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Virginia Cognitive System Engineering (VACSE)

VACSE

Virginia Cognitive System Engineering (VACSE) is a Human Factors group that conducts research on cognitive work and technology design for complex systems VACSE is located in the Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering Department at Virginia Tech. Comments and inquiries can be emailed to Dr. Nathan Lau, the founder of VACSE.

News

Carilion Clinic

VACSE undergraduate researchers showcased the work of our intelligent virtual coach for laparoscopy  training at the Center for Simulation Research and Patient Safety. (February, 2020)

Design of Complex Systems

Nathan gave a workshop on ecological interface design for complex systems at the first 2020 event of the User Experience Professional Association (UXPA) - Norfolk. (February, 2020)

Applied Ergonomics

With the Data Science and Visualization Laboratory at Virginia Tech, we published a new article on cognitive hacking in manufacturing inspection in Applied Ergonomics! (February, 2020)

HFES Annual Meeting

Tianzi presented her research on integrating episodic future thinking and virtual reality for developing tele-therapy for substance users at the  2019 HFES Annual Meeting. (October, 2019)

Idaho National Laboratory

VACSE received funding support from the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to investigate how human factors can contribute to cyber risk assessment methods. Thanks for INL. (October, 2019)

VACSE

Katherine Herdt (MS Student), Chaitanya Kulkarni (MS Student) and Gram Hsing (PhD Student) are joining VACSE for their graduate studies. Welcome! (August, 2019)

Journal of Surgical Education

In collaboration with VTC and George Washington University, we published a journal article on the role of confidence in the resident-attending relationship in the Journal of Surgical Education. (July, 2019)

Surgical Endoscopy

In collaboration with VTCRI and George Washington University, we published a journal article on automating gaze-based dynamic areas of interest for skill assessment in Surgical Endoscopy. (June, 2019)

Research

Human factors in cybersecurity risk assessment for SCADA

Idaho National Laboratory has collaborated with VASCE to complete an extensive literature review on risk assessment methods for SCADA cybersecurity. This project aims to produce a thorough review of the literature on risk assessment methods for SCADA cybersecurity, particularly in highlighting valuable risk metrics as well as clearly strengths and limitations of each method. Industry and government entities are striving to understand how to model dynamics of cyber-physical systems comprehensively, make assessment methods scalable and pragmatic for organizations to use iteratively and preemptively. The goal of this literature review is to inform what levels of granularity are necessary for adequate protection. Our work emphasizes the research gaps in integrating human factors into cybersecurity risk assessment methods and recommending meaningful methodological research directions.

Sponsor: Idaho National Laboratory
Principal Investigator: Dr. Nathan Lau
VACSE member(s): Katherine Herdt
Project start date: Aug 2019

Balancing collaboration and autonomy for multi-robot multi-human search and rescue

This project aims to study human-robot interaction and user interface design for extending the capabilities of search and rescue (SAR) workers. VACSE is collaborating with Dr. Williams of ECE, Dr. Abaid of BEAM, and Dr. McClure of ARC at Virginia Tech to enable unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to search for lost person autonomously and collaborate with SAR workers on search mission. We are designing novel planning and exploration-exploitation algorithms that integrate human inputs for tasking SAR teams and optimizing their search paths. Further, we will be testing our innovative engineering solutions with professional SAR workers in full-scale mock searches with the support of the Black Diamond Search and Rescue Council. This research hopes to extend the autonomous capability and human-interactivity of UAVs for reducing search time of a lost person.

Sponsor: National Science Foundation - National Robotics Initiative 2.0
Principal Investigator: Dr. Ryan Williams
Co-Principal Investigator(s): Drs. Nicole Abaid, Nathan Lau, & James McClure
Industrial Partner(s): Black Diamond Search & Rescue Council; Robert J. Koester 
VACSE member(s): Tianzi Wang & Subhash Holla
Project start date: Sep 2018

Whole-body Exoskeletons for Advanced Vocational Enhancement (WEAVE)

This project aims to study natural user interface with powered, full-body exoskeletons for commercial industries (e.g., manufacturing and construction) and the impact of such technology on future workforce development. VACSE is collaborating with Drs. Nussbaum and Srinivasan of ISE, Dr Leonessa of ME, and Dr. Ge of Economics at Virginia Tech to develop control algorithms adaptive to individual differences of the users and unique characteristics of the situation for operating exoskeletons. Sarcos is our industrial partner providing and refining their powered exoskeletons for testing in support of our research. This research hopes to shed light on how to augment human physical capacity, thereby increasing productivity and lowering injury risks while preserving human skill for operating in dynamic, unstructured environments.

Sponsor: National Science Foundation - Human-Technology Frontier
Principal Investigator: Dr. Divya Srinivasan
Co-Principal Investigator(s): Drs. Maury Nussbaum, Nathan Lau, Alexander Leonessa, & Suqin Ge
Industrial Partner(s): Sarcos
VACSE member(s): Wenyan Huang & Hsiang-Wen (Gram) Hsing
Project start date: Sep 2018

Examining senior drivers adaptation to mixed-level automated vehicles: A naturalistic approach

This project aims to study the impact of common in-vehicle technology (e.g., blind spot alert) on driving behaviors of elders (aged higher than 65 years old). VACSE is collaborating with Dr. Antin of Virginia Tech Transportation Institute to investigate the attitudes and behaviors of seniors when driving vehicles on real roads while using common automated features including blind sport alert, lane assist, lane keep alert, and adaptive cruise control. We are taking a naturalistic approach in collecting our data from seniors driving in their daily lives. This research hopes to shed light on whether seniors can take advantage of various common automated features to promote their safety on the road.

