Bio

Doug L. James is a Full Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University (since June 2015), and a member of Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) and the Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering (ICME). He holds three degrees in applied mathematics, including a Ph.D. in 2001 from the University of British Columbia. In 2002 he joined the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University as an Assistant Professor, and later became an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Cornell University (2006-2015). His research interests include computer graphics, computer sound, physically based modeling and animation, and reduced-order physics models. Doug is a recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER award, and a fellow of both the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Guggenheim Foundation. He received the ACM SIGGRAPH 2021 Computer Graphics Achievement Award, a 2012 Technical Achievement Award from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for "Wavelet Turbulence," and the 2013 Katayanagi Emerging Leadership Prize from Carnegie Mellon University and Tokyo University of Technology. He was the Technical Papers Program Chair of ACM SIGGRAPH 2015, and a consulting Senior Research Scientist at Pixar Animation Studios from 2015-2020.

Academic Appointments

Administrative Appointments

  • Full Professor, Computer Science, Stanford University (2015 - Present)
  • Affiliated Faculty Member, Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), Stanford University (2015 - Present)
  • Affiliated Faculty Member, Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering (ICME), Stanford University (2015 - Present)
  • Consulting Senior Research Scientist, Pixar Animation Studios (2015 - 2020)
  • Associate Professor, Computer Science, Cornell University (2006 - 2015)
  • Assistant Professor, Robotics Institute, and Computer Science Department, Carnegie Mellon University (2002 - 2006)

Honors & Awards

  • Computer Graphics Achievement Award, ACM SIGGRAPH (2021)
  • Katayanagi Emerging Leadership Prize, Carnegie Mellon University and Tokyo University of Technology (2013)
  • Technical Achievement Award for Wavelet Turbulence, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (2013)
  • Research Fellow, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (2011)
  • College of Engineering Excellence in Teaching (Douglas Whitney `61 Award), Cornell University (2008)
  • Research Fellow, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (2006)
  • "Brilliant 10" young scientist, Popular Science magazine (2005)
  • CAREER Award, National Science Foundation (2004)

Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations

  • Chair, Technical Papers Program, ACM SIGGRAPH (2015 - 2015)
  • Associate Editor, ACM Transactions on Graphics (2005 - 2017)

Program Affiliations

  • Stanford SystemX Alliance

Professional Education

  • PhD, University of British Columbia, Applied Mathematics (2001)
  • MSc, University of British Columbia, Applied Mathematics (1997)
  • BSc, University of Western Ontario, Applied Mathematics (1995)

Contact

  • Academic
    djames@cs.stanford.edu
    University - Faculty Department: Computer Science Position: Professor
    • 362 Gates Hall
    • Department of Computer Science
    • Stanford University
    • Stanford,  California  94305 

Additional Info

  • Mail Code: 9035
  • Profile:
    https://profiles.stanford.edu/doug-james

Links

Current Research and Scholarly Interests

Computer graphics & animation, physics-based sound synthesis, computational physics, haptics, reduced-order modeling

Projects

2021-22 Courses

Stanford Advisees

All Publications

  • Fast Linking Numbers for Topology Verification of Loopy Structures ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Qu, A., James, D. L. 2021; 40 (4)

    View details for DOI 10.1145/3450626.3459778

    View details for Web of Science ID 000674930900148

  • Electric-to-acoustic pickup processing for string instruments: An experimental study of the guitar with a hexaphonic pickupa) JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA Rau, M., Abel, J. S., James, D., Smith, J. O. 2021; 150 (1): 385-397

    View details for DOI 10.1121/10.0005540

    View details for Web of Science ID 000675403200001

  • Electric-to-acoustic pickup processing for string instruments: An experimental study of the guitar with a hexaphonic pickup. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America Rau, M., Abel, J. S., James, D., Smith, J. O. 2021; 150 (1): 385

    Abstract

    A signal processing method to impart the response of an acoustic string instrument to an electric instrument that includes frequency-dependent string decay alterations is proposed. This type of processing is relevant when trying to make a less resonant instrument, such as an electric guitar, sound similar to a more resonant instrument, such as acoustic guitar. Unlike previous methods which typically only perform equalization, our method includes detailed physics-based string damping changes by using a time-varying filter which adds frequency-dependent exponential damping. Efficient digital filters are fit to bridge admittance measurements of an acoustic instrument and used to create equalization filters as well as damping correction filters. The damping correction filters are designed to work in real-time as they are triggered by onset and pitch detection of the signal measured through an under-saddle pickup to determine the intensity of the damping. A test case is presented in which an electric guitar is processed to model a measured acoustic guitar.

