Zhao Ma
Technical Director at ETH Zürich
Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolZhao Ma is a technical director and senior researcher with 11 years of multidisciplinary experience at the intersection of computational design, digital fabrication, and AI-driven manufacturing, currently leading AI for Design at ETH Zurich. He combines a PhD-level research background and industry consulting to create algorithmic drawing systems and interactive tools for metamaterials and bio-inspired structures, translating academic insight into practical production workflows. His open-source contributions include QA and test automation for the widely used libigl C++ geometry library and full-stack enhancements to the Doom Emacs framework, signaling a hands-on commitment to robust tooling and developer ergonomics. Equally comfortable in labs and production settings, he has collaborated with institutions from MIT to Disney Research and brings a rare blend of architectural aesthetics, materials thinking, and software engineering rigor.
11 years of coding experience
10 years of employment as a software developer
Master of Engineering - MEng High Performance Structure, Master of Engineering - MEng High Performance Structure at Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyBachelor of Arts - BA English Language and Literature General, Bachelor of Arts - BA English Language and Literature General at Beihang UniversityDoctor of Science Architecture, Doctor of Science Architecture at ETH Zürich
Chinese, English
Github Skills (12)
unit-testing10
configurations10
c-language10
cprogramming-language10
emacs10
configuration-file10
spacemacs10
emacs-lisp10
geometry-processing10
eigen9
version-control8
devil7
Programming languages (26)
Github contributions (5)
libigl/libigl
Nov 2018 - Mar 2022
Simple MPL-2.0-licensed C++ geometry processing library.
Role in this project:
QA Engineer / Test Automation Engineer
QA Engineer / Test Automation EngineerContributions:4 reviews, 9 commits, 12 PRs in 3 years 5 months
Contributions summary:Zhao primarily contributed to bug fixes and unit tests for the `libigl/libigl` repository. Their work involved identifying and resolving issues related to segment intersection, as evidenced by the added unit tests. The user also made minor code style adjustments and updated comments. These changes collectively improved the library's reliability and code quality.
cppcluster-computingc-plus-plusgeometry-processingprocessing-library
doomemacs/doomemacs
Feb 2018 - Feb 2018
An Emacs framework for the stubborn martian hacker
Role in this project:Full-stack Developer
Full-stack DeveloperContributions:5 commits, 1 PR, 25 comments in 2 days
Contributions summary:Zhao contributed to the Emacs framework by adding and modifying configurations for tools like `pdf-tools` and integrating it into the `init.example.el` file. They also merged updates from the upstream development branch, incorporating changes to core modules like `workspaces` and `org-capture`. Furthermore, the user made adjustments to the completion system and version control features within the Doom Emacs framework.
vimemacs-configurationmartianemacsemacs-lsp
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