Human Factors & Ergonomics (HFE) Hub

In this engaging discussion, Stephanie Black, a Programs and Policy manager specializing in workplace wellbeing and diversity in the resources sector, shares her insights. She unveils a Mental Health Maturity Assessment Tool aimed at organizations, emphasizing the importance of peer learning over top-down approaches. Stephanie highlights the challenges of cognitive demand in the workplace, offering practical solutions like nap rooms. She also explores transformative megatrends affecting jobs and skills, predicting a rising need for human factors expertise in navigating the complexities of modern work.

Paul Lambertson and Sharon Todd chat about his experience in Flight Deck design and his use of Systems Theoretical Process Analysis (STPA) (Levenson & Thomas 2018).Paul Lambertson has been in the aerospace industry for over twenty years and in that time he has had a focus on human to machine interface for the design and operations of flight decks. He has had lead projects on all of Boeings current commercial aircraft and has been fortunate to lead many teams.  These team include human factors and ergonomics, test and evaluation, Optics and lighting and human system integration and strategy. Paul currently leads a team for flight deck product development for simulation and strategy. He is currently a Cochair of the INCOSE Human System Integration working group. Paul has been interested in the human to machine interfaces since he first flew  aircraft as a young kid ,  As a kid He was engaged in improving aircraft interfaces. This developed into a passion for improving the human interfaces.  His first major human interface activity was in the automotive industry working to understand noise, vibration and handling from a user perspective.  Paul took these skills to the aircraft industry. He is a pilot, has a Bachelor’s of Science in Mechanical Engineering a Master’s in Business Administration and several certificates related to systems engineering, technology, ergonomics and human factors.This podcast is brought to you by the Human Factors and Ergonomic Society of Australia. If you like this podcast please make us your favourite on your podcast app. If you want to find out more about Human Factors and Ergonomics or if you have a question about this podcast please go to the HFESA website ergonomics.org.au and make your request via our contact page. DISCLAIMER Please find our full disclaimer at: www.ergonomics.org.au/term-conditions/This content is for informational purposes only, does not constitute advice and should not be considered as a replacement for professional judgment in clinical, research, academic, or other expert fields. Views expressed by speakers and guests are their own and do not necessarily represent the view of HFESA. HFESA makes no guarantees and accepts no liability in connection with the accuracy and currency of this content and does not endorse any specific service, publication or entity mentioned. Unauthorised reproduction, distribution, duplication, modification, or exploitation of this podcast content is strictly prohibited. You are  prohibited from recording, copying, or storing content for commercial purposes, using automated processes to extract or collect content, creating derivative works from the content, or using content for artifici...

Chris Polaczuk and Steve Kolose chat to Sharon Todd about their participative tradie programme.Musculoskeletal injuries have resulted in significant lost productivity in the New Zealand Construction industry and are especially prevalent in the specialist trades. Despite recent advances in health, safety and technology meaningful interventions to reduce these injuries in construction remain elusive. To compound the issue pain and injury has been accepted as part of the trade and an inevitability by many kiwi tradies. The Work Should Not Hurt programme https://www.chasnz.org/work-should-not-hurt  is unique in that it  generates awareness, research and interventions from tradespeople themselves. Combining an Ergonomics approach and a bit of ‘number eight wire mentality’ the programme has created innovative tools such as the Foundation guide, the ‘Wall of Pain’, 3 steps to a pain free career and a mind/ body mental fitness programme.Join the world's only Kiwi duo of Construction Ergonomists Chris Polaczuk and Dr Steve Kolose for a look at the programme and whats working well in New Zealand. Learn about their library of home grown resources including some of the participative research projects such as the scaffolding and roofing industry trials. Hear about the benefits and challenges of participatory ergonomics and how you can take on a macho culture to improve the design of work.This podcast is brought to you by the Human Factors and Ergonomic Society of Australia. If you like this podcast please make us your favourite on your podcast app. If you want to find out more about Human Factors and Ergonomics or if you have a question about this podcast please go to the HFESA website ergonomics.org.au and make your request via our contact page. DISCLAIMER Please find our full disclaimer at: www.ergonomics.org.au/term-conditions/This content is for informational purposes only, does not constitute advice and should not be considered as a replacement for professional judgment in clinical, research, academic, or other expert fields. Views expressed by speakers and guests are their own and do not necessarily represent the view of HFESA. HFESA makes no guarantees and accepts no liability in connection with the accuracy and currency of this content and does not endorse any specific service, publication or entity mentioned. Unauthorised reproduction, distribution, duplication, modification, or exploitation of this podcast content is strictly prohibited. You are  prohibited from recording, copying, or storing content for commercial purposes, using automated processes to extract or collect content, creating derivative works from the content, or using content for artifici...

