The UAB Campus Becomes a Living Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
A unique example is the digital urban environment Town-UAB, created through an agreement between UAB and the CVC, involving a multidisciplinary team of artists and AI researchers. The project reproduces the UAB road network in photorealistic detail and supports advances in autonomous driving research.
As part of the presentation of innovation results from the ENIA UAB-Cruïlla Chair during UAB Innovation Week, the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and the Computer Vision Center (CVC) unveiled Town-UAB, a photorealistic digital urban environment inspired by the UAB campus, designed to train, test, and validate artificial intelligence (AI) models for autonomous driving. This prototype serves as a paradigmatic example of multidisciplinary research and innovation.
Co-funded by the ENIA UAB-Cruïlla Chair, the Town-UAB digital model enables driving simulations in a virtual urban environment with the high-quality rendering of Unreal Engine 5. The virtual space allows the creation of test scenarios with variable traffic, lighting, and weather conditions, reproducing the behavior of vehicles, pedestrians, and other elements in great detail. This accelerates AI system training and facilitates validation in a safe, controlled environment before deployment on real roads.
Developed by a multidisciplinary team of engineers, 3D artists, and AI researchers, Town-UAB complements the CVC’s work with the open-source simulator CARLA, a globally recognized platform for autonomous driving research and innovation.
The presentation event, showcasing prototypes from the ENIA UAB-Cruïlla Chair, including Town-UAB, was attended by UAB Rector Javier Lafuente, Chair Director Fernando Vilariño, and Cruïlla Festival Director Jordi Herreruela. Antonio López, UAB Professor and ICREA Academia Fellow, as well as Principal Investigator in autonomous driving at CVC, explained the project’s development and results, including autonomous mobility tests conducted on campus. Attendees were later able to ride in the autonomous vehicle along one of the routes reproduced in the virtual environment.
An Ideal AI Experimentation Space
The UAB campus provides a privileged environment for researching and validating AI systems for autonomous driving. With an area comparable to an urban setting, it includes streets, parking lots, roundabouts, pedestrian crossings, green spaces, public transport, and constant flows of people and vehicles.
This configuration makes it a living laboratory, ideal for testing technological solutions in real yet controlled conditions. It is a unique experimental space where autonomous driving can be evaluated and refined using real-world traffic data in complex scenarios.
The new virtual urban environment digitally reproduces the campus road network, where the CVC research team already conducts tests with an electric autonomous vehicle equipped with sensors and AI models. Integrating the campus into the simulation allows tests to be tailored to specific research needs and advances the validation of intelligent driving algorithms.
AI to Uncover Unpublished Scores and Other Research Directions in the Arts
The Town-UAB presentation was part of the Arts, Innovation, and Artificial Intelligence Day, organized by the ENIA UAB-Cruïlla Chair for research in AI applied to music and the arts during UAB Innovation Week 2025.
The ENIA UAB-Cruïlla Chair explores new pathways for technology transfer from AI research to the live events sector, in collaboration with the Cruïlla Festival, one of Barcelona’s major music festivals. One of its objectives is to turn the UAB campus and large events into spaces for experimentation, evaluation, and validation of different prototypes and technologies, allowing the public to actively participate in shaping AI solutions while considering business development, ethical implications, and sustainability.
Pioneers in Autonomous Driving
Among its most significant contributions, the CVC developed the CARLA simulator in 2017 in collaboration with Intel. CARLA has become a worldwide standard for research and development in autonomous driving and was recognized with the National Research Award for Public-Private Partnership in 2021.
The CVC has also contributed to the development of autonomous driving systems for rural environments, addressing emerging challenges to improve territorial connectivity and sustainable mobility beyond urban areas.
In addition to the Town-UAB presentation, today’s event showcases demonstrator prototypes and multidisciplinary performances that combine artificial intelligence and the arts, including the following highlights:
Concert of Previously Unpublished Historical Scores
A choral concert accompanied by organ featuring unpublished works by Catalan composers from the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, preserved in the Network of Regional Archives and the Orfeó Català Documentation Center. Performed by the vocal ensemble De Canendi Elegantia, the project is a multidisciplinary collaboration between researchers from the UAB’s Departments of Arts and Musicology, the CVC, and various Catalan music archives.
The initiative combines handwritten music recognition technology, musicology, and artistic performance to digitize, transcribe, and disseminate previously inaccessible musical heritage, contributing to its recovery and return to society after centuries of obscurity.
Candela: a contemporary audiovisual performance inspired by the improvisation and spontaneity of flamenco. The piece is mostly created live, with artist María Badji generating music and visuals through body movement, creating a unique artistic experience in each performance.
Using immersive technology, computer vision systems, and interactive devices, the artist controls in real time the sound, image, and lighting systems, acting as a channel between human expression and technological response.
Harmon.IA: interactions between musicians and AI. This project, in collaboration with the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (IIIA-CSIC), presents two forms of artist-AI interaction:
Ghost Drum: a dialogue between a pianist and an AI-controlled drum set, exploring improvisation and rhythmic freedom in real time.
ImprovIA: AI accompanies the improvisations of pianists Ignasi Terraza and Carles Marigó, generating sounds and atmospheres that influence the musicians’ performance.
Beyond Collapse: creating unique soundscapes. This electronic music project is led by two cyborg DJs, David Hernández and DJ Huex, who combine human skill and AI to craft distinctive sonic experiences. The performance explores the relationship between humanity, technology, and ethics, blending live instruments, electronic rhythms, and AI-generated melodies in real time. Lights, visuals, and audience interaction are synchronized with the music, offering an immersive, futuristic experience that invites reflection on the symbiosis between humans and machines.
The event was complemented by an information booth and eight additional demonstration prototypes developed by researchers and students associated with the Chair, which were showcased throughout the morning at the UAB Plaça Cívica.
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