Mackenzie Leake

Mackenzie Leake

I am a research scientist at Adobe in San Francisco. My research focuses on designing computational design tools for creative domains, including textiles and video. Previously I was a METEOR postdoctoral fellow at MIT CSAIL. I received a PhD and MS in computer science at Stanford University and a BA at Scripps College.

Email: mleake@cs.stanford.edu

Research Highlights

PaperPiecing
This paper presents a mathematical formalization of a quilting technique called foundation paper piecing. We propose an algorithm for checking paper pieceability and implement it in a design tool.
(SIGGRAPH'21 paper | website)
Improv
PatchProv is a design tool that supports improvisational quilt design. Quilters capture images of their fabrics and utilize the digital tool to iterate between design and sewing steps.
(CHI'21 paper | website)
Slideshow
We present a method for automatically generating audio-visual slideshows from a text article by identifying representative concrete phrases from the text and searching for visuals that match these words.
(CHI'20 paper | video | website)
Roughcut
RoughCut uses the structure of dialogue-driven scenes and cinematographic principles to edit videos. The input is a script and multiple video takes, capturing different camera framings or performances. Our system automatically cuts together a video based on user-selected editing idioms.
(SIGGRAPH'17 paper | website)

Publications

  • Faruqi, F., Katary, A., Hasic, T., Abdel-Rahman, A., Rahman, N., Tejedor, L., Leake, M., Hofmann, M. & Mueller, S. (2023). Style2Fab: Functionality-Aware Segmentation for Fabricating Personalized 3D Models with Generative AI. ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST '23). website
  • Leake, M., Jin, K., Davis, A., & Mueller, S. (2023). InStitches: Augmenting Sewing Patterns with Personalized Material-Efficient Practice. CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI'23). website
  • Sethapakdi, T., Huang, L., Chan, V., Cheng, L., Dall'Agnol, F., Leake, M., & Mueller, S. (2023). Polagons: Designing and Fabricating Polarized Light Mosaics with User-Defined Color-Changing Behaviors. CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI'23). website
  • Leake, M., Bernstein, G., & Agrawala, M. (2022). Sketch-Based Design of Foundation Paper Pieceable Quilts. ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST '22). website
  • Sethapakdi, T., Leake, M., Rodriguez, C.M., Cai, M.J., & Mueller, S. (2022). KineCAM: An Instant Camera for Animated Photographs. Proceedings of SIGGRAPH'22 Art Papers. website
  • Leake, M. (2022). Designing Modern Tools for Modern Quilt Design. PhD Thesis. link
  • Leake, M., Bernstein, G., Davis, A., & Agrawala, M. (2021). A Mathematical Foundation for Foundation Paper Pieceable Quilts. ACM Transactions on Graphics (SIGGRAPH'21), 40(4), 65:1-65:14. website
  • Leake, M., Lai, F., Grossman, T., Wigdor, D., & Lafreniere, B. (2021). PatchProv: Supporting Improvisational Design Practices for Modern Quilting. CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI'21). website
  • Leake, M., Kim, J., Shin, H., & Agrawala, M. (2020). Generating Audio-Visual Slideshows from Text Articles Using Word Concreteness. CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI'20). website
  • Leake, M., Davis, A., Truong, A., & Agrawala, M. (2017). Computational Video Editing for Dialogue-Driven Scenes. ACM Transactions on Graphics (SIGGRAPH'17), 36(4), 130:1-130:14. website
  • Leake, M. & Lewis, C.M. (2017). Recommendations for Designing CS Resource Sharing Sites for All Teachers. Proceedings of the 48th Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE'17). 357-362. pdf
  • Leake, M. (2015). Chart-based Strategies for Solving Bayesian Inference Problems. Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges. 30(4), 107-114.

Short papers, Demos, & Posters

  • Turakhia, D.G., Jiang, P., Liu, B., Leake, M., & Mueller, S. (2022). The Reflective Maker: Using Reflection to Support Skill-learning in Makerspaces. UIST'22 posters.
  • Sethapakdi, T., Leake, M., Rodriguez, C.M., Cai, M.J., & Mueller, S. (2022). KineCAM: An Instant Camera for Animated Photographs. UIST'22 demos. website
  • Leake, M. & Lewis, C.M. (2016). Designing a New System for Sharing Computer Science Teaching Resources. CSCW'16 companion. pdf
  • Leake, M., Xia, L., Rocki, K., & Imaino, W. (2015). Effect of Spatial Pooler Initialization on Column Activity in Hierarchical Temporal Memory. AAAI'15.