The prestigious Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) recently approved a group of BYU-Hawaii students working closely with the administration, Assistant Psychology Professor Ronald M. Miller, and the Polynesian Cultural Center, to form a chapter on campus.
"There are only 40 universities in the country that have a student chapter, and we're number-one [on their website], because they're listed in alphabetical order," said Dr. Miller, a society member who earned his doctorate from Purdue with an emphasis on human ergonomics.
"As an organization, they're very hard to get into." He added that Dr. Brent Swan in the School of Computing is also a member of the society. "Before he was here, between here and Japan I was one of four people who have that membership certification."
"The HFES basically got started after World War II. In aviation, for example, the engineers were building fine machines, but the people using them were crashing them into the ground," Dr. Miller explained. "A lot of people were making mistakes with the machinery they were using, so they brought in a group of experimental psychologists and asked if they could help make better machines."
"It's almost like looking at a human like a machine, and trying to integrate them into a machine," or in other words ergonomics, which is also called biotechnology or human engineering.
Dr. Miller said current and previous BYU-Hawaii students have been helping the Polynesian Cultural Center do research for a number of years, working closely with Dr. William Neal, assistant to the president of BYU-Hawaii; Dr. Paul Freebairn, Director of University Assessment and Testing; and School of Business Professor Clayton Hubner.
"Two-and-a-half years ago we started an unaffiliated chapter with help from the PCC, to answer some of the statistical questions they had about their operation. Most of the other student chapters are associated with engineering programs," he continued, crediting senior psychology major Nicki Strong from Hollister, California, for doing much of the leg work in submitting the HEFS student chapter application.
Strong, who hopes to go on a mission after she graduates and then continue her education, said it took her about two months to complete the application process. "They got back to us in about four months. We already had a de facto research organization, but now we're institutionally recognized," she said. "We're also applying for the [HFES's] Outstanding Student Chapter. They award it to only three out of the 40 a year. In the future we hope to be doing more projects, so we can keep applying every year."
Strong is president of the HFES student chapter, with Anthony Au as president-elect; Justin Benson, secretary; Professor Miller as chapter adviser; Dr. Neal as director; and Sung Fat Leung, treasurer.
"The students have done tremendous work in terms of the Polynesian Cultural Center, and that's been recognized," Dr. Miller said, noting one "looks like he's going to MIT in the fall, and another who's going to George Washington or Purdue."
He added the students also work on BYU-Hawaii institutional research under Drs. Neal and Freebairn; and some of them — Jeremy Orrego, Cecilia Yu, Amber Hanza and Keitaro Yoshida — recently presented their findings on the National Survey of Student Engagement in a paper at the Association for Institution Research convention in Chicago.
Dr. Miller said their project deals with a movement in the United States to require all students to participate in classroom settings. "But we have many international students who are taught that you don't participate, so we analyzed if, in fact, they do participate less."
"They do, but when we analyzed their performance, we found their grade point averages were no less than their mainland counterparts, and they were more likely to work with their professors. They also not only came to office hours more regularly, but they were more likely to participate in research projects with their professors than mainland students."
"When we went to the conference, the largest of its kind in this field, we were able to present those findings. We realize different cultures have different ways of learning, and universities need to be sensitive. Now we have the data to back that up."
Dr. Miller stressed the students "helped us develop the hypotheses, do the statistical analyses, and come to conclusions," He added they initially presented some of their statistical findings at a faculty meeting in February 2005. "We were told that was the first time students had ever compiled data that they'd analyzed."
"This is very atypical of other universities," he continued. "This is probably the best group of students I've ever worked with. They're able to do high-level analyses that are quality enough to be presented to faculty and conferences. Some of it's going to be published in journals. We also have four or five publications we're working on."
Strong agrees this will definitely help her in the future. "It's nice to be able to have a bigger insight into human factors. I had no idea about this before I was involved," she said. "Actually starting the chapter was a good leadership and organizing experience. It helps my résumé."
"Everyone knows how hard it is to get into this organization, so in terms of graduate school application, this puts our students way ahead," Dr. Miller added. "They will be recognized as coming from a superior background as undergraduates."