Our graduates told us it would be helpful to have this type of information in one location, to aid current and future students in planning, to make the most of their time at OSU… Let us know what else to include!
Topics on this page (so far!):
- Plan to attend – events you’ll want to plan for
- OSU courses – what you should plan to or might otherwise want to take
- Professional societies – get involved!
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Plan to attend:
Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society – occurs in Sept. or Oct. each year
Financial support is available for students supported by our NIOSH Training Grant and our students who are leaders in our OSU HFES Student Chapter.
All-Ohio Safety Congress, sponsored by the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation, held at the Convention Center in Columbus in March each year
https://info.bwc.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/bwc (type ‘all Ohio safety congress’ in the search box to find info on the upcoming event)
This event is free to attend for our students and OSU employees.
OSU Leadership Center – provides several workshops each semester https://leadershipcenter.osu.edu/home
Financial support to attend one workshop each semester is available for students supported by our NIOSH Training Grant.
ASSP – Central Ohio Chapter – This is the local chapter of ASSP. The chapter holds monthly event meetings in fall and spring and welcomes members and non-members to attend. They welcome participation of students!
https://centralohio.assp.org/ (check their Events tab)
Safex – This is a local, woman-owned company that employs certified safety professionals, certified industrial hygienists, and environmental, health and safety specialists to provide consulting and training services. The company offers occasional, always informative, free webinars.
https://www.safex.us/ (check their Calendar for events)
Honda Ergo Cup – each year (in the fall in years when we are not in the midst of a global health emergency), Honda invites us to the local Ergo Cup Competition. This takes place in Marysville OH, a 45 minute drive from Columbus. All the Honda plants in Ohio exhibit their latest solutions to several ergonomic and safety challenges in their facilities. The winners represent Honda at the Applied Ergonomics Conference, an annual event sponsored by IISE.
Watch for an email from Dr. Sommerich about this event.
University of Cincinnati NIOSH-sponsored ERC PRP Symposium – each fall, this event gives attendees the opportunity to learn about pilot research projects conducted by young researchers through support from the ERC.
Watch for an email from Dr. Sommerich about this event.
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OSU courses that may be of interest to you:
Unlike undergraduate courses, graduate courses may not be offered every semester or even every year. If you see a course that interests you, contact the professor to ask which semester(s) the course will be offered, as you develop your plan of study.
Where to look for information about courses:
The course plan for our MS in ISE specializing in Occupational Safety and Ergonomics shows courses that are required for this program, as well as a number of elective courses that may be of interest to you:
https://u.osu.edu/safetyergotpg/program-plan/
OSU Department of Design: Check out design research courses offered by Dr. Liz Sanders
https://design.osu.edu/people/sanders.82
OSU Department of Psychology: Check out courses offered by Dr. Rich Jagacinski:
https://psychology.osu.edu/people/jagacinski.1
School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences: Check out courses offered by Dr. Emily Patterson, Dr. Ajit Chaudhari, and Dr. John Bolte
https://hrs.osu.edu/faculty-and-staff/faculty-directory/patterson-emily
https://hrs.osu.edu/faculty-and-staff/faculty-directory/chaudhari-ajit
https://hrs.osu.edu/faculty-and-staff/faculty-directory/bolte-john
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Professional Societies
Graduate school is THE time to start building your professional network. Becoming an active member in one or more professional societies is a great way to do this. Professional societies welcome students and usually have discounted membership rates and special programming for students and young professionals. You can learn about the range of career possibilities in HF/E and safety by talking to members who are employed in industry (manufacturing, healthcare, government, etc.), or academia, or who are consultants. Professional societies have conferences where you can present your research and learn about the research of others, but that is just one way you can get involved. These societies often have technical groups within them, where members can find others who share similar interests. Students are welcome to join these technical groups. There are often volunteer opportunities that are just waiting for someone to take on, including students!
- Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) – https://www.hfes.org/home
- OSU’s student chapter of HFES: https://hfesosu.weebly.com/
- American Society of Biomechanics (ASB) – https://www.asbweb.org/
- IISE Applied Ergonomics Society – https://www.iise.org/aes/
- American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) – https://www.assp.org/
- American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) – https://www.aiha.org/
If you want to know more about any of these societies you can ask the HSI faculty in the ISE department about them or contact the national HQ or a local chapter directly. Dr. Gary Allread in the Spine Research Institute is also a great source of information about the IISE Applied Ergonomics Society.