Maria Larsson, PhD

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Project Assistant Professor

User Interface Research Group
Department of Creative Informatics
Graduate School of Information Science and Technology
The University of Tokyo

E-mail: ma.ka.larsson@gmail.com

I am a Project Assistant Professor at the Department of Creative Informatics, The University of Tokyo, supported by the VXE program. My research focuses on computational design for sustainable manufacturing, exploring the connection between digital design and physical making. I work on modeling 3D geometries and material textures, with particular interest in wood materials, subtractive manufacturing, and human-centered interaction. I received my Ph.D. in Information Science and Technology from The University of Tokyo in 2023, advised by Takeo Igarashi, and have presented technical papers at international conferences including SIGGRAPH and UIST. My background in architecture continues to inform my interest in the aesthetic potential of computational design and the practical realities of physical making.

Download CV here

Publications

Journal Paper

🆕 The Mokume Dataset and Inverse Texturing of Solid Wood

SIGGRAPH 2025. Maria Larsson, Hodaka Yamaguchi, Ehsan Pajouheshgar, I-Chao Shen, Kenji Tojo, Chia-Ming Chang, Lars Hansson, Olof Broman, Takashi Ijiri, Ariel Shamir, Wenzel Jakob, and Takeo Igarashi
[Preprint PDF] [Video] [DOI] [Project page]

Conference Paper

🆕 XR-penter: Material-Aware, Improvisational Woodwork Design In-Situ

Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) 2025
Ramya Iyer, Mustafa Doga Dogan, Maria Larsson, and Takeo Igarashi
[PDF] [Video] [DOI]

Conference Paper

🆕 Draw2Cut: Direct On-Material Annotations for CNC Milling

Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) 2025
Xinyue Gui, Ding Xia, Wang Gao, Mustafa Doga Dogan, Maria Larsson, and Takeo Igarashi
[PDF] [Video] [DOI]

Short paper

Designing Reconfigurable Joints

SIGGRAPH Asia 2024, 🏆 Honorable Mention
Atsushi Maruyama, Maria Larsson, I-Chao Shen, and Takeo Igarashi
[PDF] [Video] [DOI]

Short paper

A Design and Fabrication Workflow for Upcycling Leftover Fabrics

International Conference on Computational Creativity (ICCC) 2024
Musashi Shinjo, Maria Larsson, and Hironori Yoshida
[PDF]

Journal Paper

Learned Inference of Annual Ring Patterns of Solid Wood

Computer Graphics Forum (CGF) 2024
Maria Larsson,* Takashi Ijiri,* I-Chao Shen, Hironori Yoshida, Ariel Shamir, and Takeo Igarashi
[PDF] [DOI]

Ph.D. Thesis

Computational Carpentry: Material- and Fabrication-aware Design Systems

The University of Tokyo, 2023
Adviser: Takeo Igarashi
[Abstract PDF] [Abstract PDF (JP)]

Journal Paper

Procedural Texturing of Solid Wood with Knots

SIGGRAPH 2022
Maria Larsson, Takashi Ijiri, Hironori Yoshida, Johannes Huber, Magnus Fredriksson, Olof Broman, and Takeo Igarashi
[PDF] [Video] [DOI] [Project page]

Conference Paper

Tsugite: Interactive Design and Fabrication of Wood Joints

User Interface Software and Technology (UIST) 2020
Maria Larsson, Hironori Yoshida, Nobuyuki Umetani, and Takeo Igarashi
[PDF] [Video] [DOI] [Project page] [Code] ☆ 400+ stars on GitHub

Conference Paper

Human-in-the-loop Fabrication of 3D Surfaces with Natural Tree Branches

Symposium on Computational Fabrication (SCF) 2019
Maria Larsson, Hironori Yoshida, and Takeo Igarashi
[PDF] [Video] [DOI]

Short paper

Upcycling Tree Branches as Architectural Elements

Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI) 2019
Hironori Yoshida, Maria Larsson, and Takeo Igarashi
[PDF] [Video] [DOI]

Other (non-peer-reviewed) writing:

Blog post

Updating the art of joinery for the 21st century

Medium, 2020-10-10 [Link]

Invited article

中銀カプセルタワーに住んでいた留学生から見た日本の生活 (JP)

English title: Life in Japan as seen from a student from overseas who lived in the Nakagin Capsule Tower Building Maintenance and Management Center (BMMC), 2014-10-01

Grants & Awards

• KAKENHI Research Start-Up Grant, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), 2023-2024
• ACT-X [Math and Info] Research Grant (including Acceleration Phase), Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), 2021-2024
• Rising Star in Computer Graphics, WiGRAPH (SIGGRAPH Community Group), 2022-2023
• Dr. Tech. Marcus Wallenberg Foundation Scholarship, 2012-2013
• Harvard Academic All-Ivy League Award, 2009

