Strategic Initiative Fund (SIF)

Center of Safety for All (Safety4All)

Safety systems today are designed around a small number of "average" human representations, contributing to persistent injury disparities in motor-vehicle crashes, sports-related concussions, and many other injurious events. The Safety4All Center will establish a sustainable academia–industry–government consortium to develop population-based digital human twins and virtual testing technologies that fundamentally transform how safety systems are designed and evaluated, establishing population-based virtual testing as a new standard for safety assessment.

The Center envisions a future in which every individual has their own digital twin, enabling safety systems to be designed adaptively for all people, regardless of age, sex, body size and shape, or health condition. By uniting U-M's leadership in medical imaging, parametric human modeling, artificial intelligence, and design optimization, Safety4All will establish an intelligent modeling ecosystem and drive a paradigm shift from reliance on physical testing toward population-scale virtual safety evaluation.

Safety4All will deliver four tightly integrated outcomes: a self-sustaining academia-industry-government consortium; shared, population-representative human body models and virtual testing tools; flagship case studies that demonstrate decision-ready improvements in safety; and workforce development through transformed curricula and professional short courses. By integrating research, education, and workforce development, the Center will position the University of Michigan as a global leader in inclusive virtual safety for transportation, healthcare, and beyond.