Professor Catherine Burns talks to SharonTodd (CPE) about her experiences with system design and AI systems in health.Catherine M. Burns is Professor in Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo, Canada and Associate Vice President, Health Initiatives at the Office of Research at the University of Waterloo.In her past administrative roles she has been engaged with institutional and tri agency funding programs, research partnerships, Waterloo’s equity in research action plan, and research computing.Catherine was the founder of the Centre for Bioengineering and Biotechnology at Waterloo and led the centre from a faculty to an institutional centre over 8 years. In 2020 she chaired Waterloo’s Health Initiatives Task force to develop a health strategy in response to Waterloo’s 2025 Strategic Plan. In her role as AVP, Health Initiatives she is responsible for advancing Waterloo research in health and health technology. Catherine holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Human Factors and Healthcare Systems, has contributed over 300 publications and is the co-author of seven books and the PI on an NSERC CREATE Training program in biomedical technology and entrepreneurship which has trained over 40 graduate students from various faculties across campus.This podcast is brought to you by the Human Factors and Ergonomic Society of Australia. If you like this podcast please make us your favourite on your podcast app. If you want to find out more about Human Factors and Ergonomics or if you have a question about this podcast please go to the HFESA website ergonomics.org.au and make your request via our contact page. DISCLAIMER Please find our full disclaimer at: www.ergonomics.org.au/term-conditions/This content is for informational purposes only, does not constitute advice and should not be considered as a replacement for professional judgment in clinical, research, academic, or other expert fields. Views expressed by speakers and guests are their own and do not necessarily represent the view of HFESA. HFESA makes no guarantees and accepts no liability in connection with the accuracy and currency of this content and does not endorse any specific service, publication or entity mentioned. Unauthorised reproduction, distribution, duplication, modification, or exploitation of this podcast content is strictly prohibited. You are  prohibited from recording, copying, or storing content for commercial purposes, using automated processes to extract or collect content, creating derivative works from the content, or using content for artifici...

Sharon Todd is chatting to Adjunct Professor Kate Conroy one of the HFESA's Keynote speakers at our annual  conference in Brisbane this year.Dr Kate Conroy is a specialist in building trustworthy, ethical, and assured robotics, autonomous systems, and artificial Intelligence (RAS-AI) systems in both military and civilian domains. Dr Conroy works in AI Safety and Assurance Queensland Government and is Responsible AI Lead Royal Australian Air Force. With a PhD in philosophy from Rutgers University, specialising in epistemology, cognitive science and applied ethics, she is also Adjunct Professor at QUT Centre for Robotics and Associate Professor Human-centred computing at the University of Queensland. She speaks today in her personal capacity.This podcast is brought to you by the Human Factors and Ergonomic Society of Australia. If you like this podcast please make us your favourite on your podcast app. If you want to find out more about Human Factors and Ergonomics or if you have a question about this podcast please go to the HFESA website ergonomics.org.au and make your request via our contact page. DISCLAIMER Please find our full disclaimer at: www.ergonomics.org.au/term-conditions/This content is for informational purposes only, does not constitute advice and should not be considered as a replacement for professional judgment in clinical, research, academic, or other expert fields. Views expressed by speakers and guests are their own and do not necessarily represent the view of HFESA. HFESA makes no guarantees and accepts no liability in connection with the accuracy and currency of this content and does not endorse any specific service, publication or entity mentioned. Unauthorised reproduction, distribution, duplication, modification, or exploitation of this podcast content is strictly prohibited. You are  prohibited from recording, copying, or storing content for commercial purposes, using automated processes to extract or collect content, creating derivative works from the content, or using content for artifici...