Presentations

• 🆕 Invited talk, Technology Interaction Research, Future University Hakodate, Hakodate, 2025-02-10
• Invited talk, Women in CG, BOF event, SIGGRAPH Asia, Tokyo, 2024-12-04
• Invited talk, Seminar on Sustainable Wood Construction, Linnaeus University, online, 2024-12-04
• Invited talk, Tohoku University, Sendai, 2024-11-26
• Invited talk, Computational Wood Talks, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 2024-11-01
• Paper presentation, International Invitation Session, Visual Computing (VC), Tokyo, 2024-09-12
• Keynote, Symposium on Computational Fabrication (SCF), Aarhus, Denmark, 2024-07-08
• Selected presentation, Japan Wood Research Society (JWRS) Annual Conference, Kyoto, 2024-03-13
• Invited presentation, Symposium on Computational Carpentry, Future University Hakodate, Hakodate, 2024-02-12
• Paper presentation, Top Conference Session, Information Science and Technology Forum (FIT), Osaka, 2023-09-08
• Paper presentation, SIGGRAPH Invited Lecture Session, Visual Computing (VC), Kyoto, 2022-10-07
• Invited lecture, Advanced Design Group, Obayashi Corporation, online, 2022-07-26
• Invited lecture, VTID Lecture Series, Virginia Tech, online, 2022-03-18
• Paper presentation, Workshop on Interactive Systems and Software (WISS) , Hamanako, 2021-12-09
• Invited presentation, Toronto Geometry Colloquium, University of Toronto, online, 2021-02-17
• Selected presentation, Young Series, Digital Futures, online, 2020-08-22

Exhibitions

• 🆕 Computational Wood, Untitled Space, Tokyo, 2025
• Computational Joinery with Mercari R4D, Science Agora Exhibition, Tokyo, 2024
• Tsugite Joinery, The University of Tokyo Science Gallery, Tokyo, 2022-present
• Tsugite Joinery, WOOD CHANGE Exhibition, Tokyo/Nagoya/Kyoto, 2020
• Digitally Natural - Naturally Digital, Miraikan The National Museum of Emerging Science & Innovation, Tokyo, 2019-present (pictured →)
• Todai To Texas, SXSW Interactive Show, Austin, 2018
• The Lemon Master's thesis project exhibition, Meji University, Tokyo, 2014
• Advances in Architectural Geometry (video feature), Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2012

Design Work

• Hardturm Football Stadium, Pool Architekten, 2017
• Campus Biel/Bienne, Pool Architekten, 2015-2017 (pictured →)
• Tokyo 2020 Olympic Stadium (Zaha Hadid version), Nikken Sekkei, 2014-2015
• Liljevalchs Art Gallery (competition entry), Kengo Kuma and Associates, 2014
• Kv Jacob Office Building Extension, White Arkitekter, 2009-2010

Media

• 🆕 Gomi-no-kakou PodCast (JP), 2025-06-12
• 🆕 UToyko Press Release, 2025-04-26
• 🆕 Tokyo Art Beat, 2025-04-19
• Research Council of Finland Blog, 2024-12-12
• Takram Blog, 2024-01-01
• IPSJ Recommended PhD Dissertation Bulletin, 2023-08-15
• Swedish Wood Magazine Trä, 2021-12-01
• Designboom, 2021-04-13
• ITmedia News, 2021-04-08
• Le Monde, 2020-11-11 (pictured →)
• Tech Breifs, 2020-10-30
• Hackaday, 2020-10-23
• SciTechDaily, 2020-10-21

Service

• 🆕 Technical Papers Committee, Pacific Graphics 2025
• 🆕 International Program Committee, CAD/Graphics 2025
• 🆕 Post Graduate Student Consortium Panelist, CAADRIA 2025
• 🆕 Local Organizing Committee, CAADRIA 2025
• Executive Committee, WiGRAPH, 2024-present
• Session Chair, SIGGRAPH Asia 2024
• Co-organizer of the Women in Research Lunch, SIGGRAPH Asia 2024
• Co-organizer of the Fabrication Meet-up, SIGGRAPH and SIGGRAPH Asia 2024
• Technical Papers Committee, SIGGRAPH Asia 2024
• Technical Papers Committee, Pacific Graphics 2024
• Technical Papers Committee, SIGGRAPH Asia 2023
• Session Chair, Pacific Graphics 2022
• Reviewer: SIGGRAPH, SIGGRAPH Asia, UIST, SCF, CHI, TEI, DIS, ACADIA, CAADRIA, C&C