Now Accepting Nominations for 2021 Executive Council Election |
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All HFES eligible voting members are encouraged to participate in this year’s nominations and election process. We are seeking nominations for President-Elect, Secretary-Treasurer-Elect, and Two Members-at-Large of the Executive Council.
If you have any questions please contact me, the society staff, or anyone else on the Executive Council. We would be happy to speak with you!
Ellen J. Bass, HFES Secretary/Treasurer-Elect
Nominations and Elections Committee Chair
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HFES Seed Grants Targeting the Intersections of HF/E and
Anti-Racism/Anti-Bias
HFES is initiating a seed grant program in support of research and programming that investigates and addresses the intersections of Human Factors/Ergonomics and Anti-Racism/Anti-Bias. This grant program will stimulate and support projects and research intended to improve our understanding of and reduce/eliminate racism and bias in the systems, environments, products and tools with which humans interact. Seed grants fund the early stages of projects with the potential for broad impact or provide preliminary data for future state, federal, foundation or other grant proposal mechanisms. The long-term goal of this grant program is to identify evidence-based solutions to the problems of racism and bias.
All HFES members are eligible to apply (new faculty and new practitioners will be given priority). Faculty/practitioner teams are strongly encouraged to apply. Grant limits are $5,000 USD each. Up to two grants will be awarded.
Proposals are due by May 15, 2021 at 6:00 p.m. Eastern time.
If you not submitting a proposal and you are interested in serving as a proposal reviewer, please contact the Chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee, Carolyn Sommerich, at sommerich.1@osu.edu.
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HCTG Announces Robert L. Wears Early-Career Award
The Health Care Technical Group (HCTG) is pleased to announce a new annual award - the Robert L. Wears early career award. Each year an HCTG committee will grant this award to one academic and one practitioner that has unique achievements in their early career.
Nominations can be submitted until August 31, 2021 and the two awardees will be announced during the Human Factors annual meeting. The HCTG is looking forward to seeing your achievements.
The Robert L. Wears early career award aims to highlight the achievements of academics and practitioners in the first six years from graduation.
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Call for Applications to the HFES Science Policy Fellowship Program
The HFES Science Policy Fellowship (SPF) program provides a valuable opportunity for HFES members to learn how to successfully advocate for human factors and ergonomics on the national stage. SPF Participants will receive extensive training in public affairs, advocacy and outreach to be provided by Lewis-Burke Associates and the HFES Government Relations Committee during the HFES Annual Meeting. They will also participate in an annual spring Capitol Hill Day in Washington, DC, including a Hill visit training session and a policy-related speaker prior to the visit day. They will be invited to attend monthly conference calls with Lewis-Burke and the HFES Government Relations Committee covering ongoing events and opportunities for HFES to engage in policy decisions.
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2021 Human Factors Prize Competition Submissions Site Opens May 15
The Human Factors Prize was established in 2010 by former Editor-in-Chief William S. Marras to recognize excellence in HF/E research through an annual competition in which authors are invited to submit papers on a specific topic for that year. The prize carries a $5,000 cash award and consideration of publication of the winning paper in the Society's flagship journal, Human Factors. The award is formally conferred at a special session at the HFES International Annual Meeting, where the recipient presents his or her work.
Submissions will be accepted between May 15 and June 15, 2021.
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Join an HFES Affinity Group and Grow Your Professional Network!
HFES Affinity groups provide opportunities for members to connect with others who share aspects of their identity–especially in situations in which aspects of their identity are in the minority or are marginalized. Our Affinity Groups can provide mutual support and a sense of community within the society and are an extension of HF/E Diversity and Inclusion efforts, focusing on both inclusivity within the profession and on advancing science that addresses longstanding societal problems. Current Affinity Groups:
- HFE WOMAN (Women’s Group)
- LGBTQ+
- People of Color
- Disability and Chronic Health Conditions
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University of Michigan Human Factors Engineering Short Course Returns
The U-M Center for Ergonomics has a distinguished record of research in the areas of Cognitive Ergonomics, Biomechanics, and Work Physiology and Safety, along with extensive resources including state-of-the-art laboratories, test equipment, and computer systems. Week one runs July 26-31 and week two runs August 2-6, 2021.
The first week of the course focuses on human factors concepts, offering a broad survey of human factors topics important to designers and researchers. Human-computer interaction (HCI) and intelligent system design are the focus for week two, providing an overview of HCI issues through workshops that lay the foundation for effective human-computer systems. Engineers, psychologists, medical professionals, managers, and others interested in human factors, ergonomics, human-computer interaction, or usability are candidates for the course. Attendees often work in industry, government, or the military.
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What Can Design Science Do For You? |
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Gain Access
- Our internal Strategic Partnerships team is constantly making connections so we can recruit users in hard-to-access populations and locations across the globe.
- We can help your company gain access to the places where your intended users live, work, and play so that you can observe them in their naturalistic environment and understand the actual use of your products beyond what can be asked during conventional user interviews in a conference room.
