HFES webinars provide continuing education on a variety of topics and domains aligned with the interest areas of our technical groups. HFES webinars provide insights into the latest HF/E research and innovations. Our next webinars are listed below.
Upcoming Webinars
HCTG, HFTH and SSE Joint Webinar: Connecting Human Factors/Ergonomics Theory with Applications in Health Care: Physical Ergonomics and Exoskeletons in Surgery
sponsored by HCTG, HFTH and SSE
November 21, 2025 1:00pm ET
This webinar is the second an educational series co-hosted by the HFES Health Care Technical Group and Human Factors Transforming Healthcare Network, with guest co-sponsor Society of Surgical Ergonomics, connecting human factors/ergonomics (HF/E) theories with applications in health care delivery. This series aims overall to increase access to education about HF/E in health care, targeting HF/E learners (e.g., undergraduate and graduate students), HF/E academics, HF/E Practitioners, clinicians (both practicing and in training), patient safety and quality specialists, and health care administrators.
This webinar will focus on physical ergonomics in the operating room. Dr. M. Susan Hallbeck and Dr. Jackie Cha will give a general overview of physical ergonomics in surgery, including sharing experiences pragmatics of how to conduct research and applied efforts to improve ergonomics in surgery. They will then share case studies of exoskeletons in surgery and will be joined by the current president of the Society of Surgical Ergonomics, Dr. Philip Haigh, a surgical oncologist who uses an exoskeleton in his practice, to share his experience as well. We will conclude with an opportunity for questions, answers, and discussion.
Learnings:
- Seminal physical ergonomics models, theories and frameworks
- Practical translation and application to surgical settings
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Speakers:
M. Susan Hallbeck, PhD, PE, CPE, Mayo Clinic
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Dr. Susan Hallbeck is the Scientific Director of Human Factors Engineering in Mayo Clinic’s Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Center for the Science of Healthcare Delivery. She is Professor of Health Care Systems Engineering, Consultant in Health Care Delivery Research and Consultant in Surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. Dr. Hallbeck is past president of both the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) and the Society for Surgical Ergonomics. She is a licensed professional engineer and a certified professional ergonomist. Dr. Hallbeck is an HFES Fellow and International Ergonomics Association Fellow. She won the Oliver Keith Hansen Outreach Award in 2025.
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Jackie Cha, PhD, CPE, University of Wisconsin
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Jackie Cha, PhD CPE is the Patricia Flatley Brennan Assistant Professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Wisconsin (UW) – Madison. Her research focuses on measuring physical human-robot interactions, particularly in healthcare environments, to improve worker performance, safety, and system efficiency. Specifically, her team investigates applications of robotics – both surgical robotic systems and wearables – in clinical environments and the changes of physical and cognitive interactions between human teams and robots. |
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Philip Haigh, MD, Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center
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Philip Haigh, MD, is an endocrine and oncologic surgeon at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center (KP-LAMC), and a clinical professor at the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J Tyson School of Medicine. He is a regional resource within the Southern California Permanente Medical Group for treating patients with complicated thyroid, parathyroid disease, and sarcoma. His research interests are primarily on population studies on primary hyperparathyroidism and thyroid disease, and more recently in surgical ergonomics, particularly MSK pain in surgeons. He was a founding member and the first treasurer, and is currently the president of the Society of Surgical Ergonomics. |
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Moderators:
David Neyens, PhD, MPH, Clemson University
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David Neyens, PhD MPH is an Associate Professor of Industrial and Bioengineering at Clemson University. He is the Associate Director of the Human Factors Institute at Clemson and is a faculty scholar within the Clemson University School of Health Research. Dr. Neyens is the Vice Chair of the HFES Healthcare TG. |
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Brittany Anderson-Montoya, PhD, Teladoc
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Brittany L. Anderson-Montoya is the Lead Human Factors Specialist for Teladoc Health’s Patient Safety Team. Brittany received her PhD in Human Factors Psychology from Old Dominion University in 2014. Previously, she led the development of the Human Factors Program for Atrium Health, where she worked to develop a human factors approach for Root Cause Analysis, a human factors product framework, and a framework for executing applied human factors work to support patient safety. |
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Human Performance Modeling Technical Group Webinar: Computational Models of Human Performance: An Algebraic Equation Approach
sponsored by HPMTG
January 15, 2026 1:00pm ET
My talk will describe my approach to cognitive computational modeling. This is quite distinct from a more frequent approach, based upon discrete event simulations of the cognitive processing, like ACT-R. In contrast, I focus on computing the performance product, as yielded by simple linear equations. These two approaches are complementary. Generically, performance (P) can be predicted by [P = aA + bB = cC…..] where A, B, C… are different cognitive or environmental influences and a, b, c… aredifferent weights. The influences are derived from cognitive task analysis, and the weights are typically derived from meta-analyses of effect sizes of those influences. Validation is accomplished by correlating predictions with obtained behavior across a set of conditions.
