Kavita Bala

Kavita Bala is the 17th provost of Cornell University and professor of computer science. Previously, she served as the inaugural dean of the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science and chair of the Department of Computer Science. Her research focuses on computer vision and computer graphics, with work in visual recognition and search, and material modeling and perception. She co-founded GrokStyle, a visual recognition AI company that attracted IKEA as a client and was acquired by Facebook in 2019.

Kavita Bala is a researcher at Cornell University specializing in computer graphics and computer vision. Her work focuses on advancing techniques for image synthesis, material recognition, and visual similarity. She has contributed to projects involving deep learning for style transfer, inverse rendering, and illumination modeling. Her research includes developing methods for material editing, relighting, and semantic segmentation. Bala's publications explore topics such as global illumination, visual equivalence, and the use of spherical gaussians for physics-based material editing. Her work has been instrumental in creating annotated datasets for surface appearance and improving the realism of rendered materials.