MEC8028 : Human Centered Design and Engineering
- Offered for Year: 2024/25
- Module Leader(s): Dr David Golightly
- Lecturer: Professor Roberto Palacin
- Owning School: Engineering
- Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters
Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.
| Semester 2 Credit Value: | 20 |
| ECTS Credits: | 10.0 |
| European Credit Transfer System | |
Aims
The overall aim of the module is to provide a comprehensive overview of the rationale, benefits and principles of human factors, and equip students with knowledge and skills to consider the major themes of human factors including physical factors, cognitive factors and organisational factors. This will enable students to critically evaluate designs and systems in terms of their suitability for end users, and to apply human factors knowledge to creatively apply human considerations when designing systems.
The module will present multiple design implications, considerations and methodologies when designing for a wide variety of people and applications. The module will present and discuss different scenarios where human factors considerations play a crucial role such as in system safety, in human-automation cooperation and in delivering high levels of performance and system resilience in domains such as transport.
*Overall students will be provided with a contemporary knowledge base on current trends and proven methods that support designing for humans in any engineering design context.
Outline Of Syllabus
* Human factors: origins, rationale and benefits
* Systems perspectives on human performance
* Physical, cognitive and organisational aspects of human factors
* Human-computer interaction relevant to engineering and engineered systems
* Design for accessibility and Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity
* Obtaining, capturing, measuring and use of anthropometric data to inform design
* Cognitive methodology for workload, situation awareness and human-computer interaction / User Experience
* Human-automation integration, for machine intelligence and for robotics
* Human role in safety, including human perspectives on accidents and incidents
* Complex work systems - describing complexity for human integration into engineered systems
* Applied Ergonomics: Industrial and consumer ergonomics / Transport ergonomics
* Data gathering and project management
Teaching Methods
Teaching Activities
| Category | Activity | Number | Length | Student Hours | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Lecture | 12 | 3:00 | 36:00 | 12 lectures (3 per week x 3 hours; 4 weeks) |
| Guided Independent Study | Assessment preparation and completion | 1 | 6:00 | 6:00 | CANVAS based timed assessment |
| Structured Guided Learning | Academic skills activities | 4 | 9:00 | 36:00 | Off-line Canvas reading materials and exercises |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Practical | 3 | 3:00 | 9:00 | Weekly Labs: 1)Product design evaluation2)Physical ergonomics methods , 3)Human-automation integration |
| Structured Guided Learning | Structured research and reading activities | 2 | 5:00 | 10:00 | Canvas reading lists for project support |
| Guided Independent Study | Project work | 4 | 15:00 | 60:00 | Independent study hours expected for project work |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Drop-in/surgery | 3 | 1:00 | 3:00 | Drop-in surgery in final week for question and answer around specific issues students face (eg in preparation for exam), |
| Guided Independent Study | Independent study | 20 | 2:00 | 40:00 | Revision of Lecture material, practical self-study and additional reading for Exam |
| Total | 200:00 |
Teaching Rationale And Relationship
- Lectures promote an appreciation of the various implications of ‘designing for humans’ and developing set of skills that can be applied to topical issues and case studies in design and ergonomics.
- Practicals, where students are given specific topic areas to explore relating to physical, cognitive and systems design, provide students with skills in human-systems analyses and demonstrate knowledge of ergonomic design, and allow them to demonstrate critical thinking in terms of safe systems.
- Groupwork allows students to demonstrate application the of critical knowledge and information relevant to a pre-assigned case and apply it to develop specific solutions within the engineering design and ergonomics space for all possible user needs and abilities.
- Exams give students the opportunity to demonstrate their critical thinking in all aspects of the evaluation and design of mechanical engineering systems that reflect a wide range of users and needs.
Assessment Methods
The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners
Exams
| Description | Length | Semester | When Set | Percentage | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Digital Examination | 120 | 2 | A | 50 | Exam covering all elements of the syllabus |
Other Assessment
| Description | Semester | When Set | Percentage | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Practical/lab report | 2 | M | 50 | A portfolio of practical submissions |
Formative Assessments
Formative Assessment is an assessment which develops your skills in being assessed, allows for you to receive feedback, and prepares you for being assessed. However, it does not count to your final mark.
| Description | Semester | When Set | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Digital Examination | 2 | M | Canvas quiz on Human Factors fundamentals. End of Week 26 (Module Week 1) |
Assessment Rationale And Relationship
*The examination is used to assess knowledge, independent learning and understanding of material and the ability to integrate this material, to communicate it clearly, and to demonstrate critical thinking in relation to ergonomics and human factors. Essay questions typically examine a principle or theory from human factors, and then require these principles to be applied to a given example or use case.
*The practical portfolio (totalling 2000 words or equivalent allows for design, analysis and reflection upon selected case studies, methodologies and results relevant to physical, cognitive and organisational human factors.
*For the purposes of professional body accreditation, in order to obtain a passing mark overall for this module (50%) at the first attempt the minimum acceptable mark for each of the assessment items specified below shall be 35%, with the maximum possible module overall mark where this is not the case being restricted to 40%: (1) 50% Exam (2) 50% Assignments (Combined).
Reading Lists
Timetable
- Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/
- MEC8028's Timetable