11 January 2007

Trip Report

Department of Defense

Human Factors Engineering Technical Advisory Group

(DOD HFE TAG) Meeting #56

 6-9 November 2006

 

The 56th meeting of the DoD HFE TAG was held in Monterey, CA. The meeting was chaired by Mr. Adrian Salinas, 311th Human Systems Wing, Brooks AFB, Tx. The theme of the meeting was Realizing the potential of Human Systems Integration.  Approximately 130 people attended the meeting, representing the US Army, US Navy, US Air Force, DARPA, NASA, FAA, DoD Laboratories, Canadian DRDC, several human factors-related technical societies and industry associations. Several additional personnel representing industry and academia attended as invited speakers.

 

Four items are attached:

·      Background of the DoD HFE TAG, attachment (1)

·      Program Summary, attachment (2) 

·      DoD HFE TAG Operating Board, attachment (3)

·      TAG attendees, attachment (4)

·      DoD HFE TAG Policies, attachment (5)

 

Plenary Session Presentations  

 

The DoD HFE TAG Chair for the 56th meeting, Adrian Salinas, welcomed attendees to the meeting and introduced the first plenary session presenter.

 

Navy Host Welcome and Command Overview.   Mr. Jeff Kline (CAPT, USN (ret) provided an Overview of the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS).  The NPS was founded in 1909 at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD and moved to Monterey in 1951.  A Human Systems Integration (HSI) Masters degree program was established at NPS in 2004. The current breakdown of students is:

NPS is currently an interagency/coalition research and education institution with three institutes: systems engineering, modeling and simulation, and communications and networks. There are 1776 residents with 937 students enrolled in degree and certificate programs.  There are 15 short course programs.  Current faculty numbers approximately 600, with 237 being in tenured positions.  Approximately 44,000 students have graduated from NPS and there have been 50,000 non-degree participants.

 

NPS provides students with a unique learning and research environment. The NPS is resourced 44.1% from the Navy (mission funding for teaching) and 55.9% from research accounts. Research funding supports unmanned air, unmanned ground and undersea vehicles that are used for student research.

 

HSI in the Navy - Mr. John Owen, SEAPRINT Project Manager, NAVAIR 4.6, Orlando, FL. (john.owen@navy.mil) provided an overview of current HSI Projects Being Worked by the US Navy.  A SEAPRINT executive board is being established to provide intra-Navy cross-corporate overview.  Current HSI activities include:

 

The HSI development strategy addresses the seven tenets of SEAPRINT:

 

US Air Force HSI Challenges:  Dr. Rick Drawbaugh (former USAF Colonel, Deputy for ESOH), principal advisor to the vice chief of staff for HSI, summarized the Current HSI challenges Facing the USAF.  The USAF HSI initiative includes all HSI domains:  HFE, Manpower, Personnel, Training, Environment, Safety, Occupational Health, Personnel Survivability, and Habitability.  The SECDEF (AT&L) has not published an HSI philosophy as of yet. The USAF policy directive on HSI is due out by the end of 2006.  The USAF Instruction for HSI is progressing very slowly.

 

MANPRINT and Army Transformation: Watching Out for the Soldier in the Soldier System.  Dr. John Warner, senior program analyst, Army MANPRINT Office (G-1) provided an overview of MANPRINT Mission, Objectives, Process, Assessments and Activities. He went on to describe the MANPRINT Enterprise database initiative. This database will assist the G-1 office maintain oversight of the many Army development programs. He then summarized the challenges facing MANPRINT:

 

The Human-Systems Integration Standard (HSIS): A New NASA Human Factors Standard:  Dr. Dane Russo, Johnson Space Center, Houston, Tx, (dane.m.russo@nasa.gov) discussed the new Human Factors Standard Development underway at NASA Houston.   A new development process (as compared to NASA STD 3000) is being used. The standard will also differ considerably from NASA-STD-3000, which was:

 

The new standard will be global enough to apply to all human spaceflight programs, easily understood and used, flexible (durable) and less likely to be outdated by new technologies, and not contain specific design solutions.  A design handbook will also be developed to guide application of the standard. Volume 1 of the new standard (Crew Medical Standard) has been reviewed and approved by the NASA Medical Policy Board. Volume 2 is in review and scheduled for submittal to HG by the end of 2006 and to the Medical Policy Board in January 2007. The design handbook development was begun in October 2006 and its planned release is in September 2007.

 

HSI in the FAA.  Mr. Glen Hewitt, Federal Aviation Administration HQ, Washington, D.C. (glen.hewitt@faa.gov) provided an overview of HSI in the FAA, which oversees about 55,000 aircraft flights per day.  A chronology of past events includes:

 

FAA commonalities with the DoD include:

 

 

FAA differences from DOD include: