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Ph.D. in Human Factors of Systems and Product Design

Human factors engineering plays a central role in the design and operation of many systems which involve humans as consumers, operators, controllers, passengers, and/or monitors. Inadequate or even suboptimal design can lead to market failure, product recall, system ineffectiveness and errors, rapid obsolescence, safety issues and hazards, and lack of viability as a consumer product or other human interface. To perform design, development, and evaluation of these systems, the ergonomist must gain proficiency in human visual and auditory processing and display design, cognitive ergonomics, usability testing, empirical methods, ethics and legal issues, and intellectual property development and protection. In this concentration, a two-pronged coursework path is designed to instill skill and knowledge in both: a) empirical research supported by human subject experimentation, and b) analytical, modeling, and physical measurement methodologies.

Coursework Requirements

Number Title Credits

ISE 5024

ISE Seminar

0

ISE 5104 or      
ISE 5814

Operations Research or
System Dynamics Modeling of Socio-Technical Systems  

3

ISE 5624

Human Factors Research Design I

4

 

Number Title Credits

ISE 5604

Human Information Processing

3

ISE 5654

Human Factors System Design

3

ISE 5644

Human Audition and Auditory Display Design

3

ISE 5714

Usability Engineering

3

ISE 6604

Human factors in Visual Display Design

3

ISE 6624

Special topics: Forensics, Litigation, and Intellectual Property for HFE

3

Number Title Credits

ISE 6614

Human Computer Systems

3

ISE 5614

Human Physical Capabilities

3

ISE 4624

Work Physiology

3

ISE 5634

Training Systems

3

ISE 5694

Macroergonomics

3

ISE 6624

Advanced Topics in Human Factors & Ergonomics

3

ISE 6984

Cognitive Task and Work Analysis

3

CS 5754

Virtual Environments

3

STAT 5644

Nonparametrics

3

STAT 4504

Applied Multivariate Statistics

3

PSYC 5134

Advanced Psychometric Theory

3

ISE 5674 or
ISE 4644

System Safety Analysis or
Occupational Safety and Hazard Control

3

PSYC 4074 or
PSYC 5144

Sensation and Perception or
Sensory Processes

3

CS = Computer Science; PSYC = Psychology; STAT = Statistics

Supporting Faculty Members