University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The Grainger College of Engineering

Ping Fu

[title]

For outstanding entrepreneurship, leadership, and technical contributions to the emerging field of 3D scanning and 3D printing

Venture and Angel Investor

  • MS, Computer Science, The Grainger College of Engineering, 1990

Ping Fu describes herself as an artist and a scientist whose chosen expression is business. Honored by Inc. Magazine as “The Entrepreneur of the Year” in 2005, she co-founded Geomagic, a leading US software company that pioneers 3D technologies that fundamentally change the way products are designed and manufactured around the world. 

From repairing vintage cars in Jay Leno’s garage to preserving US treasures to digitally recreating the Statue of Liberty, Geomagic enables the design and production of one-of-a-kind products and services at a cost lower than that of mass production. Geomagic was acquired by 3D Systems in February 2013. Awards for her leadership include Outstanding American by Choice Award from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Entrepreneur of the Year by Inc. magazine, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year (Carolinas) and Lifetime Achievements award by Business Leader magazine.

Ping is an expert in large-scale enterprise IT software, digital on-demand manufacturing product and services, Internet of Things (IoT), and 3D printing. Before co-founding Geomagic, Ms. Fu was program manager of visualization at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, where she was part of the team that initiated and managed the NCSA Mosaic software project that led to Netscape and Internet Explorer. She has more than 20 years of software industry experience in database, web 1 and web3, 3D printing and computer graphics.

Her current board roles include Live Nation Entertainment, Burning Man, The Long Now Foundation, Capstone Green Energy and advisory board roles for Good Leap, Modern Meadow, and the International Advisory Board of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Centre for Government Innovation (UAE). Former board roles include Geomagic, the US National Advisory Board of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and Gelsight Inc., where she served as executive chairman.

Ping studied Chinese literature at Suzhou University in China. She earned a BA degree in computer science at UCSD and an MS degree in Computer Science from UIUC. She owns five US and international technology patterns. Her 2013 memoir “Bend, Not Break: Life in two worlds”, is a New York Times best seller.

Current as of February 2023