Conference reports

It's not often you get to have 'a day well spent indoors' but the 2010 IEHF Student Conference proved to be an insightful and compelling occasion. Held at the attractive domed observatory theatre of the Motor Heritage Museum, Warwickshire and warmly hosted by Peter Buckle, the companies present showed a breadth and variation of work that kept the pace of interest running smoothly throughout the day. Examples of work spanned from car interface and innovative gear stick design (Jaguar Land Rover), Victoria Line tube driver's display (Davis Associates), Euro fighter Typhoon cockpit and helmet design (BAE Systems), industrial workspace examples showing how ergonomic design considerations are ignored or obstructed by workers often causing injury (Shell UK) and rail control room design (Atkins). Speakers gave insightful knowledge of their professional background, history and current work, and as a current student I found particular interest in the stories of how they had progressed in their career since graduating. On leaving we had a look around the Motor Heritage Museum and everyone left in good spirits. Thanks to all for a well organised and executed event." Gavin Skull.

Dr Paul Herriotts, the Technical Specialist in Ergonomics at Jaguar Land Rover spoke at the conference on ergonomics at the company. "Jaguar Land Rover is a business built around two great British car brands that design, engineer and manufacture in the UK. Our brands are admired around the world with exports to over 170 countries around the globe. Ergonomics excellence is at the heart of our cars, so we were particularly pleased to be able to host the IEHF student conference. The conference was a great success and we were pleased to receive such positive feedback from the attendees. The future needs of the automotive industry are such that we anticipate that ergonomics will have an increasingly important role within the motor industry. We were therefore pleased to be able to make contact with the student members and hope that in future some of those people have the opportunity to work with us to help deliver products that build on our proud tradition of ergonomics excellence."