Sponsor: Safe-D, National University Transportation Center
Principal Investigator: Dr. Jon Antin
Co-Principal Investigator(s): Dr. Nathan Lau
VACSE member(s): Dan Liang
Project start date: Jan 2018

Distributed situation awareness in patient flow management

This project aims to study situation awareness in patient flow management. VACSE is collaborating with Carilion Clinic to model how situation awareness is distributed amongst workers in transitioning patients through various stages of their medical care from admission to discharge at the Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital. We are adopting the distributing situation awareness framework for modeling how information is acquired, processed and transacted across stakeholders in the hospitals. This research hopes to innovate principles for designing a command and control center in optimizing patient flow, thereby improving efficiencies in healthcare delivery.

Sponsor: N/A 
Principal Investigator(s): Dr. Nathan Lau
Industrial partner(s): Carilion Clinic
VACSE member(s): Abdulrahman Alhaider
Project start date: Jan 2018

Mitigating substance abuse through episodic future thinking in virtual reality

This project aims to study the application of virtual reality (VR) for mitigating substance abuse. VACSE is collaborating with the Addiction Recovery Research Center led by Dr. Bickel of Virginia Tech to create virtual experience that could promote episodic future thinking, which is known to reduce craving of substances such alcohol and cigarettes. This research hopes to pave the foundation for VR tele-therapy in mitigating the addiction crisis in N. America.

Sponsor: N/A 
Principal Investigator(s): Dr. Nathan Lau & Warren Bickel
VACSE member(s): Tianzi Wang
Project start date: May 2017

SMART-COM – Scalable Multi-Agent Adaptive Resolution Tools for Collaborative Outage Management

This project aims to study the integration of visualization, scheduling and natural language processing for enhancing outage management in nuclear power plants. VACSE is collaborating with Vanderbilt University Medical Center to develop Scalable Multi-agent Adaptive Resolution Tools for Collaborative Outage Management (SMART-COM) that could help outage staff in estimating risks of schedule overruns and re-allocating resources as unplanned work arises. This research hopes to contribute to scientific knowledge and engineering methods in visualization, data analytics, dynamic resource allocation, and adaptive scheduling.

Sponsor: Department of Energy: Nuclear Energy University Program
Principal Investigator: Dr. Nathan Lau
Co-Principal Investigator(s): Drs. Subhash Sarin, Matt Weinger, Shilo Anders, Glenn Gobbel & Ruth Reeves
VACSE member(s): Anirudh More & Hao Wang
Project start date: Oct 2017

Situational awareness using remote eye-tracking in healthcare

This project aims to study Situational Awareness (SA) and self-assessment of medical professionals in laparoscopic surgery. VACSE is collaborating with Carilion Medical Center and Georgetown University to examine differences in SA and self-assessed confidence among attending general surgeons and resident general surgeons. Further, we are testing whether eye-tracking is indicative of SA and self-assessed confidence. This research hopes to shed light on how to develop medical training programs for medical students.

Sponsor: Carilion Clinic; Association for Surgical Education
Principal Investigator: Dr. Shawn Stafford; Dr. Nathan Lau
Co-Principal Investigators: Drs. Shimae Fitzgibbons, Nathan Lau & Sarah Parker
VACSE member(s): Siddarth Ponnala, Erich Fichtel & Subhash Holla
Project start date: Jan 2016

Impacts of visual priming on inspection performance

This project investigated the impact of visual priming on inspection performance and the physiological measurements revealing such priming attacks. We conducted an experiment with human participants carrying out inspection of physical dimensions and surface roughness while being instrumented with eye-tracking and EEG devices. The results show that the presence of primes impacted accuracy on surface roughness, cortical activities at parietal lobe P4, and eye gaze for inspecting components. The experiment provides supporting evidence that basic hacking of a worker display can be an effective method to alter decision making in inspection. The findings also illustrate that cortical activities and eye gaze can be useful indicators of cognitive hacking.

Sponsors: N/A
Principal Investigator: Dr. Nathan Lau & Dr. Ran Jin
VACSE Member(s): Wenyan Huang
Project Period: May 2015 - Dec 2019

Modeling human performance of operators in digital control rooms

This project built up the applied research capacity at the Center for Advanced Engineering and Research (CAER) for studying control room operations and technology pertinent to many safety-critical systems. VACSE assembled, integrated and tested a set of human performance measurement methods to support full-scope simulator research in the reconfigurable digital control room facility at CAER..

Sponsor: Center for Advanced Engineering and Research (CAER)
Principal investigator: Dr. Carl Elks
VACSE member(s): Dr. Nathan Lau
Project start date: Aug 2012 - Dec 2019

Sleep disorders and driving safety

This project investigated the association between driving safety and seven sleep disorders amongst 3541 participants of the Second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) naturalistic driving study. The analysis results contribute to the empirical basis for medical professionals, policy makers, and employers in making decisions to aid individuals with sleep disorders in balancing safety and personal mobility.

Sponsors: Virginia Tech Transportation Institute
Principal Investigator: Dr. Nathan Lau
Co-Principal Investigator: Dr. Miguel Perez
VACSE Members: Shuyuan Liu
Project Period: Sep 2016 - Sep 2017

A System-task analytical framework to designing control operator workspace

This project developed a framework to determine the number of computer monitors appropriate for individual control room operator consoles. The number of monitors for a particular console depends on a number of factors including system complexity, routine task characteristics, legacy displays, and teamwork requirements. The system-task analytical framework is a set of relevant analysis methods in the literature adapted specifically to determine the appropriate number of monitors for different control rooms and systems.

