Round-table with Professor Erik Hollnagel
We had several students, across three schools, attend. One of the first questions posed to Prof Hollnagel was how he viewed himself as 'human factors'. He responded with a more interesting question, "What is human factors?" And this set the tone for the first hour.
We came away with the main message that while we may see HF as addressing the fit between humans and technology/machines, it may be more about the entire system of humans and technology, with this thinking going back 250 years ago.
We talked about how HF has such an overlap of disciplines, and Erik shared stories from a variety of work domains: manufacturing (cement automation machinery and Lego factories) and mining (his current collaboration with MINSC) to name a few.
He was receptive to some of the student's research interest, such as decision making and finance. And we had a lively discussion about the differences between human factors and design, and how automation "takes something away" from the user.
All in all, a great session.
