March 31, 2022
Society News
Registration Open: Virtual 2022 HFES International Symposium on Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health Care
 
Building upon last week’s in-person Health Care Symposium, HFES is pleased to announce the 2022 Virtual International Symposium on Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health Care, June 7-9, 2022. With all new content, distinct from that of the in-person activity, this virtual experience will accommodate those who were unable to travel to New Orleans to access the insights and innovations driving innovation in human factors in health care.

Watch for details regarding two FDA workshops to be presented on June 7. Registrants may update their records to add workshops at any time. Please contact [email protected] if we may be of assistance.
Mark Your Calendars: Upcoming HFES Town Hall

Join us on Friday, April 1 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time for our next HFES Presidential Town Hall. HFES President Christopher R. Reid and HFES President-Elect Carolyn Sommerich will be joined by Deborah Boehm-Davis, Gary Orr and Mica Endsley along with Human Factors Cast host Nick Roome for an hour-long podcast discussing the latest HF/E industry news and trends.

No registration is required so please make plans to attend and save the date! Connect via your favorite social media outlet. 

Mark Your Calendars: Upcoming Webinar

President’s Corner: A Fireside Chat with Dr. Christopher Reid and Dr. José Gomes
Moderated by Dr. Rose Figueroa
April 21 - 4:00 p.m. (Pacific) / 7:00 p.m. (Eastern)  

Join Dr. Rose Figueroa, Chair of HFES’ Disability and Chronic Illness Affinity Group, in a discussion with the president of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES), Christopher R. Reid, and the president of International Ergonomics Association (IEA), José Gomes. The goal of this session is to explore challenges that both organizations face as well as to expose members of each society to different perspectives driven by the goals and needs of members from each organization.

If you need any reasonable accommodating (i.e., live captioning, ALS interpreter) to attend this event please email [email protected] as soon as possible.
Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Signs Memorandum of Understanding with the Applied Ergonomics Society
Collaboration offers access to wider knowledgebase and improved information transfer.
 
The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) has signed a collaboration memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Applied Ergonomics Society (AES) creating a formal working relationship between the two organizations. The agreement will allow members from both societies, representing the spectrum of human factors and ergonomics (HF/E) professionals, to connect via networking opportunities and formally open lines of communications between each organization’s members that could spur identification of knowledge voids and improve translation and adoption of new knowledge.
During Women's History Month, HFES is Proud to Celebrate the Life of Dr. Dora Dougherty Strother

In celebration of Women’s History month, HFES honors Dr. Dora Dougherty Strother (a.k.a. Dr. Dora Dougherty McKeown) - also recognized by Frank Durso in 2014 as the first female fellow of HFES (see Whirly-Girl). Dora Dougherty Strother was a significant figure in women’s history.

Throughout her life she contributed to our country and our discipline in many ways. Her passion was aviation. She impacted aviation in many capacities: as a pilot, a test pilot, a military pilot, an instructor, a trainer, and a cockpit designer. In the latter capacity at Bell Helicopter as Chief of Human Factors Engineering and Cockpit Arrangement, she drew attention to the new field of human factors engineering and was a founding member of our society.
DEADLINE EXTENDED TO APRIL 15: HFES Seeks Nominees for Prestigious Society Awards

HFES Full Members and Fellows are invited to submit nominations for eight Society awards to be presented at the 66th International Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, October 10 – 14, 2022.

Award nominations are invited for individuals whose contributions merit special recognition. The eight awards for which nominees are sought are:

  • Hal W. Hendrick Distinguished International Colleague Award
  • Paul M. Fitts Education Award
  • R. Lauer Safety Award
  • Alexander C. Williams, Jr., Design Award
  • Jack A. Kraft Innovator Award
  • Oliver Keith Hansen Outreach Award
  • William C. Howell Young Investigator Award
  • Bentzi Karsh Early-Career Service Award

Nominees are not required to be HFES members, but only members of HFES may submit nominations. The nomination submission deadline for each award above is Friday, April 15, 2022.
Upcoming Webinar: UX Collective

