, 2019.
Artificial Life: How to Simulate a Human.
Southern California Japanese Scholars Forum (SCJSF) 2018, Los Angeles, U.S.A, October 14,2018.
Deep Learning of Neuromuscular and Sensorimotor Control with Biomimetic Perception for Realistic Biomechanical Human Animation.
ACM SIGGRAPH Thesis Fast Forward 2018, Vancouver, Canada, August 12, 2018.
Deep Learning of Neuromuscular Control for Biomechanical Human Animation.

2016 The 2016 Electrical and Computer Engineering Annual Research Review,Los Angeles, U.S.A.,
February 19, 2016.

Other2022
2018

2019
2019
2018
2018
2016
2016
2016
2013
2012

Foids and DeepFoids: Bio-Inspired Fish Simulation and Physics Based Environment
Simulation.
Invited Talk at Meta for AI/ML team, Menlo Park, U.S.A., September 20, 2022.
Current A.I. Research and Advanced Applications in Industry.
Invited talk about the state of the art A.I. research in academic and practical use cases inindustry for the 120 executives from top companies, San Jose, December 14, 2018
Advice About Academics, Career and Life With Experiences in the USA and Japan
Invited talk at UCLA for Masayoshi Son Foundation, Tokyo, Japan, August 25, 2019
Invited talk at UCLA for Toritsu Tachikawa High School, Tokyo, Japan, July 26, 2019
Invited talk at UCLA for Hakuyou High School, Tokyo, Japan, August 8, 2018
Invited talk at UCLA for Kawagoe High School, Tokyo, Japan, March 29, 2018
Invited talk at UCLA for Tokyo Noudai Nikou High School, Tokyo, Japan, November 22, 2016
Invited talk at UCLA for Otemae High School, Tokyo, Japan, July 22, 2016
Invited talk at UCLA for Jutoku High School, Tokyo, Japan, July 15, 2016
Advice About Academics and Life at UCLA With Experiences in PhD Studies
Graduate panel for new incoming students, UCLA, September 16, 2013
Hot Markets, Language Skills, and Emerging Industries: Students; Perspectives
A Dialogue on Russia, St. Petersburg, Russia, October 19, 2012.

Reviewing
2022
2021
2020
2019
2019
2019
2018
2018
2018
2018
2011

ACM Transaction of Graphics (TOG) 2022.
ACM Eurograph 2021.
ACM Transaction of Graphics (TOG) 2020.
ACM SIGGRAPH Asia 2019.
IEEE Access 2019.
ACM SIGGRAPH 2019.
IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems 2018.
ACM Eurograph 2018.
ACM SIGGRAPH Asia 2018.
International Conference on Pattern Recognition (ICPR) 2018.
Motion In Games (MIG) 2011.

Teaching Experience
Winter, Spring Teaching Assistant for Introduction to Computer Science II, UCLA.
2017 Object-oriented software development. Abstract data type definition and use. Overloading, inheritance,polymorphism. Object-oriented view of data structures: stacks, queues, lists. Algorithm analysis. Trees,graphs, and associated algorithms. Searching and sorting.

Fall 2017 Teaching Assistant for Introduction to Computer Science I, UCLA.
Introduction to computer science via theory, applications, and programming. Basic data types, operatorsand control structures. Input/output. Procedural and data abstraction. Introduction to object-oriented
software development. Functions, recursion. Arrays, strings, pointers. Abstract data types, objectoriented programming. Examples and exercises from computer science theory and applications.

Mentoring
2020
2020
2020
2019-20202019-20202019-20202019-2020
2019
2019
2019
2019
2018-20192016–20192017–20182017–2018
2018
2018
2018
2018
2018
2018
2017
2016

Xiao Zeng, PhD, CS, Biomechanical Human Face Simulation.
Santosh Yadav, PhD, CS, Human Activity Recognition.
Deepti Rawat, BS, CS, Human Activity Recognition.
Siyal Sonarkar, MS, CS, Human Activity Classification.
Jianzhi Liu Gupta, MS, CS, 3D Human Pose Estimation.
Xiao Yang, BS, CS, Photo Realistic Rendering for Synthetic Dataset.
Surya Dwarakanath, MS, CS, Human Simulation for Synthetic Dataset.
Vikas Gupta, MS, CS, 3D Human Pose Estimation.
Kevin Chuang, BS, CS, Particle eEfects for AR.
Ian Michael Costello, BS, CS, Particle Effects for AR.
Sarah Gross, BS, Computational Biology, Bio-inspired Muscle Simulation.
Adrien Hadj-Chaib, BS, CS, Deep Reinforcement Learning for Biped Locomotion.
Honglin Chen, BS, Math & CS, Biomimetic Human Vision.
Arjun Lakshmipathy, MS, CS, Neuromuscular Control of a Biomechanical Human Eye.
Dennis Van Ee, BS, CS, Biomechanical Human Ocular Lens Simulation.
Gestina Yassa, BS, CS, Biomimetic Cortical Mapping.
CJ Ordog, BS, CS, Biomimetic Visual Sampling.
Yutiang Zhang, MS, CS, Biomechanical Face Swap.
Xin Ling, BS, CS, Biomechanical Human Eye Rendering.
Dan Fang, MS, CS, Multiple Viewpoint Face Recognition.
Qi Qu, MS, CS, Fine-grained Flower Image Classification using Deep Transfer Learning.
Pranav Sodhani, MS, CS, Face Recognition using Space Variant Sensors.
Han Wang, MS, CS, Active Face Recognition using Convolutional Neural Networks.

