Due to being in the accelerated masters program here at ERAU, I am graduating with my M.S. in Systems Engineering this May, only 1 year after graduating with my undergraduate degree! I am also taking only 2 classes this semester. In this post, I’ll chat a bit about my first class (HFS 612 – Human Factors Methods) and then cover my second class in the next post.
HFS 612 is taught by Dr. Doherty. If I remember correctly, he has been with the Human Factors (HF) department for over 20 years. This is his first time teaching this class, but I knew that I wanted to have him as my professor for a class this semester. About 3 years ago, I took HF 300 with him which was an undergraduate HF class that I took towards a HF minor (tldr on that – the scheduling did not work out for me to complete that minor). I remember that as one of my favorite classes here at ERAU where I really felt like I learned a different way of thinking that would help me throughout life and especially engineering job that I will have. I also recognized how much Dr. Doherty seemed to care about the success of his students and his passion for what he does which makes ALL the difference. Thus, I immediately signed up for HFS 612 which I am using as an elective towards my graduate degree.
This class (so far – I am not THAT far along yet haha) seems to be a really good overview to a bunch of different topics that people working in Human Factors (in multiple industries) use day to day. A lot of it is set up to be randomly assigned group work and some summaries with an exam at the end. I like the way this is done; I feel like it’s not too much work but is really valuable work to absorb the information. We use a textbook. Dr. Doherty gave us a pdf, but I also got a copy off of Amazon since it seemed to be good to have (and I want to reference it later in my career). I’ll follow up again later once the class is almost finished, but I am enjoying thus far. It is MWF 1-2pm which I like. 3-hour graduate classes, especially late at night, are difficult; I don’t always feel like I’m absorbing all the information I should.
