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Dr. McDonald receives an award at a conference.
Dr. Anthony McDonald receives the 2019 Human Factors Prize. | Image: Leslie Saber for SaberShots Photography

 Dr. Anthony McDonald, assistant professor in industrial and systems engineering, along with Nilesh Ade, chemical engineering graduate student, and Dr. Camille Peres, associate professor in the School of Public Health, received the 2019 Human Factors Prize from the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society at their annual meeting in October.

Their article “Using Human Factors and Machine Learning to Design Procedures,” was selected as the prize winner.

The article illustrates how machine learning can be used to design and optimize the steps in a process – procedure content – in order to improve procedure performance in the oil and gas extraction industry. The findings of the research could be used to generate advanced guidelines that will ultimately lead to safer operations in high-risk industries.

The prize is awarded each year during the annual meeting to recognize excellence in human factors and ergonomics research. Researchers submit papers on a specific topic, which is selected by the editor-in-chief and board of referees, each year. The 2019 topic was Artificial Intelligence in Human-Machine Interaction.

As part of the prize their paper will soon be published in the society’s journal Human Factors.