MSc and PhD Reflections

Reflections contributed by MSc and PhD students of the Ergonomics Unit/UCL.

1992/93 Vasiliki Sakellari 150 150 John

1992/93 Vasiliki Sakellari

 

Vasiliki Sakellari
1st

Vasiliki Sakellari

Professor at T.E.I. of Sterea Ellada

Background

Experience

Professor

T.E.I of Sterea Ellada

 – Present (14 years 3 months)Lamia, Greece

Physiotherapy Department (BSc)
Advanced Physiotherapy (MSc)

 – Present (23 years)Lamia, Greece

Physiotherapist

General Hospital of Lamia

 –  (1 year 3 months)

Private Physiotherapy Practitioner

own private practice

 –  (3 years 4 months)

PhD student

MRC Institute of Neurology

 –  (2 years)

1984/85 Brook Lee 150 150 John

1984/85 Brook Lee

Date of MSc:                                    1985/86

Project Title:                  Integrating Human Factors Principles into the Design of the User Interface of a CAD environment

 

Pre-MSc Background:                  Psychology (BSocSc) & Developmental Psychology (MSc)

 

Pre-MSc View of HCI/Cognitive Ergonomics:

I was interested in cognitive assessment from my psychology background.  I knew nothing about Cognitive Ergonomics.  I thought that some exposure to this discipline might equip me to become a better Psychologist.

 

Post-MSc View of HCI/Cognitive Ergonomics:

I was fascinated by the multi-disciplinary exposure in the first few months.  Nonetheless, I felt frustrated by the limited application of my psychology training.

 

Subsequent-to-MSc View of HCI/Cognitive Ergonomics

What if Cognitive Ergonomics was taught in the Psychology Department?  Cognitive Ergonomics was a young discipline then.  Would I respond to the course materials differently?

 

Additional Reflections

After a couple of decades developing financial trading applications myself (I work as a software developer), I have come to realize that most software development does not take usability much into account.  The traders (end users) choose the system packed with features first and foremost.  I haven’t come across any GAP analysis during system procurement that includes usability as one of the selection criteria.  Poorly designed systems can induce more future cost; but no IT function seems to operate with this in mind.  The pain is shifted to other parts of the organization (Operations, Finance) by incurring their staff costs; but not in the IT !

1991/92 Adam Stork 150 150 John

1991/92 Adam Stork

 

Adam Stork

Director / Head of Business Consulting at Atkins

 Background

Director / Head of Business Consulting

Atkins

 – Present (2 years)

Executive Director
KPMG

 –  (6 years)

Education

UCL
MSc and PhD, Psychology Dept
1992/93 Janette Edmonds 150 150 John

1992/93 Janette Edmonds

Date of MSc: 1992 / 3 (Generalist Ergonomics course with HCI)

Project Title: The Effect of Reclined Sitting Postures on Hand Controlled Operations

Pre-MSc Background: BSc (Hons) in Psychology, worked with autistic children, travelled around the world for a year

Pre-MSc View of HCI/Cognitive Ergonomics: Thought it was the more complex end of psychology!

Post-MSc View of HCI/Cognitive Ergonomics: Realised that it was complex but that there are also other areas of equal complexity!

Subsequent-to-MSc View of HCI/Cognitive Ergonomics:

In order to provide a little context, my first job on graduating was as part of a human factors team within a large multinational engineering company, British Aerospace which proved to be a great grounding.  From there I went into consultancy, two small companies, followed by setting up my own, and then after ten years joining with a larger consultancy of 20+ to become one of the directors of that company.  The industries I have worked in include; oil and gas, chemical processing, defence, transport systems, manufacturing, telecommunications, medical products, air traffic control, amongst others.

I believe there are some essential ingredients required to develop from a good student into a good human factors practitioner because they are two quite different beings.

The knowledge gained on the master’s degree is fundamental to developing a detailed understanding of humans in the world of work.  This is the baseline from which the professional needs to start.

The application of that knowledge, in my view, is the greatest challenge, and the development of the technical skill in being able to do that does take years. I think the most challenging aspect of any application of ergonomics is gaining a deep understanding of the domain area, i.e. the industrial application, how different industries work, what the human elements are, what ergonomics / HCI information is relevant and the mechanism by which to apply the knowledge to a given situation.

The third ingredient is being able to effectively deliver the knowledge and skill within the commercial world.  This takes consultancy skills whether you are an internal or external consultant; understanding the need for the skill to package and selling it, negotiating contracts, managing projects (typically several at once), managing teams, delivering a high quality product via reports or verbal delivery, and project administration, and so on. There are several wheels that need to be oiled to keep the wheels in motion.

So my view of post qualification is that the professional journey starts at the point of qualification and that there is a need to develop quite different skills in order to deliver the newly gained knowledge.  When I am involved in recruiting human factors consultants, these are the essential ingredients I am looking for;  a good knowledge base from a relevant qualification, experience of applying knowledge in industrial settings, consultancy skills, and the appetite to continue to learn and develop.