Sponsor: Center for Operator Performance (COP)
Principal Investigator: Dr. Nathan Lau
VACSE Member: David Powers
Industrial Partner: Georgia Pacific, Big Island, VA
Project Period: Sep 2015 - Dec 2016

Development of a comprehensive artificial pancreas training curriculum for adults: eDAPT

This project developed and assessed eDAPT - an interactive, multimedia training program on the artificial pancreas for adults with type I diabetes. VACSE supported the Center for Diabetes Technology at the University of Virginia to create a series of multimedia instructional and knowledge assessment modules for the artificial pancreas. eDAPT aims to help train medical professionals and patients in using the artificial pancreas that are being tested in clinical trials all around the US.

Sponsor: LaunchPad Fund, Univeristy of Virginia
Principal Investigator: Dr. Sue Brown and Molly McElwee
VACSE Member: Dr. Nathan Lau
Project Period: Oct 2014 - May 2015

System aware cyber security: Human factors in remotely piloted aircraft operations centers

This project examined concept of operations (CONOPS) alternatives that included cyber security functions in remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) operations centers. VACSE collaborated with MITRE Corportion on this project. We were establishing prototype testing facilities for evaluating the CONOPS alternatives.

Sponsors: Department of Defense
Principal Investigator: Dr. Barry Horowitz
VACSE Member: Dr. Nathan Lau
Industrial Partner: MITRE Corporation
Project Period: Aug 2012 - Aug 2014

Optimizing closed-loop control of type 1 diabetes mellitus in adolescents

This project customized the artificial pancreas (AP) being developed at the University of Virginia for diabetes control amongst adolescents. VACSE help evaluated the interface design of the mobile device and computer desktop application that informed future AP development for supporting adolescents and their parents in managing type 1 diabetes.

Sponsors: LaunchPad Fund, Univeristy of Virginia
Principal Investigator: Dr. Daniel R. Chernavvsky and Dr. Mark D. DeBoer
VACSE Member(s): Dr. Nathan Lau
Project Period: Jun 2013 - May 2014

Blade wall thickness measurement and process improvement

This project studied operator decision-making in repairing aircraft turbine blades for improving process efficiencies. VACSE performed observation on and interviews with machine operators, specifically to identify any physical measurements on the blades that may be helpful to operators in their repairs.

Sponsors: Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing (CCAM)
Principal Investigator: Dr. Sean Agnew
VACSE Member(s): Dr. Nathan Lau
Project Period: Aug 2012 - Mar 2014

Understanding and supporting safe driving of Attentional Deficit Hyperactivity Discorder (ADHD) teenagers with auditory feedback

This project developed an auditory aid to alert drivers of their own distraction that could reduce safety risk of teenage drivers with ADHD. As opposed to eye-tracking devices, VACSE employed inexpensive, commercially available motion capture technology to measure distraction. We sonified the levels and types of distraction to provide continuous feedback to the driver.

Sponsors: Youth-Nex, Curry School of Education, Univeristy of Virginia
Principal Investigator: Dr. Nathan Lau
Co-Principal Investigator: Dr. Daniel Cox
VACSE Member(s): Ishaan Chaudhary, Alex Mulchandani, Harvey Ngo, Henry Steuer, and Zijun Zhou
Project Period: Sep 2012 - Dec 2013

Publications

  1. Liang, D., Lau, N., Baker, S., & Antin, J. (accepted). Examining senior drivers’ attitudes towards advanced driver assistance systems after naturalistic exposure. Innovation in Aging.

  2. Huang, W., Chen, X., Jin, R., & Lau, N. (in press). Detecting cognitive hacking in visual inspection with physiological measurements. Applied Ergonomics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2019.103022

  3. Zhang, X., Mahadevan, M., Lau, N., & Weinger, M. B. (in press). Multi-source information fusion to assess control room operator performanceJournal Reliability Engineering and System Safety. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ress.2018.10.012

  4. Alhaider, A., Lau, N., Davenport, P.B., & Morris, M.K. (2020). Distributed situation awareness: A health-system approach to assessing and designing patient flow management. Ergonomics, 63(6), 682-709. https://doi.org/10.1080/00140139.2020.1755061

  5. Park, J., Ponnala, S., Fichtel, E., Tehranchi, K., Fitzgibbons, S.C., Parker, S.H., Lau, N., & Safford, S. (2019). Improving the intra-operative educational experience: Understanding the role of confidence in the resident-attending relationshipJournal of Surgical Education, 76(5), 1187-1199. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsurg.2019.02.012

  6. Fichtel, E., Lau, N., Park, J., Henrickson Parker, S., Ponnala, S., Fitzgibbons, S., & Safford, S. D. (2019). Eye tracking in surgical education: gaze-based dynamic area of interest can discriminate adverse events and expertiseSurgical Endoscopy, 33(7), 2249-2256. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00464-018-6513-5

  7. Xu, J., Anders, S., Pruttianan, A., France, D., Lau, N., Adams, J. A., and Weinger, M.B. (2018). Human performance measures for the evaluation of process control human-system interfaces in high-fidelity simulations. Applied Ergonomics, 73, 151-165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2018.06.008

  8. Wang, H., Lau, N., & Gerdes, R. (2018) Examining cybersecurity of critical infrastructures through work domain analysisHuman Factors, 60(5), 699-718. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018720818769250

