Good morning, Steve Kemp - HFES. Please enjoy this issue of the HFES Bulletin.

Table of Contents:

• HFES Annual Meeting a Categorical Success
• November 9 Is World Usability Day
• Call for Nominations — IEA Fellow Award
• HFES Policy Statement on Voting Systems October 2023
• HFES Policy Statement on AI Guardrails for Human Use
• HFES Announces 2023 Stanley Caplan User-Centered Product Design Award
• Evaluating the Performance of Systems That Involve Human Behavior and Control
• Registration To Open Soon for Titans of HFE Symposium
• Save the Date for the International Symposium on Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health Care 2024
• Show Your HFES Spirit: Grab Your Branded Gear Today
• Upcoming HFES Webinar
• Biden Honors Dr. Juan Gilbert with National Medal of Technology and Innovation
• Improving Healthcare Using Engineering Principles
• Take This Time To Renew Your HFES Membership for 2024
• HFES Schedule of Events

HFES Annual Meeting a Categorical Success

More than 1,500 individuals attended the 67th International Annual Meeting of HFES last week in Washington, DC — including 85 individuals from 20 nations. Thank you to all who attended.

Attendees had their choice of more than 600 presentations ranging from panels, lecture sessions, demonstrations, posters, and more. The meeting began with a session honoring Society award winners. The next morning, opening session keynote presenter Meredith Broussard engaged attendees on topics related to race, gender, and ability bias in tech. Phil Kortum (Rice University) delivered a presentation in a special session on “UX Day” that addressed how design failures can help us think about good design. Then, guest presenter Lawrence Jones from the Edison Electric Institute presented on designing user-centric sustainable and resilient critical infrastructures. This was fitting as the HFES COTG and Executive Council approved the formation of a new Sustainability Technical Group at their business meeting held immediately before the annual meeting.

We greatly appreciate our members and others who journeyed to Washington, DC for one of our largest meetings. Photos from the meeting are available for viewing here. 

We hope to repeat the success of this year’s annual meeting and add new features to attract even more attendees from HFES and related technical areas at our next annual meeting, named ASPIRE, in Phoenix, Arizona from Sept. 9–13, 2024. Much more information regarding next year’s annual meeting is coming soon!

November 9 Is World Usability Day

World Usability Day is a day of events occurring around the world to bring together communities of professional, industrial, educational, citizen, and government groups for a common objective: to ensure that the services and products important to life are easier to access and simpler to use.



It is about celebration and education — celebrating the strides we have made in creating usable products and educating the masses about how usability impacts our daily lives. It is about making our world work better. It is about reaching out to the common citizen and spreading the message: we don’t have to put up with products and services that don’t work well and that human error is a misnomer.

Call for Nominations — IEA Fellow Award

Each year, Federated societies of the International Ergonomics Association are invited to forward names of candidates to be considered for IEA Fellowship. HFES is accepting applications for IEA Fellow from its members through Dec. 14, 2023. The application submission deadline is sooner than typical due to the 2024 IEA Triennial Meeting dates.

Applicants must be a Fellow of HFES and a member in good standing for at least the preceding ten years. Self-nominations are permitted and members of HFES may submit applications on behalf of another qualifying HFES Fellow.

HFES Policy Statement on Voting Systems October 2023

Election operations and their integrity are critical to a sustained democracy — an issue that has received increased public scrutiny in recent years. This is an area where Human Factors science plays a critical role. If ballot marking and tabulation do not accurately reflect the will of the voters, it threatens election integrity just as would other kinds of fraud or malfeasance. There are multiple areas in voting where human factors concerns are applicable: general usability of voting systems, accessibility, overseas voting, ballot counting, ranked-choice voting and ballot verification. Several policy recommendations are proposed to address these challenges and help ensure the integrity of election processes.

HFES Policy Statement on AI Guardrails for Human Use

AI has the potential to augment human capabilities and improve overall human well-being. However, human-decision making and performance can also be negatively impacted by AI systems, resulting in inappropriate decision biasing6, reduced awareness and understanding of situational information and poor performance. Guardrails are needed to protect people from significant harm from these systems and to support people’s ability to engage with AI usefully and effectively.

HFES Announces 2023 Stanley Caplan User-Centered Product Design Award



In a recent announcement, the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) revealed the winner of the 22nd Annual Stanley Caplan User-Centered Product Design Award. Mallinckrodt plc, in collaboration with Delve, clinched this prestigious award for their groundbreaking INOmax EVOLVETM Delivery System (DS). The INOmax EVOLVETM DS is designed for the delivery of INOmax® (nitric oxide) gas for inhalation, a treatment approved by the FDA to enhance oxygenation and reduce the need for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in neonates with respiratory issues.

