2020 Faculty Courses School of Engineering Undergraduate major in Industrial Engineering and Economics

Ergonomics

Academic unit or major: Undergraduate major in Industrial Engineering and Economics
Instructor(s): Kenji Itoh / Hirotaka Aoki / Xiuzhu Gu
Class Format: Lecture/Exercise/Experiment (Zoom)
Media-enhanced courses: -
Day of week/Period (Classrooms): 5-8 Fri (W936)
Class: -
Course Code: IEE.C304
Number of credits: 111
Course offered: 2020
Offered quarter: 3-4Q
Syllabus updated: Jul 10, 2025
Language: Japanese

Syllabus

Course overview and goals

This course focuses on a discipline called ergonomics, especially on a human cognitive aspects-related topics such as perception, mental processes and cognition. This course provides knowledge and basic skills about approaches to/methods of designing human-machine interfaces. Contents covered in this course are divided into four categories: (1) Introduction to ergonomics, (2) human mechanisms, (3) purposes of applications of ergonomics, and (4) applications of ergonomics.
Students will gain knowledge and skills about some of methodologies and typical thinking processes in ergonomics for design of human interfaces.

Course description and aims

By the end of this course, students will be able to:
1. Explain the human characteristics related to work design, roughly.
2. Explain the typical methods/thinking processes used in ergonomics.

Keywords

Man-machine systems, anthropometry, long term memory, short term memory, cognition, workload, fatigue, human error, usability

Competencies

Specialist skills
Intercultural skills
Communication skills
Critical thinking skills
Practical and/or problem-solving skills

Class flow

At the beginning of each class, knowledge and basic skills related to the topics are taught. Towards the end of class, students are given experimental tasks/exercise problems related to the lecture given that day. Attendance is taken in every class. This course is held over two academic quarters. The class meets once a week.

Course schedule/Objectives

	Course schedule	Objectives
Class 1	Guidance, introduction to ergonomics	Understand the overall image of ergonomics.
Class 2	Methologies of ergonomics (Problem solving, methodologies of ergonomics, data collection) Eye tracking experiment	Explain the methodologies used in ergonomics.
Class 3	Human musculoskeletal system and motion Anthropometry exercise	Explain human musculoskeletal system, roughly.
Class 4	Human sensory system and perception Visual system experiment	Explain human sensory system and perception, roughly.
Class 5	Human information processing and cognition Hick-Hyman's law exercise	Explain human information processing and cognition, roughly.
Class 6	Memory and knowledge representation Short term memory experiment	Explain memory and knowledge representation.
Class 7	Workload and fatigue Flight simulator experiment	Explain the concept of workload and fatigue and their evaluation methods.
Class 8	Safety 1 (Human error) Incident analysis exercise	Explain the definition of human error and its relation to accidents.
Class 9	Safety 2 (Risk management and HRA) THERP exercise	Explain the concept of risk management and procedures of HRA.
Class 10	Man-machine interface Interface evaluation experiment	Explain the concept of man-machine interface.
Class 11	Usability 1 (Definition and measurement) Usability goal setting exercise	Explain usability and relating concepts.
Class 12	Usability 2 (Usability design, prototyping) Rapid prototyping exercise	Explain how usability design is carried out, roughly.
Class 13	Usability 3 (Usability heuristics) Usability heuristics exercise	Explain the benefits of tecuhiques used in sability design.
Class 14	Usability 4(Usability test) Usability test exercise	Explain the procedures of usability test.
Class 15	occasional date	occasional date

Study advice (preparation and review)

To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend a certain length of time outside of class on preparation and review (including for assignments), as specified by the Tokyo Institute of Technology Rules on Undergraduate Learning (東京工業大学学修規程) and the Tokyo Institute of Technology Rules on Graduate Learning (東京工業大学大学院学修規程), for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.

Textbook(s)

None required.

Reference books, course materials, etc.

Itoh, Kenji. Ergonomics in highly advanced and matured society (Kou-do Seijuku Shakai no Ningen-Kougaku), Tokyo: Nikka-Giren, (Japanese)
Instruction manuals and course materials are provided during class.

Evaluation methods and criteria

Students' knowledge of topics in the lecture, and their ability to apply them to exercise/experiment will be assessed. Short quiz 40%, reports 60%.
Full attendance and completion of all experiments are compulsory.

Related courses

IEE.C202 ： Industrial Engineering
IEE.C302 ： Quality Management

Prerequisites

No prerequisites are necessary, but enrollment in the related courses is desirable.