Bruce Podwal Seminar Series

Beyond Observed Traffic: Scalable and Physically Grounded Counterfactuals for Transportation

Assistant Professor Zilin Bian Rochester Institute of Technology, Department of Civil Engineering

Technology and Environmental Management

Thursday, October 8, 2026, 12:30PM – 1:30PM

Civil Engineering Department, Room ST 105, Steinman Hall

https://ccny.zoom.us/j/81143716707?pwd=aMZOk1AgPeAUChwSYIXRtprwbYNO1l.1&from=addon

Abstract: Transportation research often relies on observations of what actually happened, while many important safety and operations questions concern what could have happened under different physical, behavioral, or environmental conditions. This talk presents three recent efforts toward scalable and physically grounded counterfactual transportation analysis. SceneFactory enables massively parallel simulation of alternative physical conditions in real driving scenes; SIRENBench generates configurable emergency-vehicle interactions with varied agent behaviors; and MuSync-GS creates physically synchronized scene edits in which roadway changes propagate through vehicle motion, camera pose, and visual appearance. These capabilities support counterfactual traffic analysis that is scalable, behaviorally responsive, and physically consistent, while opening new directions in counterfactual infrastructure and three-dimensional roadway design.