Virtual Work on Virtual Systems Using Virtual Reality

Opening Speech: Virtual work on Virtual Systems Using Virtual Reality Professor Peter Hancock, Provost Distinguished Research Professor, and Associate Professor Ben Sawyer, the University of Central Florida (UCF) Peter A. Hancock, D.Sc., Ph.D. is Provost Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Institute for Simulation and Training, as well as at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Systems at the University of Central Florida (UCF). In 2009 he was created the 16th ever UCF University Pegasus Professor (the Institution’s highest honor) and in 2012 was named 6th ever University Trustee Chair. He directs the MIT2 Research Laboratories. Prior to his current position he founded and was the Director of the Human Factors Research Laboratory (HFRL) at the University of Minnesota where he held appointments as Professor in the Departments of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Psychology, and Kinesiology, as well as being a member of the Cognitive Science Center and the Center on Aging Research. He continues to hold an appointment as a Clinical Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychology at Minnesota. He is also an affiliated Scientist of the Humans and Automation Laboratory at Duke University, a Research Associate of the University of Michigan Transport Research Institute, and a Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition in Pensacola, Florida. He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Hawaii Academy.   Professor Hancock is the author of more than 1,000 refereed scientific articles, chapters, and reports as well as writing and editing more than twenty books including: Human Performance and Ergonomics in the Handbook of Perception and Cognition series, published by Academic Press in 1999. Stress, Workload, and Fatigue published in 2001 by Lawrence Erlbaum and Performance under Stress which was published in 2008 by Ashgate Publishing. He is the author of the 1997 book, Essays on the Future of Human‐Machine Systems and the 2009 text, Mind, Machine and Morality also from Ashgate Publishers. His more recent texts include the Cambridge University Press, Hoax Springs Eternal; The Psychology of Cognitive Deception and the Springer text: Transports of Delight: How Technology Materializes Human Imagination. In addition to his over 1,000 publications Dr. Hancock has also made over 1,000 professional presentations on issues as diverse as human‐machine interaction, and psychological deception, to the history of the reign of Richard III. He has been continuously funded by extramural sources for every one of the thirty‐eight years of his professional career. This includes support from NASA, NSF, NIH, NIA, FAA, FHWA, NRC, NHTSA, DARPA, NIMH, and all of the branches of US Armed Forces. He has also been supported by numerous State and Industrial agencies. He was the Principal Investigator on a Multi‐Disciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI), in which he directed $5 Million of funded research on stress, workload, and performance. It was the first MURI in behavioral science ever awarded by the US Army. He was also the recipient of the first ever research grant (as opposed to contract) given by the Federal Aviation Administration. To date, he has secured over $20 Million in externally funded research during his career.  He has presented, or been an author on, over 1,000 scientific presentations. In 1999 he was the Arnold Small Lecturer of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society and in 2000 he was awarded the Sir Frederic Bartlett Medal by the Ergonomics Society of Great Britain for lifetime scientific achievement. He was the Keynote Speaker for the combined meeting of the International Ergonomics Association and the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society in 2000 in San Diego, the largest-ever professional meeting of the discipline. Dr. Ben D. Sawyer is an applied neuroscientist and human factors engineer fascinated by information exchange between human and machine. Brainwaves, biosignals, and mathematical theory help Dr. Sawyer and his teams to design the models and algorithms that power trustworthy machines. Dr. Sawyer’s math, research, and design recommendations are leveraged by Fortune 500 companies, governments, and nonprofits. He directs thereadabilityconsortium.org, and co-founded both evildigitaltwin.ai and AwayrAI. His work has been covered by The Washington Post, The New York Times, Forbes, Reuters, Fast Company, The BBC, and more. For a closer look, visit bendsawyer.com.