I'm excited to announce the release of XelToFab — a post-processing pipeline that turns design fields (density fields, signed distance fields, occupancy fields) into fabrication-ready geometry. The library handles the full chain of preprocessing, extraction, smoothing, repair, and quality analysis, so results from topology optimization and neural field workflows can move directly into simulation or fabrication. Source code is available on GitHub.

I'm excited to announce the open source release of GeoSharPlus, a high-performance C# / C++ interoperability library designed for cross-platform geometry data exchange. Originally developed for the Rhino/Grasshopper ecosystem, this library uses FlatBuffers to enable zero-copy serialization of geometric data between managed (.NET) and unmanaged (C++) environments, making it ideal for CAD plugin developers who need to leverage powerful C++ geometry libraries while maintaining cross-platform compatibility. The library already powers projects like IG-Mesh and BeingAliveLanguage, and includes comprehensive documentation, working examples, and an extensible architecture for adding new geometry types.

Zhao will present the latest research findings and methodological advancements of the BeingAliveLanguage project at the Digital Landscape Architecture Conference (DLA 2025). This presentation will highlight innovative approaches to integrating living systems with computational design in landscape architecture. The complete research paper and additional related works can be accessed in Issue 10-2025 of the Journal of Digital Landscape Architecture (JoDLA).

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.

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.

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.

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.

The doctorate thesis Computational Re-Forming has been published online in the ETH Zurich Research Collection.

Invited by the MIT Alumni Group, Zhao is giving a lecture on the MIT Alumni Group platform, broadcasting worldwide.

In July 2021, Zhao received the 2021 DigitalFUTURES YOUNG Award (1 of 4) from the DigitalFUTURES, featuring his pioneering work on robotic sculpting.