CIHFR
Centre for Interdisciplinary Human Factors Research at Ryerson University |
Ergonomics (or human factors) is the scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of interactions among humans and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data and methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance. Ergonomists contribute to the design and evaluation of tasks, jobs, products, environments and systems in order to make them compatible with the needs, abilities and limitations of people. International Ergonomics Association
Human performance is critical to success of any mission. Mismatch between people and technology can directly injure people, as in acute or cumulative musculoskeletal injuries. Mismatches can also lead to performance failure, affecting safety of the individual (e.g., driver error, amusement rider error), or indeed the public at large (e.g., Walkerton). Human performance is shaped by the design of workplaces, public facilities, and consumer products in particular the match between people and the physical and information interface with technologies. Successful design of the interface between people and technology requires multidisciplinary participants and application of human factors principles at the individual interface, the group or team level, and the organizational level.
Human Factors/Ergonomics emerged onto the Canadian scientific scene in the 1960s after coming into its own in the Second World War, although the concept had previously been contemplated (Buck, 2001). While much of its foundation makes use of longer-established sciences, the field has developed new methods and areas of application, as well as a holistic, "systems" orientation that specifically balances performance and well-being on both physical and cognitive levels. While "Ergonomics" originated in Europe with its foundation in physiology, biomechanics and the origins of human fatigue, "Human Factors" (human engineering, engineering psychology) began in North America with its roots in interface design and human error and performance. Ergonomics initially looked at how task design could be improved to reduce or eliminate harm to the human operator or the consequences thereof, while Human Factors initially looked at how task design could be improved to reduce or eliminate failure of the mission as a result of the performance of the human operator, such as error. Over the intervening decades, each of these perspectives has incorporated more of the other, such that the two terms are now generally considered to be synonyms. Rather than two disciplines, or one unified discipline, there is now a spectrum that incorporates physical and cognitive task demands and physical and cognitive capacities and limitations. The emphasis of any individual researcher or practitioner's work will be dictated by the needs of the application, using a range of primary sources, including perceptual psychology, social psychology, anatomy and anthropometry, biomechanics, physiology, and design/engineering. A thorough human factors/ergonomics analysis of a person-task-environment system will consider the entire spectrum, but it is also common for analysis teams to be constituted of specialists in constituent areas.
Physical ergonomics is concerned with human anatomical, anthropometric, physiological and biomechanical characteristics as they relate to physical activity. (Relevant topics include working postures, materials handling, repetitive movements, work related musculoskeletal disorders, workplace layout, safety and health.)
Cognitive ergonomics is concerned with mental processes, such as perception, memory, reasoning, and motor response, as they affect interactions among humans and other elements of a system. (Relevant topics include mental workload, decision-making, skilled performance, human-computer interaction, human reliability, work stress and training as these may relate to human-system design.)
Systems (or organizational) ergonomics is concerned with the optimization of sociotechnical systems, including their organizational structures, policies, and processes including the way in which individual designers and organizations of managers and policy-makers make decisions about human factors. (Relevant topics include communication, crew resource management, work design, design of working times, teamwork, participatory design, community ergonomics, cooperative work, new work paradigms, virtual organizations, telework, and quality management.) [Subdiscipline examples adapted from IEA ]
Participants in CIHFR ("cipher")
Ryerson faculty wishing to be listed, please contact Kathryn Woodcock.
Application of Human Factors to safety, particularly in relation to human error/accident investigation, inspection and design, with special interest in amusement ride safety, and accessibility
Design of work systems that are both effective and sustainable from human and technical perspectives. Areas of study include Human Factors and corporate strategy, industrial system design processes, organisational design and change management, simulation and virtual performance modelling, performance and exposure measurement
Human factors, user interface design and the use of multi-media interfaces as applied in the rehabilitation field with an emphasis on access to computers for people with disabilities.
Music cognition, hearing science, perceptual ergonomics, assistive technology.
SMART lab (Science of Music, Auditory Research and Technology)
Dog-Human teamwork, Canine Augmentation Technology in Urban Search and Rescue
Occupational Biomechanics, Ergonomics, Design of exoskeleton devices to reduce spine loading during lifting tasks and standing postures, Human vibration.
Occupational Biomechanics Lab
VR tools to assist the elderly and impaired, studies the human balance control system and models human adaptation & learning.
Sensorimotor Processing and Integration for Rehabilitation, Adaptation and Learning Lab
Human Factors in Transportation, Highway Geometric Design and Road Safety, Traffic Operations and Management, Modeling of Transportation Networks, Transportation Systems Logistics, Intelligent Transportation Systems, Geographic Information Systems.
Information and communication technology, information and media seeking behavior, information architecture, theory use in journalism.
Human Computer Interaction, Usability
User-initiated design, children and technology, open access children's music (http://songchild.org), the curriculum and pedagogy of technology and virtual learning environments, online identity and social networking technologies, and the protection of children's information online. Co-editor of Learning Inquiry (http://learning-inquiry.info).
Design theory and methodology, artificial intelligence in design, web-based computer-aided engineering, intelligent simulation, teaching design.
Productivity improvement, efficiency analysis, process improvement, modeling of human skills and boredom, simulation of production and service systems, manufacturing systems design.
Perception of individuals with compromised vision systems, changes in the perception of motion that occur with changes in attention and age, perception of the direction of motion for individuals with strabismus (eye turn), access to higher education for students with disabilities, access to education for students with visual impairment and blindness.
Dr. Mohamad Jaber
Industrial engineering: inventory management, project management, organizational learning, production planning and control.
Areas of reliability including embedded failure detection analysis, mechanical reliability, human reliability, fuzzy and stochastic fault trees, and intelligence system in reliability & system safety engineering, medical devices reliability evaluation, health care reliability, risk management, and intelligent transportation systems.
Visual Servoing, Haptic Interfaces, System Dynamics and Modeling, Mechatronics, MEMS, Automation, CIM, Robot Planning and Control, Neural Networks, and Machine Intelligence.
Risk assessment/perception, epidemiology, biostatistics
Community perception of risk, Environmental Risk Assessment, Hazardous facility siting
Health and safety management systems, the Internal Responsibility System, due diligence, the role of workplace health and safety committees and other legal and managerial issues in health and safety.
The bodywork of nursing and other health professions; currently studying the injury management and return to work experiences of regulated nurses who have been injured, disabled or become ill as a result of caring for others using an institutional ethnographic approach.
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Buck, L. 2001. Some perspectives on the development of ergonomics in Canada. Proceedings of the SELF-ACE 2001 Conference. Ergonomics for changing work., Volume 1: 7-13. [back]
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