A Student Conference for Human Factors: Recommendations for Success

Abstract

Giving effective oral presentations is an important skill for human factors specialists. Student research conferences can give human factors specialists-in-training the opportunity to practice presenting their human factors projects and research. These conferences maintain the professional qualities of larger, national conferences for professionals, while offering a less expensive and supportive atmosphere for students still developing their skills. Holding a student conference requires some careful planning and effort. Potential stumbling blocks include a lack of resources and a lack of student participation. Fortunately, a variety of strategies to overcoming these barriers exist. These range from reducing the conference costs by using existing resources, to enlisting student help in planning, and to accepting a variety of genres of presentation material. This paper discusses the notion of student research conferences, barriers to holding a student conference, and recommendations for those interested in holding a meeting of this nature.