UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
Champaign, Illinois
Aviation Human Factors Division, Department of Psychology, and Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

To return to the contents page, click your browser's "Back" button.

BACKGROUND:
Title: Master of Science in Human Factors (MS), Interdisciplinary PhD
Joint program: with Human Factors Division, Department of Psychology, Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Department of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering, and Department of Computer Science
Est: 1946
Semester
Granted last 3 years: Industrial engineering: PhD 1, MS 4; Psychology: PhD 8, MS 12
Part-time: no
Distance learning available: no
HFES student chapter: yes
Program: Human Factors at the University of Illinois is based in the Human Factors Division within the Institute of Aviation. The Institute and the Division offer a Master of Science degree in Human Factors. Additionally, the University offers an Interdisciplinary PhD program involving a broad and diverse group of faculty and students based in academic units including the Human Factors Division, Department of Psychology, Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Department of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering, Department of Computer Science, and the Human-Computer Intelligent Interaction Group at the Beckman Institute. Both the MS and PhD programs address a wide variety of human factors issues within both aviation and non-aviation contexts. Faculty interests include human performance, training, communication, cognitive aging, human error, attention, decision making, cognitive engineering, system safety, human-computer interaction, cognitive modeling, automation, health care, and safety culture. Accredited by: HFES.
Contact: Peter Vlach or Alex Kirlik, Human Factors Division, 1 Airport Road, Savoy, IL 61874; 217/265-9456, pvlach@uiuc.edu, kirlik@uiuc.edu, http://www.humanfactors.uiuc.edu.
Catalog: Illini Union Bookstore, 715 S. Wright St., Champaign, IL 61820. See also http://www.uiuc.edu/academics.

APPLICATION:
Deadlines: 1/1 for psychology, 3/1 for engineering, but applications are considered year-round. Applications for MS Human Factors will be accepted starting 11/1 for the following fall admission. The deadline for receipt of application materials is 2/15. All of your materials must be received at UIUC by that date. The application packet for MS in Human Factors is available for download at http://www.humanfactors.uiuc.edu/teaching/forms/Application_Packet.pdf.
Fee: $50.

ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS:
GPA: 3.0 for psychology, 3.25 for engineering (3.5 for graduate work)
GRE: 500 v, 500 q, 1000 v + q, 500 a, minimum 1200 GRE score (verbal + quantitative) for Human Factors MS
Other: Strong research background, background in calculus, probability and statistics, computer programming
Research: high
Work experience: medium
Letters: medium
Interview: low

ADMISSIONS:
Students applying last year: 10
Accepted: 5
Entered program: 4
Openings/year: 4-8

TUITION AND FEES:
For the most current fees, refer to http://www.oar.uiuc.edu/current/tuit.html.

FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE:
Available: fellowship, TA, RA, all tuition exempt
Apply: with application

DEGREE REQUIREMENTS:
MS (Human Factors): Students will be required to complete a minimum of 9 graduate courses (units), of which at least 3 must be at the 500 level. 1 1/2 to 2 years.
MA/MS (Psychology): 8 units, first-year research project required, no exams, languages, or practical experience required, 1 1/2 to 2 years
Non-thesis option: no
MS (Industrial or Mechanical Engineering): 8 units, no exams, languages, research, or practical experience required, 1 1/2 to 2 years
Non-thesis option: yes
PhD (Psychology or Industrial Engineering): 24 units; qualifying, preliminary, and oral defense exams; no languages, research, or practical experience required, 3-4 years after master's

CURRICULUM:
Required courses (units): HF Proseminar (1), Engineering Psychology and Human Performance (1), Cognitive Engineering (1), Experimental Proseminar (req. for psychology only; 1), Statistics/Design of Experiments (2)
Electives: Human Error (1), Human-Computer Interaction (1), Aviation Accident Investigation (1), Aviation Psychology (1), Safety Engineering (1), Applied Decision Making (1), Human Factors in Complex Systems (1), Seminar in Knowledge-Based Systems (1), Cognition and Aging (1), Air Traffic Control (1)
Required courses outside department: 2 Psychology, 0 Engineering
Recommended courses outside department: 4-5
Class size: 10-40

RESEARCH/TEACHING OPPORTUNITIES:
Research facilities: The Aviation Human Factors Division at Willard Airport allows direct interaction with the aviation community and with a host of simulation facilities, including workstation-based and Evans and Sutherland simulators and an in-flight performance measurement system. The Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology includes the Human Perception and Performance group, as part of the Human-Computer Intelligent Interaction main research theme, with flight simulation facilities, a driving simulator, and a sophisticated eye-tracking and human electrophysiology facility with state-of-the-art equipment. Beckman also has facilities with virtual reality technologies (CAVE, ImmersaDesk, Infinity Wall, SGI machines). The Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering hosts the biomechanics and ergonomics laboratory.
Teaching: Psychology PhD students are required to teach for one semester, typically as teaching assistants for a laboratory section of experimental psychology. Teaching assistantships are usually not available to Psychology MS/MA students. A limited number of teaching assistantships are available through engineering, typically for the laboratory section of the introductory human factors course for undergraduates. PhD students in Psychology are guaranteed research assistantships.
Current research: Aviation display design, cognitive factors in navigation, pilot decision making, aviation (pilot and controller) communications, cognition and aging, human-computer (automation) interaction, intelligent support systems, aviation accident investigation and analysis, computational models of attention, basic perceptual processes (including visual attention, scene perception, and multimodal integration).

STUDENT STATISTICS:
Active: 7 men, 5 women
First-year students: 4
Mean scores: MS human factors: GRE 570 v, 740 q, GPA 3.6; MS engineering: GRE 576 v, 710 q, 690 a, GPA 3.6; PhD engineering: GRE 605 v, 718 q, 665 a, GPA 3.5; MS psychology: GRE 536 v, 575 q, 627 a, GPA 3.6; PhD psychology: GRE 582 v, 700 q, 682 a, GPA 3.6

FACULTY:
Brian Bailey, PhD 2002, U of Minnesota; human-computer interaction, user interface design
Wai-Tat Fu, PhD 2003, George Mason U; human Learning, training and interactive skill acquisition, computational cognitive modeling, interactive judgment and decision making, information seeking behavior, human-computer interaction
Alex Kirlik, PhD 1989, Ohio State U; cognitive engineering, decision making
Arthur Kramer, PhD 1984, U of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; visual attention and perception, skill acquisition and maintenance, cognition and aging, cognitive neuroscience
Yi-Ching Lee, PhD 2006, U of Iowa; driver distraction, human factors in ground transportation, applied visual attention
Jason McCarley, PhD 1997, U of Louisville; basic and applied visual attention and cognition
Elaine McCoy, PhD 1981, Ohio State U; communications and aviation decision making
Daniel Morrow, PhD 1982, U. of California, Berkeley; cognitive aging, communications, aviation, medicine
Esa Rantanen, PhD 2000, Penn State U; air traffic control, human error, human performance measurement and modeling
Henry L. Taylor (emeritus), PhD 1965, Florida State U; training and simulation
Terry von Thaden, PhD 2004, U of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; aviation decision-making and crew resource management
Christopher Wickens (emeritus), PhD 1974, U of Michigan; aviation psychology, attention, display design, human performance
Douglas Wiegmann, PhD 1992, Texas Christian U; aircrew error, accident investigation, aeronautical decision making
Xudong Zhang, PhD 1997, U of Michigan; occupational biomechanics, movement analysis and modeling, computer-aided ergonomics

[Updated Winter 2007]