  9. Liu, S., Lau, N., Perez, M. (2018). The impact of sleep disorders on driving safety – Findings from the SHRP2 naturalistic driving study. Sleep, 41(4), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsy023

  10. Lau, N., Jamieson, G. A., & Skraaning Jr., G. (2016). Situation awareness acquired from monitoring process plants – The Process Overview concept and measure.  Ergonomics, 59(7), 976-988. https://doi.org/10.1080/00140139.2015.1100329

  11. Lau, N., Jamieson, G. A., & Skraaning Jr., G. (2016). Empirical evaluation of the Process Overview Measure for assessing situation awareness in process plants. Ergonomics, 59(3), 393-408. https://doi.org/10.1080/00140139.2015.1080310

  12. Lau, N., Jamieson, G. A., & Skraaning Jr., G. (2014). Inter-rater reliability of query/probe-based techniques for measuring situation awarenessErgonomics, 57(7), 959-972. https://doi.org/10.1080/00140139.2014.910612

  13. Lau, N., Veland, Ø., Kwok, J., Jamieson, G. A., Burns, C. M., Braseth, A. O., & Welch, R. (2008). Ecological Interface Design in the nuclear domain: An application to the secondary subsystems of a boiling water reactor plant simulator. IEEE Trans. Nuclear Science, 55, 3579-3596. 10.1109/TNS.2008.2005979

  14. Lau, N., Jamieson, G. A., Skraaning Jr., G., & Burns, C. M. (2008). Ecological Interface Design in the nuclear domain: An empirical evaluation of ecological displays for the secondary subsystems of a boiling water reactor plant simulator. IEEE Trans. Nuclear Science, 55, 3597-3610. 10.1109/TNS.2008.2005725

  15. Burns, C. M., Skraaning Jr., G., Jamieson, G. A., Lau, N., Kwok, J., Welch, R., & Andresen, G. (2008). Evaluation of Ecological Interface Design for nuclear process control: situation awareness effectsHuman Factors, 50, 663-679. https://doi.org/10.1518/001872008X312305
  1. Williams, R., Abaid, N., McClure, J., Lau, N., Heintzman, L., Hashimoto, A., Wang, T. Patnayak, C., and Kumar, A. (accepted). Collaborative multi-robot multi-human teams in search and rescue. The 17th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, May 24-17, 2020. The Inn at Virginia Tech and Skelton Conference Center, Blacksburg, VA, USA.

  2. Kulkarni, C., Hsing, HW., Kandil, D., Kommaraju, S., Lau, N., & Srinivasan, D. (accepted). Designing an augmented reality based interface for wearable exoskeletons. Proc. the 2020 Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

  3. Wang, T., Mellis, A.M., Bickel, W.K., & Lau, N. (2019). Integrating episodic future thinking into virtual reality to mitigate substance use disorders. Proc. the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 2282-2286. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1071181319631026

  4. Lau, N., Hildebrandt, M., Althoff, T., Boyle, L. N., Iqbal, S.T., Lee, J. D., Mehta, R. K, & Poore, J.C. (2019). Human in focus: Future research and applications of ubiquitous user monitoring. Panel session to be presented at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (pp. 168-172), October 28 -November 1, 2019. Sheraton Grand Seattle, WA, USA. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1071181319631317

  5. Huang, W., Xu, Y., Hildebrandt, M., & Lau, N. (2019). Comparing Eye-Gaze Metrics of Mental Workload in Monitoring Process Plants. In D. Harris (Ed.), Engineering Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics. HCII 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 11571, (pp. 55-65). Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22507-0_5

  6. Lau, N., Wang, H. St. Germain, S., Harvey, A. S. Weinger, M. B., & Anders, S.  (2019). Interactive visualization for advanced outage control center: A literature review. Proc. of the 11th American Nuclear Society International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control and Human-Machine Interface Technologies (NPIC&HMIT 2019), 664-673.

  7. Cochran, J., Lau, N., & Sarin, R. (2019). Scheduling of nuclear power plant outages and work during an outage - A review. Proc. of the 11th American Nuclear Society International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control and Human-Machine Interface Technologies (NPIC&HMIT 2019), 1672-1690.

  8. Gobbel, G.T., Reeves, R.M., St. Germain, S., Pierson, M., and Lau, N. (2019). Natural language processing for information retrieval to assist nuclear power plant outages. Proc. of the 11th American Nuclear Society International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control and Human-Machine Interface Technologies (NPIC&HMIT), 1558-1567.

  9. Lau, N., Pastel, R., Chapman, M. R., Minarik, J., Petit, J., and Dale, D. (2018). Human factors in cybersecurity – Perspectives from industries. Panel session presented at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (pp. 139-143), October 1-5, 2018. Philadelphia Marriot Hotel, Philadelphia, PA, USA. https://doi.org/10.1177/1541931218621032

  10. Lau, N., Boyle, L., Fridman, L., Borghetti, B. J., Barnes, L., Lee, J. D., & Hildebrandt, M. (2018). Machine learning and human factors: status, applications, and future directionsPanel session presented at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (pp. 135-138), October 1-5, 2018. Philadelphia Marriot Hotel, Philadelphia, PA, USA. https://doi.org/10.1177/1541931218621031

  11. Kennedy, L., Lau, N., Pappada, S., & Parker, S. H. (2018). Selecting, evaluating, and translating psychophysiological measures into clinical settings: From lab to practiceProceedings of the International Symposium on Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health Care, 7(1), 232-236. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F2327857918071054

