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Ergonomics Foundation Completes Busy Year

Posted April 01, 2021

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.

Student Award

In Germany at the Institute Human-Computer-Media, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Sara Wolf and Franzisca Maas, students at the Institute Human-Computer-Media, won the 2020 Dieter W. Jahns Student Practitioner Award. This is the third time that students from the Würzburg Institute won the award. The award was presented by their mentor, Professor Tobias Grundgeiger, at the Institute in Germany. The award included $1,000 (US) to Sara and Franzisca, and another $1,000 (US) to Dr. Grundgeiger’s discretionary fund. Sara and Franzisca completed their project in cooperation with the Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care, University Hospital of Würzburg. In their project, CASSANDRA: A Decision Support Tool for Clinical Assessment and Reasoning in a user-centered design process was used to (1) to understand the complex, safety-critical context of operating room (OR) crises based on User Experience (UX) theories, (2) to develop a decision support tool for diagnosis and treatment guided by UX theories, and (3) to evaluate the developed solution and the theoretical framing in a simulator-based study. Sara and Franzisca were the first to develop a decision support tool (DST) that takes into account the diagnostic process and the treatment during OR crises. Their design was based on an analysis of the greater context involving the physical and social environment as well as human beings’ constraints and givens (such as psychological needs or cognitive limitations). The evaluation indicated that the focus on the greater context through the lens of theories of embodied and needs-based UX could be valuable for DST acceptance and contextual fit (SEE Figure 1).

Students and professors, if you are interested in applying for the 2021 award, you have until 30 June 2021 to submit an application. As this is a practitioner award, the student (or students) should describe and document a research or intervention project that exhibits:

the major practice areas of Ergonomics: Analysis, Design, and Integration
direct, practical application
final design recommendations or a description of how the resulting information can be applied to design

Entries will be judged by the Board of Directors of the FPE. Go to https://www.ergofoundation.org for more details.

Practitioner Award

J. Brian Peacock is the recipient of the 2020 Ergonomics Practitioner of the Year Award. FPE initiated the annual award to recognize colleagues who have demonstrated outstanding contributions to the practice of ergonomics through their professional lifetime achievements and/or specific implementation projects. Previous winners include Andy Imada (US), Tony Andre (US), Tom Stewart (UK),, Peter Buckle (UK), Juraj Sinay (Slovak Republic), and Robert S. Bridger (UK). Brian has a background in ergonomics and industrial engineering which have provided a foundation for a long career in industry and academia, which included eighteen years in academia, fifteen years with General Motors' vehicle design and manufacturing organizations, and four years as discipline coordinating scientist for the National Space Biomedical Institute / NASA. He is a licensed professional engineer (PE), a licensed private pilot, a certified professional ergonomist (CPE), and a fellow of both the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors, and HFES. He has authored over 300 journal articles, reports, book chapters and presentations, including books on Statistical Distributions, Automotive Ergonomics and Ergonomics in Design. He retired as a professor in the Department of Safety Science at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, where he taught classes in system safety and applied ergonomics. He is currently a consultant in ergonomics and systems engineering and teaches classes at two Singapore universities.

Ambassadors at Work

Our International Ambassadors provide insight on Ergonomics in Europe. Go to the RESOURCES tab at https://www.ergofoundation.org to see what Ergonomics is like in Finland, Germany, Portugal, and the United Kingdom.

Ergonomic Tools Translations

FPE is coordinating with NIOSH, AIHA, and IEA to translate readily available ergonomic tools and techniques into multiple languages. When completed, the tool sets will be available on several websites – FPE, IEA, and AIHA. Spanish versions are expected by the summer of 2021. Work has already under way to get these tools translated into Mandarin. Another parallel effort will translate these tools into Arabic.