David Levin
@diwlevin.bsky.social
Sometimes professor sometimes nvidia research scientist all-the-time loud mouth
Opinions are my own and do not represent either of my employers
Opinions are my own and do not represent either of my employers
Don’t worry spaceX is going to take all that IPO money and buy a million Optimus robots.
January 29, 2026 at 3:39 PM
Don’t worry spaceX is going to take all that IPO money and buy a million Optimus robots.
My PhD student Abhishek Madan is getting ready to graduate and he’s looking for a postdoc or industry position. Checkout his website www.dgp.toronto.edu/~amadan/
He’s been an amazing student , basically does all his research by himself. Fantastic math and implementation acumen.
He’s been an amazing student , basically does all his research by himself. Fantastic math and implementation acumen.
Abhishek Madan
www.dgp.toronto.edu
January 29, 2026 at 3:33 PM
My PhD student Abhishek Madan is getting ready to graduate and he’s looking for a postdoc or industry position. Checkout his website www.dgp.toronto.edu/~amadan/
He’s been an amazing student , basically does all his research by himself. Fantastic math and implementation acumen.
He’s been an amazing student , basically does all his research by himself. Fantastic math and implementation acumen.
For the first time in a while none of the SIGGRAPH papers I’ll submit have any ML (no neural nets no nothing) in them.
Why ?
The truth is that for most of my use cases those techniques have yet to show any practical benefit over good ol’ meshes and math.
Why ?
The truth is that for most of my use cases those techniques have yet to show any practical benefit over good ol’ meshes and math.
January 22, 2026 at 2:28 PM
For the first time in a while none of the SIGGRAPH papers I’ll submit have any ML (no neural nets no nothing) in them.
Why ?
The truth is that for most of my use cases those techniques have yet to show any practical benefit over good ol’ meshes and math.
Why ?
The truth is that for most of my use cases those techniques have yet to show any practical benefit over good ol’ meshes and math.
It's funny to me that the SGP call for papers basically has all of SCA as a subtopic and I'm pretty sure SCA does the same thing in reverse.
It's like a snake eating its tail.
It's like a snake eating its tail.
January 21, 2026 at 4:40 PM
It's funny to me that the SGP call for papers basically has all of SCA as a subtopic and I'm pretty sure SCA does the same thing in reverse.
It's like a snake eating its tail.
It's like a snake eating its tail.
We are all just notation artists …
My PhD advisor was always testing creative hacks for math notation, from using colours to different typefaces to label quantities. I like using visually meaningful decorations (like tilde for deformed quantities because it looks like a squished bar).
My PhD advisor was always testing creative hacks for math notation, from using colours to different typefaces to label quantities. I like using visually meaningful decorations (like tilde for deformed quantities because it looks like a squished bar).
Once again I have run out of meaningful letters to assign to mathematical quantities, without ambiguous double uses. Occasionally I wonder why papers on a given topic will choose different letters to represent the same quantity — surely it would be better to pick one as a universal standard?...
January 20, 2026 at 2:44 PM
We are all just notation artists …
My PhD advisor was always testing creative hacks for math notation, from using colours to different typefaces to label quantities. I like using visually meaningful decorations (like tilde for deformed quantities because it looks like a squished bar).
My PhD advisor was always testing creative hacks for math notation, from using colours to different typefaces to label quantities. I like using visually meaningful decorations (like tilde for deformed quantities because it looks like a squished bar).
Reposted by David Levin
Hey I made a new thing - it's called Gradientspace Graph, and it's a C#-based NodeGraph Programming system that also supports inline C# and Python "Code Nodes". The NodeGraph Engine is MIT Open-Source and the Editor is Free. More details here: www.gradientspace.com/tutorials/20...
Gradientspace Graph Beta — gradientspace
I have released an initial version of Gradientspace Graph (GSGraph), a new C#-based NodeGraph Programming environment that also supports inline text-coding in C# and Python (and LLM-based CodeNode gen...
www.gradientspace.com
January 13, 2026 at 7:36 PM
Hey I made a new thing - it's called Gradientspace Graph, and it's a C#-based NodeGraph Programming system that also supports inline C# and Python "Code Nodes". The NodeGraph Engine is MIT Open-Source and the Editor is Free. More details here: www.gradientspace.com/tutorials/20...
This sounds like a great course, may have to steal this idea ;)
I am teaching a Computer Graphics class this semester where I am going to pair technical readings with STS-type readings. The students are evaluated on both.
January 13, 2026 at 2:51 PM
This sounds like a great course, may have to steal this idea ;)
Reposted by David Levin
The ACM Digital Library, where a LOT of computing-related research is published (I'd say at least 75% of my own publications), is now not only providing (without consent of the authors and without opt-in by readers) AI-generated summaries of papers, but they appear as the *default* over abstracts.
