Complex systems discussed at UQ Winter School

Professor of Human Machine Interaction at the University of Linkoping in Sweden Professor Erik Hollnagel will be guest speaker at a UQ Winter School on July 23-25 at Emmanuel College, St Lucia.

The School is being held by the Australian Research Council Key Centre for Human Factors and Applied Cognitive Psychology.

The ARC Key Centre`s Professor Penny Sanderson said the Winter School would emphasise the analysis, modelling, design, and evaluation of control rooms for human interaction with complex systems.

"Everyday examples of these are control rooms for road transportation control, air traffic control, power generation, emergency management, mining, chemical and food process control, and manufacturing," she said.

"Professor Hollnagel is a highly respected member of the European and international cognitive ergonomics communities. For many years he has worked on cognitive modelling and human reliability for the kind of complex worlds presented by control room and operations environments.

"Professor Hollnagel worked for some years at Riso National Laboratories in Denmark, and has subsequently spent substantial time as a senior advisor on Human Machine Interaction matters with the Halden Reactor Project in Norway."

Professor Sanderson said the Winter School would include invited speakers from industry and academia. It would also be of interest to participants with general interests in safety engineering, software engineering for safety-critical systems, human reliability, design of advanced displays, team communication, and workstation layout. Other themes would include defence human factors: especially for combat systems, tactical displays and in maritime contexts; and information environments: interaction design for advanced technologies and new media.

For further information about attendance, dates, and arrangements please contact the ARC Key Centre for Human Factors and Applied Cognitive Psychology on telephone (07) 3365 6076.

Media: for further information, contact Mr Peter Hollands, Key Centre Business Manager, (telephone 07 3365 7196) or Professor Penelope Sanderson (mobile 0407 107 707).