While maintaining public streets and highways, roadway construction workers have to balance their attention to completing their tasks with their overall safety in relation to the surrounding traffic vehicles moving around their work zone.

My current PhD dissertation investigates using VR to collect detailed data on how construction workers behave near dangerous vehicles (e.g., speeding cars) and how wearable devices (e.g., smartwatch alarms) can improve their safety. More info upon request by contacting dbl299 [at] nyu [dot] edu.

Publications

Lu, D., & Ergan, S. (2023). Predicting roadway workers’ safety behaviour in short-term work zones. In: Broy, T., Li, H., Lu, Q. (eds) 2023 EG-ICE International Conference on Intelligent Computing in Engineering. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/construction/sites/bartlett_construction/files/predicting_roadway_workers_safety_behaviour_in_short-term_work_zones.pdf

Qin, J., Lu, D., Ergan, S. (2023). Towards Increased Situational Awareness at Unstructured Work Zones: Analysis of Worker Behavioral Data Captured in VR-Based Micro Traffic Simulations. In: Skatulla, S., Beushausen, H. (eds) Advances in Information Technology in Civil and Building Engineering. ICCCBE 2022. Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, vol 358. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-32515-1_6