Predictive Rendering of Wooden Materials for Reliable Prototyping in the Woodworking Industry (ESR 02 PhD position)

Topic Description

The ESR 02 PhD position within PRIME is all about representing wooden materials for virtual objects. The appearance of wood is a complex product of sub-surface scattering and oriented fibers. For reliable, accurate renderings a more sophisticated solution is necessary than approximating textures. The candidate should develop a new model for wood appearance that allows for accurate predictions in the context of wood-based fabrication together with an accompanying capture technique to measure parameters off real samples.

Employment Details

Pay is standardised by the EU, and is ample by local standards. Employment duration within PRIME is 36 months, and the start date can be anytime between October 1st, 2020, and September 30th, 2021. However, we prefer candidates to be available as soon as is practical: ideally, we would like to hire until March 2021 at the very latest.

About the research group

The Computer Graphics Group (CGG) at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic is led by Alexander Wilkie and Elena Šikudová, and currently hosts seven PhD students and one PostDoc. The team is very international (British, Slovak, Czech, German, Iranian) and uses English as its working language. Topic-wise, the group’s interests are spread across realistic image synthesis, appearance fabrication, sky models, and computer vision. We are proud of our closely knit team environment, and our far-reaching network of collaborators in academia and industry. We are also privileged to be housed in a magnificent historical building right underneath Castle Hill in the historical centre of Prague.

Formal Requirements

• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, Physics or Engineering.
• No Ph.D. degree¹.
• Less than 4 years of professional employment after obtaining your master’s degree ¹
• Less than 12 months of residency in the Czech Republic in the last 3 years ¹

Technical Proficiency

• Advanced knowledge in the field of computer graphics, especially (volumetric) light transport simulation and material modelling.
• Solid foundation in optics, linear algebra, Monte Carlo integration, colour science.
• Experience with rendering software, preferably path tracers like Corona, VRay, pbrt or Mitsuba.
• Solid working proficiency in writing, debugging and maintaining C, C++ and/or Objective-C code.

Soft Skills Requirements

• Fluent spoken and written English. Minimum proficiency level is B2, C1 is definitely preferred.
  An ability to speak Czech is not required during your entire stay at our university: the working language of our group, and the entire Ph.D. study plan, is English.
• Self-reliant working style
• Curious and ambitious personality.
• Prior research and publication experience is considered a definite plus, but is not required.