Kath Jones is chatting to Dr John Chan about Burnout. Dr. John Chan is the managing director at Infinite Potential, an independent not-for-profit think tank that develops high-quality, rigorous research, evaluation, and practical solutions to address some of the most pressing workplace problems. An Industrial/Organisational psychologist with 20+ years of global experience designing people strategies to transform how we work and our relationship with work. As a thought leader in the leadership, burnout and workplace sustainability space, John is a passionate advocate of making structural changes to create long-term impact, amplifying the voices and concerns of minorities and under-represented populations, and rethinking the workplace as a haven that nourishes us, rather than drains us.This podcast is brought to you by the Human Factors and Ergonomic Society of Australia. If you like this podcast please make us your favourite on your podcast app. If you want to find out more about Human Factors and Ergonomics or if you have a question about this podcast please go to the HFESA website ergonomics.org.au and make your request via our contact page. DISCLAIMER Please find our full disclaimer at: www.ergonomics.org.au/term-conditions/This content is for informational purposes only, does not constitute advice and should not be considered as a replacement for professional judgment in clinical, research, academic, or other expert fields. Views expressed by speakers and guests are their own and do not necessarily represent the view of HFESA. HFESA makes no guarantees and accepts no liability in connection with the accuracy and currency of this content and does not endorse any specific service, publication or entity mentioned. Unauthorised reproduction, distribution, duplication, modification, or exploitation of this podcast content is strictly prohibited. You are  prohibited from recording, copying, or storing content for commercial purposes, using automated processes to extract or collect content, creating derivative works from the content, or using content for artifici...

Kath Jones is chatting to Professor Anjum Naweed one the the keynote speakers at the HFESA conference in Brisbane in November this year about Simulation and AI. Professor Anjum Naweed is from the Appleton Institute for Behavioural Science in South Australia—the Adelaide-based campus of CQUniversity. Anjum is a Certified Professional Ergonomist with a background in psychology and expertise in human factors and systems thinking. He has over 15 years of experience across a range of industry sectors and occupational settings. Anjum’s research has received many accolades in recognition of his excellence in research activity, publication, and engagement and he has twice received the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Researcher of the Year (2013; 2018) at his university. He currently serves a Scientific Editor for Applied Ergonomics, an international journal aimed at ergonomists and all those interested in applying ergonomics and human factors in the design, planning and management of technical and social systems at work or leisure. He has been a Scientific Convenor for the Australasian Simulation Congress on five consecutive occasions, and for the Annual HFESA Conference twice.This podcast is brought to you by the Human Factors and Ergonomic Society of Australia. If you like this podcast please make us your favourite on your podcast app. If you want to find out more about Human Factors and Ergonomics or if you have a question about this podcast please go to the HFESA website ergonomics.org.au and make your request via our contact page. DISCLAIMER Please find our full disclaimer at: www.ergonomics.org.au/term-conditions/This content is for informational purposes only, does not constitute advice and should not be considered as a replacement for professional judgment in clinical, research, academic, or other expert fields. Views expressed by speakers and guests are their own and do not necessarily represent the view of HFESA. HFESA makes no guarantees and accepts no liability in connection with the accuracy and currency of this content and does not endorse any specific service, publication or entity mentioned. Unauthorised reproduction, distribution, duplication, modification, or exploitation of this podcast content is strictly prohibited. You are  prohibited from recording, copying, or storing content for commercial purposes, using automated processes to extract or collect content, creating derivative works from the content, or using content for artifici...

Sharon Todd and Professor Mark Young the current President of the CIEHF discuss his work in automated transport and the Think Human project to be launched in the midlands of the UK.Professor Mark Young is Professor of Human Factors in Transport within the Transportation Research Group at the University of Southampton and current President of the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors (CIEHF).  Mark has nearly 30 years’ experience working in human factors across transport modes in both academia and industry.  Before joining the University of Southampton in June 2023, Mark spent 11 years working as an Inspector at the Rail Accident Investigation Branch, applying his human factors expertise to the investigation of railway incidents and accidents.  Prior to this Mark undertook a six-month fellowship at UNSW in Australia with Prof Jason Middleton in 2004 as well as later completing a visiting post at Curtin Monash University with Prof Lynn Meuleners in the early 2010s.Mark has written over 70 peer-reviewed journal papers and five books, he is a Chartered Ergonomist and a Fellow of the CIEHF. For more background or to connect with Mark, go to:https://www.southampton.ac.uk/people/62gmgv/professor-mark-young This podcast is brought to you by the Human Factors and Ergonomic Society of Australia. If you like this podcast please make us your favourite on your podcast app. If you want to find out more about Human Factors and Ergonomics or if you have a question about this podcast please go to the HFESA website ergonomics.org.au and make your request via our contact page. DISCLAIMER Please find our full disclaimer at: www.ergonomics.org.au/term-conditions/This content is for informational purposes only, does not constitute advice and should not be considered as a replacement for professional judgment in clinical, research, academic, or other expert fields. Views expressed by speakers and guests are their own and do not necessarily represent the view of HFESA. HFESA makes no guarantees and accepts no liability in connection with the accuracy and currency of this content and does not endorse any specific service, publication or entity mentioned. Unauthorised reproduction, distribution, duplication, modification, or exploitation of this podcast content is strictly prohibited. You are  prohibited from recording, copying, or storing content for commercial purposes, using automated processes to extract or collect content, creating derivative works from the content, or using content for artifici...