  12. Alhaider, A., Lau, N., Tuck., C. R., Morris, M. K., & Davenport, P. B. (2018). Distributed Situation Awareness in Patient Flow Management. Proc. the 2018 Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 563-567. https://doi.org/10.1177/1541931218621129 

  13. Wang, H., Lau, N., & Gerdes, R. (2017). Application of Work Domain Analysis for Cybersecurity. In T. Tryfonas (Ed.), Human Aspects of Information Security, Privacy and Trust: 5th International Conference, HAS 2017, held as Part of HCI International 2017, Vancouver, BC, Canada, July 9-14, 2017, Proceedings (pp.384-395). Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58460-7_27

  14. Pruttianan, A., Lau, N., Weinger, W.B., & Anders, S. (2017). An ontology to guide scenario design to evaluate new technologies for control room modernization. Proc. of the 10th American Nuclear Society International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control and Human-Machine Interface Technologies (NPIC&HMIT), 206-214.

  15. Xu, J., Anders, S., Pruttianan, A., France, D. J., Lau, N., Adams, J. A., & Weinger, M. B. (2017). Human performance measures for the evaluation of nuclear power plant control room interfaces: a systematic review. Proc. of the 10th American Nuclear Society International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control and Human-Machine Interface Technologies (NPIC&HMIT), 1212-1225.

  16. Lau, N., & Powers, D. (2016). System-task analytical framework for monitor assessment. 2016 Resilience Week (RWS), 184-189. https://doi.org/10.1109/RWEEK.2016.7573330

  17. Boring, R., & Lau, N. (2017). Measurement sufficiency versus completeness: Integrating safety cases into verification and validation in nuclear control room modernization. In M. S. Cetiner, P. Fechtelkotter, & M. Legatt (Eds.), Advances in Human Factors in Energy: Oil, Gas, Nuclear and Electric Power Industries: Proceedings of the AHFE 2016 International Conference on Human Factors in Energy: Oil, Gas, Nuclear and Electric Power Industries, July 27-31, 2016, Walt Disney World®, Florida, USA, 79-90. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41950-3_7

  18. Lew, R., Lau, N., Boring, R. L., & Anderson, J. (2016). The Role of HCI in cross-sector research on grand challenges. In F.-H. F. Nah & C.-H. Tan (Eds.), HCI in Business, Government, and Organizations: eCommerce and Innovation: Third International Conference, HCIBGO 2016, held as Part of HCI International 2016, Toronto, Canada, July 17-22, 2016, Proceedings, Part I, 519-530. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39396-4_48

  19. Lau, N. & 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), 1071-1081.

  20. Demas, M., Lau, N., & 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), 1051-1064.

  21. Bailey R., Elks, C. & Lau, N. (2015). Progress and lessons learned in establishing the integrated control room and operator performance laboratory (INCONTROL) for Digital Instrumentation and Control and Human Factors Research in Nuclear Power. Proc. of the 9th American Nuclear Society International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control and Human-Machine Interface Technologies (NPIC&HMIT), 2109-2120.

  22. Lau, N., Jamieson, G. A. & Skraaning Jr, G. (2013). Distinguishing three accounts of situation awareness based on their domains of originProc. the 57th Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 220-224. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1541931213571049

  23. Gallahan, S.L., Golzar, G.F., Jain, A. P., Samay, A.E., Trerotola T.J., Weisskopf, J. G. & Lau, N. (2013). Detecting and Mitigating Driver Distraction with Motion Capture Technology: Distracted Driving Warning SystemProc. of the 2013 IEEE Systems and Information Engineering and Design Symposium, 76-81. https://doi.org/10.1109/SIEDS.2013.6549497

  24. Lau, N., Jamieson, G. A. & Skraaning Jr, G. (2012). Inter-rater reliability of expert-based performance measurements. Proc. of the 8th American Nuclear Society International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control and Human-Machine Interface Technologies (NPIC&HMIT), 1974-1982.

  25. Lau, N., Jamieson, G. A. & Skraaning Jr, G. (2012). Situation awareness in process control: A fresh look. Proc. of the 8th American Nuclear Society International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control and Human-Machine Interface Technologies (NPIC&HMIT), 1511-1523.

  26. Elks, C., Guerlain, S., Lau, N., Johnson, B., Bailey, B. MacBeth, A., Boire, R., & Zakaib, G. (2012). A reconfigurable control room simulation facility for human performance, human-machine interface research. Proc. of the 8th American Nuclear Society International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control and Human-Machine Interface Technologies (NPIC&HMIT), 934-938.

  27. Skraaning Jr, G., Eitrheim, M. H. R. & Lau, N. (2010). Coping with automation in future plants. Proc. of the 7th American Nuclear Society International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control and Human-Machine Interface Technologies (NPIC&HMIT) [CD-ROM, no pagination].

  28. Bolstad, C., Connors, E., Cuevas, H., Foltz, P., Gonzalez, C., Lau, N., & Warwick, W. J. (2010). Advances in modeling situation awareness, decision making, and performance in complex operational environments. Proc. of the 54th Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 1047-1051. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F154193121005401310

  29. Jamieson, G. A. & Lau, N. (2010). Scaling up Ecological Interface Design: Tackling large work Domains with international project teams. Proc. of the 12th Large Scale Systems: Theory and Applications Symposium of International Federation of Automatic Control [CD-ROM, no pagination].

  30. Lau, N., Skraaning Jr., G., & Jamieson, G. A. (2009). Metacognition in nuclear process control. Proc. of the 17th Triennial World Congress on Ergonomics [CD-ROM, no pagination].

