Ulf Aberg Award

Ulf Aberg:

Ulf Aberg was born in 1920 and graduated in electrical engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm in 1945, gaining a Doctorate in 1961. For 14 years he worked with Ericsson, and later with the National Defence Research Institute, on acoustics, speech transmission and information theory. After several industrial research posts he founded the Laboratory of Industrial Ergonomics at the Royal Institute of Technology in 1969, later developing the Institute of Work Sciences which embraced Occupational Accidents, Construction Ergonomics and Industrial ergonomics.
The cross disciplinary membership of the Institute permitted a broad approach to industrial work which was demonstrated by major involvement in the design and implementation of many new plant installations in Sweden. He co-authored the first Swedish textbook on ergonomics and, as Professor of Industrial Ergonomics, was influential in introducing many students to his catholic approach to the subject. He was the first foreign member of the Ergonomics Society and the founder chairman of the Nordic Ergonomics Society.

Brief Description:

The Ulf Aberg Award is given to the best postgraduate student project(s) in ergonomics/human factors, as submitted by the supervisor or course director, and which was usually marked and evaluated by the home university during the immediately preceding academic year.

Criteria:
1    The work will be assessed on the basis of a postgraduate student project report submitted as a part of the requirements for a recognized qualification.
2    The student will normally have been studying for a taught Masters degree, postgraduate Certificate or postgraduate Diploma when the project was carried out.
3    The postgraduate project should be in an area of ergonomics/human factors, but the postgraduate course need not necessarily be one recognised by the Institute.
4    The emphasis of the award is on absolute merit rather than on competition between candidates.
5    In assessing student's projects the following points may be taken into account:
a.    How much of the project is pure ergonomics/human factors?
b.    The relationship of the work to previous research in relevant areas.
c.    Is the  problem stated explicitly?
d.    The originality and technical expertise in planning and execution.
e.    Does the project show how user requirements have been studied and treated?
f.    Quality of interpretation and discussion of results.
g.    The clarity of expression and quality of presentation.
h.    Does the work fulfill the standard of a "Very Good" or “Excellent” Masters Degree?

Submission and assessment procedures:
1    Submissions for student project awards should be made by the student's supervisor, course director or head of department/school. This is to ensure that, except in exceptional circumstances, only one project is submitted from each department/school.
2    A short statement in support of the project and work should be included by the nominator.
3    The submitted projects are all assessed by independent assessor(s), at least one of whom will review all submissions in any one year.
4    The selected and rejected project reports will be further assessed by members of the Honours Committee.
5    The deadline for submissions is 31st October (later nominations may be accepted by the Honours Committee).

Nature and presentation of Award
A Certificate will be presented by the President of the Institute at the Annual Dinner of the Institute. Travel expenses up to an amount determined from time to time by the Institute, conference fees (at student rates), two night’s accommodation  (conference 'basic' level), and annual dinner will be paid for by the Institute.

Past winners
2011: Jan Mulligan
Jan Mulligan has worked in the field of information technology for over 25 years, the last 14 of which have been focussed on disability (assistive technology) and ergonomics. Jan now runs Greenleafe Ergonomics, an independent consultancy. Jan has an MSc in Human-Computer Interaction with Ergonomics from University College London. Her research considered user attitudes towards persuasive break reminder technology and explored the potential for systems that addressed both physical and psychological issues. Study participants were asked to consider their attitude to such systems and what conditions and situations might lead them to welcome, tolerate or reject such intervention. A user acceptance model was presented, which identified the need for a combination of knowledge, understanding, control and trust.

2011: Pauline Cole
Pauline Cole is a Chartered Physiotherapist who has specialised in Occupational Health since 2001. Initially working in the NHS and involved in the prevention and treatment of injuries for hospital staff she is currently the director of Workplace Health Direct Ltd., providing occupational health physiotherapy and ergonomics services to businesses. Her study examined the equipment purchasing process and the factors influencing equipment selection in an NHS Trust. A process mapping exercise and a series of focus groups were held. Results indicate a number of problems at different levels within the purchasing process exist.

2010: Francesca Pagnacco
Francesca Pagnacco has ten years' experience in several roles related to web technologies including writing copy, content management, front end development, accessibility and user experience design. In past roles Francesca headed a team of developers for an investor relations website design agency and implemented accessible user testing at Webcredible. Francesca currently works for Flow Interactive in London as a user experience consultant and her key areas of interest are ethnographic research, interaction design and accessibility. She has an MSc in Human-Computer Interaction from the University College London Interaction Centre.
The dissertation looked at how control room staff at London Underground’s Victoria Line made sense of the information they received about on-the-ground events through the cues from their equipment and from each other. Using field observations, the study uncovered the situations that gave rise to sense-making, the strategies adopted to ease and speed up sense-making and the bottlenecks in information seeking.

2009 Kim Hiltz & William Baker
2008 Dr Tara Reilly
2007 Sian Taylor-Phillips
2006 K Mercer
2005 Z Mack
2004 L Fleet
2003 Caroline Gowing
2002 Laura Norton
2001 Ian Rowley
2000 Wendy Morris
1999 E J Wright
1998 Ann Brooks; Ilse Cowdery
1996 Aileen Sullivan, Nottingham University
1995 Linda Bossi, Loughborough University of Technology
1993 Joanna Thomason, Birmingham University
1992 Mark R Wilson, Loughborough University of Technology
1991 Jacqueline Nicholls, London University
1990 I Denley
1989 Margaret Boase, Loughborough University of Technology
1987 Anthony E P Esgate, Birkbeck College London
1986 Kian Chye Ong, University of Hull
1984 M Andrew C Life, University College London
1983 Michael J Tipton, Kings College London
1982 E Barry Gill, University of Aston in Birmingham
1981 Boi-Leong Yap, Loughborough University of Technology
1980 Adrian A Philpott, University College London
1978 William A Evans, University College London
1977 Rachel R Birnbaum, University College London