December 16, 2025 at 11:31 PM
The ACM Digital Library, where a LOT of computing-related research is published (I'd say at least 75% of my own publications), is now not only providing (without consent of the authors and without opt-in by readers) AI-generated summaries of papers, but they appear as the *default* over abstracts.
Curious what people think of bidding on papers to review for a conference. I always find this to be an unnecessary waste of time. You know my expertise and my conflicts, assign me appropriate papers, don't make me click more buttons. Agree? Disagree?
December 9, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Curious what people think of bidding on papers to review for a conference. I always find this to be an unnecessary waste of time. You know my expertise and my conflicts, assign me appropriate papers, don't make me click more buttons. Agree? Disagree?
Totally forgot that the first year I ran my physics-based animation seminar course, part of the grade was writing a blog post about a paper. Those posts still exist and are quite good !
physics.diwlevin.com?p=72
physics.diwlevin.com?p=72
Large Step in Close Simulation – Physics in Computer Graphics
physics.diwlevin.com
December 8, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Totally forgot that the first year I ran my physics-based animation seminar course, part of the grade was writing a blog post about a paper. Those posts still exist and are quite good !
physics.diwlevin.com?p=72
physics.diwlevin.com?p=72
One last physics assignment, this time by my student Ty Trusty, implementing vertex-block descent: github.com/tytrusty/pba...
Get's about 5 chickens per second on my workstation GPU.
Get's about 5 chickens per second on my workstation GPU.
November 20, 2025 at 10:53 PM
One last physics assignment, this time by my student Ty Trusty, implementing vertex-block descent: github.com/tytrusty/pba...
Get's about 5 chickens per second on my workstation GPU.
Get's about 5 chickens per second on my workstation GPU.
My worldview is being challenged
The reviews received for my ICLR submission are higher quality than reviews I received for my SIGGRAPH and SIGGRAPH Asia submissions. All reviewers seemed to have actually read the paper and articulated their (reasonable) concerns in a constructive format.
The reviews received for my ICLR submission are higher quality than reviews I received for my SIGGRAPH and SIGGRAPH Asia submissions. All reviewers seemed to have actually read the paper and articulated their (reasonable) concerns in a constructive format.
November 13, 2025 at 6:37 PM
My worldview is being challenged
The reviews received for my ICLR submission are higher quality than reviews I received for my SIGGRAPH and SIGGRAPH Asia submissions. All reviewers seemed to have actually read the paper and articulated their (reasonable) concerns in a constructive format.
The reviews received for my ICLR submission are higher quality than reviews I received for my SIGGRAPH and SIGGRAPH Asia submissions. All reviewers seemed to have actually read the paper and articulated their (reasonable) concerns in a constructive format.
When this baby hits 88 revolutions per minute your going to see some serious sh!t.
November 11, 2025 at 2:24 AM
When this baby hits 88 revolutions per minute your going to see some serious sh!t.
Graduate student led quest to start Canada-Wide National Laboratories focused on applied science/technology research continues ... you can visit appliedcomputing.ca to read the original letter of intent and a proposal document, plus sign said letter to show your support.
Institute for Applied Computing - Letter
appliedcomputing.ca
November 10, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Graduate student led quest to start Canada-Wide National Laboratories focused on applied science/technology research continues ... you can visit appliedcomputing.ca to read the original letter of intent and a proposal document, plus sign said letter to show your support.
This is the best way to illustrate "I don't know what the f#@$ is going on" I've ever seen.
AI could end scarcity, end humanity - or boost trend growth by 0.2 percentage points
November 7, 2025 at 4:26 PM
This is the best way to illustrate "I don't know what the f#@$ is going on" I've ever seen.
New fluid simulation assignment for CSC417 just dropped. This one by my PhD student Jonathan Panuelos. I had always intended to have fluid sim in the previous course but never got around to writing the code. Maybe for the best, because Jonathan's version is so good.
github.com/panuelosj/pb...
github.com/panuelosj/pb...
GitHub - panuelosj/pba-assignment-fluids: Fluids Assignment Spec for UofT Course CSC417 Physics-Based Animation
Fluids Assignment Spec for UofT Course CSC417 Physics-Based Animation - panuelosj/pba-assignment-fluids
github.com
November 7, 2025 at 4:00 PM
New fluid simulation assignment for CSC417 just dropped. This one by my PhD student Jonathan Panuelos. I had always intended to have fluid sim in the previous course but never got around to writing the code. Maybe for the best, because Jonathan's version is so good.
github.com/panuelosj/pb...
github.com/panuelosj/pb...
