ISTL student investigates driving anxiety in young drivers
Published September 2, 2025
Ye Wang, a PhD candidate, joined the Department of Civil, Structural, and Environmental Engineering in the summer 2023 under the supervision of Dr. Austin Angulo, assistant professor and director of the Transportation Research and Visualization Laboratory.
Ye Wang
Wang’s research topics include transportation planning, transportation safety analysis, mixed reality and 3D modeling, machine learning algorithms on sensor data and computer vision applications. His current research project focused on virtual reality-based investigation of driving anxiety in young drivers, where he worked on designing immersive simulation environments and analyzing behavioral, physiological and psychological responses to complex traffic scenarios.
He also led a comprehensive study on bicycle crash severity in New York City, integrating police-reported crash data with environmental and socioeconomic indicators to uncover disparities in safety outcomes, particularly for e-bike riders and underserved communities. Through these projects, Wang has advanced the understanding of how psychological and social factors influence transportation safety with implications for both driver training and equity-focused infrastructure planning.
Wang has worked as a transportation engineer, data analyst and front-end developer at the University of Toronto’s medical research lab. He is also a certified engineer-in-training in Virginia.
