Dr Manfred Lau's research interests are in computer graphics and human-computer interaction. His recent research in the perception of 3D shapes uses crowdsourcing and learning methods for studying human perceptual notions of 3D shapes. His work in 3D modeling and fabrication focuses on building natural user interfaces for the layperson to model, design, and fabricate their own products. His Ph.D. thesis work explored a combination of motion planning techniques and captured data to generate realistic crowd animation for games and films.

Manfred's work has been published at top-tier venues such as SIGGRAPH. His work in developing a mix-reality interface for digital fabrication won a SIGCHI Best Paper Award in 2014. He has served in the program committees of major conferences such as SIGGRAPH Asia, Eurographics, Pacific Graphics, SCA, TEI, SBIM, GI, MIG, and SUI. He will be the program co-chair of TEI (ACM International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction) 2019.

Manfred was previously a faculty member in the School of Computing and Communications at Lancaster University in the UK, and was a post-doc researcher at the Japan Science and Technology Agency - Igarashi Design Interface Project. He received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University and his B.Sc. degree from Yale University.