When: Thursday, April 20, 2022 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time
Speakers: Bobbie Wood, Chief Executive Officer, UX Content Collective, Jarrod Silva, Education Adviser  
Moderator: Barbara Chaparro, Professor, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Director, Research in User Experience (RUX) Laboratory, Christy Harper, Managing Partner/Researcher, End-to-End User Research Consultancy 

Last year LinkedIn described “Usability Expert” as a high demand job title. LinkedIn and the Bureau of Labor Statistics forecast continued growth in UX jobs through 2030. Both describe salaries as commensurate with demand, ranging between $77,000 and $103,000. The purpose of this webinar is to introduce two Usability Experience training courses now available to HFES members at a discount.

The UX Content Collective offers several UX training courses, which are designed to be completed in 8 to 10 weeks. Their courses include certification tracks for UX Writing, a developing UX specialty. You can read more about UX Writing here.

Join to learn how you can supplement your Human Factors and Ergonomics training with job-specific skills in the rapidly developing field of User Experience. Each course offering will be briefly described during the webinar, with plenty of time for questions.
HFES HART Video Contest

We invite you and any of your colleagues to participate in our HFES HART Video Contest! You can submit videos related to all aspects of Human-AI-Robot Teaming (HART) research and applications. The videos should be self-explanatory, of scientific relevance, and fun to watch. They will be peer-reviewed and voted on by HART TG members. The videos will be posted on HART TG website, HFES annual conference, and HART TG YouTube Channel.

The top three rated videos will receive cash rewards:

  • First place: $200
  • Second place: $100
  • Third place: $50
HFES Calendar of Events
 
Attention Chapters, Technical Groups, Professional and Affinity Groups and Beyond – HFES is pleased to post information concerning any upcoming meetings, webinars, or other events you wish to raise awareness about on our Calendar of Events page. We also will post meetings of allied societies provided their meetings do not occur close to any HFES organized activity.
 
Let us know about your meetings and other events [email protected].
What Makes You Unique? Update Your Profile Today!

The HFES website and member profile area helps HFES better serve the membership and helps members to stay better connected to each other.

The Diversity and Inclusion Committee and the Council of Affinity Groups invites and encourages every member of HFES to visit this portal to complete or update his/her/their demographic profile.

HFES’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion is a commitment to recognizing and celebrating the variety of characteristics that make individuals unique. One means of fulfilling this commitment is to document and regularly review our demographics, in order to know who is in our big tent and who we are missing, because we should not be missing anyone. We are a data-driven science. Please assist us in collecting this vital data on you, our valued members.

Login to your member account here.
Topic for the 2022 Human Factors Prize Competition Announced

The Human Factors Prize was established in 2010 by Editor-in-Chief William S. Marras to recognize excellence in HF/E research through an annual competition in which authors are invited to submit papers on a specific topic for that year. The prize carries a $5,000 cash award and consideration of publication of the winning paper in the Society's journal, Human Factors. The award is formally conferred at a special session at the HFES International Annual Meeting, where the recipient presents his or her work.

The Topic for the 2022 Human Factors Prize Competition is: Equity and Inclusivity  

Submissions are accepted between May 13 and June 17, 2022. HFES will activate the submission site link on May 13 and will close it on June 15.  
Human Centered AI by Ben Shneiderman. Oxford University Press, 2022
Review by Christopher Wickens, February 18, 2022

HCAI is a book that, not surprisingly given the title, strongly adopts a perspective that is quite compatible with the beliefs and values of the human factors community. In his well-written, enjoyable and easy-to-read book he echoes many points that have been made by this community for 40 years, with its origins in aviation psychology, beginning with the pioneering work of Earl Wiener, Charlie Billings, Raja Parasuraman, Nadine Sarter, John Lee and others. His writing nicely complements this approach grounded in engineering psychology, with that from the computer science perspective.

Shneiderman is a highly credentialed computer scientist, who has gained a great deal of respect within the computer science community, initially with his excellent work on data visualization. Throughout the book, he laments that much of the CS community pays little regard for the human user; and his principled devotion imparted in this book is to turn their attention toward greater heed to human centered issues in artificial intelligence. He is an optimist that this will happen.
Enhance Your Knowledge Through the HFES Learning Center

Our wide-ranging library includes online educational activities across the spectrum of human factors and ergonomics aimed at improving your knowledge and practice, many of which are complimentary and a benefit of membership in the Society.  