    View details for DOI 10.1121/10.0005540

    View details for PubMedID 34340520

  • Weavecraft: An Interactive Design and Simulation Tool for 3D Weaving ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Wu, R., Zhang, J., Leaf, J., Hua, X., Qu, A., Harvey, C., Holtzman, E., Ko, J., Hagan, B., James, D., Guimbretiere, F., Marschner, S. 2020; 39 (6)

    View details for DOI 10.1145/3414685.3417865

    View details for Web of Science ID 000595589100050

  • Phong Deformation: A better C-0 interpolant for embedded deformation ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS James, D. L. 2020; 39 (4)

    View details for DOI 10.1145/3386569.3392371

    View details for Web of Science ID 000583700300029

  • Phong Deformation: A better C0 interpolant for embedded deformation ACM Transactions on Graphics James, D. L. 2020; 39 (4): 9
  • KleinPAT: Optimal Mode Conflation For Time-Domain Precomputation Of Acoustic Transfer ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Wang, J., James, D. L. 2019; 38 (4)

    View details for DOI 10.1145/3306346.3322976

    View details for Web of Science ID 000475740600096

  • Sharp Kelvinlets: Elastic deformations with cusps and localized falloffs DigiPro '19: 2019 Digital Production Symposium Goes, F. d., James, D. L. 2019: 8

    View details for DOI 10.1145/3329715.3338884

  • On the Impact of Ground Sound International Conference on Digital Audio Effects (DAFx-19) Qu, A., James, D. L. 2019
  • Dynamic Kelvinlets: Secondary Motions based on Fundamental Solutions of Elastodynamics ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS De Goes, F., James, D. L. 2018; 37 (4)

    View details for DOI 10.1145/3197517.3201280

    View details for Web of Science ID 000448185000042

  • Toward Wave-based Sound Synthesis for Computer Animation ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Wang, J., Qu, A., Langlois, T. R., James, D. L. 2018; 37 (4)

    View details for DOI 10.1145/3197517.3201318

    View details for Web of Science ID 000448185000070

  • Interactive Design of Periodic Yarn-Level Cloth Patterns Leaf, J., Wu, R., Schweickart, E., James, D. L., Marschner, S., Assoc Comp Machinery ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2018

    View details for DOI 10.1145/3272127.3275105

    View details for Web of Science ID 000455637100025

  • Regularized Kelvinlets: Sculpting brushes based on fundamental solutions of elasticity ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG) de Goes, F., James, D. L. 2017; 36 (2)

    View details for DOI 10.1145/3072959.3073595

  • Bounce Maps: An improved restitution model for real-time rigid-body impact ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG) Wang, J., Setaluri, R., James, D. L., Pai, D. K. 2017; 36 (4)

    View details for DOI 10.1145/3072959.3073634

  • Animating Elastic Rods with Sound Transactions on Graphics (TOG) Schweickart, E., James, D. L., Marschner, S. 2017; 36 (4)

    View details for DOI 10.1145/3072959.3073680

  • Toward Animating Water with Complex Acoustic Bubbles ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Langlois, T. R., Zheng, C., James, D. L. 2016; 35 (4)

    View details for DOI 10.1145/2897824.2925904

    View details for Web of Science ID 000380112400065

  • Real-time sound synthesis for paper material based on geometric analysis Eurographics/ ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on Computer Animation (2016) Schreck, C., Rohmer, D., James, D., Hahmann, S., Cani, M. Eurographics Association . 2016
  • Inverse-Foley Animation: Synchronizing rigid-body motions to sound ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Langlois, T. R., James, D. L. 2014; 33 (4)

    View details for DOI 10.1145/2601097.2601178

    View details for Web of Science ID 000340000100008

  • Eigenmode Compression for Modal Sound Models ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Langlois, T. R., An, S. S., Jin, K. K., James, D. L. 2014; 33 (4)

    View details for DOI 10.1145/2601097.2601177

    View details for Web of Science ID 000340000100007

  • Physics-Based Character Skinning Using Multidomain Subspace Deformations IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VISUALIZATION AND COMPUTER GRAPHICS Kim, T., James, D. L. 2012; 18 (8): 1228-1240

    Abstract

    In this extended version of our Symposium on Computer Animation paper, we describe a domain-decomposition method to simulate articulated deformable characters entirely within a subspace framework. We have added a parallelization and eigendecomposition performance analysis, and several additional examples to the original symposium version. The method supports quasistatic and dynamic deformations, nonlinear kinematics and materials, and can achieve interactive time-stepping rates. To avoid artificial rigidity, or “locking,” associated with coupling low-rank domain models together with hard constraints, we employ penaltybased coupling forces. The multidomain subspace integrator can simulate deformations efficiently, and exploits efficient subspace-only evaluation of constraint forces between rotated domains using a novel Fast Sandwich Transform (FST). Examples are presented for articulated characters with quasistatic and dynamic deformations, and interactive performance with hundreds of fully coupled modes. Using our method, we have observed speedups of between 3 and 4 orders of magnitude over full-rank, unreduced simulations.

