Uncategorized

Congratulations to our lab director, Dr. Ranjana Mehta, on being recognized as the 2021 Presidential Impact Fellow at Texas A&M University! Thank you for your constant dedication to learning and creating an environment where we can strive for excellence.

Five new PhD students join the NeuroErgonomics Lab from disciplines in Mechanical Engineering, Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering, and Biology! Learn more about them here!

Congratulations to John Kang from NeuroErgonomics Lab on receiving the “Creativeness in Ergonomics (CE) Student of the Year” Award from the 2021 Applied Ergonomics Society! We are proud of your accomplishment!

Through the Outstanding Recent Alumni Awards, Virginia Tech Engineering honors recent alumni with impressive professional accomplishments throughout their careers. Mehta was recognized with the graduate award – read more here!

NSF recently funded our Mind-Motor-Machine project collaboration with HFML lab on developing neural trust models of human-AV interactions. This project will promote the progress of science and advance the national health by advancing an understanding of human-automation trust. Specifically, the project will address the limitations of existing trust measures, model trust and driver behavior, and determine how autonomous vehicles that incorporate trust calibration models can influence dynamic trust and driving behavior.

More details on the project can be found at NSF

LEARNER (Learning Environments with Augmentation and Robotics for Next-gen Emergency Responders) is a mixed-reality learning environment with physical, augmented and virtual reality components for users to learn to work effectively with nascent human augmentation technologies. This new learning environment will feature powered exoskeletons and head-worn augmented reality interfaces to augment responders’ physical and cognitive capabilities.

More details on the project can be found at the LEARNER project page and with the Texas A&M Media coverage

The new Aggie Challenge team will undertake R&D efforts to develop a wearable personalized closed-loop neurotechnology (using read and write brain imaging (fNIRS) and modulation (tDCS) techniques) aimed at effectively augmenting human performance in critical and complex environments. More here at N-HANCE

The NeuroErgonomics Lab received funding from NSF on developing and evaluating iPAL (Intelligent Pervasive Augmented reaLity therapy) for Opioid Use Disorder and Recovery. This project will develop intelligent Pervasive Augmented reaLity therapies (iPAL) – a technology-enabled OUD intervention that aims to help OUD sufferers manage their cravings to reduce their risk for relapse or overdose. iPAL integrates complementary psychotherapies (cognitive behavioral therapy and heart rate variability biofeedback) with immersive technologies (augmented and mixed reality) that will offer convenience, discretion in use, in the moment/real-time through personalized strategies. This work is poised to revolutionize how individuals learn, discover, create, and heal in the broader context of developing treatment strategies for those with OUD.

Yibo Zhu received the award for his work ““Exploring Neuroergonomic Fit of Passive Exoskeleton during Simulated Manual Material Handling Task”. Congrats Yibo!

Sponsored by CNA Insurance, this award recognizes achievements in ergonomics application or research, including process improvement, education, applied instrumentation and product development as submitted for presentation in a poster or oral presentation at the Applied Ergonomics Conference.

Sponsor: NASEM

Overview: Traditionally, safety culture is measured with a lengthy annual employee survey. Survey methodology is fraught with limitations including low response rates, considerable time required to summarize and interpret data, and failure to capture meaningful changes between surveys. This project aims to develop and test field-friendly measurement tools, including experience sampling methodology and wearable devices; and to design, develop, and evaluate the value of a dashboard called EMPOWER (Evaluate, Measure, Promote Offshore Worker Engagement and Readiness). The EMPOWER dashboard will display worker psychological (safety culture) and physiological (lack of fatigue or readiness) data on an interactive interface that supervisors can access daily to support organizational decision making. The research team will evaluate the extent to which supervisors value and anticipate using such previously unavailable data in real time; as well as the data’s impact on hypothetical offshore scenario-based decision-making.

Collaborators: Payne, Sasangohar