PRE-CONFERENCE Workshops

Take advantage of the opportunity to enhance your skills and boost your learning by participating in a pre-conference workshop. Learn from experienced practitioners who will address your concerns about ergonomics. They are open to all registered in-person conference attendees and require a separate fee.

Monday, March 27

Ergonomics Certification – Preparing to Take BCPE Exam

8 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Presenter: Robert J. Smillie, President, Foundation for Professional Ergonomics

Participants will review the BCPE Core Competencies, of which the exam is based. They will learn what percentage of questions go with each competency, what the sub-competencies are, and what knowledge and skills are considered critical for each competency. Participants will review all the major subject areas and get an understanding of which areas they will need to address before sitting for the exam. Overall subject reviews of key competency areas will be provided.

The topics that will be covered include:

  • Basic Principles of Ergonomic Systems
    • System Concepts
    • Ergonomic Design Approaches
    • General Design Principles
  • Core Background – Ergonomic Fundamentals
    • Human Attributes
    • Environmental Concepts
  • Core Methodology
    • Statistics and Design of Investigations
    • Process Analysis
    • Design Methods
    • Basic Usability
  • Application of Analysis, Design, Validations, and Implementation Methods
    • Human Machine Interaction
    • Human Environmental Interaction
    • Human Software Interaction
    • Human Job Interaction
    • Human Organization Interaction
  • References and Sample Test Questions

Practical Applications of Leadership Principles to Enhance your Ergonomics Program

8 a.m. – Noon
Presenter: Tami Blackwell, Owner and Lead Ergonomist, Ergo410 LLC

John Maxwell often says, "Everything rises and falls on leadership." Notice the word "everything." That includes ergonomics. Our abilities as an ergonomist are only as good as our ability to positively influence others. Unfortunately, our training and education as ergonomists often does not include leadership principles and how to effectively influence people. this workshop aims to give you the tools to use leadership principles to enhance the effectiveness of your ergonomics programs and efforts.

In this workshop, we will cover necessary leadership skills such as communication, conflict management, vision casting, team building, and change management. We will also cover essential interpersonal skills such as coaching, listening, empathizing, influencing, and compromising. To bring it all together, we'll learn about systems and habits that can turn these leadership skills into everyday action.

This workshop will be a participatory workshop and will include many brainstorming, discussion and role-playing activities. Participants are encouraged to bring their own situations and programs to the workshop to work through with the group. By the end of the workshop, you should understand how to practically apply leadership skills to your endeavors as an ergonomist.

Wearable Sensors: A Comprehensive Overview

8 a.m. – Noon
Presenters: Marisol Barrero, AWS; Jesse Jacobs, Liberty Mutual Insurance; Joe Hitt, Go X; and Ryan Porto, General Motors

Today, technology advancements seem to be everywhere in ergonomics, and wearable sensing represents one such technology in growth with many potential applications. In the last few years, many companies have trialed and even scaled wearable sensors to enhance their ergonomics initiatives. This workshop will provide an overview of different types of wearable sensors for biomechanical, physiological, and environmental measurement as well as discuss their purpose, benefits, limitations, and possible drawbacks. A review of the scientific literature will be provided, including user acceptance factors. Case studies noting how sensors are being utilized in industry will be described. Utilizing multi-faceted perspectives on the use of this expanding technology, this workshop will arm the audience with important knowledge to support determining whether wearable sensing is the right option for your organization.

How to Use and Apply the Most Recent Ergonomics Task Analysis Tools

1 p.m. – 5 p.m.
Presenter: Nick La Delfa, Associate Professor of Kinesiology, Ontario Tech University

In the past decade, numerous important ergonomic analyses tools were developed for use by practitioners. Many of these advancements have built upon prior well-accepted methods for task analysis, either through the collection and incorporation of novel data, or by re-envisioning how existing datasets and tools can be applied.

In this workshop you will learn how to use several of these recently developed ergonomics tools for evaluating manual materials handling and repetitive upper limb work tasks including: The Liberty Mutual Manual Materials Handling and Metabolic Equations, LiFFT, the Arm Force Field and Above-Shoulder Tool, Distal Upper Extremity (DUET), Maximum Acceptable Effort Equation and Upper Limb Localized Muscle Fatigue TLV and Recommended Cumulative Rest Allowance (RCRA).

The workshop will cover how these tools can be used with simple spreadsheets and online applications, and how to integrate the outputs of multiple tools to determine task acceptability.

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