MS in Human Factor/Ergonomics

The Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering administers the Master of Science in Human FactorsErgonomics (HFE) degree program. This is a cooperative program involving the Departments of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Psychology, Industrial Design, and Kinesiology. This program prepares students for practice in this profession through an interdisciplinary course sequence that emphasizes theory, practical applications, and research. Human factors and ergonomics is an interdisciplinary field focused on optimizing human well-being and overall system performance within complex sociotechnical environments. By integrating engineering, psychology, design, and human performance science, the discipline develops evidence-based methods to design safe, effective, resilient, and inclusive systems. The field emphasizes human-centered systems design, ensuring that tools, technologies, environments, and organizational structures align with human capabilities, limitations, and needs. Applications include healthcare systems, aerospace and aviation, automotive and transportation systems, consumer product and digital interface design, and workplace safety. The field also plays a critical role in emerging areas such as human-AI collaboration, autonomous systems, wearable technologies, virtual and augmented reality, and assistive technologies for aging populations. Across these domains, human factors professionals work to enhance safety, usability, accessibility, efficiency, and system resilience while reducing injury, fatigue, and human error.