HFES is proud to announce its participation in the upcoming USA Science and Engineering Festival, the country’s first national science festival. It will be held April 28-29, 2012, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.

We invite you to help spread the word about the 2012 Festival and encourage grade-school, middle-school, and high-school students and their families to attend this year’s event. Complete details are at http://www.usasciencefestival.org/.

The HFES booth will feature hands-on demonstrations, including the hugely popular interactive driver distraction simulator developed by the George Mason University Student Chapter, first presented at the 2010 Festival; good and bad product design; the science behind optical illusions; and the Back Straight Boys’ Posture Pad, an award-winning tool to alert young computer users about correct posture.

The Festival also features an expo, book fair, career pavilion, special events, and appearances by leading science celebrities and entrepreneurs. It is focused on encouraging the next generation of engineers, scientists, and technologists and on increasing public awareness of the importance of science and math education.

HFES thanks members of the George Mason University Student Chapter and the Potomac Chapter for organizing the HFES booth at the 2012 Science and Engineering Festival.

And thanks to HFES members for helping us to increase awareness among children and young adults of the value of human factors/ergonomics in our daily lives.

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The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society is the world’s largest nonprofit individual-member, multidisciplinary scientific association for human factors/ergonomics professionals, with more than 4,500 members globally. HFES members include psychologists and other scientists, designers, and engineers, all of whom have a common interest in designing systems and equipment to be safe and effective for the people who operate and maintain them. “Human Factors and Ergonomics: People-Friendly Design Through Science and Engineering”

Plan to attend the HFES 56th Annual Meeting, October 22-26: http://www.hfes.org/web/HFESMeetings/2012annualmeeting.html