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Nathan Lau

Associate Professor

Nathan Lau

Nathan Lau
Nathan Lau
546 Whittemore Hall
(MC 0118)
1185 Perry Street
Blacksburg, VA 24061

Personal (Lab) website        ResearchGate        Google Scholar

Research Areas

Main Area:  Human Factors Engineering and Ergonomics

  • Cognitive engineering
  • Human performance
  • Interface design
  • Situation awareness
  • Ecological interface design
  • Cognitive work analysis

Dr. Lau's ongoing research projects include: (i) concept of operations and display design research in cyber-security for remotely piloted aircrafts operations center, (ii) hardware-and-human-in-the-loop research program for nuclear process control, (iii) efficiency investigation of the manufacturing and repairing processes of jet engine turbines, (iv) development of a driver distraction alert system using motion capture and sonification technology, and (v) usability and evaluation study for an artificial pancreas.

  • Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research (Human Factors), University of Toronto
  • B. Applied Science in Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto
  • Associate Professor, Grado Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering, Virginia Tech, 2020 - present
  • Associate Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, Virginia Tech, 2020 - present
  • Assistant Professor, Grado Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering, Virginia Tech, 2014 - 2020
  • Assistant Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, Virginia Tech, 2015 - 2020
  • Senior Scientist, University of Virginia, USA, 2012 - 2014
  • Post-doctoral Fellow, University of Toronto, Canada, 2011 - 2012
  • Human Factors Engineer, NuScale Power Inc., USA, 2010 - 2011
  • ISE 5604  Human Information Processing
  • ISE 4644 Occupational Safety and Hazard Control
  • Lau, N., Jamieson, G. A., & Skraaning Jr., G. (2014). Inter­rater reliability of query/probe-based techniques for measuring situation awareness. Ergonomics, 57(7), 959-972.
  • Lau, N., Jamieson, G. A. and Skraaning Jr, G. (2013). Distinguishing three accounts of situation awareness based on their domains of origin. Proc. of the 57th Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 220-224.
  • Lau, N. and Skraaning Jr, G. (2015). Exploring Sub-dimensions of Situation Awareness to Support Integrated System Validation. Proc. of the 9th American Nuclear Society International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control and Human-Machine Interface Technologies (NPIC&HMIT).
  • Demas, M., Lau, N., and Elks, C. (2015). Advancing Human Performance Assessment Capabilities for Integrated System Validation A Human-in-the-loop Experiment. Proc. of the 9th American Nuclear Society International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control and Human-Machine Interface Technologies (NPIC&HMIT).
  • Member, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
  • Reviewer of Association for Computing Machinery Computing Surveys
  • Reviewer of IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems
  • Reviewer for Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
  • Reviewer of conference papers for the Annual Meetings of Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
  • Session Chair for the 8th  International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control and Human Machine Interface Technologies
  • Reviewer of conference papers for the International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control and Human Machine Interface Technologies
  • Student Ambassador, University of Toronto
  • Human Systems Track Co-­‐chair for the 4th International Symposium on Resilient Control Systems
  • Judge for the Student Paper Awards of the Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making Technical Group, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
  • International Student Centre Volunteer, University of Toronto
  • Session Co-­‐chair for the Annual Meetings of Human Factors and Ergonomics Society