Evaluating the Performance of Systems That Involve Human Behavior and Control

Test and evaluation protocols that include human participants as a component of the human–machine–computer systems are being developed and implemented in industry and academia. Human-specific testing procedures are applicable when human behavior is involved in those systems. A wide variety of factors that affect human variability must be controlled or accounted for, which if ignored, could result in an evaluator hearing, "You did what?"

Free to HFES members, this publication was initially directed toward guiding those who develop and use international standards that establish industry consensus for definitions, guidelines, practices, test methods, etc. It has been expanded to include any investigation of the performance of human–machine systems where the human is operating equipment, either by physical contact with controls and sensors or by remote control, or via software networks. The topics are applicable to manufacturer-specific tests and evaluations, and studies done in commercial or academic laboratories.

The broad field of human factors includes personnel who may not be sufficiently familiar with the considerations that are necessary when humans are part of the test conditions. Many of those considerations are introduced and discussed in this guide.

Registration To Open Soon for Titans of HFE Symposium

The Titans of HFE Virtual Symposium is a showcase of some of the premier researchers, practitioners and academicians in HFES. Virtually on February 5 and 6, 2024, speakers will present on the foundational areas of the science of human factors and ergonomics and will provide their insights into the future of HFE. Registration is coming soon!

Save the Date for the International Symposium on Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health Care 2024

Mark your calendars for the highly anticipated 13th International Symposium on Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health Care! Are you passionate about advancing patient safety and improving health care provider well-being? Join us at this educational event, where we will delve into the latest science and best practices in human factors and ergonomics in health care.

The symposium convenes March 24-27, 2024 at the Hilton Chicago Hotel.

Show Your HFES Spirit: Grab Your Branded Gear Today

We're pleased to announce that the HFES store is open. Check out HFES-branded apparel for purchase including jackets, t-shirts, hats, and beanies. Items are available for purchase for a limited time through Nov. 15, 2023. All orders will be shipped after Nov. 15th to arrive approximately early Dec. 2023.

Upcoming HFES Webinar

Don't miss out on this upcoming HFES webinar and boost your expertise in the process! Join us for:

A Discussion With Dr. Beth Phillips, “What Does It Mean for Robots To Be Humanlike?” — Nov. 8, 2023

Practitioner’s Group Meeting: Report Out of Practitioner’s Group Survey — Nov. 14, 2023

Biden Honors Dr. Juan Gilbert with National Medal of Technology and Innovation

President Joe Biden honored HFES member and University of Florida computer science professor Dr. Juan Gilbert at the White House on October 26 with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation (NMTI). He was awarded for pioneering a universal voting system that makes voting more reliable and accessible for everyone and for increasing diversity in the computer science workforce.

A NMTI is the nation’s highest honor for technological achievement, bestowed by the President of the United States on leading innovators for their outstanding contributions to America’s economic, environmental and social well-being.

HFES congratulates Dr. Gilbert on receiving this honor.

Improving Healthcare Using Engineering Principles

Discover the remarkable journey of Dr. Ayse P. Gurses, a trailblazing engineer who harnessed her passion for healthcare and her training in Industrial and Systems Engineering to revolutionize patient and healthcare worker safety. With an unwavering commitment to applying engineering principles to healthcare, Dr. Gurses credits AHRQ for recognizing the vast scope of healthcare research beyond biology. Through numerous AHRQ grants, she has built a distinguished career as a global researcher and educator, founded the Center for Health Care Human Factors, and became a professor at Johns Hopkins University. Her innovative work, fueled by AHRQ's support, explores intricate healthcare systems, enhancing processes and patient outcomes. Her latest endeavor, the Resilient EMS Patient Safety Learning Lab, strives to improve pre-hospital emergency care, reflecting her unwavering dedication to quality, safety, and equity. Dr. Gurses embodies AHRQ's ethos of embracing new ideas and thinking innovatively to tackle the complex, multifaceted challenges of healthcare systems.

Take This Time To Renew Your HFES Membership for 2024

Simply log in to My.HFES.org to renew your membership and update your demographic information. Thank you for your support and here’s to an exciting 2024!

Upcoming Meetings and Activities

Attention Chapters, Technical Groups, Affinity Groups, and beyond – HFES is pleased to post information concerning upcoming meetings, webinars, or other events you wish to raise awareness about on our Events listing page. We also will post meetings of allied societies provided they do not occur close to any HFES-organized activity.

Let us know about your meetings and other events. Email us at info@hfes.org.

HFES wants to promote the important achievements of our members in the bi-weekly Bulletin. Appropriate topics include research milestones or other significant achievements, professional accolades, awards or recognitions, promotions or new positions, and similar professionally-oriented topics. If you would like to share news with the HFES community, please fill out this form. 

Additionally, if you are made aware of the passing of any members of HFES, please let us know. Contact HFES Executive Director Steven Kemp at skemp@hfes.org.