Stephen Still ISTL highlights safety research at 2025 New York State Highway Safety Symposium

The meeting was sponsored by The Institute for Traffic Safety Management and Research, a not-for-profit university-based research center dedicated to improving highway safety.

During the symposium, five research presentations were highlighted by the University at Buffalo (UB). The event was attended by Dr. Austin Angulo, assistant professor in the Department of Civil, Structural, and Environmental Engineering, Dr. Kevin Hulme, program manager with the Stephen Still Institute for Sustainable Transportation and Logistics, and Wen Zhang, PhD candidate and advisee of Dr. Chumming Qiao in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

Research topics presented by the UB team featured a range of priority focus areas, including anxiety and mental health for young driver safety by Dr. Angulo, exploration of trust dynamics associated with autonomous driving and mixed-reality and multi-modal testing and simulation by Dr. Hulme and machine learning to predict safe driving speeds for connected and autonomous vehicles by Ms. Zhang. 

Dr. Angulo also gave a separate presentation to feature his founding of the new Transportation Research and Visualization Laboratory, a facility dedicated to the research, training and education of human interaction with transportation infrastructure using naturalistic and immersive virtual simulation methodologies. 

The symposium emphasized the traditional pillars of traffic safety—engineering, enforcement and education—to promote safer driving and roadways in New York State. This symposium united safety professionals and stakeholders, including law enforcement, traffic engineers, policymakers, public health officials, educators, and community organizations to discuss topics of mutual interest to reduce crashes, injuries and fatalities.