Human Factors / Ergonomics Certification Program

OXFORD RESEARCH INSTITUTE has fully instituted its Certification Program In Human Factors Engineering and Industrial Ergonomics since 1993.  Current members of the certification review committee include:

• 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: After July 15, 2000, 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.

The following courses have been suggested as the type which may eventually be approved for the certification program.

Physiological Psychology, 4 units* or equivalents listed:
Neuro Physiology
Neuro Psychology
Physiology

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

5. Functional Requirements Analyst
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

Industry Applications Specialty

1. Utilities & Nuclear Power Systems
2. Commercial Aircraft Systems
3. Military Systems
4. Medical Systems
5. Commercial Transportation Systems
6. Industrial Manufacturing Systems
7. Office Computing Systems
8. Telecommunication Systems
9. Agriculture & Mining Systems
Other___________________

OXFORD HISTORY

The Oxford Research Institute was originally founded in 1977 by a group of research scientists and engineers concerned with the general decline and empathy of American business and physical sciences posture toward ergonomics and Human Factors Engineering. The founders of the institute concluded that one of the problems within our scientific and business community is the lack of integrated multidisciplinary cooperation among scientists of different ergonomic disciplines, and a general failure to adequately transfer technology and methods both within and beyond the scientific community. As a result of this finding the Institute was formed and structured to execute an Ergonomics / Human Factors Engineering accreditation program for Universities and Colleges and encourage multidisciplinary technical transfer of ergonomic information and research into business, engineering sciences, and industry.

The original founding directors of ORI were Dr. Richard D. Doolittle, Captain Vernon Anderson USN (Ret.) and CEO of Undersea Research Corporation, and William W. Banks. The First President of the Oxford Research Institute was Dr. Richard Doolittle, followed in order by Mr. Stephen Hunter of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and later, William W. Banks, serving as executive director representing the discipline of Human Factors Engineering.

In 1993, a reorganization of ORI took place in order to refocus toward the certification of Ergonomist and human factors engineers. Members of the Board felt that by offering a certificate (certification process) to practicing professionals, that this might help promote and define the profession and give both recognition and higher visibility to professionals working in the field. During FY 94, the Review Board of Directors included: Dr. Harold Van Cott, CHFEP; Mr. Smoke Price, CHFEP; Dr. Larry Potash, CHFEP, Dr. Robert Waters, CIE; Dr. Harold Booher, CHFEP; Dr. John Weimer, CHFEP; Ms. Barbara Merrill, CIE, William W. Banks, CIE, and Ms. Lynn Gordon (advisor).

The 1998 review board of directors nominated or added for 1998 included Dr. Abbas Moellum, CIE , Dr. David Gold Sheyder, CIE of NYU, Professor Emeritus (Dr. Harold VanCott retired from his Review Board position in 1996.

In Jan, 2000, Oxford Research Institute was corporately transformed into a non profit, ergonomics safety corporation within the State of Maryland.

THE OXFORD PURPOSE AND MISSION

Oxford Research Institute is a multidisciplinary technical ergonomic certification and accreditation organization formed to facilitate, and foster, multidisciplinary applications of Ergonomics and Human Factors Engineering to improve human safety and system performance. Our goal is to elevate the acceptance of ergonomics and Human Factors Engineering methods, data, technology and persons who practice this profession.

The global mission of The Oxford Research Institute is to encourage & foster excellence in ergonomics through design. This mission is partially achieved through the execution of multidisciplinary technical certification and accreditation programs which focus on establishing ergonomics design criteria and requirements to assure technical excellence of certificate holders. This also includes University accreditation, training and education of academic and commercial organizations, and the publication of journal articles, books and other mechanisms to enhance ergonomic design of products, tools, facilities, equipment, tasks, procedures, training and management systems.

Grants or direct contracts with commercial institutions may fund some of our programmatic work. The certified professionals typically provide the focus of the institute. Any certified member may suggest or propose a thrust area activity. Each proposal is prepared and reviewed by the Board of Directors. A two-thirds approval vote of the directors will forward the proposal to the Executive Director for final approval. Internal funding may be made available to formalize the ergonomic safety proposal and identify an external-funding base. The member responsible for suggesting the proposal idea is appointed chairman of the technical committee and is then responsible for executing the program.

From time to time, The Oxford Research Institute provides "Awards for Excellence" to a select individuals or organization which achieve exemplary performance levels congruent with the Institutes goals of excellence.

As of January, 2002 ORI has certified 326 Industrial Ergonomist and/ or Human Factors Engineers. In addition ORI has accredited several major University HFE/Ergonomics programs.

ORI is Recognized by the Following Organizations:

A
Abbott Labs	AFL-CIO
ALAMEDA County California	AIG Insurance Company
American Bureau of Shipping	American Ergonomics Assn.
Arthur D. Little	Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company
B
Barnes Jewish Hospital	Bauer & Schultz Law Firm
Beckton Dickinson	Bronx VA Medical Center
C
California State University, Hayward,	Carlow International Inc.
Chrysler Motor Co., MI	CIGNA Ins. Co
CNA Ins. Co.	Central Intelligence Agency
The California State Insurance Fund
D
Duke University
E
Ergomatrix Inc.	Ergometrics
ERGOWORKS Inc.	ESIS Insurance Company
F
Federal Aviation Administration	Firemans Fund Ins. Co.
Florida Power and Light	Ford Motor Co., MI
G
General Motors	GNA
H
Hewlett Packard
Honda of North America Inc.	Human Tech Inc.
I
IDA	Innovation Research of California Inc.
Integrated Systems Research Inc	International Business Machines
International Paper	Internal Revenue Service
J
J&H Marsh & McLennan Inc.	Johnson & Johnson Inc.
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
K
Kemper Insurance Co.	Krupp Crane/GWW
L
Los Angles, City of
M
MARSH Inc.	Maryland, State of
Mountain State University
N
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD	Naval Health Research Center
National Safety Council - Barbra Jean Dempski	Naval Health Research Center
Navistar International, Ft. Wayne, IN	Navy Medical Research Institute
NETERGONOMICS Inc.	New York University
New York, State of	Norfolk Naval Hospital
Norfolk Naval Shipyard	NY University Hospital OIC
NY University Medical School	NSC Industrial Ergonomics Coordinator
NYU Dept. of Ergonomics & Biomechanics
O
Ohio, State of	Operations Research Incorporated
Oregon, State of
P
Parallax Corporation, VA	Pennsylvania, State of
Prevnia
Q
QUAD/GRAPHICS Corp.
R
Resonincs International
S
Silicon Valley Ergonomics Institute	The Standard Benefits Insurance Company
T
Tennesee Valley Authority	Travelers Ins. Co.
TRW	TIAA/CREFF
Trinatas Hospital, Elizabeth, J
U
UNISYS	United States Army - Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md.
US Army - APG	US Department of Defense
US Department of Interior	US Marine Corps, Quantico, VA
US Naval Shipyard - Portsmouth Virginia	US Park Service - Washigton DC
US Postal Service	US Public Health Service
US Treasury Dept.	USF&G Ins. Co
USAA
V
Veterans Administration Hospital	Virginia, State of
W
Wassau Insurance Company	Westinghouse
Willis International	Worksite International
Worksteps International
X
Y
Z