Master of Science in Human Factors

Today’s rapid technological progression demands an in-depth understanding of how systems and people operate together, with an emphasis on minimizing human error in order to improve operational efficiency, effectiveness, and safety.

Embry-Riddle’s Human Factors graduate and post-graduate programs prepare its students to ensure that human-centered concerns, both psychological and physiological, are given due consideration during the design and development processes of systems, products, and work environments.

Students will combine learned psychological principles and engineering fundamentals to maximize the interaction of humans with machines, as well as human performance issues. Graduates emerge from the program ready for a career in research, analysis, or design.

The Master of Science in Human Factors offered at Daytona Beach offers a distinct focus on the aviation/aerospace industry, while the Master of Science in Human Factors offered at Worldwide Online gives students the option to focus on a Research or Specialist Cognate.

About Human Factors at the Daytona Beach, FL Campus

The science of Human Factors is driving the growth of industries that depend on how humans interact with technology. The Master of Science in Human Factors degree at Embry-Riddle is designed for post-bachelor students who want to advance their learning in the principles of human factors and experimental psychology, including statistical and quantitative procedures, experimental design, and survey methods. The program is designed to prepare graduates for doctoral-level studies while at the same time getting them ready for employment in real-world aviation/aerospace environments. Research, consulting, and internship arrangements are included in the program.

The Master of Science in Human Factors degree is housed in the Department of Human Factors and Behavioral Neurobiology in the College of Arts and Sciences.

The Master’s program has two distinct tracks, allowing students to choose to study either the techniques of human factors research or a systematic approach to designing machines, tasks, systems, and workplaces.

Depending on the track chosen, a typical first year will include core courses such as Research Design and Analysis and Human Factors in Systems, plus electives such as Systems Concepts, Theory, and Tools, or Organizational Behavior, Theory, and Applications in Aviation.

Students have access to labs and facilities at the Daytona Campus dedicated to aerospace and aviation, including the unmanned aircraft systems simulation, team performance lab, physiology and color vision lab, and the motion sickness lab.

Requirements

The Department of Human Factors offers graduate instruction leading to the Master of Science degree in Human Factors. This program is designed to meet the highest academic standards, fully preparing students for doctoral-level studies while at the same time preparing students for immediate employment in the real world of cost-sensitive and operationally driven aviation/aerospace and technical environments.

The master's program will produce a graduate with the capacity to design, conduct, and apply human factors methods research in support of simple and complex systems. Graduates will work as human factors professionals in government, academic and private organizations. A variety of research, consulting, and internship opportunities are available throughout the program.

Students receive education in the principles of human factors and experimental psychology, including statistical and quantitative procedures, experimental design, and survey methods.

A combined Human Factors program is available.

About Human Factors at the Worldwide & Online Campus

The science of Human Factors is driving the growth of industries that depend on how humans interact with technology. The Master of Science in Human Factors is an online program tailored to working professionals who want to better understand the interrelationship between human performance and technology. The degree is focused on application, development, and leadership in a wide variety of industries concerned with human performance, system design, and safety.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University – Worldwide created the Master's degree in Human Factors degree in response to the challenges of better leveraging humans and machines in the global workforce. The goal is to produce graduates who can lead industries in identifying trends, analyzing requirements, developing strategies, recommending solutions, and recognizing opportunities for innovation in this field.

The Master's program in Human Factors offered by Embry-Riddle is designed for post-bachelor’s professionals who are working as system operators/designers/developers, engineers, researchers, pilots and maintainers, applications experts, industry leaders, and organizational managers, and more.

Students have the opportunity to pursue either a Research or Specialist Cognate to tailor the learning experience to their specific needs. Along either cognate, students can expect to study: the way humans perceive and think about the world around them; human performance limitations and errors; virtual, robotic, and simulation environments and the human experience; and the impact of ergonomics, biomechanics, and anthropometrics on human effectiveness.

Offered completely online, this program allows students to network with fellow professionals from around the world, as well as with highly skilled faculty members with decades of practical experience.

Requirements

The Master of Science in Human Factors (MSHF) is an online program tailored to working professionals who want to better understand the interrelationship between humans and technology, the environment, and other system components, as it relates to human performance, limitations, and errors in simple and complex systems. This multidisciplinary degree explores how humans interact with technology, designs, social systems, operational interfaces, and environmental factors in contexts that include healthcare, aerospace, transportation, military, security, virtual and augmented reality, simulation, computing, and other complex sociotechnical systems concerned with human performance, system design, and safety.

Students have the opportunity to pursue either a Specialist or Research Cognate to tailor the learning experience to their specific needs, professional goals, and industry demands. Along either track, students can expect to study human physiology, cognition, and psychology; human performance capabilities, limitations, and errors; virtual, robotic, and simulation environments and the human experience; and the impact of ergonomics, biomechanics, and anthropometrics on human effectiveness and interactions within complex sociotechnical systems.

Students will also learn and apply the critical thought and synthesis skills required to analyze current trends and past events and designs in which human error led to operational failures as core elements of the curriculum in either track. Our goal is for graduates to emerge from the MS in Human Factors program with the knowledge and ability to identify trends, analyze system requirements, develop strategies, recommend solutions, and recognize opportunities for innovation in this field.

Students may opt for the opportunity to complete the Specialist Cognate, which does not incorporate the research focus (30 credits), or to pursue the Research Cognate (33 credits), which incorporates Research Methods, Statistical Analysis, and the culminating Thesis I and II. This option will allow the student to complete original human factors research at the end of the MSHF degree program.

The MSHF degree program does not include any elective courses or specializations, and it follows a prescribed prerequisite course progression for the first two core courses; MSHF 606 and MSHF 612, must be successfully completed before a student may progress in the Program, and the thesis courses ~(RSCH 700A and RSCH 700B respectively) must be the final culminating courses.