Student researcher uses virtual reality to study transportation safety

By CSEE staff

Since summer 2024, Shin has worked as a student research assistant in UB’s Transportation Research and Visualization Laboratory (TRAVL), a signature research facility affiliated with the Stephen Still Institute for Sustainable Transportation and Logistics. 

Shin works with Austin Angulo, assistant professor in the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering. Their research focuses on vulnerable road user safety and the use of virtual reality (VR) simulations to analyze how pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers interact with connected and autonomous vehicle technologies. Through regular meetings with senior colleagues at TRAVL, Shin has gained experience with the protocols and methods involved in graduate-level research. He has also helped shape research questions and finalize methodologies for ongoing projects. 

His work has included building VR environments, including the Grant Street corridor near Buffalo State University, using the Unity 3D game engine. He has also implemented 3D models of streets, sidewalks, buildings, and traffic control devices and helped ensure the software works with VR simulators used for walking, cycling, and driving applications. 

Through these projects, Shin has gained experience in 3D modeling, simulation development, C# programming, traffic video analysis using the PyTorch open-source framework, and large-scale data collection and analysis for transportation engineering research. 

In fall 2025, Shin began his own research project on mode choice analysis between electric bicycles and classic bicycles within Citi Bike, New York City’s bicycle rideshare system. The project uses machine learning models to compare rider behavior through accuracy testing and importance mapping. 

Shin is expected to graduate in spring 2027 and will continue contributing to TRAVL research projects until then.