Paul Torrens

Professor

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Recruiting computer science Ph.D. students for Fall 2024. Students with deep interests in the simulation architectures that drive VR/AR systems are a great fit for our group, as well as those with interests in applications of VR/AR to real-world physical and human/behavioral phenomena. If you are doing development work (i.e., building algorithms, sensors, systems) in geographic information science, you would also enjoy our group. Most students in our group have an undergraduate degree and a Master's degree in computer science before joining.

Dr. Paul M. Torrens is a a Program Director for the Engineering Research Centers (ERC) Program in the Directorate for Engineering at the U.S. National Science Foundation, while also a Professor in Tandon's Department of Computer Science and Engineering and the Center for Urban Science + Progress at New York University.

Paul's research focuses on modeling and simulation (especially the simulations that drive VR/AR) and location-aware technologies and Geographic Information Systems (especially next-generation systems for autonomy, edge computing, and spatial computing for mixed reality). Paul runs a large motion capture facility (the "Simspace") at NYU, where a lot of these technologies are put to work as engineered systems to support urban computing. Currently, we are testing applications around shifting public behavior during the pandemic, behavioral simulation to make autonomous driving more responsive to pedestrians, and edge computing systems to help communities better understand their streetscapes.

Torrens was the recipient of a Faculty Early Career Development Award from the National Science Foundation in 2007, and in 2008 George W. Bush presented him with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

Physical simulation

AI model

Agent model

motion capture

VR lab

Research Interests

Simulation-based engineering and science (SBE&S); models underpinning VR/AR (virtual human behavior and virtual environments), Geographic Information Science

Education

University College London 2004, Ph.D.

Publications

Chen, M.; Liu, X.; Claramunt, C.; Çöltekin, A.; Peng, P.; Lotfian, M.; Robinson, A.C.; Golay, F.; Joost, S.; Ingensand, I.; Batty, M.; Kwan, M-P.; Senousi, A.M.; Cheng, T.; Strobl, J.; Wilson, J.; Bandrova, T.; Konecny, M.; Torrens, P.M.; Zhang, F.; He, L.; Wang, J.; Ratti, C.; Kolditz, O.; Klippel, A.; Li, S.; Lin, H.; Lü, G. (2023). "Human-in-the-loop artificial intelligence and visual analytics in spatial sciences and cyberspace: research opportunities and challenges". Earth Science Reviews, 104438.
Torrens, P.M. (2023). "Agent models of customer journeys on retail high streets". "Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination (JEIC), 18 (1): 87-128.
Torrens, P.M. and Gu, S. (2023). "Inverse augmentation: transposing real people into pedestrian models". Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 100: 101923.
Torrens, P.M. (2022). "Smart and sentient retail high streets". Smart Cities, 5(4): 1670-1720.
Zhang, Y., B. Liang, B. Chen, P.M. Torrens, S. F. Atashzar, D. Lin, and Q. Sun (2022). "Force-aware interface via electromyography for natural VR/AR interaction". ACM Transactions on Graphics, 41 (6):268: 1-18.
Torrens, P.M. (2022). Data science for pedestrian and high street retailing as a framework for advancing urban informatics to individual scales. Urban Informatics 1: 9. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44212-022-00009-x.
Chen, M.; Liu, X.; Claramunt, C.; Batty, M.; Kwan, M.; Senousi, A.M.; Cheng, T; Strobl, J.; Arzu, C.; Wilson, J.; Bandrova, T.; Konecny, M.; Torrens, P.M.; Li, H.; Wang, J.; Ratti, C.; Kolditz, O.; Klippel, A.; Li, S.; Lin, H.; Zhang, F.; Lü, G. (2022) "Geographic information science in the era of geospatial big data: a cyberspace perspective". The Innovation, 3(5): 100279.
Torrens, P.M. (2022). "Agent models of customer journeys on retail high streets". "Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination (JEIC), https://doi.org/10.1007/s11403-022-00350-z.

Torrens, P.M. & Gu, S. (2021) "Real-time experiential geosimulation in virtual reality with immersion-emission". In GeoSim '21: Proceedings of the 4th ACM SIGSPATIAL International Workshop on GeoSpatial Simulation. November 2, 2021, pp. 19-28. 10.1145/3486184.3491079.

Prakash, B.A.; Torrens, P.M.; Wigginton, K.; Yin, J. (2021) "National Symposium on PRedicting Emergence of Virulent Entities by Novel Technologies (PREVENT)". NSF Predictive Intelligence for Pandemic Prevention (PIPP) Workshop Summary Report. Atlanta, GA: Georgia Tech. 52 pages. https://prevent-symposium.org/.