    View details for DOI 10.1109/TVCG.2012.78

    View details for Web of Science ID 000305000300005

    View details for PubMedID 22392720

  • Precomputed Acceleration Noise for Improved Rigid-Body Sound ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Chadwick, J. N., Zheng, C., James, D. L. 2012; 31 (4)

    View details for DOI 10.1145/2185520.2185599

    View details for Web of Science ID 000308250300079

  • Stitch Meshes for Modeling Knitted Clothing with Yarn-level Detail ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Yuksel, C., Kaldor, J. M., James, D. L., Marschner, S. 2012; 31 (4)

    View details for DOI 10.1145/2185520.2185533

    View details for Web of Science ID 000308250300013

  • Motion-driven Concatenative Synthesis of Cloth Sounds ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS An, S. S., James, D. L., Marschner, S. 2012; 31 (4)

    View details for DOI 10.1145/2185520.2185598

    View details for Web of Science ID 000308250300078

  • Energy-based Self-Collision Culling for Arbitrary Mesh Deformations ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Zheng, C., James, D. L. 2012; 31 (4)

    View details for DOI 10.1145/2185520.2185594

    View details for Web of Science ID 000308250300074

  • Fabricating Articulated Characters from Skinned Meshes ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Baecher, M., Bickel, B., James, D. L., Pfister, H. 2012; 31 (4)

    View details for DOI 10.1145/2185520.2185543

    View details for Web of Science ID 000308250300023

  • Animating Fire with Sound ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Chadwick, J. N., James, D. L. 2011; 30 (4)

    View details for DOI 10.1145/1964921.1964979

    View details for Web of Science ID 000297216400058

  • Toward High-Quality Modal Contact Sound ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Zheng, C., James, D. L. 2011; 30 (4)

    View details for DOI 10.1145/1964921.1964933

    View details for Web of Science ID 000297216400012

  • Rigid-Body Fracture Sound with Precomputed Soundbanks ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Zheng, C., James, D. L. 2010; 29 (4)

    View details for DOI 10.1145/1778765.1778806

    View details for Web of Science ID 000279806600039

  • Efficient Yarn-based Cloth with Adaptive Contact Linearization ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Kaldor, J. M., James, D. L., Marschner, S. 2010; 29 (4)

    View details for DOI 10.1145/1778765.1778842

    View details for Web of Science ID 000279806600075

  • Subspace Self-Collision Culling ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Barbic, J., James, D. L. 2010; 29 (4)

    View details for DOI 10.1145/1778765.1778818

    View details for Web of Science ID 000279806600051

  • Harmonic Shells: A Practical Nonlinear Sound Model for Near-Rigid Thin Shells ACM SIGGRAPH Asia Conference 2009 Chadwick, J. N., An, S. S., James, D. L. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2009

    View details for DOI 10.1145/1618452.1618465

    View details for Web of Science ID 000273315300014

  • Skipping Steps in Deformable Simulation with Online Model Reduction ACM SIGGRAPH Asia Conference 2009 Kim, T., James, D. L. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2009

    View details for DOI 10.1145/1618452.1618469

    View details for Web of Science ID 000273315300018

  • Harmonic Fluids ACM SIGGRAPH Conference 2009 Zheng, C., James, D. L. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2009

    View details for DOI 10.1145/1531326.1531343

    View details for Web of Science ID 000269278000017

  • Staggered Projections for Frictional Contact in Multibody Systems ACM SIGGRAPH Conference 2008 Kaufman, D. M., Sueda, S., James, D. L., Pai, D. K. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2008

    View details for DOI 10.1145/1409060.1409117

    View details for Web of Science ID 000266986100058

  • Optimizing Cubature for Efficient Integration of Subspace Deformations ACM SIGGRAPH Conference 2008 An, S. S., Kim, T., James, D. L. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2008

