UB - University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

Rick Stone has his own lab, a 282 square foot simulated land mine field that he's built himself, where UTORR (unmanned tele-operated reconnaissance robot), which he also built himself, roams the field detecting and potentially "detonating" mines. This simulation and the data he's gathering from it forms the basis for his dissertation, which investigates how augmented reality can "increase human performance and learning."

Rich came to UB with a B.S. and a M.S. from RIT, as well as certificates in computer-aided manufacturing and environmental science. He was attracted to human factors engineering because he "noticed that the failures he was seeing in earlier projects were due to a lack of accounting for the human element." After building and working with several robots in his earlier work, Rick comments, "the most interesting machine—the human—is the one I want to understand now." He chose UB for its integration of human factors with "hard" engineering----while it's essential, he explains, to "understand the human as part of the system, you also have to understand the system. We're the engineers of human factors here. That's why this is the program for me."

The faculty, Rick feels, has been key to his progress. "The whole department has been so supportive and they've made me a much better researcher too. I'm a real stickler now, where I wasn't before." Combined with rigor, though, is the open quality that characterizes UB ISE: "The faculty is flexible enough to let you go out on the edge, but also very structured, so they make sure you have a deep understanding of all the engineering factors. I really enjoy the intellectual freedom that this department not only allows but encourages." The faculty, he continues, makes sure to send students to colloquiums and conferences, to direct them toward internships, and generally help them to develop themselves as professionals. Rick and his team won the prestigious student e-prize this year at the Applied Ergonomics Competition.