ACM's Investigation re Hao Li's and Pinscreen's Scientific Misconduct at SIGGRAPH and SIGGRAPH Asia 2017
September 14, 2022
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Complainant & Respondent:
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Iman Sadeghi, PhD
- 2017-02: Was fraudulently induced to leave Google and join Pinscreen as its VP of Engineering
- 2017-03: Objected to Li's and Pinscreen’s data falsification and scientific misconduct
- 2017-05: Objected to Li's and Pinscreen’s data falsification and scientific misconduct
- 2017-07: Objected to and threatened Li and Pinscreen to report them to ACM and USC
- 2017-08: Was wrongfully terminated in retaliation to whistleblowing and objections to Li's and Pinscreen's scientific misconduct
- 2018-06: Filed the scientific integrity whistleblowing lawsuit - BC709376
- 2018-06: Reported Hao Li and Pinscreen's scientific misconduct to ACM and USC
- 2018-07: ACM opened a formal investigation into the allegation
- 2019-02: USC initiated a full investigation into the allegation
- 2020-11: USC produced its investigation results substantiating Sadeghi's claims and finding Li and Pinscreen committed "intentional misrepresentation", "falsification", and "research misconduct"
- 2022-09: ACM notified of its investigation results substantiated Sadeghi's claims and finding Li and Pinscreen employees "guilty" of "data falsification" and scientific misconduct
Respondents:
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Hao Li, PhD
- 2017: Pinscreen's co-founder and CEO & USC Faculty
- 2017-02: Fraudulently induced Sadeghi to leave Google and join Pinscreen as its VP of Engineering
- 2017-08: Wrongfully terminated Sadeghi in retaliation to Sadeghi's whistleblowing and objections to Li's and Pinscreen's scientific misconduct
- 2018-06: ACM opened a formal investigation into Li's and Pinscreen's scientific misconduct
- 2019-02: USC initiated a full investigation into Li's and Pinscreen's scientific misconduct
- 2020: USC Investigation Committee found Hao Li and Pinscreen committed "intentional misrepresentation", "falsification", and "research misconduct"
- 2020-06: Empolyment at USC was terminated
- 2020-11: USC produced its investigation results substantiating Sadeghi's claims and finding Li and Pinscreen committed "intentional misrepresentation", "falsification", and "research misconduct"
- 2022-03: USC's investigation results were made available online
- 2022-03: Li's name and informal title removed from UC Berekley website
- 2022-05: Joined MBZUAI as a faculty
- 2022-08: Sadeghi published a letter re scientific integrity at MBZUAI and Li's scientific misconduct
- 2022-09: ACM notified of its investigation results substantiating Sadeghi's claims finding Li and Pinscreen employees "guilty" of "data falsification" and scientific misconduct banning them from SIGGRAPH, SIGGRAPH RTL, and SIGGRAPH Asia for the next five years
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Yen-Chun (Frances) Chen
- 2017 to present: Pinscreen's co-founder and CFO
- 2022: ACM found Yen-Chun (Frances) Chen and other Pinscreen employees "guilty" of "data alsification" and scientific misconduct
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Shunsuke Saito, PhD
- 2017: Pinscreen's Engineer & USC Student
- 2019: Joined Adobe
- 2020: Received PhD from USC based in part on the fradulent publications
- 2020: Joined Facebook/Meta
- 2022: ACM found Shunsuke Saito and other Pinscreen employees "guilty" of "data alsification" and scientific misconduct
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Lingyu (Cosimo) Wei, PhD
- 2017: Pinscreen's Engineer & USC Student
- 2018: Pinscreen's VP of AI and Engineering
- 2018: Received PhD from USC based in part on the fradulent publications
- 2020: Pinscreen's CTO
- 2022: ACM found Lingyu (Cosimo) Wei and other Pinscreen employees "guilty" of "data alsification" and scientific misconduct
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Liwen Hu, PhD
- 2017: Pinscreen's Engineer & USC Student
- 2019: Pinscreen's Principal Scientist
- 2019: Received PhD from USC based in part on the fradulent publications
- 2020: Pinscreen's VP of R&D
- 2022: ACM found Liwen Hu and other Pinscreen employees "guilty" of "data alsification" and scientific misconduct
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Jaewoo Seo, PhD
- 2017: Pinscreen's Director of R&D
- 2020: Joined Nvidia
- 2022: ACM found Jaewoo Seo and other Pinscreen employees "guilty" of "data alsification" and scientific misconduct
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Koki Nagano, PhD
- 2017: Pinscreen's Principal Scientist & USC Student
- 2020: Joined Nvidia
- 2022: ACM found Koki Nagano and other Pinscreen employees "guilty" of "data alsification" and scientific misconduct
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Jens Fursund
- 2017: Pinscreen's CTO
- 2019: Joined Cylindo
- 2022: ACM found Jens Fursund and other Pinscreen employees "guilty" of "data alsification" and scientific misconduct
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Stephen Chen
- 2017: Pinscreen's Product Designer
- 2018: Joined Eleventh
- 2020: Founded Capture
- 2022: ACM found Stephen Chen and other Pinscreen employees "guilty" of "data alsification" and scientific misconduct
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Carrie Sun
- 2017: Pinscreen's Software Engineer
- 2018: Joined Brud
- 2021: Joined Dapper Labs
- 2022: ACM found Carrie Sun and other Pinscreen employees "guilty" of "data alsification" and scientific misconduct
Fraudulent Publications to be Retracted:
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SIGGRAPH Asia 2017
- Title: Avatar digitization from a single image for real-time rendering
- Authors: Liwen Hu, Shunsuke Saito, Lingyu Wei, Koki Nagano, Jaewoo Seo, Jens Fursund, Iman Sadeghi, Carrie Sun, Yen-Chun Chen, Hao Li
- ISSN: 0730-0301
- EISSN: 1557-7368
- DOI: 10.1145/3130800
- Scientific Misconduct: Severe Violation (Level V) of ACM policies including Data Falsification.
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SIGGRAPH RTL 2017
- Title: Pinscreen: creating performance-driven avatars in seconds
- Authors: Hao Li, Shunsuke Saito, Lingyu Wei, Iman Sadeghi, Liwen Hu, Jaewoo Seo, Koki Nagano, Jens Fursund, Yen-Chun Chen, Stephen Chen
- ISBN: 9781450350907
- DOI: 10.1145/3098333
- Scientific Misconduct: Severe Violation (Level V) of ACM policies including Data Falsification. Specifically, Pinscreen at SIGGRAPH RTL 2017 falsley presented pre-generated images as dynamically created. This fact should have been disclosed to the audiance, but was not.
