Capabilities, Accomplishments, & Work Style
The Capabilities of the Human Factors Division
- an understanding of human-machine interactions in transportation system design and operation
- a multi-modal center for the study of human centered automation in transportation
- links between behavioral science, computer science, systems engineering, and statistics
- a history of collaborating with universities, government and the transportation industry to address nationally significant transportation human factors problems
The Representative Accomplishments of the Human Factors Division
- Contributions to improving the safety of transportation systems.
Human factors expertise is critical to ensuring safe transportation operations because the new transportation technologies have the potential to increase the amounts of information available to transportation system operators, reduce the number of operators and their roles and change the knowledge, skill, and ability requirements.
- Contributions to enhancing government efficiency.
The Human Factors Division carries out project work for all the DOT modes and the knowledge base permits efficiency in operation. The Division can migrate developments in knowledge and procedures across modes and make efficient use of government resources.
The Collaborative Work Style of the Human Factors Division
The project work draws on resident human factors expertise and experience with deployment to help transportation operators decide how best to use automation and advisory systems to make decisions critical to safety and efficiency. The Division benefits from a cross-fertilization of ideas from its staff; federal staff, on-site contractors, and on-site faculty and students from academic institutions. This mix replicates the composition of the Volpe Center which employs approximately 500 federal staff and 550 on-site contractors.
