Track: Engineering Education

Abstract

Human factors and Ergonomics (HFE) is one of the fundamental subjects of industrial engineering. The purpose of this study was to provide a comparative assessment of the ergonomics courses for industrial engineering in the Philippines. Several institutions were assessed and the ergonomics courses were listed and compared. In addition, the courses were also compared with ergonomic courses in one of the best industrial engineering institutions in the United States, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VT), as a benchmark. The result indicated the industrial engineering programs in the Philippines, particularly in graduate school, had a lower variety of ergonomic courses. In addition, the number of professors with doctoral degree in human factors & ergonomics were also very limited which subsequently lead to a limited variety of ergonomic courses and journal publications. Several classes for graduate school were proposed which cover cognitive ergonomics, physical ergonomics, and organizational ergonomics. In addition, a consortium between several universities to enhance the variety of ergonomic courses is highly required. This study contributed to the highlight of the important characteristic that can be useful for future improvement of the industrial engineering program in the Philippines. Finally, the proposed approach for analyzing the human factors and ergonomics education can also be applied and extended to other countries.