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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