Prof. FU Hongbo, Acting Head and Professor of the Division of Arts and Machine Creativity at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), has been named as a member of the 2026 ACM SIGGRAPH Academy, one of the top international honors in computer graphics. This prestigious recognition underscores his fundamental contributions to sketch-based modeling and interactive 3D content creation, alongside his substantial leadership in the computer graphics community.

The ACM SIGGRAPH Academy, often known as the "Hall of Fame" in computer graphics, aims to recognize principal leaders whose contributions have significantly shaped the disciplines or industry, and propeled the research or innovation in computer graphics and interactive techniques. Since its inaugural class in 2018, only 118 experts have been inducted worldwide. This year, eight experts around the globe were selected, with Prof. Fu becoming the first scholar from a Hong Kong higher education institution to receive this honor and is one of only three recipients based in Greater China since its reception. This recognition demonstrates Prof. Fu’s significant global impacts on the fields of computer graphics and human-computer interaction.

Prof. QU Huamin, Dean of the Academy of Interdisciplinary Studies at HKUST extended his heartfelt congratulations, stating, "Prof. Fu has been a dedicated contributor to the field of computer graphics for many years. The innovative tools he developed have significantly advanced interactive 3D content creation. This recognition not only highlights Prof. Fu's global influence in the computer graphics community but also underscores HKUST's commitment to blending art and technology, nurturing future creators, and driving continuous breakthroughs in interdisciplinary and innovative research."

Prof. Fu is deeply honored to receive this recognition from the Academy. He said, "My research has always aimed to bridge the gap between human intuition and digital complexity, making the creation of visual content as natural and easy as sketching on paper. I am sincerely grateful to my teammates and collaborators for their support, creativity, and hard work over the years, which have led to our fruitful research outcomes. I look forward to advancing this mission at HKUST, empowering the next generation of creators with cutting edge technologies that combine art and technology, infusing the creative industry with research-driven innovation."

Over the past two decades, Prof. Fu and his team have pioneered tools that transform simple freehand drawings and natural gestures into professional-quality images, videos, 3D models, and animations, thereby democratizing high-end digital content creation for non-experts. Spanning across sketch understanding, function- and structure-aware shape analysis, and in-situ AR/VR content creation, his research is widely published on international journals and presented at influential conferences hosted by ACM SIGGRAPH and IEEE. Prof. Fu has received a number of awards, including the Best Paper Award of ACM User Interface Software and Technology Symposium 2019, the Open-source Graphics Software Award 2021 from the China Computer Federation and a Silver Medal from the Inventions Geneva Evaluation Days 2022, significantly impacting both academia and industry.

Beyond his research, Prof. Fu has held key positions in international computer graphics organizations. He served as the Conference Chair of SIGGRAPH Asia 2016 and Assistant Chair for the SIGGRAPH Asia 2025 Technical Papers program. Currently, he is the Vice-Chair of the Asia Graphics Association, where he actively promotes the development of the graphics community in Asia. Since July 2024, as the Acting Head of the Division of Arts and Machine Creativity at HKUST, Prof. Fu has led Hong Kong's first academic department dedicated to collaborative creation and innovation between humans and machines, fostering interdisciplinary talent for the creative industry.

Media coverage:
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