From the Verge … there’s a word for this, when someone claims they own your entire personhood. It eludes me …
November 5, 2025 at 3:12 PM
From the Verge … there’s a word for this, when someone claims they own your entire personhood. It eludes me …
My PhD student Ty Trusty and a grass roots group of graduate wants to petition the Canada to start a national lab (eg INRIA) in Canada. You can read their rationale here: docs.google.com/document/d/1.... If it resonates with you, like it did me, sign the letter and share forms.gle/NqW7Q5qYkytP...!
Research Institute Letter
The Honourable Evan Solomon 409 Parliament street Toronto, Ontario M5A 3A1 Dear Mr. Solomon, RE: Canada Needs a National Research Institute to Stop the “Brain Drain” All my friends are geniuses and ...
docs.google.com
November 3, 2025 at 3:47 PM
My PhD student Ty Trusty and a grass roots group of graduate wants to petition the Canada to start a national lab (eg INRIA) in Canada. You can read their rationale here: docs.google.com/document/d/1.... If it resonates with you, like it did me, sign the letter and share forms.gle/NqW7Q5qYkytP...!
Game 6 let’s go jays !!
November 1, 2025 at 12:34 AM
Game 6 let’s go jays !!
Very excited to share VoMP, our surface to volumetric simready asset generator. Our method doesn’t over fit to a simulator, it predicts ground truth (as measured) Young’s modulus and poison’s ratio much more accurately then previous methods.
📢want to create realistic dynamic 3D worlds (>100 splats)?
my NVIDIA internship project, VoMP, is the first feed-forward approach turning surface geometry into volumetric sim-ready assets with real-world materials.
🌐Project: research.nvidia.com/labs/sil/pro...
📜Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2510.22975
my NVIDIA internship project, VoMP, is the first feed-forward approach turning surface geometry into volumetric sim-ready assets with real-world materials.
🌐Project: research.nvidia.com/labs/sil/pro...
📜Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2510.22975
October 30, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Very excited to share VoMP, our surface to volumetric simready asset generator. Our method doesn’t over fit to a simulator, it predicts ground truth (as measured) Young’s modulus and poison’s ratio much more accurately then previous methods.
Don’t usually post about my non-cs hobbies but I’m proud of this :)
A 440lb deadlift just a few days short of my 46th birthday
A 440lb deadlift just a few days short of my 46th birthday
October 24, 2025 at 6:56 PM
Don’t usually post about my non-cs hobbies but I’m proud of this :)
A 440lb deadlift just a few days short of my 46th birthday
A 440lb deadlift just a few days short of my 46th birthday
EC summary of the SigAsia 2026 decision features some real questionable reasoning
On why no alternative venue ".. it sends the message that we lack confidence in our ability to host international events safely."
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
On why no alternative venue ".. it sends the message that we lack confidence in our ability to host international events safely."
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Summarization of SIGGRAPH Asia Deliberations
Mission of SIGGRAPH From here: ACM SIGGRAPH is an international community of researchers, artists, developers, filmmakers, scientists, and business professionals who share a common interest in compute...
docs.google.com
October 23, 2025 at 2:48 PM
EC summary of the SigAsia 2026 decision features some real questionable reasoning
On why no alternative venue ".. it sends the message that we lack confidence in our ability to host international events safely."
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
On why no alternative venue ".. it sends the message that we lack confidence in our ability to host international events safely."
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
The University of Toronto Dept. of CS is hiring! We have 3 tenure-stream assistant professor positions open.
Toronto is a great city! Great people, wonderful nature, surprisingly good baseball team, not currently occupied by a US militia. All reasons to apply: web.cs.toronto.edu/employment-o...
Toronto is a great city! Great people, wonderful nature, surprisingly good baseball team, not currently occupied by a US militia. All reasons to apply: web.cs.toronto.edu/employment-o...
Employment Opportunities — Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto
Are you looking for a thought-provoking and inventive career at a leading institution?
web.cs.toronto.edu
October 21, 2025 at 7:47 PM
The University of Toronto Dept. of CS is hiring! We have 3 tenure-stream assistant professor positions open.
Toronto is a great city! Great people, wonderful nature, surprisingly good baseball team, not currently occupied by a US militia. All reasons to apply: web.cs.toronto.edu/employment-o...
Toronto is a great city! Great people, wonderful nature, surprisingly good baseball team, not currently occupied by a US militia. All reasons to apply: web.cs.toronto.edu/employment-o...
As part of my new class assignments I made a simple USD writer for saving animations of dynamic triangle meshes. USD has many issues but it’s the best format I’ve found for sharing scenes like this.
github.com/dilevin/usdm...
github.com/dilevin/usdm...
October 21, 2025 at 1:19 PM
As part of my new class assignments I made a simple USD writer for saving animations of dynamic triangle meshes. USD has many issues but it’s the best format I’ve found for sharing scenes like this.
github.com/dilevin/usdm...
github.com/dilevin/usdm...