Centre for Human Factors and Sociotechnical Systems

Much has been written regarding both the potential positive and negative impacts of fully autonomous, or ‘driverless’, vehicles. If we believe the hype, driverless vehicles will eradicate driver errors and help dramatically reduce the road toll. If we believe the naysayers, the road toll may initially increase rather than decline as driverless vehicles fail to … More Beyond the road: some of the wider societal impacts of autonomous vehicles

The Centre for Human Factors and Sociotechnical Systems at the University of the Sunshine Coast will be holding a Research Symposium and a suite of Methods Workshops in February 2019. Discounts apply if you attend multiple days. Hear from local and international human factors experts who will be sharing emerging research findings and providing training … More Systems Thinking: Optimising Performance and Minimising Risk

Centre members have had a busy year writing and editing five new books describing our research in the areas of road safety and intersection design, incident reporting and learning, systems analysis with the Event Analysis of Systemic Teamwork, vehicle design, and land use planning and urban design. All five books have a strong focus on … More Centre members publish 5 new books

For most of us, driving to work will be the riskiest thing we do today – and the risk is higher for drivers under 30! Road traffic injuries are the eighth highest cause of death worldwide and the leading cause of death for people aged 15-29. In addition to this, 50 million people a year … More WHEN EXPERIENCE ISN’T ALWAYS HELPFUL: ATTENTION IN DRIVING

Congratulations to  Scott McLean and Adam Hulme on your presentations at the USC Research Showcase, your research is making waves in the field, Ben Lane and Gemma Read on your Minute to Win it presentations, and Elise Berber on your fantastic poster in the student poster competition. We would also like to thank our fabulous panel … More USC Research Showcase High Performance Sport 2018

Everybody knows near misses because you’ve lived them – the sharp intake of breath, the spike in adrenalin, and the feelings of relief and residual fear about ‘what if?’. Whether it was getting cut-off in traffic, stepping back just in time as a bus pulls up to the kerb, or a narrowly avoided accident in … More Learning about ‘what goes right’ from near miss incidents

The NETworked Hazard Analysis and Risk Management System (NET-HARMS) Although the systems thinking philosophy is widely accepted in accident analysis and investigation, it has not yet gained traction in the area of risk assessment. A recent review of over 300 risk assessment methods found that most focus predominantly on the risks associated with human error … More NET-HARMS: A new systems thinking-based risk assessment method

Our director, Professor Paul Salmon, and adjunct member Professor Neville Stanton are spending this week and next week contributing to a seminar focussing on the role of human factors research in understanding and optimising future defence systems. The seminars are being presented by the Defence Science and Technology Group in the lead up to the launch of … More Human Performance and the Intersection of Technology in Defence

Big congratulations to Tim Neville on his PhD graduation. We wish him all the best with his exciting future.

Over the past few years Centre members have published a series of short articles outlining our human factors and systems thinking research via The Conversation. These quick to read and easy to digest articles cover various topics ranging from transport safety, accident causation, automation, corruption in sport, land use planning and urban design, and sports performance … More Links to all Centre Conversation articles