New England Chapter’s 2011 Annual Student Research Conference A Success!
Posted on November 23, 2011 by NEC HFES
New England Chapter’s 2011 Annual Student Research Conference A Success!
Record attendance and a new poster session confirm the growth of the local chapter,
as the 56th Annual Meeting of HFES is set to come to Boston one year from now.
On October 14th, 2011, the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society New England Chapter (HFES NEC) held its Annual Student Research Conference at Microsoft’s New England Research and Development (NERD) Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The conference drew over 70 human factors and ergonomics professionals, students, and faculty from local companies, agencies, and universities, such as MIT, Northeastern University, Tufts University, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and at Lowell, Harvard University, and
the University of New Hampshire. The conference provided an encouraging atmosphere for 18 graduate and undergraduate student research presentations. Due to the large number of submissions this year, a poster session was created, where six student research projects were displayed.
In addition to student presentations and posters, the conference featured a keynote address by Richard Gardner, a Technical Fellow at the Boeing Company and the lead ergonomist for Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner aircraft. Mr. Gardner’s presentation, titled “The Boeing 787 Dreamliner Program: A Focus on Design for Manufacturing Ergonomics,” centered on the ergonomic issues and solutions behind manufacturing large-body, twin-isle aircraft such as the 747 and the newly minted 787.
Attendees of the all-day conference mingled and discussed informally during both breakfast and lunch, which were catered for the occasion.
At the end of the conference, members of the Board of HFES NEC presented conference awards to three student projects for best overall presentation, one of which was awarded “Best Transportation Presentation” by the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center. Our sincere congratulations go to:
- HFES NEC Best Presentation Awards
- Matthieu Trudeau, “Thumb Motor Performance Varies According to
Thumb and Wrist Posture during Single-Handed Mobile Phone Use” (Harvard
School of Public Health) - Stacey Cunningham, “Robotic-Assisted
Minimally Invasive Surgery: Communication In A Complex Socio-Technical System” (Tufts
University) - Volpe Best Transportation Presentation Award
- Radhameris A. Gómez, “Evaluating
the Effect of Advance Yield Markings on Vehicle-Pedestrian Conflicts at Marked
Mid-block Crosswalks Across Multilane Roads: A Simulator Study” (University
of Massachusetts Amherst)
- Radhameris A. Gómez, “Evaluating
By all measures, this conference was a great success! In addition to record attendance and record submissions, the event doubled as a recruiting event for the Chapter: chapter membership was included in the conference registration fee, which will contribute to the continued growth HFES NEC has encountered in the last few years.
The Board of HFES NEC wishes to thank the sponsors of the event for their continued patronage of the conference: Microsoft, Aptima, Charles River Analytics, Volpe, and Liberty Mutual.
For more information about the HFES New England Chapter, visit our website at www.nechfes.org.