Intellectual Property
2022 U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 17875426, Information Processing Apparatus andInformation Processing method.
2022 U.S. Patent, Document ID: US 20220262075 A1, Deep Learning Of Biomimetic Sensorimotor Control For Biomechanical Model Animation..

Entrepreneurial Activity
2019- Co-founder, NeuralX, inc.
Motion estimation and analysis with pose analysis (coputer vision) and biomechanical model simulation.

2016–2018 Co-founder, vuSearch (MJ Style, LLC).
Visual search platform for fashion e-commerce and trend analytics.

2012–2015 Co-founder, vuPad, LLC.
Mobile application for furniture e-commerce and interior design using augmented reality.

PrizesJanuary 2018 Finalist and 1st Prize winner at The 8th TEEC Cup North American Entrepreneurship
Competition in Silicon Valley, Awowd, Inc..
http://ucahp.com/en/events/8th-connect/Intelligent self animating character for next generation contents generation. 1st Prize among 500startups.

July 2016 Blackstone Launchpad Startup UCLA Accelerator, vuSearch.
https://startupucla.com/accelerator/
One of 9 teams selected from 80 startups at the summer accelerator program.

April 2014 Finalist and 5th Prize winner at the Knapp Venture Competition, vuPad, LLC.
http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/media-relations/2014/knapp-venture-competition
Mobile application to help consumers purchase furniture using image-based augmented reality.

February 2014 Finalist and 8th Prize winner at Rice Business Plan Competition, vuPad, LLC.
https://rbpc.rice.edu/
Mobile application to help interior designers and realtors using image-based augmented reality.

June 2013 3rd Prize winner at the Microsoft Mobile Hackathon, What’s Next.
Mobile application to help tourists search for landmarks using location-based augmented reality.

April 2013 Finalist and 3rd Prize winner at the Institute for Technology Advancement (ITA) competition, vuPad, LLC.
http://www.ita.ucla.edu/previous-winners/
Mobile application to help consumers purchase furniture using image-based augmented reality.

August 2012 USA startup representative at SumIT in St. Petersburg, Russia, vuPad, LLC.
http://www.global.ucla.edu/outreach/americas/141423
The best startup selected from 25 teams.

July 2012 Startup UCLA accelerator, vuPad, LLC.
https://startupucla.com/accelerator/
One of 9 teams selected from 70 startups at the summer accelerator program.

June 2012 1st Runner-Up at the UCLA Hackathon, vuPad, LLC.
Mobile application to help consumers purchase furniture using image-based augmented reality.

Media Attention
January 2018 China News, Awowd Inc., http://www.chinanews.com/gj/2018/01-15/8424411.shtml.
1st Prize winner among 500 startups: Intelligent self-animating characters for next generation contentgeneration.

August 2012 Press conference with UCLA Chancellor Gene D. Block at SumIT in Russia, vuPad,
LLC, http://international.ucla.edu/russianflagship/article/128712.
The best startup among 25 teams.

Selected Graduate Course Work
Computer Introduction to Computer Graphics
Graphics Computer Animation
Artificial Life for Computer Graphics and Vision
Machine Machine Learning Theory
Learning Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning
Animats-Based Modeling
Artificial Intelligence
Advanced Computer Vision
Mathmatics Advanced Numerical Analysis
Advanced Mathmatics
Seminar on Advanced Topics in Applied Mathematics
Algorithms & Complexity

References1. Demetri Terzopoulos
Distinguished Professor and Chancellor’s Professor of Computer Science
Computer Science Department
University of California, Los Angeles
dt@cs.ucla.edu
2. Joseph Teran
Professor of Applied Mathematics
Department of Mathematics
University of California, Los Angeles
jteran@math.ucla.edu
3. Shigeo Morishima
Professor of Applied Physics
Department of Applied Physics
Waseda University
shigeo@waseda.edu