Awards Won by My Students and Postdocs

"The measure of a great teacher is the number of students who have surpassed him." - Donald Robinson (American educator and writer)

I am very proud of all the students and postdocs that I have supervised over the years. I remember a saying that at some point of your academic career, it will not be about what you have accomplished, but what your students have!

Here is a list of awards won by my current and past students and postdocs, where paper awards were won without me as a co-author!

ALL credits to them!

Thesis Awards

2024, Alain Fournier Award for the best Ph.D. dissertation in computer graphics in Canada, by Zhiqin Chen (former PhD).
2024, Eurographics Annual Award for Best PhD Thesis, by Zhiqin Chen (former PhD).
2015, Alain Fournier Award for the best Ph.D. dissertation in computer graphics in Canada, by Ibraheem Alhashim (former PhD).

Achivement Awards (selected)

2026, CHCCS/SCDHM Graphics Interface Early Career Researcher Award, by Ali Mahdavi-Amiri (former postdoc).
2026, Adobe Tech Excellence Award, by Zhiqin Chen (former PhD).
2026, SFU Computing Science Visual Computing Chair, by Ali Mahdavi-Amiri (former postdoc).
2025, National Science Foundation of China Youth Fund Level B, formerly Excellent Young Researcher Award ( 优青 ) of China, by Chenyang Zhu (former PhD).
2024, Governor General’s Gold Medal, at SFU Convocation, by Zhiqin Chen (former PhD).
2023, Outstanding Young Researcher Award ( 杰青 ) of China, by Kai Xu (former visiting PhD).
2023, Excellent Young Researcher Award ( 优青 ) of China, by Ruizhen Hu (former visiting PhD)
2026, SFU Computing Science Visual Computing Chair, by Andrea Tagliasacchi (former PhD).
2019, AsiaGraphics Young Researcher Award, by Ruizhen Hu (former visiting PhD).
2016, Excellent Young Researcher Award ( 优青 ) of China, by Kai Xu (former visiting PhD).
2007, Award of Excellence from MITACS Internship Program, by Xiaoxing Li (former MSc).

Paper Awards

2026, ICRA Best Paper Award in Automation, by Ruizhen Hu (former visiting PhD), Kai Xu (former visiting PhD), and Oliver van Kaick (former PhD).
2023, Best Paper Award Candidates at CVPR 2023, Zhiqin Chen (former PhD) and Andrea Tagliasacchi (former PhD).
2020, Best Student Paper Award at CVPR 2020 Workshop on Text and Documents in the Deep Learning Era, by Akshay Gadi Patil (former PhD).

Scholarships and Fellowships

2025, Graduate Entrance Scholarship at SFU, by Guangda Ji (PhD).
2023, Graduate Entrance Scholarship at SFU, by Dingdong Yang (PhD).
2022, Graduate Dean’s Entrance Scholarship (GDES) at SFU, by Yilin Liu (former PhD); three awards per year in School of Computer Science.
2021-22, Google PhD Fellowship, by Zhiqin Chen (former PhD).
2021, NVIDIA PhD Fellowship Finalist (among top 10 applicants), by Zhiqin Chen (former PhD).
2019, Graduate Dean’s Entrance Scholarship (GDES) at SFU, by Fenggen Yu (former PhD); three awards per year in School of Computer Science.
2018, Adobe PhD Fellowship Finalist, by Kangxue Yin (former PhD).
2018, China Scholarship for Outstanding Self Finance Students Abroad, by Kangxue Yin (former PhD); there are about 40 such awards won in Canada.
2018, Graduate Dean’s Entrance Scholarship (GDES) at SFU, by Johannes Merz (former PhD); three awards per year in School of Computer Science.
2015, CD Nelson Entrance Scholarship at SFU, by Wallace Pinto Lira (former PhD); three awards per year in School of Computer Science.
2013, Azrieli Postdoc Fellowship, by Oliver van Kaick (former PhD).
2011-2013, Alexander Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship from NSERC, by Andrea Tagliasacchi (former PhD).