I will describe this approach in the context of models I and my colleagues have developed for sleep disruption, spatial awareness, navigation, and then five models of different aspects of attention: of visual attention, the supervisory scanning (SEEV) model of display layout, the change blindness and noticing (NSEEV) model, and the scan-clutter tradeoff model of display design, of divided attention or multi-tasking, the multiple resource model of concurrent time-sharing, and the STOM model of sequential multi-tasking or task switching. I will conclude by presenting the framework of such a model for influences on human-automation interaction.
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Speakers:
| Chris Wickens |
Chris Wickens is a Research Professor of Psychology at Colorado State. He served in the US Navy as a damage control assistant on the USS Vulcan and then as a personnel response team leader in Vietnam. He received his PhD from University of Michigan and from 1974-2005 he was a Professor of Psychology, Mechanical Engineering and Aviation at the University of Illinois where he directed the Aviation Research Laboratory and then the Joint Human Factors Program. He was subsequently employed to do human performance modeling at Micro-Analysis and Design, which became AlionSciences Boulder. He has Authored/co-authored three textbooks in Engineering Psychology and Human Factors, as well as editing two books on Air Traffic Control Human Factors. He has received the Arnold Small President’s Award. Human Factors & Ergonomics Society. 2009, and 4 times was awarded with his co-authors, the annual Jerome Ely award for best article in Human Factors Journal. He has also received Federal Aviation Administration ‘Excellence in Aviation’ Award, 2001, the Flight Safety Foundation Airbus Human Factors Award, 2005 and the University Aviation Association President’s Award, 2005 He has published extensively with over 300 articles in peer reviewed journals or book chapters, focusing in particular on developing computational models of human attention for applied use in system and display design and human interaction with automation. |
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Moderator:
Past Webinar Recordings
ACTG Webinar: Teaching LLMs to See, Hear, and Respond: A Technical Framework for Situation Awareness
Original Air Date: November 06, 2025
Occupational Ergonomics Technical Group Webinar: From Student to Practitioner: Exploring Careers in Occupational Ergonomics (Part 3)
Original Air Date: September 18, 2025
Occupational Ergonomics Technical Group Webinar: From Student to Professor: Exploring Careers in Occupational Ergonomics (Part 2)
Original Air Date: September 16, 2025
Occupational Ergonomics Technical Group Webinar: Interdisciplinary Insights: Exploring Careers in Occupational Ergonomics (Part 1)
Original Air Date: September 11, 2025
Sustainability Technical Group Webinar: Human Factors in Sustainable Supply Chain
Original Air Date: September 10, 2025
Training Technical Group and Extended Reality Technical Group Webinar: Innovative Training Approaches to Evaluate and Enhance Human Performance
Original Air Date: August 13, 2025
Aerospace Systems Technical Group Webinar: Applying Human Factors Analysis in Designing Accessible Lavatories on Single-Aisle Aircraft
Original Air Date: August 13, 2025
HFES Perception and Performance Technical Group Webinar: Eye Tracking: How to Capture and Interpret User’s Point of View and Operator’s Gaze Strategies
Original Air Date: June 11, 2025
Interested in Hosting a Webinar?
Our webinars are delivered by subject matter experts, including HFES award winners, recent authors in Society publications, high-profile members and others conducting research or practice in key topical areas.
If you are interested in submitting a topic for consideration, please complete the submission form for the Webinar Committee's review.
Webinar Proposal Submission Form