Mohammad Sina Nabizadeh

PostDoc, Geometric Data Processing Group · MIT CSAIL

I am a PostDoc at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the Geometric Data Processing Group with Professor Justin Solomon.

I received my CS Ph.D. degree at UC San Diego and the Center for Visual Computing, where I worked on various topics in computer graphics research.

At UC San Diego, I was mentored by Professors Albert Chern and Ravi Ramamoorthi. I earned my bachelor's degree in computer engineering at the University of Waterloo, where I was advised by Professor Christopher Batty at the Computational Motion Group.

I received a silver medal at the International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics in 2014 and Canada Developer 30 Under 30 Award in 2018. I was credited for working on Houdini by SideFX, and two AAA games in 2020: Watch Dogs Legion by Ubisoft and Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War by Activision.

News

    Research

    I am a computational scientist who develops numerical methods for solving differential equations and problems in geometry. My work began in fluid simulation and has since extended to geometry processing and the simulation of other physical systems such as plasma and elasticity, developing both traditional and learning-based methods along the way. I tend to approach these problems by abstracting away their specifics to find the structure underneath that is often shared across otherwise distinct phenomena. This perspective is grounded in discrete differential geometry, structure-preserving simulation, and computational geometric mechanics.

    Tangent Blow-Ups for Processing Non-Manifold Geometry

    Tangent Blow-Ups for Processing Non-Manifold Geometry

    Alice Petrov, Mohammad Sina Nabizadeh, Ana Dodik, Justin Solomon
    Symposium on Geometry Processing (SGP) 2026 Best Paper Award (Honorable Mention, top 1.5%)

    We introduce the tangent blow-up, a representation inspired by algebraic geometry that restores structure at singularities by lifting to the product of the ambient space and the Grassmannian of tangent planes. We define discretized gradient, divergence, and Laplacian operators in the lifted domain and demonstrate geodesic computation, segmentation, surface parameterization, and curvature estimation on non-manifold geometry.

    SBP

    Schrödinger Bridges on Discretized Geometric Domains

    Leticia Mattos Da Silva, Mohammad Sina Nabizadeh, Justin Solomon
    SIGGRAPH 2026

    We introduce a spatially discrete formulation of the Schrödinger bridge problem on meshes and grids that enables structure-preserving interpolation between probability distributions. We demonstrate our approach across mesh- and grid-based applications, including displacement interpolation, shape interpolation, and color histogram manipulation, highlighting its ability to achieve geometric fidelity with computational efficiency.

    WODS

    Walk on Decomposed Subdomains: A Hybrid Monte Carlo-Deterministic Solver for Elliptic PDEs

    Clément Jambon, Mohammad Sina Nabizadeh, Mina Konaković Luković
    SIGGRAPH 2026 Best Paper Award

    WoDS is a hybrid Monte Carlo-deterministic solver for elliptic PDEs on complex geometries. Our method decomposes the domain into simple subdomains, estimates local solution operators with Monte Carlo and couples them via a sparse linear system, delivering low-variance solutions orders of magnitude faster than pure Monte Carlo, without volumetric meshing.

    CO-FLIP

    Fluid Implicit Particles on Coadjoint Orbits

    SIGGRAPH Asia 2024 Best Paper Award (Honorable Mention, top 1.5%)

    We propose Coadjoint Orbit FLIP (CO-FLIP), a high order accurate, structure preserving fluid simulation method in the hybrid Eulerian-Lagrangian framework. Using a discrete Hamiltonian formulation we achieve energy and Casimir preservation; formally, the flow evolves on infinite-dimensional coadjoint orbits.

    Fluid Cohomology

    Fluid Cohomology

    Hang Yin, Mohammad Sina Nabizadeh, Baichuan Wu, Stephanie Wang, Albert Chern
    SIGGRAPH 2023

    We derive the dynamics of harmonic components for incompressible inviscid fluids, which has previously been overlooked in the vorticity-streamfunction formulation for Euler equations. We elucidate the physical laws associated with the new equations and show their importance in reproducing physically correct behaviors.

