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Žiga Kovačič

[ZHEE-gah KOH-vah-cheech]

I'm currently pursing my B.A. in Mathematics and CS, through the College Scholars program at Cornell University.

I'm extremely fortunate to work with professor Kevin Ellis. I previously worked with Abe Davis on time-lapse generation and modal analysis for resimulation.

I'm interested in the intersection of physical simulation, machine learning (code generation), and tools for computer graphics. Currently I'm working refactoring and code generation for physical simulation.

I've recenly started writing summaries of my readings on physical simulation.




Projects

Here are some of my research and engineering projects, or at least the ones that are not being prepped for publications...

Implemented the Moving Least Squared Material Point Method, CPIC, various materials, as well as mesh extraction, both in 2D and 3D.
Implements the 2015 paper "Image-Space Modal Bases for Plausible Manipulation of Objects in Video" by Davis et al., extending the original work with modal warping. Developed modal analysis pipeline in Python and custom JavaScript rasterizer for real-time rendering.
Modifies Gaussian Splatting to remove obstructions blocking the view of objects of interest in 3D scene reconstruction.
Pen-2-Graph
Pen-2-Graph (2024)
Automates generation of node-edge graph programs from hand-drawn sketches using vision-language models and differential evolution. CS 6172 Final project.
Implementation of a path tracer in OCaml. Includes distributive ray tracing, reflections, refractions, volumetric elements, emissive objects, BVH, and various object and material primitives.
MelodyMesh
MelodyMesh (2023)
3D music visualizer that deforms meshes based on audio frequencies. CS 6682 Final project.

Experience

Undergraduate Researcher
Mar. 2025 – Present
Cornell University

Undergraduate Researcher
May 2023 - Mar 2023
Cornell University

Teaching Experience

CS 4787: Large Scale Machine Learning | Head TA
Cornell University, Fall 2025
CS 4782: Introduction to Deep Learning | Head TA, Made autograder for 200+ students
Cornell University, Spring 2025
CS 4620: Introduction to Computer Graphics | TA
Cornell University, Fall 2024
CS 4780: Introduction to Machine Learning | TA, TA Award
Cornell University, Spring 2024
CS 2110: Object Oriented Programming and Data Structures | TA
Cornell University, Spring 2023

Personal

In my free time I enjoy cooking, climbing, and playing the guitar.


Personal websites of some friends/acquaintances you might find interesting:

echen01.github.io | jasonklein.dev | trannhan.com | jren03.github.io | shamus.li | atikshb.github.io | jeremykubenjet.com | www.jonochen.net | kabirsamsi.com | davidxlin.github.io