Additional Reflections

In terms of the subject area, I now have 20 years of practitioner experience of it and seen how it has changed over that time.  I also work with lots of different types of professionals and see how we compare.

I do recall, as I’m sure many other past graduates will, the debate sparked by John Long on whether ergonomics / HCI is an art, science or engineering discipline.  Although I have my own views on this, the very posing of the question has helped me to understand my professional position within the world of other professionals – so thanks John for that!

That line of thought being included in this statement, I think as a profession, although we are developing at a pace, we are still in our infancy and that now is a time for consolidation.  I believe we need to agree how we move forward, what our minimum standards are, and how we need to be structured – perhaps taking on a few more characteristics of being an engineering discipline?…..

 

 

 

 

EU/UCL MSc and PhD Students 150 150 John

EU/UCL MSc and PhD Students

This section presents MSc EU/UCL students reflections. Although exposed to the HCI/E approach to HCI during the course, all approaches might be expected to figure in the reflections and so facilitate comparisons between the different approaches, so that all researchers can better learn from and build on each others’ work.

1969/70

See Students

Brown, David

Gorrell, Lindsay

Thomas, John

Woodhall, Andrew

1970/71

See Students

Brooks, B.

Gill, Mavis

Hawkins, James

Kamm, Steven

Kwoka, Maria

Penchas, S.

Ray, Robert

Reilly, Thomas

Simpson, Geoff

Tan, Evelyn

Wilkins, Felicity

1974/75

See Students

Beeton, Derrick

Birnbaum, Rachel

Ferrer, Francisco

Hallquist, Maria

Henderson, Malcolm

Lawson, Keith

Power, John

Rennie, Anne

Taylor, Mitchell

Vitalis, Antonios

Weatherstone, Barbara

Woodward, Raie

1979/80

See Students

Ahmar, Mahdi

Bray, Robert

Kelly, James

(Long, John)

Martin, John

Pullinger, David

Rice, Francis

Rubin, Tony

Stone, Robert

Thompson, Stewart

Wayman, Kenneth

Wolfendale, Angus

1982/83

See Students

Buckley, Paul

Eldridge, Marge

Fitzgibbon, Lorraine

Girling, Yvonne

Hamilton, Kevin

Mackey, William

Janine. Mammari

McGarvey, Gregory

Nicholson, Lois

Porter, Lynne

Potts, Anne-Marie

Rogers, Yvonne

Rydz, Andrew

1984/85

See Students

Brearley, Patrick

Brunt, Margueretta

Esgate, Anthony

Penn, Sue

Kontogiannis, Thomas

Kumar, Vinai

Max-Lino, Richard

Muir, Alan

Ross, Ian

Rylands, Julia

Smith, David

Thomas, Cathy

Veeder, Dirk, Jan

Vincent, Michael

Warren, Clive

1985/86

See Students

Boyling, Jeffery

Colbert, Martin

Dowell, John

Golds, John

Guo, Jianping

Girling, Barbara

Hagan, Mickie

Heacock, Helen

Kelly, Simon

Leahy, David

Lee, Brook

Lim, Kee Yong

Pollard, Clare

Ussher, Michael

Wright, Mike

Mohd Khalid, Halimahtun (PhD)