This online resource will help you to find new knowledge points based on your areas of interest, and help you record your progress as you work your way through session and recording packages. 

Additional features include recorded sessions from previous years’ HFES meetings and symposia, webinars featuring experts sharing their latest research and works, DEI webinars and other on-demand learning opportunities to enhance your skills, advance your career and maintain your professional certifications.
Volunteer with HFES

Interested in getting more involved with HFES? Check out our new Volunteer Opportunities page on HFES Connect! HFES is now piloting a new Volunteer Opportunities tool on HFES Connect – your space to explore trending topics from the community and where you can connect with fellow members. Many more opportunities will be posted over time, so be sure to check back often.

Please note: you must be logged into HFES Connect to view this page.
Industry News
President Biden Signs FY 2022 Omnibus Appropriations Bill Into Law After Months of Debate
 
By Lewis-Burke Associates LLC
 
On March 15, 2022, President Biden signed into law the massive end-of-year spending package that included $1.5 trillion in fiscal year (FY) 2022 omnibus appropriations and $13.6 billion in aid for Ukraine. Six months into FY 2022 and after three Continuing Resolutions (CR) that extended government operations to avoid shutdowns, Congress finally reached a bipartisan agreement on the 12 annual appropriations bills, passing the House on a vote of 361-69 and the Senate on a vote of 68-31. One of the main reasons for the delay in passing the final budget was disagreements over defense versus non-defense spending. The final bill has defense getting a boost of 5.6 percent, totaling $730 billion, leaving non-defense spending with a boost of 6.7 percent, totaling $782 billion. This contrasts with President Biden’s budget request but ultimately had to be done to receive the republican support needed to pass the major legislation.
Submit Proposals to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Special Emphasis Notice

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) released a special emphasis notice (SEN) inviting health services research grant proposals to develop models of care that improve access, quality, and outcomes of care related to COVID-19 and post-acute sequalae from COVID-19 (PASC), also known as long COVID. In this SEN, AHRQ is interested in “applications that develop, implement, and evaluate interventions and models of care, including those targeting the specific needs and challenges of disadvantaged populations and people living with Multiple Chronic Conditions (MCC), that improve access, quality, and outcomes of care. Proposed studies may focus on the patient, clinician, practice, or system level interventions.” Multilevel interventions are encouraged, as are projects that produce and disseminate insights that can be used to improve patient care and inform healthcare delivery in routine operations and during public health emergencies.
 
AHRQ encourages applicants to submit proposals to this SEN using the standing R18, R03, and R01 (PA-18-793PA-18-794PA-18-795) funding mechanisms. The SEN is active until February 14, 2025.
Member News
Volunteer of the Month: Ram Maikala
Ram Maikala is a Program Technical Consultant for the National Safety Council, and has been a member of HFES for 29 years. His work focuses on issues of Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) prevention and ergonomics programs and interventions for the MSD Solutions Lab at the National Safety Council (NSC). Ram has a Doctoral degree in Rehabilitation Science from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, a Masters in Industrial Engineering from West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, and Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from Osmania University, Hyderabad, India.

Within HFES, Ram has been involved as a chair on a variety of committees, served as the Editor-in-Chief of Ergonomics in Design, judged for the HFES Ely Award, and a local chapter Executive Council Member. He sees his involvement and leadership within HFES as a chance to give back to the profession, make an impact, and be part of the extended HFES family.
HFES wants to promote the important achievements of our members in the bi-weekly Bulletin. Appropriate topics include research milestones or other significant achievements, professional accolades, awards or recognitions, promotions or new positions, and similar professionally-oriented topics. If you would like to share news with the HFES community, please fill out the form

Additionally, if you are made aware of the passing of any members of HFES, please let us know. Contact HFES Executive Director Steven Kemp at [email protected].
STAY CONNECTED
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