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Nicole Feng
I am a final-year PhD student in Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), where I work in computer graphics and geometry processing. I am a member of the Geometry Collective and advised by Keenan Crane.
If you're interested in learning about my research, I'd recommend starting with the "project pages", which contain blog-style explanations of my published works. In these explanations, I also aim to describe all the approaches that *didn't* work (see, for example, our supplementary document Perspectives on Winding Numbers about winding numbers and solid angle.)
Publications
A Heat Method for Generalized Signed Distance
Nicole Feng, Keenan CraneACM Trans. on Graph. (2024)
project page PDF (10.3mb) supplemental (PDF, 1.6mb) C++ code C++ code (3D domains) Python code (2D domains) Python code (3D domains) BibTex
Winding Numbers on Discrete Surfaces
Nicole Feng, Mark Gillespie, Keenan CraneACM Trans. on Graph. (2023)
project page PDF (4.4mb) supplemental (PDF, 0.7mb) perspectives on winding numbers (PDF, 2.7mb) code (C++) BibTex
Contact Edit: Artist Tools for Intuitive Modeling of Hand-Object Interactions
Arjun S. Lakshmipathy, Nicole Feng, Yu Xi Lee, Moshe Mahler, Nancy S. PollardACM Trans. on Graph. (2023)
project page PDF (11.8mb) BibTex
Tracing Versus Freehand for Evaluating Computer-Generated Drawings
Zeyu Wang, Sherry Qiu, Nicole Feng, Holly Rushmeier, Leonard McMillan, Julie DorseyACM Trans. on Graph. (2021)
project page PDF (3.7mb) BibTexResources
Rendering Geometry in Blender
A PDF tutorial on rendering geometric quantities (scalar fields, vector fields, curves, isolines, etc.) suitable for paper figures, using the free open-source software Blender.PDF (13.5mb)
Behind The Scenes: Diagramming and Educational Illustrations
A series of videos sharing the workflow used to create and composite didactic figures for papers and presentations.YouTube playlist
Other / Fun
Vortex Filament-Based Fluid Simulation
Smoke simulations using discrete vortex filaments (class project for Caltech CS 177b).presentation
Sketch-Based Modeling in Augmented Reality
An Android app that turns drawings in 2D screenspace into surfaces embedded in space, placing them in the user’s current context (class project for Caltech CS 174).project
Miscellaneous
In 2025, I was named an EECS Rising Star. Before that, I was honored to be named a 2024 WiGRAPH Rising Star! You can read about the work of more graphics researchers here.
I like to write crossword puzzles, especially Schrödinger (quantum) puzzles. I occasionally post smaller puzzles on my Crosshare blog.
I occasionally make art for the department; past designs here.
I used to be rather serious about distance running, but had 8+ injuries between 2015 – 2020 and COVID in 2022. I still enjoy the sport as a whole and especially enjoy the running community in Pittsburgh. At CMU, I'm a proud organizer of the Random Distance Run. On Tuesdays, you can usually find me with the Pittsburgh Pharaoh Hounds. (I recommend the Hounds to runners of any level looking to improve, but there is no shortage of other running clubs around Pittsburgh!) I used to be the women's captain for the Carnegie Mellon Club XC team, which competes in cross country and track & field at the NIRCA level (consider getting involved if you're at CMU!)
Previously, I graduated from Caltech with a B.S. in Applied & Computational Mathematics. The background to my website is taken from a photograph I took from the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains in Pasadena, California.