Sharon Todd is chatting to Chris Fitzgerald about his practical application of Ergonomics and Humans factors to minimise injury risk.Chris Fitzgerald is a passionate Certified Professional Ergonomist whose career emphasis has been on facilitating meaningful and durable improvement in the design of work. His original career was in Prosthetics and Orthotics, but after 5 years of working in clinical environments, he transferred to Ergonomics to work in occupational settings and has operated his own consulting business, Risk and Injury Management Services, since 1993. A feature of Chris’s work has been the measurement of human activity in workplaces. This has involved quantifying force exertion in complex environments, the use of EMG to understand patterns of muscle activity and the utilisation of a whole-body system of 17 movement sensors to define the physical requirements of work tasks. Chris has been fortunate to work across a diverse range of industries and has developed specific expertise within emergency services (fire and ambulance), red meat processing, disability support services and the television industry to name a few. Chris’s work in ambulance design extended to his role for 8 years as the Head of Ergonomics for the Emergency Medical Services Safety Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation based in New York, USA. The Foundation had a global reach with involvement across North America, Europe and Asia, and actively promoted new approaches to the design of ambulances and methods of patient and equipment handling for paramedics. More recently Chris has gone back to his prosthetics roots where he has just completed a 3-year project in Indonesia, Timor Leste and Cambodia, with RMIT University in Melbourne. This project involved overseeing the implementation of a novel way of casting the transtibial residual limb of amputees using water pressure that resulted in a 60% efficiency gain for casting, manufacture and fitting and delivered a remarkable 96% approval rating from recipient amputees.  Chris’s current focus is on his role as a change leader within the Australian red meat processing industry where he is leading the industry’s selective introduction of exoskeletons. This podcast is brought to you by the Human Factors and Ergonomic Society of Australia. If you like this podcast please make us your favourite on your podcast app. If you want to find out more about Human Factors and Ergonomics or if you have a question about this podcast please go to the HFESA website ergonomics.org.au and make your request via our contact page. DISCLAIMER Please find our full disclaimer at: www.ergonomics.org.au/term-conditions/This content is for informational purposes only, does not constitute advice and should not be considered as a replacement for professional judgment in clinical, research, academic, or other expert fields. Views expressed by speakers and guests are their own and do not necessarily represent the view of HFESA. HFESA makes no guarantees and accepts no liability in connection with the accuracy and currency of this content and does not endorse any specific service, publication or entity mentioned. Unauthorised reproduction, distribution, duplication, modification, or exploitation of this podcast content is strictly prohibited. You are  prohibited from recording, copying, or storing content for commercial purposes, using automated processes to extract or collect content, creating derivative works from the content, or using content for artifici...

Sharon Todd is chatting to Adam Scott,  the Director of Cardiac Sciences at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. Adam has a PhD in Cardiac Medicine, from the University of London, Imperial College in the UK. Adam is an Adjunct Professor at QUT and is the Founder and Chairman of the White Cloud Foundation. He is passionate about creating solutions for problems in the health sector that have previously not been able to be solved. In doing so, he has created a Robotic Ultrasound solution to enable patients in regional/rural areas to access same day ultrasound procedures. At the White Cloud Foundation, he developed the Tele-Mental Health service which has removed the barriers to accessing mental health treatment. In 2024, his efforts were recognised when he was announced as a finalist for the Qld Australian of the Year.Adam declares he is a Director of RMI Oceania, which is the company that has developed the Robotic Ultrasound solution.This podcast is brought to you by the Human Factors and Ergonomic Society of Australia. If you like this podcast please make us your favourite on your podcast app. If you want to find out more about Human Factors and Ergonomics or if you have a question about this podcast please go to the HFESA website ergonomics.org.au and make your request via our contact page. DISCLAIMER Please find our full disclaimer at: www.ergonomics.org.au/term-conditions/This content is for informational purposes only, does not constitute advice and should not be considered as a replacement for professional judgment in clinical, research, academic, or other expert fields. Views expressed by speakers and guests are their own and do not necessarily represent the view of HFESA. HFESA makes no guarantees and accepts no liability in connection with the accuracy and currency of this content and does not endorse any specific service, publication or entity mentioned. Unauthorised reproduction, distribution, duplication, modification, or exploitation of this podcast content is strictly prohibited. You are  prohibited from recording, copying, or storing content for commercial purposes, using automated processes to extract or collect content, creating derivative works from the content, or using content for artifici...