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

Core ISE Courses (Required)

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

Concentration Courses (Required)

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

Preapproved Electives

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