1986/87

See Students

Andrew, Mark

Babb, Penelope

Brennan, Charles

Chauhan, Dipak

Coles, James

Curran, Mary

Girling, Barbara

Howard, Stephen

Iles, Jennifer

Lee, Rosemary

Long, Barbara

Pinder, Andrew

Straker, Leon

1991/92

See Students

Bennett, Sharon

Bowden, Laura

Budge, Eileen

Chioni, Assimina

Dowd, Kevin

Aynur, Erdogan

Ferguson, Bob

Gower, Mike

Hadley, bernard

Hall, Alison

Jenkins, Jinx

Lukau, William

Mestchian, Peyman

Nijhuis, Herman

Osborn, Clive

Pope, Jason

Rainbird, Graeme

Rankin, Gabrielle

Reiss, Marc

Shek, Yvonne

Smith, Stephen

Stevens, Ann

Stork, Adam

Thody, Martin

Traub, Paul

Vorobow, Jairo

Wallace, Alison

Wheeler, Stephen

White, Mark

Wong, Derek

1992/93

See Students

Alexander, Jane

Bharadia, Bina

Dickenson, Adrian

Edmonds, Janette

Erdogan, Aynur

Fentem, Andrew

Field, Helen

Fletcher, Georgina

Fulford, Katy

Fung, Teresa

George, Beena

Hadley, Bernard

Lamont, Keith

Leonard, Jason

Lubel, Greg

Lukau, William

May, Andrew

Mestchian, Peyman

Middlemass, James

Newell, Nicola

Newman, Pamela

Nibbelke, Rene

O’Malley, Roisin

Ralph, Greg

Reeves, Chris

Rubens, Simon

Sakellari, Vasiliki

Sutton, Simon

Townsley, Helen

Traub, Paul

Wang, Shu Ju

Weber, Martin

Wong, Derek

Zekrullahi, Solaheh

1993/94

See Students

Abery, Steve

Ahearn, Peter

Alexander, Jane

Brown, Megan

Buck, Brian

Devereux, Jason

Ealson, Nicola

Fattorini, Alice

Gurkan, Raif

Hewetson, Diane

Ismail, Ismail

Knowles, Keith

Leonard, Jason

Madisetti, Mohan

Matthews, Pete

McLure, Nicholas

Minister, Sarah

Nolan, Michelle

Papelexandrou, Dida

Petropoulou, Violetta

Powell, Jane

Prendergast, Patrick

Ramoutar, Sandra

Strong, Philip

Weber, Martin

1994/95

See Students

Ergonomics Option

Alexander, Jane

Crumpton, Emma

De Uribe, Margarita

Fattorini, Alice

Felstead, Alan

Franzini, Nick

Harrison, Roger

Nikki, Heath

Leete, Mary

Martyn, Mathieu

Nolan, Michelle

Petropoulo, Violetta

Powell, Wayne

Richards, Jo

Widdowson, Amanda

Wnuk, Gaby

HCI Option

Boase, Bernard

Borras, Clare

Cannon, Mark

Chakravarti, Marty

Clark, Louise

Dejanovic, Jovanka

Gardiner, Chris

Hopper, Jill

Joshi, Yamini

Mela, Zafiria

McInally, Stephen

Pallant, Adam

Whelan, Robert

1995/96

See Students

Ergonomics Option

Bahra, Sunny

Brostoff, Sacha

Chefitz, Walter

De Uribe, Margarita

Dumont, Judith

Heath, Nikki

Humphries, Alison

Kupper, Ansgar

Lemhoefer, Kristin

Mahler, Jill

Martyn, Mathieu

Petrochilos, Pany

Ricci, Angela

Richards Jo

Samalionis, Frances

Sanderson, Mariana

Spreckley, Mark

Taylor, Nick

Tukimin, Jamal

HCI Option

Adams, Anne

Baty, Gordon

Berry, Mathew

Bird, Alisdair

Chakravati, Marty

Clark, Louis

Djabri, Francis

Duignan, Kieran

Kan, Peter

Mela, Zafiria

Polikoff, Bryan

Spencer, Ben

Sullivan, Michael

Watts, David

1996/97

See Students

General Option

Ajayi, Kehinde

Clarke, Theresa

Cornell, James

Dumont, Judith

Elliott, Chris

Gorbell Tracy

Graupp, Helen

Howells, Edwin

Kupper, Ansgar

Milagre, Carmo

Murphy, John

Raby, Jessica

Tukimin, Jamaluddin

HF/HCI Option

Abdi, Samia

Borrows, Adam

Clark Paul

Enav, Rama

Frost, Paul

Gula, Marsha

Hardwick, Charles

Koster, Erwin,

Mott, Graeme

Murgatroyd, Stephen

Rixon, Rob

Sinclair, James

Swan, Laurel

Taylor, Alex

Welbank, Kaherine

1997/98

See Students

General Option

Abbott, Duncan

Bodmer, Jasmin

de Lancy, Lea

Fischer, Ilka

Griffiths, Michael

Levin, Jodi

Pattrick, Terri

Robertson, Vivienne

Wackrow, Jon

Wright, Karen

HF/HCI Option

Alagbe, Gbadeleke

Andreadis, George

Bongers, Bert

Bonini, Deirdre

Bonner, Michael

Carroll, Marty

Chiu, Chi

Davey, Helen

Deshe, Ofer

Egger, Florian

Gittins, Tony

Hussain, Majad

Low, Irene

Macrae, Fraser

Murgatroyd, Stephen

Peynade, Juliette

Raggett, Louise

Rao, Damian

Rixon, Rob

Seymour-Hamilton, Jane

Swan, Laurel

Watkins, Jerry

1998/99

See Students

General Option

Cave, Sharon

Chan, Dorothy

Forrest, Damien

Hermann, Sonja

Morlacci, Samantha

Ng, Belinda

Simon, Julien

Wisawayodhin, Nantida

HF/HCI Option

Babcock, Benjamin

Bendig, Mark

Bongers, Bert

Bruns, Timo

Crastre, Laure

Edmunds, Kate

Gronewold, Verena

Haywood, Anna

Hicks, Martin

Malhi, Harjinder

Marshall, Annabel

Pierce, Catherine

Rovira, Ericka

Rowley, Ian

1999/00

See Students

General Option

Ferreira, Marina

Hayward, Gordon

Imai, Rie

Ireland, David

Kalita, Neal

Lam, Amy

Leon, Nicholas

Mackenzie, Sue

Maclean, Michael

Morlacchi, Samantha

Naki, Marina

