Siby Samuel

Dr. Samuel directs the User Performance Lab (UPL) at the University of Waterloo. Dr. Samuel’s research broadly spans surface transportation human factors, healthcare human factors and safety. Dr. Samuel utilizes a variety of experimental techniques to measure human performance and study human behavior. The core theme of his work is centered around the etiology of crashes (or errors) or the study of crash (error) causation. The goal is to advance user safety by accounting for the limitations of both, infrastructure and interface device design. Specifically, Siby’s research deals with:

- Road User (drivers, pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcyclists) safety

- Caregiver Behavior and Medical Errors

- Autonomous vehicles, Connected vehicles and Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS)

- Design and assessment of Traffic Control Devices, Roadway Infrastructure and Automotive Interfaces

- Application of Virtual Environments for Rehabilitation and Occupational Therapy.

- Development and evaluation of population-specific, cognitive Training Interventions (novice drivers, older drivers aged 65 and above, pedestrians, special population with ADHD and mild cognitive impairments)

- Measurement of Driver Distraction, Fatigue, Mental Workload and Situation Awareness.

• Simulation & Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality
• Novice and Older Driver Training
• Predictive & Conceptual Modeling of Behaviour
• Eye tracking
• Attention & Cognition
• Perception
• Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence
• Decision Making
• Aging
• Automotive Human factors
• Autonomous and Connected Vehicles & Intelligent Transportation Systems
• Caregiver Behaviours & Errors
• Assistive & Automotive Interfaces
• Vulnerable Road User Safety (Pedestrians & Bicyclists)
• Motorcyclist Safety
• Special Populations (ADHD & Dementia)
• Traffic Control Devices & Roadway Infrastructure Design

• 2014, Doctorate, Industrial Engineering & Operations Research, University of Massachusetts Amherst
• 2009, Bachelor's, Electrical & Electronics Engineering, National Institute of Technology Karnataka

• SYDE 542 - Interface Design
  • Taught in 2018, 2019
• SYDE 642 - Cognitive Engineering Methods
  • Taught in 2019
• SYDE 740 - Selected Topics in Human Systems
  • Taught in 2019