    Exterior Calculus Course

    Exterior Calculus in Graphics

    Stephanie Wang, Mohammad Sina Nabizadeh, Albert Chern
    SIGGRAPH 2023

    This is a comprehensive course for graphics researchers to fill the gap between their undergraduate curriculum of multivariable calculus and cutting-edge graphics research. We use relevant examples from computer graphics to illustrate the theory of exterior calculus leading to advanced topics including continuum mechanics, fluid dynamics, and geometric optimizations.

    Wave Simulations

    Wave Simulations in Infinite Spacetime

    Chad McKell, Mohammad Sina Nabizadeh, Stephanie Wang, Albert Chern
    Under Review

    We present a method for solving the wave equation on the entire infinite domain using only finite computation time and memory. We perform wave simulations in infinite spacetime using a finite discretization of the bounded spacetime with no additional loss of accuracy introduced by the Kelvin transformation.

    Co-vector Fluids

    Covector Fluids

    Mohammad Sina Nabizadeh, Stephanie Wang, Ravi Ramamoorthi, Albert Chern
    SIGGRAPH 2022

    We simulate Euler equations for inviscid fluids by using a novel formulation based on covectors. This new formulation is an entirely velocity-based method in the vein of advection-projection methods while emulating vortex methods. This allows for capturing more intricate vortex dynamics and reducing dissipation of energy with low computational overhead.

    Awards

    Year Award Details

    Talks

    Invited seminars, conference presentations, and courses.

    Date Talk Venue Links

    Experience

    Throughout my studies I have been fortunate to intern at several places and to learn from the mentors listed below, pursuing a lifelong passion for film, animation, and video games. These experiences showed me how much mathematics, physics, and engineering goes into these art forms, and let me contribute to them in my own small way.

    WētāFX

    WētāFX

    Simulation Intern
    Wellington, New Zealand (remote)
    June, 2023 - September, 2023

    Mentors: Alexey Stomakhin, Steve Lesser

    Worked on fluids and other Loki simulation tools.

    Pixar

    Pixar

    Research Intern
    Emeryville, California, USA
    June, 2022 - September, 2022

    Mentors: Fernando de Goes, Andrew Butts, Mark Meyer

    Worked on cloth deformation and simulation.

    Treyarch

    Treyarch

    Graphics Engineer Intern
    Santa Monica, California, USA (remote)
    June, 2021 - September, 2021

    Mentor: Jose Doran

    Worked on Call of Duty: Warzone 2.

    Activision Central Tech

    Activision Central Tech

    Computer Graphics Intern
    Portland, Maine, USA (remote)
    May, 2020 - September, 2020

    Mentor: Michael Vance, Akimitsu Hogge

    Worked on Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War.

    University of Waterloo

    University of Waterloo

    Research Assistant
    Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
    January, 2018 - April, 2020

    Mentor: Prof. Christopher Batty

    Worked on adaptive quad/octree viscous fluid simulation.

    Ubisoft Toronto

    Ubisoft Toronto

    3D Programmer Intern
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    January, 2019 - April, 2019

    Mentor: Ruben Penalva, Randy Tjandra

    Worked on Watch Dogs Legion.

    Side Effects Software

    Side Effects Software

    3D Software Developer Intern
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    May, 2018 - August, 2018

    Mentor: Jeff Lait

    Worked on Houdini 17 release.

    Side Effects Software

    Side Effects Software

    3D Software Developer Intern
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    September, 2017 - December, 2017

    Mentor: Neil Dickson, Derrick Moser

    Worked on Houdini 16.5 release.

    Derivative

    Derivative

    Engine Programmer Intern
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    January, 2017 - April, 2017

    Mentor: Rob Bairos, Malcolm Bechard

    Worked on Touch Designer engine.

    Christie Digital Systems

    Christie Digital Systems

    Software Developer Intern
    Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
    May, 2016 - August, 2016

    Mentor: Jamie de Domenico

    Worked on auto focus systems.

    IOAA Team Leader

    2015 International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA)

    Team Canada Instructor and Leader
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    May, 2015 - August, 2015

    Volunteered to help instruct and lead the Canadian olympiad team.