PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Ava Pun

Ava Pun is a computer science researcher whose AI work connects autonomous-driving simulation with generative 3D design and tactile graphics. She coauthored AdvSim for LiDAR-based autonomy systems in 2021 and LightSim for urban-scene lighting simulation in 2023. At the University of Waterloo, she was a final-year Computer Science and Combinatorics & Optimization major and researched virtual training environments at Waabi in 2024; she received the Jessie Zou undergraduate research award in 2024. BrickGPT won ICCV’s Best Paper Award (Marr Prize) in 2025 for generating physically stable, buildable toy-brick structures from text prompts. In 2026, she helped develop Text2TactileGraphics and coauthored CubePart; as of October 2026, she is a PhD student in Carnegie Mellon’s Computer Science Department, advised by Jun-Yan Zhu.

Timeline

  1. 2021

    AdvSim for driving safety

    In 2021, she coauthors AdvSim, an adversarial framework that generates safety-critical scenarios for any LiDAR-based autonomy system.

  2. 2023

    LightSim for urban scenes

    In 2023, she coauthors LightSim, a neural lighting camera simulator that builds lighting-aware digital twins and generates varied data for urban-scene perception.

  3. 2024

    Virtual vehicle training at Waabi

    In 2024, she is a final-year Computer Science and Combinatorics & Optimization major at the University of Waterloo and researches virtual training environments for autonomous vehicles at Waabi.

  4. 2024

    A Jessie W. H. Zou award

    In 2024, the University of Waterloo awards her the Jessie W. H. Zou Memorial Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research.

  5. 2025

    BrickGPT wins the Marr Prize

    In 2025, she coauthors “Generating Physically Stable and Buildable Brick Structures from Text,” and BrickGPT generates physically stable, buildable toy-brick structures from text prompts. The paper wins ICCV’s Best Paper Award (Marr Prize).

  6. 2026

    Text2TactileGraphics for touch

    In 2026, she helps develop Text2TactileGraphics, which turns text prompts into 3D-printed raised graphics with shape, texture and Braille for blind and low-vision users. The work is accepted to ECCV 2026.

  7. 2026

    CubePart for controllable 3D

    In 2026, she coauthors CubePart, an open-vocabulary 3D generator that turns a text prompt and user-defined part schema into a coherent set of meshes.

  8. As of October 2026

    Doctoral study at Carnegie Mellon

    As of October 2026, she is a PhD student in Carnegie Mellon’s Computer Science Department, advised by Jun-Yan Zhu.

Career

Education

  1. 2024University of WaterlooComputer Science and Combinatorics & Optimization major
  2. Carnegie Mellon UniversityPhD

From the biography.

  1. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Carnegie Mellon University. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  2. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes Carnegie Mellon University. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.
  3. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes Carnegie Mellon University. We estimate that Google holds the highest combined h-index at 8,016, while universities account for 73% of the deduplicated total across AI organizations.
  4. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes Carnegie Mellon University. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.

Sources and credits

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  1. AdvSim: Generating Safety-Critical Scenarios for Self-Driving Vehicles openaccess.thecvf.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Neural Lighting Simulation for Urban Scenes proceedings.neurips.cc. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Ruidi Wei and Ava Pun receive the Jessie W. H. Zou Memorial Awards uwaterloo.ca. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. BrickGPT won the Best Paper Award (Marr Prize) at ICCV 2025 icontrol.ri.cmu.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Generating Physically Stable and Buildable Brick Structures from Text avalovelace1.github.io. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. Bringing Images to Life Through Touch ri.cmu.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. CubePart: An Open-Vocabulary Part-Controllable 3D Generator | Roblox about.roblox.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. Ava Pun avapun.com. Checked 21 October 2026.