Certification Program

Applicant must have a minimum of 6 years employment with a BS degree, 5 years of experience with a Masters Degree or 4 years with a Ph.D. degree and have been employed full-time as either a Human Factors Specialist, Ergonomist, Industrial Ergonomist, Engineering Psychologist, Industrial Engineer performing ergonomics or Human Factors Engineer as their primary job title during this time period.

Note: A Masters degree is required for the CIE and CHFEP credential. Some exceptions to these requirements may be made on a case by case basis. For example, if a person has over 25 years experience in this field but does not have an appropriate degree, special allowances for this situation will be made since Universities back in the 1950's and early 1960's did not offer degrees in Human Factors, Ergonomics, or Human Factors Engineering.

Applicant must submit two letters of recommendation from professional sponsors employed in the same technical field (Ergonomics or Human factors Engineering)along with their names and phone numbers. These professional peers must recommend the applicant for professional certification and personally know of the applicants capability, knowledge, and professional experience over the past five years. These sponsors should be either past or presently, certified, or fellows of the National Human Factors and Ergonomics Society or full members or a member of APA Division 21 or be certified by ORI. Letters of recommendations must be submitted from individuals who have been employed as either Ergonomist or Human factors Engineers for at least six years as their primary job.

Applicant must submit formal evidence of professional technical ergonomics applied knowledge or human factors engineering contributions in the form of applicant authored books, technical reports, formal publications, conference presentations, HFE / Ergonomics training course materials developed, or research reports authored for clients. Submitted materials must address some direct aspect of ergonomics or human factors engineering endeavors such as systems design or systems evaluation, with specific emphasis on the human component, injury or error reduction, or enhanced safety.

Applicant should send in all college transcripts and have at least a BS (see note above) but preferably a Masters degree in one or more of the following disciplines: Ergonomics, Industrial Ergonomics, Human Factors, Experimental Psychology, General Psychology, Sensory Psychology, Industrial Engineering, Systems Engineering, Cognitive Engineering, Bio Engineering, Industrial Psychology, Human Factors Engineering, Industrial Design, Anthropology, Physiology, or other degrees which the certification Review Board believes to be relevant and allied to the focus of certification. A Ph.D. degree has additional weight in the certification process, equal to one year of experience beyond the MS degree.

All applicants will be required to sit for a two to four hour examination.

Applicant must submit the certification fee of $475.00 in US currency, check, or money order along with the application. In the event that the applicant does not meet the criteria for certification, this fee will be refunded minus the cost of postage and administrative handling (not to exceed $200.00). For more information and an application package you may call Bill Banks at 301-865-4506 in New Market, Maryland or Dr. Arthur Beare at 410-740-5137.

Core competencies within the field of ergonomics include physiological psychology, physiology, sensory psychology, anthropometrics, statistics, engineering psychology, experimental design, human factors engineering, human reliability analysis, industrial safety , human behavior analysis, and other related disciplines. In particular all Ergonomists should know how to perform a detailed tasks analysis and apply MILSTD 1472-D and other relevant OSHA, ANSI, NIOSH as well as other guidelines and standards. Collateral disciplines such as Bio-mechanics, systems engineering, anatomy, physics, motion analysis, and kinesthethics all have a direct applicability to ergonomics.

Some additional core competencies or areas of study might involve: Human Memory, Decision Making, Problem Solving, Cognition, Design for ease of Maintainability, Workload assessment , and Systems Safety. There is also the area of Macro-Ergonomics which includes Organizational Design and Behavior, Total Quality Management and the development of Safety Behavior and Culture.

Sensory psychology, 3 units* or equivalent:
vision
hearing
tactile
Anthropometrics, 3 units*

Dynamic Mechanical Systems
Systems Engineering
Mathematics/Statistics, 6 units*
Engineering psychology, 3 units*
Experimental design, 8 units*
Physics, 4 units
Human Factors Engineering, 3 units*

Engineering Psychology or 0Ergonomics
Human Learning /memory 3 units
Research Design, 4 units
Industrial Safety, 2 units
Anatomy/Biology, 8 units*
Human Behavior Analysis 3 units*
Economics
Personnel Selection 3 units*
Other related disciplines, such as
Cognition, Cognitive Sciences
Bio Mechanical Engineering,
Industrial Engineering,
Systems Engineering, Systems Safety
Architectural Engineering, and
Human Development - all contain elements related directly to Human Factors Engineering and Ergonomics.

Specialty Certification Areas In Ergonomics / Human Factors
Engineering:

1. Sensory Performance & Evaluation

1.1 Human Visual Performance Specialist
1.2 Human Auditory Perfom. Specialist

2 Bio Mechanical Modeling Specialist
3. Industrial Organizations Evaluation Specialist

3.1 Training Development & Evaluation Specialist
3.2 Procedures Develop. & Evaluation Specialist
3.3 Personnel Selection & ,Eval. Specialist

4. Human Motor Performance Specialist

4.1. Hand-eye coordination Specialist

6. Human Reliability Specialist
7. Cumulative Trauma and Injury Prevention
8. Movement Dysfunction Specialist
9. Commercial Product Safety Design Specialist
10. Probabilistic Risk Specialist
11. Cognitive workload Specialist
12. Physical Workload Specialist
13. Ergonomic Equipment Design & Evaluation Specialist
14. Human Machine Interface Design Specialist
15. Ergonomics Training / Education
16. Workplace Assessment Specialists