  31. Lau, N., Skraaning Jr., G., Jamieson, G. A., & Burns, C. M (2008). Enhancing operator task performance during monitoring for unanticipated events through Ecological Interface DesignProc. of the 52nd Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 448-452. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F154193120805200452

  32. Lau, N., Jamieson, G. A., Skraaning Jr., G., & Burns, C. M (2008). Providing operator support during monitoring of unanticipated events through Ecological Interface Design. Proc. of the 29th Annual Canadian Nuclear Society Conference [On-line, no pagination].

  33. Burns, C. M., Jamieson, G. A., Skraaning Jr., G., Lau, N., & Kwok, J. (2007). Supporting situation awareness through ecological interface designProc. of the 51st Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 205-209. https://doi.org/10.1177/154193120705100413

  34. Lau, N. (2007). A signal processing approach to auditory alarm design and evaluation: An analysis of melodic medical equipment alarmsProc. of the 2007 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, 2606-2612. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSMC.2007.4413647

  35. Lau, N. & Jamieson, G. A. (2006). Ecological Interface Design for the condenser subsystems of a boiling water reactor. Proc. of the 27th Annual Canadian Nuclear Society Conference [On-line, no pagination].

  36. Lau, N. & Jamieson, G. A. (2006). Ecological Interface Design for the condenser subsystems of a boiling water reactor simulator. Proc. of the 16th Triennial World Congress on Ergonomics [CD-ROM, no pagination].

  37. Lau, N. & Jamieson, G. A. (2006). Numerical models in representation design: Computing seawater properties in an Ecological InterfaceProc. of the 50th Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 245-249. https://doi.org/10.1177/154193120605000308
  1. Lau, N., Wang, H., Ten, CW. & Gerdes, R. (2018). Securing supervisory control and data acquisition control systems. In A. Mo (Ed.), Human Computer Interaction in Cyber-security Handbook (pp. 237-255). Boca Raton, FL, USA: CRC Press.

  2. Lau, N. & Boring, R. (2017) Situation Awareness in Complex Systems. In H. M. Cuevas, J. Velázquez. & A. R. Dattel (Eds.), Human Factors in Practice: Concepts and Applications (pp. 55-70). Boca Raton, FL, USA: CRC Press.
  1. Boring, R. & Lau, N. (2015). Verification and Validation of Digitally Upgraded Control Rooms (No. INL/EXT-15-36704). Idaho Falls, IN, USA: Idaho National Laboratory.

  2. Lau, N., Skraaning Jr., & Jamieson, G. A. (2015). Situation Awareness in diagnosis and reasoning of process disturbances: The Scenario Understanding concept and measures (No. HWR-1132). Halden, Norway: OECD Halden Reactor Project.

  3. Gaba, D. M., Lau, N. & Desaulniers D. (2013). “Chapter 6: Human Factors and Human Reliability in Healthcare and Nuclear Power in Risk and Reliability” in Healthcare and Nuclear Power Learning from Each Other (Eds). Arlington, VA, USA: Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation.

  4. Lau, N., Skraaning Jr., G., Karlsson, T., Nihlwing, C. & Jamieson, G. A. (2011). The Process Overview Measure: Methodological developments to enhance inter-rater reliability (No. HWR-971). Halden, Norway: OECD Halden Reactor Project.

  5. Lau, N., Skraaning Jr., G., Eitrheim, M. H. R., Karlsson, T., Nihlwing, C. & Jamieson, G. A. (2011). Situation awareness in monitoring nuclear power plant: The Process Overview concept and measure (No. HWR-954).
    Halden, Norway: OECD Halden Reactor Project.

  6. Eitrheim, M. H. R., Skraaning Jr., G., Lau, N., Nihlwing, C. & Karlsson, T. (2011). Out-of-the-loop performance: Results from the 2009 HAMMLAB experiment (No. HWR-977). Halden, Norway: OECD Halden Reactor Project.

  7. Eitrheim, M. H. R., Skraaning Jr., G., Lau, N., Karlsson, T., Nihlwing, C., Hoffmann, M., & Farbrot, J. E. (2010). Staffing strategies in highly automated future plants: Results from the 2009 HAMMLAB experiment (No. HWR-938). Halden, Norway: OECD Halden Reactor Project.

  8. Skraaning Jr., G., Eitrheim, M. H. R., Lau, N., Nihlwing, Hurlen, L., & Karlsson, T. (2010). Coping with automation in future plants: Results from the 2009 HAMMLAB experiment (No. HWR-937). Halden, Norway: OECD Halden Reactor Project.

  9. Lau, N., Skraaning Jr., G., Jamieson, G. A., & Burns, C. M. (2008). The impact of ecological displays on operator task performance and workload (No. HWR-888). Halden, Norway: OECD Halden Reactor Project.

  10. Welch, R., Braseth, A. O., Nihlwing, C., Skraaning Jr., G., Teigen, A., Veland, Ø., Lau, N., Jamieson, G. A., Burns, C. M., & Kwok, J. (2007). The 2005 Ecological Interface Design process and the resulting displays (No. HWR-847). Halden, Norway: OECD Halden Reactor Project.