Collect Facts
- Understanding real world use is pivotal to successful design. It’s so valuable that regulatory agencies across the world require it for medical products.
- Our Research teams go beyond anecdotal information. Our in-context methods allow us to gather actionable requirements and create deliverables that fit seamlessly into your design history file and regulatory submissions.
- To capture that hard-to-obtain data, we leverage proprietary video systems and physiological measurement devices.
Visualize Findings
- The most in-depth research is ineffective if no one can understand it. That’s why our Information and Visual Design team synthesizes every deliverable to produce actionable insights.
- Our multi-media deliverables are designed to arm you with the right level of information for any audience. We will always work with you to design research outputs that make sense for your team.
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Join an HFES Professional Group and Grow Your Network!
HFES Professional groups provide opportunities for members to connect with others who share the same stage of their career. Our professional groups help facilitate networking, mentorship, and the sharing of professional insights for the community. As they develop, we expect year-round activities to engage our members across the training and career spectrum. All interested persons, regardless of Society membership level, may participate in any Professional Group. Current Professional Groups:
- Students
- Early Career Professionals
- Mid-Career Professionals
- Practitioners
- Late-Career Professionals
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HFES Career Center: Advance Your Career in Human Factors and Ergonomics
We encourage you to explore the HFES Career Center. This portal, for employers and job seekers, aims to connect professionals with positions in human factors/ergonomics, as well as provide resources to help users improve job or talent search performance.
What the Career Center Features:
- Job searching features include the ability to view detailed job listings, post a resume, and apply to positions through the portal.
- Learning Center which offers helpful presentations designed to help job seekers stand out, develop strong networks, and improve their interview performance.
- Resume searching features that allow employers to find qualified candidates.
- Employer resources include articles and videos on government compliance, the candidate experience, and how to create job postings to attract top talent.
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Deadline Extended to June 30th for Submissions for Human Factors and Ergonomics in Space Exploration
In spaceflight, human factors are critical to achieving mission objectives and maintaining crew health and safety. Humans must live and work in an inherently hostile environment, which impairs cognitive and physical readiness due to isolation and confinement, radiation, microgravity, sleep deprivation, vibration, and communication complexities. Astronauts use bulky, constraining, yet life-sustaining equipment, tools, and systems. For example, spacesuits used for extravehicular activities restrict gross body coordination and fine motor skills due to the necessary rigidity of the material to protect from the vacuum of space. Helmets restrict vision and communication. Strategic and evidence-based human factors design of space systems are needed to mitigate the risk to the humans in the system, particularly on long-duration missions in which small stressors may accumulate.
Deadline for submissions of full manuscripts is June 30, 2021.
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Call for Papers: Special Issue of the Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making On Human-AI Teaming
Building upon advances in machine learning, software that depends on artificial intelligence (AI) is being introduced across a wide spectrum of systems, including autonomous vehicles, advanced manufacturing, healthcare, aviation, and military systems. AI systems may be unreliable or insufficiently robust, however, due to challenges in the development of reliable and robust AI algorithms based on datasets that are noisy and incomplete, the lack of causal models needed for projecting future outcomes, the presence of undetected biases, and noisy or faulty sensor inputs. Therefore, it is anticipated that for the foreseeable future, AI systems will need to operate in conjunction with humans in order to perform their tasks, and often as a part of a larger team of humans and AI systems. Further, AI systems may be instantiated with different levels of autonomy, at different times, and for different types of tasks or circumstances, creating a wide design space for consideration.
This special issue will cover new research designed to better integrate people with AI in ways that will allow them to function effectively.
Manuscripts are due by October 1, 2021.
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Body Mass Index, Age Can Also Affect Risk for Neck Pain
By Vandana Suresh
With roughly 80% of jobs being sedentary and often requiring several hours of sitting stooped in front of a computer screen, neck pain is a growing occupational hazard. Smartphones and other devices have also caused people to bend their necks for prolonged periods. But is bad posture solely to blame? In a recent study, researchers at Texas A&M University have found that while poor neck and head postures are indeed the primary determinants of neck pain, body mass index, age and the time of the day also influence the neck’s ability to perform sustained or repeated movements.
“Neck pain is one of the leading and fastest-growing causes of disability in the world,” said Dr. Xudong Zhang, professor in the Wm Michael Barnes '64 Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. “Our study has pointed to a combination of work and personal factors that strongly influence the strength and endurance of the neck over time. More importantly, since these factors have been identified, they can then be modified so that the neck is in better health and pain is avoided or deterred.”
The results of the study are published online in the journal Human Factors, a flagship journal in the field of human factors and ergonomics.
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Announcing a New HFES Journal: Human Factors in Healthcare
Human Factors in Healthcare aims to provide a worldwide platform for the work of human factors professionals who specialize in healthcare, as well as industry professionals who rely on human factors knowledge, methods, and theories, including healthcare providers and administrators, medical device and pharmaceutical industries, and regulators. This open-source journal is split between research and application; is inclusive of human factors, usability, and ergonomics; and addresses healthcare human factors issues across a variety of domains, such as digital health, healthcare operating environments, patient safety and health, device usability and validation, education and simulation, and healthcare worker safety.
