My research in human- systems engineering area is mainly focused on theory and applications of human factors in healthcare, transportation, and military operations.
My previous research in human factors and ergonomics area has focused on assessing the effect of physical load on cognitive performance, usability and safety in healthcare, analysis of driver visual and cognitive distraction due to on-road signage, hazard analysis and risk assessment techniques for human-automation interaction, interruptions in assembly task environment, and mental workload assessment of amputees while using upper limb prosthesis.
As examples of this research, I was involved in a project which used virtual reality to investigate the effect of effect of physical workload and modality of information presentation on cognitive inhibition and pattern recognition. I conducted a comprehensive literature review study on usability and safety of electronic medical records (EMRs) and developed design guidelines and a new interface concept for EMRs. I was also involved in a project funded by NC Department of Transportation to assess driver use of specific service signs in freeway and ramp driving conditions. In addition, I was involved in assessing visual salience of on-road signs to identify the potential visual load of the signage in terms of both content and format. Other work has involved proposing an enhanced risk assessment method to combine hazard risk and reliability of both human and system interaction.
My current dissertation research has focused on analysis and redesign of police vehicle mobile computer terminal for minimizing officer driving distraction which has several themes including: (1) decision analysis to find the most important in-vehicle tasks for the officers; (2) cognitive modeling methods to quantify visual and cognitive load; (3) usability guideline formulation and user-centered design of MCTs and (4) analysis of officer visual and cognitive distraction due to in-vehicle technologies. The results of this study are expected to ultimately increase officer and civilian safety during police emergency operations. This research has been funded by NC Occupational Safety and Health Education and Research Center (NC OSHERC).
With respect to future research and given the use of remote health technologies for patient care and monitoring, I would like to conduct research on usability evaluation and interface design of those devices in order to improve information access, communication, and self-monitoring especially for elderly population. Related to that and given the current safety concerns of automation in healthcare industry, I am interested in carrying out research on assessing usability and safety of advanced medical devices and improving the design for healthcare providers. Beyond this, I would like to extend my experience in human-computer interaction (HCI) to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) interface design and provide design guidelines and enhanced interfaces to monitor UAVs throughout their missions. Due to my research experience in transportation area, I am interested in evaluating the design of new in-vehicle technologies and dynamic on-road signage and their effect on driver mental model, attentional demand and situation awareness using advanced simulation and modeling techniques. I am also interested in extending my dissertation research to enhance other police in-vehicle technologies to reduce officer distraction. Furthermore, I would like to integrate my experience in multi-tasking, HCI, and virtual reality to investigate new technologies with different modalities of information presentation to increase situation awareness and performance of soldiers in military operations while reducing their mental workload.