    View details for DOI 10.1145/1409060.1409118

    View details for Web of Science ID 000266986100059

  • Wavelet turbulence for fluid simulation ACM SIGGRAPH Conference 2008 Kim, T., Thuerey, N., James, D., Gross, M. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2008

    View details for DOI 10.1145/1360612.1360649

    View details for Web of Science ID 000258262000039

  • Fast modal sounds with scalable frequency-domain synthesis ACM SIGGRAPH Conference 2008 Bonneel, N., Drettakis, G., Tsingos, N., Viaud-Delmon, I., James, D. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2008

    View details for DOI 10.1145/1360612.1360623

    View details for Web of Science ID 000258262000013

  • Backward steps in rigid body simulation ACM SIGGRAPH Conference 2008 Twigg, C. D., James, D. L. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2008

    View details for DOI 10.1145/1360612.1360624

    View details for Web of Science ID 000258262000014

  • Simulating knitted cloth at the yarn level ACM SIGGRAPH Conference 2008 Kaldor, J. M., James, D. L., Marschner, S. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2008

    View details for DOI 10.1145/1360612.1360664

    View details for Web of Science ID 000258262000054

  • Six-DoF Haptic Rendering of Contact between Geometrically Complex Reduced Deformable Models IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON HAPTICS Barbic, J., James, D. L. 2008; 1 (1): 39-52

    View details for DOI 10.1109/ToH.2008.1

    View details for Web of Science ID 000207897900005

  • FastLSM: Fast Lattice Shape Matching for robust real-time deformation ACM SIGGRAPH 2007 Conference Rivers, A. R., James, D. L. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2007

    View details for DOI 10.1145/1239451.1239533

    View details for Web of Science ID 000248914000085

  • Many-Worlds browsing for control of multibody dynamics ACM SIGGRAPH 2007 Conference Twigg, C. D., James, D. L. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2007

    View details for DOI 10.1145/1239451.1239465

    View details for Web of Science ID 000248914000017

  • Mesh ensemble motion graphs: Data-driven mesh animation with constraints ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS James, D. L., Twigg, C. D., Cove, A., Wang, R. Y. 2007; 26 (4)

    View details for DOI 10.1145/1289603.1289608

    View details for Web of Science ID 000250898000005

  • Time-critical distributed contact for 6-DoF haptic rendering of adaptively sampled reduced deformable models Symposium on Computer Animation Barbic, J., James, D. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2007: 171–180

    View details for Web of Science ID 000266362200018

  • Precomputed Acoustic Transfer: Output-sensitive, accurate sound generation for geometrically complex vibration sources ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS James, D. L., Barbic, J., Pai, D. K. 2006; 25 (3): 987-995

    View details for Web of Science ID 000239817400060

  • Skinning mesh animations ACM SIGGRAPH 2005 Conference James, D. L., Twigg, C. D. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2005: 399–407

    View details for Web of Science ID 000231223700004

  • Real-time subspace integration for St. Venant-Kirchhoff deformable models ACM SIGGRAPH 2005 Conference Barbic, J., James, D. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2005: 982–90

    View details for Web of Science ID 000231223700079

  • BD-Tree: Output-sensitive collision detection for reduced deformable models Annual Symposium of the ACM SIGGRAPH James, D. L., Pai, D. K. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2004: 393–98

    View details for Web of Science ID 000222972600027

  • Precomputing interactive dynamic deformable scenes Annual Symposium of the ACM SIGGRAPH James, D. L., Fatahalian, K. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2003: 879–87

    View details for Web of Science ID 000184291700081

  • Multiresolution Green's function methods for interactive simulation of large-scale elastostatic objects ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS James, D. L., Pai, D. K. 2003; 22 (1): 47-82

    View details for Web of Science ID 000179844100003

  • DyRT: Dynamic response textures for real time deformation simulation with graphics hardware SIGGRAPH 2002 Meeting James, D. L., Pai, D. K. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2002: 582–85

    View details for Web of Science ID 000176671100045

  • Real time simulation of multizone elastokinematic models 19th IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) James, D. L., Pai, D. K. IEEE. 2002: 927–932

    View details for Web of Science ID 000178573200146

  • Scanning physical interaction behavior of 3D objects SIGGRAPH 2001 Pai, D. K., van den Doel, K., James, D. L., Lang, J., Lloyd, J. E., Richmond, J. L., Yau, S. H. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2001: 87–96

    View details for Web of Science ID 000173048800009

  • ArtDefo - Accurate real time deformable objects 26th International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques James, D. L., Pai, D. K. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 1999: 65–72

    View details for Web of Science ID 000083678900007