University College Dublin announced, on 1 September 2025, a research project titled 'Application of Virtual Reality to Identify Safe Walking and Cycling Environments: A Case Study of UCD Belfield Campus.' The project is led by Dr Saptarshi Sen (UCD School of Civil Engineering), with a multidisciplinary team of Dr Meisam Gordan (CDIC Faculty / Civil Engineering), Dr Sarah Cooney (UCD School of Psychology) and Dr Fatemeh Golpayegani (UCD School of Computer Science). At the time of publication, two student researchers and one Research Assistant had not yet been appointed or hired.
The stated aim is to use Virtual Reality to assess and enhance pedestrian and cyclist safety on the UCD Belfield campus in Dublin, investigating users' perceptions of active travel infrastructure to identify barriers to walking and cycling. The source describes the work as bringing together expertise from Civil Engineering, Computer Science and Psychology, combining experiential learning with evidence-based insights to inform future campus mobility design, with strong intended student engagement.
The September 2025 announcement stated that funding would be fully utilised by December 2025 and project activities would continue into mid-2026. The reviewed sources do not confirm implementation or results. No VR hardware, software platform, or content format (e.g. 360-degree video versus a real-time 3D walkthrough) is named in the source, and no participant counts, findings, or measured outcomes are reported. Announced is the last evidenced project stage, rather than a confirmation of its present operational status.