Perera, Sylvie

Regimbal, Andrea

HF/HCI Option

Abd Hamid, Harris

Aramu, Daniela

Blackband, Andrew

Crastre, Laure

Fidgeon, Tim

Frennert, Susanne

Giff, Stephen

Goodwin, Candice

Hay, Andrew

Helyer, Vincent

Jefferson, Michael

Li, Simon

Lo, Jennifer

Neilan, Sinead

Perchick,Edward

Rawlings, Kirsten

Rishudeo, Babita

Salisbury, John

Savino, Mark

Shilpa, Vyas

Wilson, Erica

2000/01

See Students

HF/HCI Option

Antoniou, Angeliki

Axelrod, Leslie

Bjarkadottir, Sigga

Blyth, Gerred

Braun, Lindsay

Brook-Carter, Nikki

Care, Briony

Chu, Jan

Demming, Gigi

Figaro, Jennifer

Garig, Jamie

Grant, Courtney

Healy, Filip

Helyar, Vincent

Hewitt, Jean

Holvenschold, Liz

Hubbard, Darren

Ma, Terry

Pennie, David

Sargent, Melvin

Shearn, Richard

Bhiru, Shelat

Shimmin, Malcolm

Taylor, Rachel

Tynan, Allison

Vigli-Papadaki, Thea

Yu, Anita

Ergonomics

Capitelli, Joseph

Clark, Penny

Goodwin, Candice

Holmes, Samuel

Naki, Marina

1979/80 Robert (Bob) Stone 150 150 John

1979/80 Robert (Bob) Stone

Robert (Bob) Stone

Picture 1

Date of MSc: 1979/1980

 

Project Title: “Ergonomics and the Shop Cashpoint”: An Investigation into the Biomechanic Factors Relevant to the Current and Proposed System at W.H. Smith & Son Ltd., Wood Green, London.

 

Pre-MSc Background: BSc (Hons), Psychology, University College, London.

 

Pre-MSc View of HCI/Cognitive Ergonomics:

 

Of course, HCI and Cognitive Ergonomics were terms that had not even entered into the Ergonomist’s “lexicon” at the time when I was considering what to do after my undergraduate studies in Psychology.  I had very much enjoyed the Experimental and Cognitive Psychology aspects of the UCL course and was keen to pursue an applied research career in defence or aerospace.  I was, therefore, very fortunate when, in my final year, I discovered that the main Psychology building, then in Gordon Square, was, more or less, right next to something called the “Ergonomics Unit” (before it moved to Bedford Way).  A couple of visits to meet and talk with the late, great Harry Maule and Rachel Birnbaum (today Rachel Benedyk, of course) and it all came together!  At that time, the MSc on offer was simply entitled “Ergonomics”, but I genuinely believed (and I was right!) that the component modules would help me to develop the skills and knowledge necessary to pursue the career I wanted.  Indeed, about a third of the way into the MSc, and with significant encouragement from my fellow students, I was invited to Filton for an interview as an Ergonomist with British Aerospace’s Human Factors Department.  Unbelievably, I was offered the job shortly thereafter and the company kept the post open until I graduated.

 

Post-MSc View of HCI/Cognitive Ergonomics:

 

I attended John Long’s earliest Cognitive Ergonomics lectures at UCL, as they were introduced towards the end of the MSc teaching period in 1979.  In contrast to the “classical Ergonomics” content of the earlier part of the course, these lectures were quite radical in that they introduced a whole new domain for those studying the relationship between the human and his/her working environment.   If I was totally honest, many of us on that course came away from those lectures somewhat bemused, having wondered what relevance this Cognitive Ergonomics “thing” actually had when compared with the topics we had been taught thus far!  We even started to develop our own “cogno-speak” student support document!

 

Nevertheless, we could all sense that there was definitely a culture change in the air – one that has grown exponentially since, and continues to flourish.  I guess my one concern with the domains of HCI or Cognitive Ergonomics is that, in my experience, and certainly since undertaking the MSc and meeting some of the later generation of students from UCL and elsewhere, I (and many others who were “classically” trained) have noticed a distinct tendency for practitioners of said topics – especially those interacting with industry, as opposed to those who are closeted within academia – to sometimes lose sight of what it is they’re trying to achieve.  Indeed, this has even led on occasions to losing the hearts and minds of their stakeholders altogether.  Not completely sure why this is – probably a language thing – but I do think that HCI practitioners sometimes do themselves no favours in the way they present their theories and results to the individuals and groups they’re trying to engage with.  Ergonomists are not blame-free either!

