We frequently get asked questions about Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Human Factors program. Some of these are so frequently asked that we thought it would save your time and maybe pique your interest in our program if we commented on them here.
General Questions
Human Factors refers to Human Factors Psychology or Human Factors Engineering and other disciplines that need to link knowledge of human abilities and limitations with interface design. (Interface means the buttons and knobs, the training requirements, the team members, the computer commands, and other things that require efficient human input). Human Factors is concerned with the application of what we know about people, their abilities, characteristics, and limitations to the design of equipment they use, environment in which they function, and the jobs they perform.
Our students get better jobs than traditional psychology students from other universities for two simple reasons: We are Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and we are well-known specialists in all things aerospace. Our students work in the military, in industry, in academics, or go on for advanced degrees in which more specialization occurs. Throughout it all, our students are generalist enough in their training to adapt to any endeavor in which maximizing human abilities is crucial.
The most logical time is during or by end of the sixth semester.
The next milestone after the sixth semester will come at the completion of the eighth semester. In this case, students who have not maintained the cumulative GPA of 3.2 will not be allowed to continue with the Master of Science in Psychology program.
Our students work in health care industries, as well as the traditionally engineering disciplines. We have a new minor, Aerospace Life Sciences, that is popular among students who wish to get careers in health-care fields such as medical school, pharmacy, veterinary, and nursing. There are other disciplines that need to know something about human abilities, such as Bioengineering or Biophysics, and the degree is popular among those students as well. Finally, we hope the Aerospace Life Science minor will take students into the Aerospace field of health sciences, where they can work as astrobiologists or space physiologists.
Our students are well-prepared, perhaps superbly prepared, for advanced degrees. If you really want to make creative contributions to your field, you need an advanced degree, and our students can go on to the master's degree and even the doctoral degree.
About the Five-Year Program
No, it is a combination of two existing programs offered by the Department of Human Factors and Behavioral Neurobiology. The five-year M.S. in Human Factors (MSHF) degree program combines the BS in Human Factors Psychology (BSHFP) with the M.S. in Human Factors (MSHF).
It allows students who demonstrate and maintain excellence in their academic performance to receive a Master's in Human Factors degree in five years. This is compared to a more traditional path of first completing the bachelor's degree in Human Factors Psychology (HFP), a four-year program, and then completing the master's program, a four-semester program. In addition, the MSHF program will benefit from having qualified, highly motivated students.
HFS 500 Systems Concepts will be taken during the student's last semester as an undergraduate as an Bachelor of Science in Human Factors Psychology elective. HFS 600 Human Factors in Systems (an introductory class) will be eliminated because the class assumes students enter with little or no human factors education at the undergraduate level. The five-year students will have completed a Bachelor of Science in Human Factors Psychology with exceptional grades and thus can be assumed to already have that background.
There are no special admission requirements for the five-year program. The standard undergraduate admission requirements for the Bachelor of Science in Human Factors Psychology students will be applied, so any undergraduate Human Factors Psychology major is allowed to select this degree program as long as they meet the degree requirements. However, the five-year degree program requires certain eligibility (see below).
The cumulative GPA of the first six semesters should be 3.2 or better. This requirement must be satisfied for the student to be considered part of this degree program.
The interested students are responsible for initiating the process of evaluating their eligibility to be considered part of the five-year program. Students who meet the eligibility requirement (a CGPA of 3.2 or better) will be formally notified that they are considered part of the program.
The student will receive a Bachelor of Science in Human Factors Psychology.
The student will be considered pursuing the standard Human Factors Psychology undergraduate degree program.