production
Skip to Content

EG55P9: HUMAN FACTORS ENGINEERING (2020-2021)

Last modified: 05 Aug 2021 13:04


Course Overview

Human Factors Engineering (HFE) relates to how people interact with engineering systems. Failures in these areas are involved in all major incidents. Candidates explore them as part of this course. First, a review of major accidents will be undertaken to identify how equipment design, individual behaviours, and organisational behaviours contributed. Equipment/system design and the effect it has on individuals' behaviours is explored. Human Error is addressed. Finally, organisational behaviours will be examined. Leading and Lagging indicators are explored and their strengths/weaknesses considered. Candidates have the opportunity to complete practical assessments led by industry practitioners with specialist expertise in HFE.

Course Details

Study Type Postgraduate Level 5
Session Second Sub Session Credit Points 15 credits (7.5 ECTS credits)
Campus Aberdeen Sustained Study No
Co-ordinators
  • Dr Waheed Afzal

What courses & programmes must have been taken before this course?

  • Any Postgraduate Programme (Studied)
  • Engineering (EG) (Studied)

What other courses must be taken with this course?

None.

What courses cannot be taken with this course?

None.

Are there a limited number of places available?

No

Course Description

Human Factors Engineering (HFE) covers a range of issues relating to how people interact with complex engineering systems. These can be grouped into one of three main areas - Man-Equipment interfaces and interactions; Organisational Behaviours; and Personal Behaviour/Human Error. Failures in these three areas are involved in all major incidents and candidates will explore them as part of this course. First, a review of a number of major accidents will be undertaken to identify how the equipment design, individual behaviours, and organisational behaviours contributed. The role of equipment/system design and the effect it has on individuals' behaviours is then explored, including man-machine interfaces. Human Error is then addressed, including error types and the impact of environmental factors. This will be applied to Critical Task Analysis and Human Reliability Assessment. Finally, organisational behaviours will be examined. Leading and Lagging indicators are explored and their strengths and weaknesses considered. At each stage, students will have the opportunity to complete practical assessments led by industry practitioners with specialist expertise in HFE.


Contact Teaching Time

Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.

Teaching Breakdown

More Information about Week Numbers


Details, including assessments, may be subject to change until 31 August 2023 for 1st half-session courses and 22 December 2023 for 2nd half-session courses.

Summative Assessments

(i) Assignment (30%)

(ii) Assignment (30%)

(iii) Assignment (40%) 

 

Resit (For Students taking course in Academic Year 2020/21)

Re-sit of only the failed assessment component(s)

Formative Assessment

There are no assessments for this course.

Course Learning Outcomes

Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
FactualRememberILO’s for this course are available in the course guide.

Compatibility Mode

We have detected that you are have compatibility mode enabled or are using an old version of Internet Explorer. You either need to switch off compatibility mode for this site or upgrade your browser.