Human Factors in Healthcare will have co-editors-in-chief. Anthony Andre (Interface Analysis Associates) will represent the applied side and Farzan Sasangohar (Texas A&M University) will represent the research/academic side. This new journal will be published by Elsevier beginning this summer. Articles will be published in a rolling fashion, with periodic themed issues.
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President Biden Releases FY 2022 Discretionary Budget Proposal
President Biden released on April 9th the Administration’s first budget proposal to Congress, kicking off the annual congressional appropriations process. Unrestrained by legally imposed budget caps for the first time in a decade, President Biden proposed an 18 percent boost in discretionary spending for a total of $1.522 trillion in fiscal year (FY) 2022. President Biden’s budget request would provide $753 for defense spending, and 1.7 increase over the FY 2021 enacted level, 769 billion in non-defense spending—a $123 billion increase or 16 percent increase compared to FY 2021. This would be the first time in more than a decade that non-defense spending would exceed defense spending. This is a sharp contrast from the Trump Administration, which prioritized defense spending and proposed major cuts to other domestic programs.
While the full budget request will not be released until mid-May, this “skinny” budget emphasizes the Administration’s priorities, which are reflected across agency budget proposals: strengthening public health to address COVID-19 and prevent future crises, addressing the climate crisis and investing in clean energy, expanding access to education, and strengthening federal efforts to address racial and other inequities across the country. However, it is ultimately up to Congress to decide which proposals to embrace, modify, or reject as part of the annual appropriations process. Still, the budget proposal provides insight into new and emerging federal priorities.
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Paper Submission Deadline for the INCOSE International Conference on Human Systems Integration, HSI2021 is Due Tomorrow!
INCOSE International Conference on Human Systems Integration, HSI2021, will be held in San Diego, California, USA on November 17-18, 2021. The paper submission deadline has been extended to April 30. The submission deadline for paperless contributions remains May 17.
HSI2021 will bring together manufacturers, operators, government, research centers and academia to focus on improving industrial teams of teams. While the primary focus is on HSI, the organizers will consider papers on a wide range of topics including design, evaluation, certification and rule-making, training, maintenance, in-service experience and incident/ accident investigation.
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Make Plans to Attend the Virtual 21st Triennial Congress of the International Ergonomics Association!
IEA2021 features a technical program that comprises more than 250 sessions, workshops, panels, and renowned keynote speakers - among them is HFES President Peter Hancock speaking on Trust in Automation and Autonomy.
Learn about the latest advances in research and practice, enlarge your network, and be inspired. All registered delegates will have access to recorded sessions on an on-demand basis for 30 days from the start of the Congress, so no one will miss any presentation of interest. Plus, for four weeks following the congress, registrants will have free online access to the final published e-book Proceedings on the Springer web portal.
Members of IEA societies benefit from a reduced rate but register soon! Rates increase May 1. For more information and to register, click here.
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Ergonomics Foundation Completes Busy Year
While the world had to cope with a pandemic with lock-downs and only Zoom meetings, the US Foundation for Professional Ergonomics (FPE) made two awards and coordinated with other ergonomics-related organizations to translate a popular tool set into Spanish.
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Volunteer of the Month: Ranjana Mehta |
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Ranjana Mehta is an Associate Professor at Texas A&M University who has been an active member and contributor to HFES since 2004. She is a part of the Executive Council Member Chair, HFE WOMAN Affinity Group Member, HFES Representative and Liaisons Committee Member, HFES Industry Advisory Board Committee Member, Finance committee Past Chair, Occupational Ergonomics Technical Group Past Program Chair and Aging Technical Group.
Mehta's proudest contribution to HFES is the engagement activities HFE WOMAN Affinity Group has led in serving their members, particularly during the COVID19 pandemic. Given that the pandemic has significantly impacted women, esp. those with families, the HFE WOMAN group started hosting weekly coffee breaks (~30-40 meetings) since April 2020. The group has created a medium for their members to interact and discuss challenges and strategies to deal with the pandemic and its impact on their work.
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HFES Members in the News
HFES wants to promote the important achievements of our members in the bi-weekly Bulletin. Appropriate topics include research milestones or other significant achievements, professional accolades, awards or recognitions, promotions or new positions, and similar professionally-oriented topics. If you would like to share news with the HFES community, please fill out the form.
Additionally, if you are made aware of the passing of any members of HFES, please let us know. Contact HFES Executive Director Steven Kemp at skemp@hfes.org.
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Human Factors and Ergonomics Society | 2001 K Street NW, 3rd Floor North | Washington, DC 20006
Tel.: (202) 367-1114 , Monday - Friday: 9 AM - 5 PM ET | Fax: (202) 367-2114 | E: info@hfes.org
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