About Me

Zhao MA (马昭) is a lecturer and senior researcher at ETH Zurich, drawing upon his expansive multi-disciplinary background in design, engineering, and computer science. He is the lead instructor for the Digital Design Methods course and spearheads advanced computational research initiatives focused on geometry processing, robotic fabrication, and logics of living systems.

Outside of academia, he applies his expertise as a senior computational specialist at MESH, where he tailors his skills to meet the demands of the industry. During 2020-2023, He has also collaborated as a remote consultant with OPTIndustries, an MIT startup, overseeing their design optimization research endeavors for the product development team.

Rooted in his conviction is the idea that contemporary computational research can serve as the nexus between design, science, and engineering. Zhao ardently dedicates himself to cultivating interdisciplinary interactions and propelling the frontiers of computational research. His scholarly contributions have garnered commendations, with recognitions spanning awards and patents in fields as diverse as architecture, landscape design, and computational methodologies.

Interest

XR & Advanced Visualization

Computational Design & Fabrication

Programmable Materials

Education

Doctor of Science, 2021

ETH Zurich

Master of Architecture, 2017

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Master of Engineering, 2017

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

BSc in Advanced Engineering, 2012

Beihang University

Contact

Zhao Ma

Chair of BEING ALIVE

ETH Zurich

ONA J 25

Neunbrunnenstr. 50

8052 Zürich

ma AT arch.ethz.ch

News

Article

Empowering the Next Generation: Illustrating Landscape Systems by Computation

24 Jun 2024

Capturing the complexity of landscape systems in a clear and compelling way can be a daunting task. In the latest issue of the "Netzwerk Stadt und Landschaft" newsletter "Digital Planning Tools", a newly published article delves into the innovative BeingAliveLanguage software. Developed to tackle this challenge, the article explores the system's objectives and the underlying concepts that drive its approach. To learn more about this groundbreaking tool, please visit the link provided below.

WEBSITE

Announcement

New Website Online

01 Oct 2023

New website, new design. Powered by Nuxt and Vue.js, this new website will be the new start for the next 10+ years for my personal documentation.

Software Announcement

Release of the open-source project "BeingAliveLanguage"

11 Sep 2022

We're glad to introduce BeingAliveLanguage, a Grasshopper plugin developed by Dr. Zhao Ma of the Chair of Being Alive research group at ETH Zurich. This innovative tool specializes in the automated illustration of living systems, optimizing the design and visualization of soil separates along with its associated data in a systematic manner.

WEBSITE

Software Announcement

Release of the open-source project "IG-Mesh"

13 May 2022

I am glad to release the open-source project IG-Mesh -- a grasshopper plugin for both low-level and advanced mesh processing. This plugin features various advanced algorithms written in C++, and is designed for the general architecture, design, and fabrication community -- aiming to resolve the long-lasting pain of interactive mesh processing on the Rhino & Grasshopper platform.

LINK