Campus Research Laboratories

At ODU, graduate students in human factors have access to world-class research resources.In addition to standard computing and research space within the department (including a full fidelity driving simulator and a range of state-of-the-art physiological recording equipment), collaborative research arrangements are in place with external entities.

Research Environment for Alarm and Complex Task Simulation (REACTS) Laboratory - Students in Dr. Bliss's REACTS laboratory investigate issues concerning the phenomenon of alarm mistrust, including strategies to improve operator responding and variables that may interact with alarm mistrust.  They also investigate the role of games and other simulation tools for skill training.

Automation Issues Research Laboratory - Students in Dr. Scerbo's automation issues laboratory investigate the dynamic role of automation and the impact it has on perceived workload, situation awareness, and task performance.

Applied Decision Making Laboratory - Students in Dr. Madhavan's applied decision making laboratory investigate how humans acquire knowledge and improve their decision making over time, and the manner in which human performance is influenced by the design and implementation of automated decision support systems.

Human Cognition Laboratory - Students in Dr. Ash's laboratory investigate the cognitive processes involved in situation representation, problem solving, reasoning, decision making, and judgment formation.  Please visit http://www.odu.edu/~iash/laboratory.shtml for more information about current students and projects.

External Research Laboratories

Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC) - conducts a wide range of funded research projects concerning modeling and simulation. Human factors specialists provide research, testing, training, and behavioral modeling support for military, medical, and business applications. Customers include the U S Navy, Northrop Grumman Newport News, and the US Joint Forces Command.

NASA Langley Research Center - as one of NASA's premier centers for aerospace research , students may collaborate with human factors researchers at NASA through a variety of educational programs.

Eastern Virginia Medical School - located minutes away from the ODU campus.Research projects are underway concerning medical simulation evaluation.