  11. Skraaning Jr., G., Lau, N., Welch, R., Nihlwing, C., Andresen, G., Brevig, L. H., Veland, Ø., Jamieson, G. A., Burns, C. M., & Kwok, J. (2007). The Ecological Interface Design experiment (2005) (No. HWR-833). Halden, Norway: OECD Halden Reactor Project.
  1. Holla, E., Parker, S.E., Lau, N., & Safford, S.D. (2019). Near real time prediction of eye-gaze using deep neural network in endoscopic surgeries. The 14th Annual Academic Surgical Congress, February 5-7, 2019. Hilton Americas-Houston, Houston, Texas, USA.

  2. Fichtel, E., Park, J. Parker, S., Lau, N. & Safford, S.D. (2018). Eye-tracking in educational assessment: an automated procedure to define dynamic areas of interest. The 13th Annual Academic Surgical Congress, January 30- February 1, 2018. Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront in Jacksonville, FL, USA.

  3. Liu, S., Lau, N., & Perez, M. (2018). Sleep and driving habits associated with sleep disorders – Findings from SHRP2 naturalistic driving study. Poster session presented at the Transportation Review Board 97th Annual Meeting, January 7-11th, 2018. The Walter E. Washington Convention Center, in Washington, D.C., USA.

  4. Park, J., Ponnala, S., Henrickson-Parker, S., Fitzgibbons, S., Lau, N., & Safford, S. (2017). Utilizing eye-tracking technology to understand the importance of confidence on education. Poster session presented at the Conference for Higher Education Pedagogy, February 15th, 2017. The Inn at Virginia Tech & Skeleton Conference Center, Blacksburg, VA, USA.

  5. Lau, N., Schertz, E., Barnett, C., Robic, J., Wakeman, C., Ponnala, S., & Brown, B. (2016). electronic Diabetes Artificial Pancreas Training (eDAPT) – Development and user study. Poster session presented at the 16th Annual Diabetes Technology Meeting, November 10-12, 2016. Marriott Hotel and Conference Center, Bethesda, MD, USA.

  6. Lau, N., McElwee, M., Wakeman, C., DeBoer M., & Cherñavvsky, D. (2014). Real Time Remote Monitoring with Artificial Pancreas - A family-centered pilot trial. Poster session presented at the 74th Scientific Sessions of American Diabetes Association, June 13-17, 2014. The Moscone Center, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Nathan Lau

Nathan Lau, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Virginia Tech
nathan.lau@vt.edu

Dr. Lau is an Associate Professor at the Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech. He is currently an Associate Editor of the Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making. His primary research interests are human-automation interaction, human-machine interface, and human performance assessment in safety-critical systems.

He received his BASc and PhD degrees from the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto in 2004 and 2012, respectively. Prior to joining the Virginia Tech, he was a Senior Scientist at the University of Virginia from 2012 to 2014, studying Human Factors in cyber security of remotely piloted aircrafts, artificial pancreas for adolescents, and human performance in nuclear power plant main control rooms. He conducted research at the OECD Halden Reactor Project, where he developed ecological displays for a full-scope nuclear power plant simulator and situation awareness measures for representative process control settings. He also worked as a human factors engineer at NuScale Power Inc. and interface designer at Acuite Advanced Process Graphics.

(Download curriculum vitaeGoogle Scholar)

Abdulrahman Alhaider

Abdulrahman Alhaider, MS

Ph.D. Candidate

Virginia Tech
haider@vt.edu

Abdulrahman Alhaider is a Ph.D. student at the Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech since 2017. His primary research interest is cognitive engineering, specifically on situation awareness govern by communication within healthcare systems.

Abdulrahman received his Bachelor’s Degree from King Saud University in Saudi Arabia in Industrial Engineering in 2011, and his Master’s Degree from State University of New York at Binghamton in Industrial Engineering with concentration on Physical Ergonomics in 2016. Prior to graduate school, he worked for a year and a half as Fire, Health, and Safety officer supervising various construction sites for Almarai company in Saudi Arabia. He also holds a position of a teaching assistant at Prince Sattam University in Saudi Arabia where he taught for one semester before being sponsored to pursue his graduate education. At State University of New York, his research focused on work-related musculoskeletal disorders. He is interested in cognitive engineering applications in all of their aspects in people’s lives. Indoor, he enjoys tennis and ping pong; outdoor, he is an avid camper and a volleyball player.

(Download resume)

Wenyan Huang

Wenyan Huang, MS

Ph.D. Candidate

Virginia Tech
whuang@vt.edu 

Wenyan Huang is a PhD candidate at the Grado Department of industrial and Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech since 2014. Her primary research interests are human-machine interface, occupational health and safety, and human performance assessment in safety-critical systems. She is currently conducting research on detecting performance deterioration using eye-tracking and EEG outputs.

Wenyan received her MSE degree from the Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 2013 and BS degree from the Department of Safety Engineering at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, China, in 2011. In 2012 summer, she interned at Ford Motor Company as a research coordinator, and developed a huge interest in conducting research and solving problems. She enjoys playing games with friends.

(Download resume)

Gram Hsing

Gram Hsing, MS

Ph.D. Student

Virginia Tech
ghsing@vt.edu

Hsiang-Wen (Gram) Hsing is a PhD student in the Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech since 2017. He is primarily interested in Virtual Reality (VR) in human-computer interaction research. He is currently working with Tianzi Wang to develop interactions in virtual environment to discover new ways to alleviate substance abuse.

Gram received his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan, in 2013. Gram later received his Master’s degree in Industrial Design from Tatung University, Taiwan, in 2017. His graduate thesis is titled “The Usability Study of Applying a Head-Mounted VR Display to a Driving Simulation System.” In 2015, Gram worked as a product manager for Kuani Gear Co. Gram is an avid sports fan and a strong supporter of all Pittsburgh sports team.