 

All in all, I have to say that I count myself as one of the “lucky ones”.  When taking my Ergonomics Masters at UCL, I had the benefit both of the established Harry Maule era and an insight into the new era of Cognitive Ergonomics and HCI.

 

Subsequent-to-MSc View of HCI/Cognitive Ergonomics:

 

Of course, having said the above, HCI/Cognitive Ergonomics is now recognised as a field of research and practice in its own right and the disciplines have played a highly important role in my career, in both my industrial and commercial “eras” and, more recently (since 2003), in my academic pursuits.  The rapidly evolving fields of Virtual and Augmented Reality, not to mention issues of blended control in the supervision of complex robotic systems, interaction with digital humans and the special interface design requirements of hospitalised patients or those with dementia, all call for a strong knowledge of HCI techniques, from usability analyses and multimodal interface design to the measurement of mental workload and situational awareness.

 

However, the “classical” topics making up the discipline of Ergonomics, as taught during my time at UCL, have not been wasted.  Regardless of whether it was in support of defence projects in what was my first job at the British Aerospace Dynamics Group in Filton, my time as a research manager at the UK’s National Advanced Robotics Research Centre, as director of a Virtual Reality company, even fulfilling the role of Research Director for the Human Factors Integration Defence Technology Centre, participating in projects that require both “classical” and the “modern” approaches to the pursuit of excellence in Human Factors has – for me, at least – delivered the greatest degree of satisfaction.

 

Additional Reflections:

 

All in all the course was excellent – honestly, the best education decision I ever made, especially as I saw far too many of my Psychology peers ending up working in retail outlets and similar establishments, which was a great shame.  It was also quite useful being the youngest on the course, as I managed to pick up some useful hints and tips from some of the older students relating to real human-in-the-loop projects they had been involved with.

 

What memories stand out?  Well, there are many, but I do recall a few key experiences.  For instance, lunchtimes after Physiology lectures at Chelsea College (I think that’s where they were held) were always interesting.  On the “advice” of previous students, we were encouraged to retire to a nearby hostelry for food, beverages and, well, let’s just say “disrobing entertainment”.  Not at all politically or academically correct, but I was the youngster in the group, after all, and, as such, had to make certain sacrifices to gain the acceptance of my peers!  And what about the inspirational lectures on the Systems and Instrumentation module by Heinz Wolff at the Clinical Research Centre?  I recall Heinz presenting in his usual unique style, focusing on the Ergonomics aspects of designing a public spaghetti-dispensing machine!

 

On a more serious note, I have strong and fond memories of the visits to Farnborough in the good old days, when the Army Personnel Research Establishment, the Royal Aircraft Establishment and the Institute of Aviation Medicine represented all that was excellent in British Human Factors R&D.  Those visits alone convinced me that I was destined to pursue a career in defence and aerospace.

 

I also remember with fondness the anthropometry and biomechanics lectures at the Royal Free, courtesy of our sadly missed colleagues, Professor Don Grieve and Dr Steve Pheasant.  Don took great pleasure in giving his musculo-skeletal lectures whilst leaning on the nose of his latest cadaver, not to mention pulling back the body cover sheet – in an almost Quincy-esque way (for those of you who remember the introduction to that old TV series!) – to expose the underlying dissection work in progress!  And yes, one of our students did keel over (not mentioning any names!).

 

The trips that were put on by the Ergonomics Unit were also first class and did much to foster an appreciation of how important it is not to practice the discipline as an “armchair specialist”.  Getting out into the real world, observing, engaging, even working with end users is absolutely essential to our discipline.  Yet, even today, I come across researchers who generate Human Factors recommendations without going anywhere near the system or workplace of interest.  The Ergonomics Unit academic staff (and Rachel in particular) introduced us to a wide range of real-world activities, from control centre design on the London Underground and driving the tube trains on the recently-opened Jubilee Line, to human-mediated postcode sorting at the Post Office’s building in Croydon (long before optical character recognition!).

 

One visit, to Walls’ Food Processing Factory in Acton, was quite an experience.  I remember being amazed at the workers whose sole job it was to sit around a large metal container and peel hard-boiled eggs for Gala Pies all day!  The goody bag of meat items that we all received at the end of the visit was a welcome donation to our otherwise empty student fridges!  Well … maybe not all of us, as there were those who said they would never eat pies and sausages again!  Nevertheless, the experience stuck with me and actually helped enormously when I was called upon later in life to conduct an Ergonomics evaluation of working conditions in a well-known, Hereford-based chicken processing factory.

