Centre for Ergonomics and Human Factors
About the Centre for Ergonomics and Human Factors
The Centre for Ergonomics and Human Factors (CEHF) provides a 'shop front' for the contract research, consulting and industry training projects of ergonomics staff at La Trobe University.
It was established in 1987 in response to a continuing stream of community requests for assistance and information about ergonomics. Since its inception, staff and associates of the Centre have been active in a variety of areas, often working jointly with multi-disciplinary teams of professionals recruited for their expertise in specific, project-related areas.
For example, a team of academic and consulting ergonomists, together with engineers and managers from a particular sector of manufacturing industry, jointly developed and delivered a series of workplace-based ergonomics training sessions for managers, supervisors and OH&S representatives within several large companies. Representatives of the trainees were actively involved in developing course content, to maximise its effectiveness in generating significant improvements within the workplaces of those involved.
In a quite different example, staff of the Centre worked jointly with a graduate ergonomics student who was also qualified in industrial design, to develop design briefs and functional requirements for the work stations of call-takers and dispatchers in an emergency vehicle control centre.
In recent years, there has been an expansion of staff research and associated consulting activities focused on the multifactorial causes of work-related musculoskeletal disorders, including stress and associated risk factors. This research includes the development of improved methods for identifying and assessing both physical and psychosocial hazards.
Another recently expanding area of research relates to the effects of our ageing population – both in the workplace, and within the wider community in relation to community mobility and transportation.
Masters and PhD students are currently active within these areas of CEHF expertise and activity, as shown on the following pages (for details, click on the Activity Area titles below):
Main Activity Areas
Listed for each of these main areas of activity are:
- Current projects
- Some past contract research & consultancy projects
- Some related reports and publications.
Some Ergonomics Graduate Diploma Student Project Topics
The diversity of ergonomics projects in which Centre staff have been involved, in some cases very actively, is illustrated by a sample of ergonomics graduate diploma student project topics shown below.
- A study of rest and exercise breaks in office and process workers
- The introduction of computerization to hospital wards
- An electromyographic study of wrist rest devices during typing operations
- Factors affecting lower back pain: an investigative analysis in the workplace
- The ergonomic aspects of supplementary high-mounted brake lights
- Time course changes in serum creatine kinase activity during repetitive physical work.
- A study of the effects of permitting tinted windscreens in motor vehicles in Australia
- An evaluation of three factory floor exercise programs
- An ergonomic investigation to improve the functioning of a Hospital's foyer
- Ergonomic improvement of supermarket scanner check-outs
- Workstation design for industrial sewing machine operators
- A study of client handling within the spastic society
- The design of an air traffic control console for air traffic service centres
- The effect of daytime operation of motorcycle headlights on driver gap acceptance
- A study of the rationale of a very high semi-sitting (sit/stand) seat and factors influencing its design
- EMG analysis of common cleaning tasks
- An evaluation of the criterion for and the use of kneeling chairs in the working environment
- Pre-employment selection in the meat industry
- A review of postural assessment methods
- The mismatch of ground vehicle controls in the airline industry
- Hand pinch function and strength
- Development of job specific pre-placement assessment procedures for manual handling workers
- A study of the effect of varying key activation force on fatigue in typing
- Design, presentation and evaluation of a training program in visual and postural issues for vdu users
- An investigation of the relationship between two indicators of muscle fatigue during recovery
- Application of MODAPTS in industrial inspection
- Evaluation of a rehabilitation case manager's job demands
- School furniture and anthropometric mismatch as a cause of student sitting discomfort - a myth or reality?
- Ergonomics and occupational rehabilitation following musculoskeletal injury: guidelines for rehabilitation professionals
- Examination of control stereotypes of water taps in different cultural groups in Australia.
- The effectiveness of back strengthening programs in returning injured workers to work
- Determining the value of a work capacity assessment method in the return of an injured worker to manual handling tasks
- Long-term evaluation of a training course in ergonomics for engineers in the automotive industry.
- Changes in surface EMG amplitude and frequency in a work rest regime with low grade monotonous work
- Comparative workload measurements of baggage handling techniques on smaller aircraft
- A review of the Commonwealth Rehabilitation Service's work capacity evaluation 'push-pull' test
- Guidelines for predicting workload for home care workers - an aid to the reduction of work-related injuries
- A comparison between standard bicycle handlebars and 'aero' bars
- The effect of workstation design and job satisfaction on the reporting of musculoskeletal discomfort and visual fatigue amongst agents of the Totalizator Agency Board of New South Wales
- MODAPTS and its relationship to the measurement of mental workload in industry
- The development and assessment of a method for measuring the intra-cabin noise exposure of truck drivers
- A case study in the automotive industry - consideration of workstation, jig and conveyor design in a piston con-rod assembly task
- Shearers' back aids
- Evaluation of work demands and implementation of a pre-shift exercise program in an automotive plant
- Shiftwork rosters in Bureau of Meteorology field stations
- An ergonomic systems approach to the physical work demands of pear picking in the Goulburn Valley region of Victoria
- Bus design parameters for an aging population
- An evaluation of work site assessment methods taught and used in occupational rehabilitation
- A study of occupational stress, burnout and mental workload in rehabilitation counsellors in South Australia
- A study of the manual handling demands camera operators and sound recordists - ABC TV news crews
- An investigation of work-related stress in two groups of allied health professionals: occupational therapists and physiotherapists
- An ergonomics evaluation of nursing postures, procedures and equipment used when teaching new mothers to breastfeed
- The use of mobile hoists in domestic environments
- The mouse versus the keyboard
- Risk assessment and control of package handling and delivery service at a freight company in Melbourne
- A comparative investigation of two different front counter designs through the examination of risk factors associated with musculoskeletal disorders
- Ergonomic evaluation of aged care facility design
- The effects of shift work on the health and well being of nurses - shiftwork and its effect on the menstrual cycle
- Loading and unloading luggage into coach luggage compartments in the Queensland coachline industry
- A pilot investigation into dimensional variability of occupational workload
- Automatic teller machines - designed for the disabled?
- A comparison between the consistency of results of five ergonomic models in predicting the risk of lower back injury for specific industrial tasks
- Work-related musculoskeletal disorders in woven carpet menders
- An evaluation of a 'no lift' policy among hospital nurses
- Effects of varying workload and shift duration on work performance capacities and body part discomfort
- Use of laptop computers by school children
- Physical and psychosocial aspects of workload in call centres
- Causes of falls among nursing home patients
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