Anirudh More

Anirudh More, MS

Ph.D. Student

Virginia Tech
anirudh1@vt.edu

Anirudh More is a is a Ph.D. student at the Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech since 2019. His primary research interest is visualizing scheduling risk and work analysis. He is currently working on outage scheduling visualization.

Anirudh received his MS degree from the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech in 2018 and BS degree from the Department of Production Engineering at College of Engineering Pune, India, in 2016. In 2017 summer, he interned at Pittsburgh Glass Works as a Automation Engineer, and developed a huge interest in automation and human factors. He is an avid sports fan and a strong supporter of Real Madrid CF. He also enjoys sketching.

Hao Wang

Hao Wang, MS

Ph.D. Candidate

Virginia Tech
drkwh05@vt.edu

Hao Wang is a Ph.D candidate in the Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering since 2016. His primary research interests is cyber situation awareness (CSA) and work domain analysis. He is also pursuing a MS degree in statistics, specifically bayesian analysis and regression.

Hao received his BS degrees in Bachelor Degrees in Electrical Engineering and Industrial Engineering from University of Michigan in 2012. He worked in Auditory Systems Laboratory at Virginia Tech as a graduate research assistant specializing in auditory situation awareness. In addition, he is an outdoor runner who runs 5 days per week. He also likes reading and watching videos, he is a volunteer in TED and has subtitled/written scripts for about 10 TED talks.

Tianzi Wang

Tianzi Wang, MS

Ph.D. Candidate

Virginia Tech
tianzi@vt.edu

Tianzi is a Ph.D. candidate in the Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech since 2016. Her primary research interest is Virtual Reality (VR) in human- machine interface. She is currently conducting research on VR design for control room alarm systems.

Tianzi received her BS and MS from the Science Honors Program and the Department of Computer Science at China Agricultural University in 2008 and 2011, respectively. In 2011, she worked as a software engineer in R&D center at Tongfang Knowledge Network Technology Co. Ltd.

(Download resume)

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Katherine Herdt, BS

M.S. Student

Virginia Tech
tkatherine19@vt.edu

Katherine Herdt is a M.S. student of the Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. Her research interest is primarily human factor elements of cyber security performance. She is currently conducting a literature review on frameworks that assess cyber risk in electric grid SCADA systems.

Katherine received her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Brigham Young University-Idaho in 2018. Prior to graduate school, she worked at Idaho National Laboratory for a year as a Human Factor Scientist contributing to projects regarding mitigating the cybersecurity workforce gap and nuclear power plant control room modernization. A few of Katherine’s non-academic interests include ballet, piano, and hiking outdoors.

(Download resume)

Eric Fichtel

Eric Fichtel
Industrial and Systems Engineering (MS 2017)
ef5"at"vt.edu

Employment:
UX Researcher, Google Maps Automotive, San Francisco, USA

	 Shuyuan Liu

Shuyuan Liu
Industrial and Systems Engineering (MS 2017)
syliu"at"vt.edu

Employment:
PhD candidate at Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Wisconsin - Madison, USA

Siddarth Ponnala

Siddarth Ponnala
Industrial and Systems Engineering (MS 2017)
sidponnala"at"vt.edu

Employment:
PhD candidate at Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Wisconsin - Madison, USA

David Powers

David Powers
Industrial and Systems Engineering (MS 2016)
davidhp"at"vt.edu

Employment:
Human Factors Engineer, Ximedica, USA

Arisa Pruttianan

Arisa Pruttianan
Industrial and Systems Engineering (MS 2016)
apruttia"at"vt.edu

Employment:
Human Centered Design Associate at Lextant, Columbus, OH, USA

Subhash Holla Hosakoppa Sukumar

Subhash Holla Hosakoppa Sukumar
Industrial and Systems Engineering (MS 2019)
subbu23"at"vt.edu

Employment:
User Experience Specialist at Mathworks, Boston, MA, USA

No photo

Samantha Bauer
Industrial and Systems Engineering (BS 2016)
sambauer"at"vt.edu

Employment upon graduation:
Accenture, USA

Zoey Ryu

Zoey Ryu
Industrial and Systems Engineering (BS 2016)
ryum17"at"vt.edu

Employment upon graduation:
Masters candidate, Virginia Tech, VA, USA

Chester Senxuen Wang

Chester Senxuen Wang
Industrial and Systems Engineering (BS 2015)
senxuan"at"vt.edu

Employment upon graduation:
Master's of Science, San Jose State University, CA, USA

Matt Demas

Matt Demas
University of Virginia
Systems and Information Engineering (MS 2015)
mattdemas"at"virginia.edu

Employment upon graduation:
Software Developer/Data Scientist at Market Basket, MA, USA

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VACSE Blog

Blog - VACSE

The GSE generic Pressurized Water Reactor (gPWR) Simulator is operational at VACSE now! Below are pictures ofat the current control room and gallery layout. Current VACSE control room layout running the GSE gPWR simulator. Current layout of the VACSE observation gallery.

General Contact

General Contact Mailing address (all postal mail):
Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
(MC 0118)
Durham Hall, RM 250, Virginia Tech
1145 Perry Street, Blacksburg, VA
USA 24061

Departmental telephone:
540.231.6656

Departmental fax:
540.231.3322

Dr. Nathan Lau

Direct telephone / email:
540.231.5936 / nathan.lau"at"vt.edu

Office:
Whittemore Hall, RM 546, Virginia Tech
1185 Perry Street, Blacksburg, VA