School of Engineering and Applied Sciences transportation continues groundbreaking collaboration with the University of Michigan’s Mcity Test Facility

Illustration of a multi-lane city street with a median and bike lanes. A pedestrian crosses at a marked crosswalk. Cars travel in both directions, with one vehicle turning left across traffic and a cyclist riding in the bike lane. Arrows indicate vehicle movements and potential conflict points between turning cars, cyclists, and the pedestrian.

By CSEE staff

Published April 27, 2026

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Faculty from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences are continuing collaborative efforts with the University of Michigan and its Mcity test facility. This research partnership includes Chaozhe He, assistant professor in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; Austin Angulo, assistant professors in Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering (CSEE); Irina Benedyk, assistant professors in CSEE; and Kevin Hulme, program manager for the Stephen Still Institute for Sustainable Transportation and Logistics (SS ISTL) at the University at Buffalo (UB).

UB researchers are expanding Mcity’s existing virtual and physical testing infrastructure by integrating human-in-the-loop, multimodal simulators, including micromodalities such as driving, pedestrian and bicycle, to develop safe and realistic testing environments for dynamic interactions between connected and autonomous vehicles and humans. 

Through an active research award led by He, UB has had access to Mcity since late 2024. This access includes both the physical test track and an authentic “digital twin” replica of the facility for simulation testing. The collaboration has enabled advanced integration of human participants within virtual environments and the development of mixed reality testing capabilities using UB’s Transportation Research and Visualization Laboratory (TRAVL), a groundbreaking new research facility from the SS ISTL. TRAVL enables examination of interactions between connected autonomous vehicles and human drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians. 

A white car approaches from the left lane while a red car approaches from the right lane. Both cars stop at a red light to allow a pedestrian to walk.

The research team made significant progress throughout 2025, culminating in a capability demonstration marking Mcity’s 10th anniversary last October. The demonstration featured a crosswalk scenario involving interaction between a vehicle and a pedestrian. UB researchers remotely interacted with a live vehicle on the Mcity test track using advanced pedestrian and driving simulators at the TRAVL facility. The collaboration is ongoing, with current work focused on additional mixed reality egress scenarios aimed at increasing the safety and efficiency of human mobility. The focus on digital twin testing in 2025 preceded live testing scheduled to take place on site at Mcity in 2026. As part of the He’s research award, 40 hours of on-site testing at the physical track are planned for this year. 

Above view of an intersection corner with a bike lane. A cyclist rides straight through the intersection while a car with left turn signal on prepares to turn left across the cyclist’s path. Parked cars line the street, highlighting a potential conflict between the left turning vehicle and the cyclist.

Specifically, the research team plans to study interactions between road users and autonomous vehicles (AVs), focusing on how human road users communicate with AVs in safety-critical scenarios. 

Two cases to be studied are how AVs influence human driver behavior through planning actions at intersections and merge zones, and how AVs behave and convey intentions when negotiating road with pedestrians and bicyclists. The established multi-agent mixed reality platform across UB and Mcity enables these studies and supports examination of high-risk scenarios in a safe, robust and repeatable manner. 

The interdisciplinary research team led by He includes specialty graduate assistance from Sen Jiang, PhD student in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; Ye Wang, PhD student in CSEE; and Vivek Viswam Rajabhavan Viswanathan, MS candidate in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, who have assisted with project development, testing and validation.