The science of human factors engineering

Posted 07/19/2012


Professionals from a wide range of disciplines will converge at the University of Michigan July 23-28 and July 30-August 3 for the annual Human Factors Engineering Short Course. Now in its 53rd year, the intensive, two-week course attracts engineers, medical professionals, managers, and others interested in designing systems, products, and services to make them easier, safer and more effective to use.

Paul Green, research professor in UMTRI's Driver Interface Group, serves as course program coleader. What distinguishes the program, says Green, is the "tremendous cross-section of people who attend" and the wide variety of application environments they bring to the course--from aircraft cockpits, to nuclear power plants, medical environments, motor vehicles, and military settings, among others.

The course features lectures by experienced instructors from several universities and companies, complemented by small-group and hands-on design experience.

The first week of the course focuses on human factors concepts and is a broad survey of human factors topics important to designers and researchers. Human-computer interaction is the focus for week two of the course and presents an overview of major topics and issues in human-computer interaction through workshops on selected concepts, methods, and procedures that provide the foundation for design of effective human-computer systems and web applications.

For more information, see Michigan Interdisciplinary and Professional Engineering.

Photo credit: Ei-Wen Lo, UMTRI.