 

The trip to Donisthorpe Colliery in Leicestershire was, for me, the highlight of the course, and John Long, still very new to the Ergonomics Unit, joined us on that occasion.  Sadly the coal mine officially closed the year after our visit, but the experience of being winched into a dark, dusty and very noisy environment, with the occasional pressure wave caused by blasting, was certainly one that dominated our discussions for a long time thereafter.  We were also accompanied on that trip by Laird Evans, a final year student at UWIST.  Not only was I to meet Laird soon after leaving UCL, when we both started work at British Aerospace, he was also Best Man at my first wedding!  Laird stayed on at Filton after I had left to join the UK National Advanced Robotics Research Centre in Salford – to this day he’s still involved with BAE Systems at Filton in his role of Human Factors Capability Leader.

 

As an aside, I recently found my Ergonomics 1979/1980 Course Mug which itself brought back some great memories, including, for example, in October 1979 visiting the home of our resident potter, Stewart Thompson, together with Tony Rubin and David Pullinger, to watch the (then) latest Quatermass TV series (starring John Mills).  Not sure his mugs adhered to any Ergonomic criteria, but, when full, you certainly needed a strong arm and wrist to handle the hot contents!

 

The experiences I gained from my Ergonomics project have served me well over the years, especially with regard to the importance of engaging with stakeholders – end users, members of the public, management, unions and so on, not to mention learning the different languages of a multidisciplinary team and ensuring that design concepts and modifications are presented to, and evaluated with stakeholders on regular occasions.  Sound like ISO9241?  You bet it does!

 

Looking back on those pioneering days, I remember building 5th, 50th and 95th Plasticine models of W.H. Smith employees to evaluate the cardboard shopfront and checkout models we constructed with the technical team in the basement at Bedford Way.  Having recently (2014) delivered a Virtual Reality Submarine Command Space Prototyping Tool to Dstl – one that includes digital, poseable avatars with different anthropometric dimensions, I wonder how we ever coped in the days before digitisation and Virtual Reality!  Not to mention, having to type up the MSc thesis using a cheap manual (non-electric) typewriter, with every illustration lovingly prepared using Letraset rub-down characters and Rotring technical drawing pens!!  What a shame that my full-size checkout prototype, which was installed at the W.H. Smith branch in Wood Green, ended up in splinters – a collateral casualty of the IRA bombing in December, 1992.

 

Nevertheless, I can safely say that my time at Bedford Way has had a major impact on my life and career.  Even when getting involved in radically new technology areas, such as Robotics in the late 1980s and Virtual Reality in the early 1990s, it was the important message of “putting the human first” that stuck with me.  My current post is Chair in Interactive Multimedia Systems at the University of Birmingham and I direct a small group of engineers, simulation and AI specialists called the Human Interface Technologies Team (see www.birmingham.ac.uk/stone).  As well as my main research interests in Virtual and Augmented Reality applied to defence, healthcare and cultural heritage, together with a strong ongoing involvement in future land, air and subsea remotely operated systems, I also teach first year, third year and Masters students.  I am always conscious that some of the Ergonomics and Human Factors messages I feed my students are not at all dissimilar from those that were fed to me all those years ago.  In fact, I still have my course notes from 1979 and some of the contents are as applicable and significant now as they were back then.
As anyone can see from my Uni website, I am still seriously hanging on in there, despite the fact that I sometimes feel some of my academic colleagues are desperately in need of a reality check!  As for my Student Reflections, sorry it has taken so long – we are constantly on the go with funded projects (thank goodness!) and, as you’ll see from my Uni Website, I spend a lot of time taking my students into the field with all sorts of evolving technologies.  I am not sure my memory has been entirely up to writing these reflections, but it’s been amazing how sitting down and going through a few photographs from the course and finding that old ceramic mug has helped to bring the fading memories back to the surface!

To finish things off, here’s a photo of our visit to Donisthorpe Coalmine, February, 1980.

 

Donisthorpe Coalmine Ergonomics Feb 1980 a

 

Student Project: W.H.Smith Check-out Model

 

Picture 2

 

W.H.Smith Check-out Actual
Picture 3
1974/75 Rachel Birnbaum 150 150 John

1974/75 Rachel Birnbaum

Rachel Birnbaum (now Benedyk)

Picture 1

 

Date of MSc: 1974/1975
Project Title:      

“A Quantitative Evaluation of Microclimate Air Exchange in Protective Clothing Assemblies”, supervised by Geoff Crockford, and hosted by the Institute of Occupational Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Pre-MSc Background: BSc (Hons), Biology, Queen Mary College, University of London. Gap year industrial experience in product quality control.
Pre-MSc Ergonomics:

 

