Woojin Park
I am a Ph.D. student in Civil Engineering (Transportation) at the University at Buffalo, advised by Dr. Austin Valentine Angulo in the TRAVL Lab. My research sits at the intersection of transportation safety, human factors, and artificial intelligence — with a focus on how pedestrians, drivers, and micromobility users perceive and interact with vehicles. My work draws on Virtual Reality (VR), Computer Vision, and physiological sensing to study behavior and emotional response in simulated urban environments, leveraging Vision-Language Models (VLMs) for scene understanding and intent inference.
Research Interests
- Pedestrian Safety
- Human–AV Interaction
- Virtual Reality
- Computer Vision
- Vision-Language Models
- Physiological Sensing
- Walkability & Land Use
- Human Factors
Pedestrian Safety & Human–AV Interaction — Investigating perception, acceptance, and interaction dynamics between pedestrians and autonomous vehicles, utilizing Virtual Reality and Computer Vision to infer human intent and emotional state.
VR-based Behavioral Research — Designing immersive simulation experiments that capture physiological and psychological responses to urban environments, and leveraging VLMs for automated scene analysis and behavioral annotation, bridging the gap between controlled lab settings and real-world conditions.
Walkability & Land Use — Investigating the relationship between land use configuration, street-level design, and walkability outcomes, with implications for sustainable planning.
Skills
| Category | Tools & Technologies |
|---|---|
| Programming | Python, C#, C++, Julia |
| AI / ML | PyTorch, Scikit-learn, OpenCV; Deep Learning, Reinforcement Learning, VLM |
| Simulation | VR (Unity, Unreal Engine), VISSIM, SUMO |
| Statistics | Mplus (SEM), SPSS, STATA |
| GIS & Design | QGIS, ArcGIS, AutoCAD, SketchUp, Adobe Suite |