Keynote Speaker 3
| Title | Ergonomics In Transport & Navigation |
| Speaker | Dr. Valerie Gawron, The MITRE Corporation |
Biography
Valerie Gawron has a PhD in Engineering Psychology from the University of Illinois, and a MS in Industrial Engineering and MBA from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She completed postdoctoral work at the New Mexico State University and worked for Calspan for 26 years. She is presently a human systems integrator at the MITRE Corporation. Dr.Gawron has served on the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, Army Science Board, Naval Research Advisory Committee, and National Research Council.
She is an associate fellow of AIAA, a fellow of HFES, and a fellow of the International Ergonomics Association. Dr.Gawron is the author of six books including the Human Performance, Workload, and Situation Awareness Measures Handbook (second edition) and 2001 Hearts: The Jane Gawron Story. Both of these are being used in graduate classes, the former in human factors and the latter in patient safety. Valerie has visited 166 countries and has 13 remaining on her bucket list.
Abstract
Interest in ergonomics related to transportation began with enhancing operator and passenger safety and quickly grew to include comfort and ease of use as well as the training and certification of vehicle operators. Today there are literally hundreds of databases of transportation accidents spread across the world. There are also large forums for the exchange of information of ergonomic research in transportation that address not only safety but also training and certification. These include the International Conference on Human Factors in Transportation, Surface Transportation Technical Group sessions, and the Transportation Research Board Safety and Human Factors.
Research facilities are also expanding the state of the art in simulators to assess operator distraction, vigilance in highly automated vehicles, and human error in very high workload conditions. On the analytic side, researchers are applying big data analytic techniques to socialmedia to assess transportation trends. Ergonomics in navigation has grown rapidly with the development of intelligent transport systems. Such systems hold the promise of improved safety, efficiency, and transit services while also reducing fuel consumption and emissions. However, ergonomic challenges exist in training operators to recognize and recover from errors in the automation.
In some cases the human operator may not be able to recover, for example, navigating in extremely limited visual conditions. Another challenge is international harmonization in navigation symbology and map styles. The perennial north up versus track up controversy has not been resolved for new modes of transportation. The integration of weather information and route planning has identified challenges of indicating uncertainty in weather forecasts that can be readily understood and appropriately applied by vehicle operators. Upgrades in Air Traffic Control and management as well as the increase number and types of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles operating across the globe pose new ergonomic challenges.
