Derek Nowrouzezahrai

Director, Centre for Intelligent Machines

Derek Nowrouzezahrai is an Associate Professor at McGill University and the Quebec Institute for Artificial Intelligence (Mila), where he Directs the McGill Graphics Lab and the Centre for Intelligent Machines. Derek is the NSERC/Ubisoft Industrial Research Chair in Believable Virtual Character Experiences and previously held the Canada Research Chair in Realistic Image Synthesis. He holds courtesy appointments in the School of Computer Science and the Faculty of Management. Prior to his faculty roles, Derek completed a Post-Doc at Disney Research Zurich and ETH Zurich and his graduate work at the University of Toronto in 2010.

Derek’s group works on devising new mathematical models of real-world phenomena and dynamics, developing efficient and differentiable numerical approaches to solve forward and inverse problems in complex physics-based regimes. These include problems in light transport, fluid dynamics and control, robotics, augmented and virtual reality, digital manufacturing, computational optics and imaging, and image and geometry processing.

This work has been adopted in feature films, video games, autonomous vehicles, amusement parks and consumer products