Human Factors [ Best (funded) Programs ]
 

Are there any funded programs in human factors, engineering psychology, or other related field of this particular nature? If so, which are the best? If no, what are the best doctorate level programs? By "best" I am referring to an overall level of opportunity provided by the program to students for research. I know this is a subjective question but it's fairly easy to figure out what the "good" schools are. Thanks!!

University of Cincinnati has a great Human Factors program. Kevin Shockley and Michael A. Riley are two of the main faculty in that program. The program is technically experimental psych phd (and they have a clinical phd that you can do human factors with as well)

J

Central Michigan has a PhD in Experimental Psychology, with a human factors concentration. Look up Richard Backs, his research is on attention and performance and uses a driving simulator. If you apply to the MS program, you will get partially funded. With the PhD program, I think you're fully funded.

University of Central Florida also has a good human factors psychology program that is fully funded.

Miami U in Ohio has some human factors people within the Brain and Cognitive science PhD program.

Human factors/Applied experimental/Engineering psychology always looked like an interesting but obscure field to me. What exactly are you doing as a human factors/engineering psych specialist? What is your role? Designing experiments to test the useability of electronic devices, products, computers, machinery and stuff? What are the job prospects? Average income? I always liked experimental/cognitive/physiological psych and (i imagine) it would be interesting to apply some of the models to real-life situations. Well i guess its too late since i'm in clinical now ( sometimes i regret it though). :laugh: It looks like the exact opposite of clinical psychology, working with human-machine interaction/interface instead of emotional and personality disorders (well not everything in clinical psych is like that e.g. neuropsych, health psych etc. but the majority is)

Human factors is used in aviation a lot, too.

You are right, thats what i've heard as well. Radars, cockpit design etc. If you think of it, Richard Gregory and James Gibson- both pioneers of experimental/perceptual psychology- used to work in aviation/Air force.

I'd look into I/O programs first, that seems to be (by far) where most of the human factors research I've seen is occurring. I know you asked for the "best" programs but you're likely to have to come to terms with the fact that clear rankings don't really exist at that level of specificity. You just need to find good mentors.

That said, I'll second the recommendation of the group at UC. Attended a week-long workshop with them over the summer - awesome research and they seemed like really great people.

Was this the nonlinear dynamics training? I am going to that this summer. Shockley is my old prof, great guy. They have recruited a lot of awesome new faculty too, and have some large NSF grants for their work.

To answer what is human factors... well here is the Cognition, Action and Perception website from UC, check out each of these faculties work
http://www.uc.edu/cap/
and the experimental program
http://www.artsci.uc.edu/collegedept...erimental.aspx

I actually hope to work with some of these guys in the future.

Indeed it was, though unfortunately I was not in the best position to take advantage of it since the dataset I had brought was determined to be inappropriate for that type of analysis and I was so swamped with other stuff I was distracted the whole time.

Despite that, it was still a great experience and I'm going to be applying some of the stuff we did to data from a few studies that are just finishing up now. I highly recommend the training - I just hope I absorbed enough that I can figure it out on my own and won't have forgotten it all once the time comes to actually apply it!

I actually just emailed Kevin about my data set for the very reason you are mentioning. I dont want to go if I cannot take something away from it.
But I am almost 100% sure my data set is suitable, considering one lab is using graph theory to analyze the same type of data.

Ollie, our mutual friend seems to think we would not get along since we are so different, but we seem to have a ton in common! Academically at least.

ps did you stay in a hotel while in the cinci-nasty?

Check out Wright State. Right next to a very heavy research air force base.

And the med school is the only med school in the nation teaching/doing research on aerospace medicine.

University of North Dakota doesn't have a human factors program, but they are cutting edge in UAS research right now and the psych department is often involved in aviation/UAS research.

That's interesting. Although I would like to add the point that human factors is not restricted to aviation or even military related work. Not saying that this was your point, but I would hate for someone reading this to get that impression.

Yes, sounds like a useful collaboration in many ways. ;) :)

I've heard through the grapevine--don't know how reliable--that Rice--has a very sold human factors/human computer interaction PhD program.

I have a friend at Clemson who is happy with their program - http://www.clemson.edu/psych/grad/phd-hf/

Clemson has a strong program which appears to be focused on vehicle simulation which is a good match for those wanting to go in the aviation industry. Interestingly, I have come across recommendations (by professors) insisting on obtaining a masters degree in HF (general) if one's goals are not specific to an concentrated industry. The reasoning is two fold: 1) marketability: having a PhD for a well paying entry position in HF requiring a MA is seemed as overqualified. 2) job prospects: a general MA HF degree allows you to enter seemingly endless industries. Since the content is industry specific, employers mainly seek candidates who have the knowledge to apply to the industry's content. The thoughts and views of the members here are appreciated and respected. Thanks for contributing!

I may be posting info that you have already found or seen before, but the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society has a listing of grad school programs in the field. http://www.hfes.org/web/Students/grad_programs.html

University of Alabama in Huntsville has Master's program in Experimental and used to have a human factors lab. A friend of mine is now working at Redstone Arsenal doing human factors research with aviation. However, its just a master's program :(

has anyone heard of Cornell's human factor program?
 

I am considering Cornell's Human Behaviors and Design PhD.Does anyone know much about it? I want to apply for PhD in Human Factors,could someone recommend some programs?Thanks!

A friend of mine got his Ph.D. in Human Factors from George Mason, and was pretty happy with the program.

Really curious... can anyone say more about the reality of working in this field today, in industry? Do human factors specialists realistically have the opportunity to contribute to more inductive, design-phase work, or are they more likely to test prototypes/outcomes and do risk assessments, leaving engineers and designers to the rest (especially outside of aviation/transport/automotive sectors)?

Do you imagine someone basically driven to 'help people', but inclined to problem-solving, might enjoy HF? Am thinking of applications in industrial design, medical devices, that kind of thing...

I'm a 'non-trad' exploring options, please be kind... Am reevaluating things in light of some recently found notes around aptitude tests I took ten years ago... scored only in the 75th percentile for math, but in the 90th for physics (surprising, since I quit sciences in the 11th grade), and 98th for 'performance' and verbal. (Not trying to brag - assume most here would do at least as well, and I'm an underachiever in life, probably also at the 90th-ish percentile. There's also the non-trivial matter of my life on paper to date, but that's another story.) Re HCI - have got no programming experience at all, but have kind of enjoyed the basic html & database design I've done in previous (office) work. Workplace ergonomics seems both fuzzy/boring (if it effectively means ordering hand-rests for people).

Had a massive boner for cog/sci via philosophy of mind in my undergrad, but haven't followed it since; have a layperson's interest in cognition as approached by psychological science. (If work in neuropsychology could be had after an MA, I'd be on that... I know there's OT, but it also seems fuzzy and a bit boring.)

Thoughts on any of the above would be greatly appreciated.

Dr. Gerry Matthews at U Cincinnati is also very well known and respected in the field. His work involves stress and workload on cognition in human performance - some of his studies have included some military (aviation) work as well as driving simulators and decision-making tasks. Very brilliant man.

I took two courses on Human Factors in Texas Tech University and working with Dr. Jones and Dr. DeLucia was extremely enlightening. I got interested in the engineering aspect but I was too much of a chicken to get a minor in Industrial Engineering in order to apply to their master's program.

Edit: Dr. Jones had research with the army on night vision goggles, and Dr. DeLucia on perception and movement, she has worked with engineering students on research in car accident reconstructions and the likes :)