I had never heard of Ergonomics until the last year of my undergraduate studies.  I had no good direction to my career until then, and studied Biology at uni simply because it was my best A level subject.  My enthusiasm for Biology gradually faded, as we spent time meticulously drawing shark skulls, and learning the taxonomy for fungi.  I was briefly fired up by an introduction to Ecology and the idea of animal populations and environments, and my reading in that area started to creep towards Anthropology.  I realised I was very interested in people.  Alas, the university tutors latched on to this as an opening to medicine or similar as a career, but I couldn’t bear the idea of dealing with sick people, I wanted to study human behaviour.  A chance discussion with a PhD demonstrator steered me towards Psychology as the answer.  QMC didn’t teach Psychology, but thanks to the University of London umbrella organisation, I was able to take a course unit in Psychology at the sister College of LSE along the road.  That Psychology course changed my life.  It was just a basic introduction, but I was more interested in it than in any of the Biology teaching.  At the end, the Psychology tutor suggested I might like to further my interest through a Masters degree, and rifling through the list he proffered, I saw an advert for the MSc in Ergonomics. I remember clearly what jumped out at me about that advert, the description talked about humans in their environment, and design to enhance their safety, well being and efficiency, especially at work; it seemed to combine my interests in people, my work experience in industry (during my gap year) and my hobbies of craft and design.  I told myself, if I ever got bored with it, I would look for another direction; I haven’t yet got bored, forty something years later!

 

I wasn’t sure I could get a place on the MSc course, so I half-heartedly applied for teacher training courses at the same time.  I remember dreading that I would end up training as a biology schoolteacher, and I’m glad I didn’t do it because I would have been a very poor one.  I don’t have the patience to teach young people; the teaching I have ended up doing, to mature and motivated adults, gives me back as much as I give them.  It is a completely different ball-game.

 

I was very lucky to be awarded one of the few grants for MSc students sponsored by the MRC.  I had no money at all to pay the fees at the time, and I would have had to defer my place without the grant. There were only 10 students in our group, and we had no base to call home; the Ergonomics Unit consisted at the time of a single large office room in the Engineering block at UCL, in which Harry Maule the Director and his wife Gunvor, who acted as his Secretary, worked.  They were warmly welcoming, and wonderfully hospitable (especially good memories of the great summer party up in their house on Box Hill!) but we had to be very self-reliant during the course.  Every teaching session was held in a different venue, often in a different college, in a different part of London.  Harry, and Joe Weiner his colleague, had gathered anyone in the University of London who empathised with the inter-disciplinary ergonomic approach, and they all contributed to the teaching.  It was rather haphazard, and even chaotic, but they all shared with us the feeling we were building something new and impressive and we had to hold it all together.  It was, I believe, the first inter-collegiate inter-disciplinary masters degree in the University of London, and it broke new ground.

 

We were taught Occupational Psychology by Alec Rodgers and Pat Shipley at Birkbeck; Physiology by Rainer Goldsmith at Chelsea; Biomechanics by Don Grieve at RFHSM; Systems by David Broome at UCL Engineering; Statistics by staff at the LSHTM; Psychology by Arthur Summerfield at Birkbeck; Instrumentation by Heinz Woolf at the MRC; and through it all, Harry arranged for invaluable guest lecturers and industrial visits that provided illustrations of problems and case studies and applied research to direct us to solutions. We also had immense fun; I remember driving a reverse-vision jeep at the RAE; steering a nautical bridge simulator (based on early analogue computers); crawling in a two foot seam down a coal mine; being shocked by men working at a giant furnace in a steelworks; driving a tube train on the Victoria Line; trekking miles round the car production assembly line at Fords; and being horrified at the production process at Walls sausages. Oddly, there was at that time no teaching on the course labelled “ergonomics” as such.  We soaked it all up and at some point it just clicked and we were smitten with an “ergonomic eye” (from which no one ever recovers).

 

One of the guest lecturers was Geoff Crockford, who researched the hazardous aspects of protective clothing.  I enjoyed his teaching and approached him as a host for my MSc Project (in those days you had to fend for yourself to find a project!) and he carved out a section of his upcoming research programme on trawlermen’s clothing, for my project. Through this I got my first job post-MSc, as his RA on that research programme.  It was a formative experience. I had to deal with trawlermen as the user group, meeting them on the dockside when they came back from a fishing trip, and getting ragged by the local popular press as the “girl who is measuring our lads’ bodies,” when I set up an anthropometric survey. I had to learn to cope, and quickly!  The research was well received – I presented it at my first Ergonomics Society Conference, in Aston in 1977- and a paper in Applied Ergonomics Journal followed.  And my MSc Project was awarded the Alf Uberg Award for that year.  I look now at the photo I have of the young me, receiving the award from Prof Brian Shackel who was the ES Chair of Council then, and I recognise my building enthusiasm for ergonomics and my certainty that this was where I belonged.
Post-MSc Ergonomics:

 

 

Like most RA’s employed at university, I was expected to do some teaching, which at the Institute of Occupational Health meant teaching Ergonomics to the Masters students in Occupational Hygiene and Occupational Medicine. This was a real eye-opener for me, to meet doctors and engineers who were trying to prevent injury and illness in the workplace, and to help them recognise the value of an applied ergonomic approach. This was hugely rewarding work.  I discovered the excitement of teaching in an interactive manner, of engaging students with real-world problems, and of relating ergonomics to other disciplines.  I expanded and continued my teaching from that point on, contributing occasional teaching in ergonomics to several industrial design schools, to other masters in health and para-medical training, and to undergraduates in psychology, engineering and architecture, over the subsequent several years. But the most important teaching engagement I had was an approach from the UCL Ergonomics Unit itself – would I take on the teaching of a short course in Introduction to Human Physiology, to help those students on the MSc Ergonomics who came from non-human science backgrounds?  I couldn’t resist, I dived in and tackled it with relish. It was wonderful to contribute something back to the MSc.

