Mengdi Wang

王梦迪 | Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow

PhysAI Lab · University of British Columbia

I am an incoming postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Peter Yichen Chen’s PhysAI Lab at the University of British Columbia. I received my Ph.D. in Computer Science from Georgia Tech, advised by Prof. Bo Zhu, and my B.S. from Peking University, where I worked with Prof. Baoquan Chen.

I see physical simulation as a two-way interface between intelligent systems and the real world. AI can enable simulations beyond the reach of hand-designed models and heuristics; physics, in turn, provides testable principles for quantifying error, verifying behavior, and supporting reliable, human-centered decision-making. My work builds this interface through multiscale representations, interface and transport algorithms, and adaptive GPU solvers, while extending it with learning and feedback loops that connect perception, simulation, generation, and control.

I am actively seeking tenure-track faculty positions starting in Fall 2027.

Open-Source Projects

Publications

Cirrus: Adaptive Hybrid Particle-Grid Flow Maps on GPU

Mengdi Wang , Fan Feng , Junlin Li , and Bo Zhu

ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG), 2025

Website PDF Code Bib

@article{wang2025cirrus,
  title = {Cirrus: Adaptive Hybrid Particle-Grid Flow Maps on GPU},
  author = {Wang, Mengdi and Feng, Fan and Li, Junlin and Zhu, Bo},
  journal = {ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG)},
  volume = {44},
  number = {4},
  pages = {1--17},
  year = {2025},
  publisher = {ACM New York, NY, USA},
}

Real-Time Knit Deformation and Rendering

Tao Huang^* , Haoyang Shi , Mengdi Wang^* , Yuxing Qiu , Yin Yang , and Kui Wu

ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG), 2025

^* Co-first authors.

Website PDF Bib

@article{huang2025real,
  title = {Real-Time Knit Deformation and Rendering},
  author = {Huang, Tao and Shi, Haoyang and Wang, Mengdi and Qiu, Yuxing and Yang, Yin and Wu, Kui},
  equal_contrib = {Huang, Tao and Wang, Mengdi},
  journal = {ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG)},
  volume = {44},
  number = {4},
  pages = {1--12},
  year = {2025},
  publisher = {ACM New York, NY, USA},
}

An interface tracking method with triangle edge cuts

Mengdi Wang , Matthew Cong , and Bo Zhu

Journal of Computational Physics, 2025

Website PDF Bib

@article{wang2025interface,
  title = {An interface tracking method with triangle edge cuts},
  author = {Wang, Mengdi and Cong, Matthew and Zhu, Bo},
  journal = {Journal of Computational Physics},
  volume = {520},
  pages = {113504},
  year = {2025},
  publisher = {Elsevier},
}

Hydrophobic and hydrophilic solid-fluid interaction

Jinyuan Liu , Mengdi Wang , Fan Feng , Annie Tang , Qiqin Le , and Bo Zhu

ACM Transactions on Graphics, 2022

Website Bib

@article{liu2022hydrophobic,
  title = {Hydrophobic and hydrophilic solid-fluid interaction},
  author = {Liu, Jinyuan and Wang, Mengdi and Feng, Fan and Tang, Annie and Le, Qiqin and Zhu, Bo},
  journal = {ACM Transactions on Graphics},
  volume = {41},
  number = {6},
  year = {2022},
}

A Clebsch method for free-surface vortical flow simulation

Shiying Xiong , Zhecheng Wang , Mengdi Wang , and Bo Zhu

ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG), 2022

Website PDF Bib

@article{xiong2022clebsch,
  title = {A Clebsch method for free-surface vortical flow simulation},
  author = {Xiong, Shiying and Wang, Zhecheng and Wang, Mengdi and Zhu, Bo},
  journal = {ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG)},
  volume = {41},
  number = {4},
  pages = {1--13},
  year = {2022},
  publisher = {ACM New York, NY, USA},
}

A moving Eulerian-Lagrangian particle method for thin film and foam simulation

Yitong Deng , Mengdi Wang , Xiangxin Kong , Shiying Xiong , Zangyueyang Xian , and Bo Zhu

ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG), 2022

Website PDF Code Bib

@article{deng2022moving,
  title = {A moving Eulerian-Lagrangian particle method for thin film and foam simulation},
  author = {Deng, Yitong and Wang, Mengdi and Kong, Xiangxin and Xiong, Shiying and Xian, Zangyueyang and Zhu, Bo},
  journal = {ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG)},
  volume = {41},
  number = {4},
  pages = {1--17},
  year = {2022},
  publisher = {ACM New York, NY, USA},
}

Thin-film smoothed particle hydrodynamics fluid

Mengdi Wang , Yitong Deng , Xiangxin Kong , Aditya H Prasad , Shiying Xiong , and Bo Zhu

ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG), 2021

Website PDF Code Bib

@article{wang2021thin,
  title = {Thin-film smoothed particle hydrodynamics fluid},
  author = {Wang, Mengdi and Deng, Yitong and Kong, Xiangxin and Prasad, Aditya H and Xiong, Shiying and Zhu, Bo},
  journal = {ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG)},
  volume = {40},
  number = {4},
  pages = {1--16},
  year = {2021},
  publisher = {ACM New York, NY, USA},
}

Visual data analysis and simulation prediction for COVID-19

Baoquan Chen , Mingyi Shi , Xingyu Ni , Liangwang Ruan , Hongda Jiang , Heyuan Yao , Mengdi Wang , Zhenhua Song , Qiang Zhou , and Tong Ge

arXiv preprint arXiv:2002.07096, 2020

Website Bib

@article{chen2020visual,
  title = {Visual data analysis and simulation prediction for COVID-19},
  author = {Chen, Baoquan and Shi, Mingyi and Ni, Xingyu and Ruan, Liangwang and Jiang, Hongda and Yao, Heyuan and Wang, Mengdi and Song, Zhenhua and Zhou, Qiang and Ge, Tong},
  journal = {arXiv preprint arXiv:2002.07096},
  year = {2020},
}