• Hatfield, N., Yamani, Y., Palmer, D. B., Yahoodik, S., Vasquez, V., Horrey, W. J., & Samuel, S., Analysis of Visual Scanning Patterns Comparing Drivers of Simulated L2 and L0 Systems., Transportation Research Record, 2019
• Pai Mangalore, G., Ebadi, Y., Samuel, S., Knodler, M. A., Fisher, D. L., The Promise of Virtual Reality Headsets: Can They be Used to Measure Accurately Drivers’ Hazard Anticipation Performance?, Transportation Research Record, 2019
• Bakhtiari, S., Zhang, T., Zafian, T., Samuel, S., Knodler, M., Fitzpatrick, C., & Fisher, D. L., Effect of Visual and Auditory Alerts on Older Drivers’ Glances toward Latent Hazards while Turning Left at Intersections, Transportation Research Record, 2019
• Muttart, J.W., Dinakar, S., Fisher, D., Garrison, T.M., & Samuel, S., Evaluation of a Training Intervention to Improve Novice Drivers Hazard Mitigation When Approaching Left Turn Scenarios, Transportation Research Record, 2019
• Park, Hyoshin and Haghani, Ali and Samuel, Siby and Knodler, Michael A, Real-time prediction and avoidance of secondary crashes under unexpected traffic congestion, Accident Analysis & Prevention, 112, 2018, 39 - 49
• Yamani, Y., Bıçaksız, P., Unverricht, J., Samuel, S., Impact of Information Bandwidth of In-Vehicle Technologies on Young Drivers' Attention Maintenance Performance: A Driving Simulator Study, Transportation research part F: traffic psychology and behaviour(59A), 2018, 195 - 202
• Zhang, T., Hajiseyedjavadi, F., Wang, Y., Samuel, S., Qu, X., Fisher, D., Training Interventions are only Effective on Careful Drivers, not Careless Drivers, Transportation research part F: traffic psychology and behaviour(58), 2018, 693 - 707
• Unverricht, J., Samuel, S., & Yamani, Y. (2018). Latent Hazard Anticipation in Young Drivers: Review and Meta-Analysis of Training Studies. Transportation Research Record, 0361198118768530 (Accepted in 2018)
• Yamani, Y., Bıçaksız, P., Palmer, D. B., Hatfield, N., & Samuel, S. (2018). Evaluation of the Effectiveness of a Gaze-Based Training Intervention on Latent Hazard Anticipation Skills for Young Drivers: A Driving Simulator Study. Safety, 4(2), 18 (Accepted in 2018)
• Park, H. J., Haghani, A., Gao, S., Knodler, M.A., Samuel, S., Anticipatory Dynamic Traffic Sensor Location Problems with Connected Vehicle Technologies, Transportation science, 52(6), 2018, 1299 - 1326
• Agrawal, R., Knodler, M., Fisher, D. L., & Samuel, S. (2018). Virtual Reality Headset Training: Can It Be Used to Improve Young Drivers’ Latent Hazard Anticipation and Mitigation Skills. Transportation Research Record, 0361198118758311 (Accepted in 2018)
• Wright, Timothy J and Agrawal, Ravi and Samuel, Siby and Wang, Yuhua and Zilberstein, Shlomo and Fisher, Donald L, Effective cues for accelerating young drivers’ time to transfer control following a period of conditional automation, Accident Analysis & Prevention, 116, 2018, 14 - 20
• Hajiseyedjavadi, Foroogh and Zhang, Tingru and Agrawal, Ravi and Knodler, Michael and Fisher, Donald and Samuel, Siby, Effectiveness of visual warnings on young drivers hazard anticipation and hazard mitigation abilities, Accident Analysis & Prevention, 116, 2018, 41 - 52
• Park, Hyoshin and Gao, Song and Samuel, Siby, Modeling effects of forward glance durations on latent hazard detection, Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board(2663), 2017, 90 - 98
• Wright, Timothy J and Agrawal, Ravi and Samuel, Siby and Wang, Yuhua and Zilberstein, Shlomo and Fisher, Donald L, Effects of alert cue specificity on situation awareness in transfer of control in Level 3 automation, Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board(2663), 2017, 27 - 33
• Fitzpatrick, Cole D and Samuel, Siby and Knodler Jr, Michael A, The use of a driving simulator to determine how time pressures impact driver aggressiveness, Accident Analysis & Prevention, 108, 2017, 131 - 138
• Yahoodik, S., Yamani, Y., Hatfield, N., & Samuel, S., Effects of Inaccurate Gaze Behavior on Young Drivers’ Hazard Anticipation., In Proceedings of the 10th International Driving Symposium on Human Factors in Driver Assessment, Training, and Vehicle Design, 06 2019, Albuquerque, NM.
• Park, J. H., Pugh, N., Darko, J., Folsom, L., & Samuel, S., Explicit Forward Glance Duration Hidden Markov Model for Inference of Spillover Detection., In International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics, 2019, Springer, Cham., 205 - 213
• Elias, S., Ghafurian, M., & Samuel, S., Effectiveness of Red-Light Running Countermeasures: A Systematic Review., In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Automotive User Interfaces and Interactive Vehicular Applications, 09 2019, Utrecht, Netherlands, 91 - 100
• Mangalore, G.P., Ebadi, Y., Samuel, S., Knodler, M., & Fisher, D.L., Can Virtual Reality Headsets Be Used to Measure Accurately Drivers’ Anticipatory Behaviors., In Proceedings of the 10th International Driving Symposium on Human Factors in Driver Assessment, Training, and Vehicle Design, 06 2019, Albuquerque, NM.
• Ebadi, Y., Mangalore, G. P., & Samuel, S., Impact of Cognitive Distractions on Drivers’ Anticipation Behavior in Vehicle-bicycle Conflict Situations., In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 09 2018, Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications, 1898 - 1902
• Adnan, Ammar and Ismail, Hadi and Umar, Radin Zaid Radin and Samuel, Siby and Hamid, Malek, Effect of Merging Lane Length on Motorcyclist’s Head Check Behavior During Merging in Traffic: Urban Expressway, In Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting, 1 2018
• Hatfield, N., Yamani, Y., Palmer, D. B., Karpinsky, N. D., Horrey, W. J., & Samuel, S., Comparison of Visual Sampling Patterns Under Simulated L2 and L0 Systems., In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 09 2018, Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications, 1826 - 1831
• Agrawal, Ravi and Knodler, Michael and Fisher, Donald L and Samuel, Siby, Advanced Virtual Reality Based Training to Improve Young Drivers’ Latent Hazard Anticipation Ability, Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 1 2017, 1995 - 1999
• Young, Jared and Zhang, Tingru and Samuel, Siby and Knodler, Michael and Fisher, Donald, Simulator Evaluation of the Effectiveness of an Comprehensive Teen Driver Training Program, In Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting., 1 2017, Washington D.C.
• Muttart, Jeffrey W and Bartlett, Wade and Peck, Louis R and Zafian, Tracy M and Yamani, Yusuke and Kauderer, Chris and Fisher, Donald L and Samuel, Siby and Dinakar, Swaroop, Motorcyclists’ Glance Behaviors at Unsignalized Intersections: Left Turn across Path, In Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting, 1 2017, Washington D.C.
• Vazquez, V., Hatfield, N., Yamani, Y., & Samuel, S., Examining Impact of Automated Vehicle Control on Simulator Sickness., In Annual Proceedings of the Virginia Academy of Sciences., 2018 (Accepted in 2018)