PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Christoph Strecha

Christoph Strecha is a computer-vision researcher whose work spans feature descriptors, multi-view stereo and photogrammetry. He studied physics in Leipzig after school in Chemnitz, completed a doctorate at the Catholic University of Leuven in 2008, and founded Pix4D as an EPFL spin-off in 2011. His research earned the 2015 Carl Pulfrich Award for work in computer vision and photogrammetry; BRIEF, a feature-point descriptor he coauthored, received the 2020 Koenderink Prize. He led Pix4D as CEO until October 2024, coauthored a 2025 mobile-phone mapping paper, left the board in September 2026, and manages Undiluted Sàrl in October 2026.

Now at
Undiluted Sàrl
Works
71
Citations
7,950
h-index
24
Badges

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 19 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2008

    A doctorate in multi-view stereo

    He studies physics in Leipzig after school in Chemnitz and earns a PhD at the Catholic University of Leuven in 2008 with a thesis on multi-view stereo.

  2. 2011

    A photogrammetry spin-off

    In 2011, he founds Pix4D as an EPFL spin-off; the company begins with Pix4UAV, a photogrammetry-and-UAV product for making professional-grade maps from images.

  3. 2012

    A fast feature descriptor

    He coauthors the 2012 TPAMI paper “BRIEF: Computing a Local Binary Descriptor Very Fast,” which defines BRIEF as a binary descriptor based on intensity-difference tests.

  4. 2015

    A Carl Pulfrich Award

    He receives the Carl Pulfrich Award in 2015 for work in computer vision and photogrammetry.

  5. 2020

    A Koenderink Prize

    BRIEF receives the 2020 Koenderink Prize, with C. Strecha among the paper’s authors.

  6. October 2024

    A Pix4D leadership change

    Andrey Kleymenov becomes CEO of Pix4D in October 2024; Strecha leaves the CEO role and continues as Chief Scientist and a board member.

  7. July 2025

    Mapping subterranean structures

    He coauthors a July 2025 paper that uses PIX4Dcatch and an Emlid RTK rover to map subterranean structures with mobile phones.

  8. Since November 2025

    Managing Undiluted Sàrl

    He becomes a manager of Undiluted Sàrl in Ecublens in November 2025 and holds the role in October 2026. In September 2026, he leaves Pix4D’s board.

Career

  1. Since 2025Undiluted SàrlManager
  2. 2011–2026Pix4DFounder, CEO
  3. 2008–2019EPFL

Education

  1. 2008KU LeuvenPhD

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

Most-cited works

  1. BRIEF: Binary Robust Independent Elementary Features2010 · Lecture notes in computer science · 3,676 citationsWith Pascal Fua and Vincent Lepetit
  2. BRIEF: Computing a Local Binary Descriptor Very Fast2011 · IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence · 866 citationsWith Pascal Fua and Vincent Lepetit
  3. On benchmarking camera calibration and multi-view stereo for high resolution imagery2008 · IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition · 828 citationsWith Pascal Fua
  4. LDAHash: Improved Matching with Smaller Descriptors2011 · IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence · 603 citationsWith Alex Bronstein, Michael Bronstein and Pascal Fua
  5. Efficient large-scale multi-view stereo for ultra high-resolution image sets2011 · Machine Vision and Applications · 329 citationsWith Pascal Fua

From OpenAlex, as of 19 October 2026.

  1. 14% of AI doctorate holders from 2010 to 2016 founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduationIncludes Christoph Strecha. We estimate how often AI doctorate holders founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after their doctorate, and how the timing changed across cohorts.
  2. The median h-index is 53 at universities and 19 at frontier AI labsIncludes EPFL. The median h-index is 53 at universities and 19 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, citations and moves to estimate how universities and frontier labs contribute to AI research.
  3. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes EPFL. Our estimates of combined and median h-index at AI organizations, using current affiliations and OpenAlex records.
  4. Stanford University trained or employed 20 of the 89 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes EPFL. Stanford University trained or employed 20 of the 89 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and employment links for major-prize and best-paper winners.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Christoph Strecha yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Christoph Strecha - Expert Opinions - Drone Industry Insights droneii.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  2. Herder-Expertise 13: Physik in der Praxis - Herder-Gymnasium Berlin herder-gymnasium.eu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  3. Celebrating 15 years of PIX4D | PIX4D pix4d.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  4. BRIEF: Computing a Local Binary Descriptor Very Fast oamonitor.ireland.openaire.eu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  5. Award Calls | ECCV 2020 eccv2020.eu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  6. Pix4D enters a new chapter, welcoming new leadership | PIX4D pix4d.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  7. ISPRS-Archives - Accurate Mapping of Subterranean Structures with Mobile Phones isprs-archives.copernicus.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  8. Registre du commerce :: page 489 :: Feuille des Avis Officiels du canton de Vaud faovd.ch. Checked 19 October 2026.
  9. Undiluted Sàrl in Ecublens VD - Auskünfte | Moneyhouse moneyhouse.ch. Checked 19 October 2026.
  10. Registre du commerce :: page 23 :: Feuille des Avis Officiels du canton de Vaud faovd.ch. Checked 19 October 2026.