 

And so I was back in touch with Harry Maule and the Ergonomics Unit and thus I became aware that they had permission to expand, to take on a Lecturer, and Chris Peace was appointed.  Unfortunately, he very soon had to leave due to ill-health, and the position became vacant.  I couldn’t believe it when Joe Weiner himself rang me up and asked me to apply!  I was only 3 years out from the MSc myself, and when appointed I was the youngest lecturer in the Faculty.  By today’s recruitment criteria I would be badly under-qualified to hold a lectureship, but I must have said the right things at the interviews and I was full of plans to contribute value to the organisation and teaching of the MSc course, and so I became the Course Tutor.

 

This was only a year or two before Harry Maule’s planned retirement, and the appointment of John Long as Director.  It was a time of change, expansion of the Unit, consolidation of the MSc course and rapid developments in the field.  It was good to be a key player, but there were mentors on hand that helped and influenced me greatly:  Harry Maule himself, who believed in my contributions from the start; Paul Barber who clarified for me the place of experimental psychology in ergonomics; Ed Marshall who convinced me of the role ergonomics can play in industry; Heather Ward who partnered me in many volunteering activities for the Ergonomics Society and demonstrated business skills I needed; Tom Stewart whose contributions to applied ergonomics and the budding discipline of HCI had enormous impact on me; and of course Steve Pheasant, the erudite and enlightened ergonomist whose approach to physical ergonomics had the most influence on me.

 

Subsequent-to-MSc View of Ergonomics:

 

When I try to think back and tease out my “view” of ergonomics, then and now, I find that difficult.  I started with applying my training to problems of occupational health and safety, and that has stayed with me throughout my career, cemented further at times by learning of industrial disasters that pointed up critical roles for ergonomics (Piper Alpha, Three Mile Island, Kings Cross) and by the introduction of the “6-pack” of health and safety regulations whose ergonomic risk assessments gave us the first legislative clout for the discipline.  I became interested in accessibility issues for users when I myself became deaf. My experience teaching on industrial design courses exposed me to the endless potential for ergonomics to improve products. And having been trained in the 70’s, I have always encouraged a systems approach to the application of ergonomics to real-world problems.

 

I started as a “generalist” ergonomist, and aligned with that part of the MSc teaching when under John Long the course expanded to include an HF/HCI stream; and I am still a generalist, and very much an applied one. However, more and more nowadays I do not see these parts as separate from the whole.  Working for the past few years to contribute Ergonomics to HCI students, I see no benefit in compartmentalisation.  It’s all user-centred design, it all shares the same objectives. Technology and human interaction with it will always benefit from a holistic understanding of every aspect of the users, and every factor influencing them. We waste our breath debating a name for what we are; it’s what we do and when we do it that counts, and an integrated approach gets better results.

 

So, I’m still there, at the old Ergonomics Unit, which over the years has gone through a number of metamorphoses (some of them quite painful) and is now called the UCL Interaction Centre. I’m now the Teaching Programme Director, and I reckon over 900 students have passed through here, on their way to contribute something useful to the world. I still root for the students and I still wave the flag for Ergonomics.  It’s all been immensely rewarding, and I am really grateful that I got on the MSc course all those years ago!

 

1977 – Rachel receiving the Alf Uberg award from Brian Shackel

 

Picture 2

 

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Rachel speaking at the EU and JL Au Revoir party.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2001/02 Minna Laurrell 150 150 John

2001/02 Minna Laurrell

This CV is a temporary place-holder for Minna’s MSc Reflections:

Digital content strategist, editor and creator

Curious Mind

 – Present (7 months)

Online Communications Manager

TeliaSonera

 –  (3 years 8 months)Stockholm, SwedenWebmaster and Editor-in-Chief of www.teliasonera.com in English, Swedish and Finnish.

Social Media and Newsletter Editor

Vattenfall AB

 –  (1 year 3 months)

L’OREAL

Magicalia

 –  (10 months)Magicalia is a leading UK online publisher in the online community and eCommerce sectors.

User Researcher

Oyster Partners (now LBI)

Amberlight

 –  (5 months)

BBC Worldwide

 –  (3 months)

Tri-lingual Trade Assistant

Promofrance Nordik

 –  (1 year)

 

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