I am an AI and Computer Graphics researcher specializing in Generative AI, Human Motion Models, and HCI, and I am now focused on applying my research to robotics. My research interests include:

• Generative AI for virtual human animation and motion synthesis.
• Robotics & Character Animation: combining motion models with control policies.
• Computer Graphics & Interaction: building real-time interactive avatars for XR/VR/HCI environments.

For a complete list of my publications, please visit my webpage at joseluisponton.com/publications.

• Teaching Assistant — Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona, Spain (Sep. 2023 - Jun. 2025)
  • Computer Graphics and GPU Programming (Bachelor in Computer Science, FIB - GEI) — laboratory classes teaching GLSL shaders.

• Postdoctoral Researcher — Max Planck Institute for Informatics, Saarbrücken, Germany (May 2026 - present)
  Researching Robotics, Generative AI and Human Motion Models. Supervised by Christian Theobalt.
• Postdoctoral Researcher — Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain (Feb. 2026 - Apr. 2026)
  Researched generative AI for virtual humans animation. Supervised by Nuria Pelechano and Carlos Andujar.
• Research Scientist Intern — Meta, Zurich, Switzerland (Jun. 2025 - Jan. 2026)
  Developed a scalable AI motion style transfer framework within the metaverse team (SIGGRAPH 2026 paper). Supervised by Petr Kadleček and Yuting Ye.
• Research Intern — Max Planck Institute for Informatics, Saarbrücken, Germany (May 2024 - Jul. 2024)
  Researched diffusion model-based motion capture from insole sensor data (Eurographics 2026 paper). Supervised by Christian Theobalt and Marc Habermann.
• FPU Pre-doctoral Researcher — Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain (Jan. 2023 - Jun. 2025)
  Awarded a highly competitive fellowship (FPU21/01927) from the Spanish Ministry of Science (ranked 11th of 32 nationwide grants in Computer Science).
• Research Engineer - Freelance — Hyper Online (Y Combinator startup) (Remote, San Francisco, USA) (Feb. 2024 - Jan. 2025)
  Developed computer vision-based motion capture pipeline for Hyper's desktop application.
• Researcher — Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain (May 2021 - Dec. 2022)
  Researched real-time data-driven motion synthesis for character animation, such as Motion Matching.
• Research Intern — CYENS Centre of Excellence, Nicosia, Cyprus (Jul. 2022 - Sep. 2022)
  Researched human motion reconstruction from VR sparse input using deep learning (SIGGRAPH Asia 2023 paper). Supervised by Andreas Aristidou.
• Research Intern — Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain (Apr. 2019 - Apr. 2021)
  Developed a VR-assisted architectural design application for the architects of Sagrada Familia.

• Ph.D. in Computing — Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona, Spain (Dec. 2022 - Dec. 2025)
  Grade: Cum Laude. Awarded the Best PhD Award by the Eurographics Spanish Section.
  Title: Learning Data-driven Character Animation for Avatars in Virtual Reality
  Supervisors: Nuria Pelechano and Carlos Andujar.
  
  
• M.Sc. in Innovation and Research in Informatics — Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona, Spain (Sep. 2020 - Jul. 2022)
  Specialization: Computer Graphics, Character Animation and Virtual Reality.
  
  
• B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering — Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona, Spain (Sep. 2016 - Jul. 2020)
  Specialization: Artificial Intelligence, 3D Graphics/Geometry and Game Programming.

• Personal Webpage: joseluisponton.com
• GitHub: JLPM22
• LinkedIn: jlponton
• Google Scholar: Jose Luis Ponton
• ORCID: 0000-0001-6576-4528
• ResearchGate: Jose Luis Ponton