Human Factors in the Arctic

Our research group focuses on "human factors" in a northerly and operational perspective, especially geared toward professional education at the institute. We want to contribute to learning and skills development, develop taxonomies that describe different levels of competency through observable achievements, and set the agenda in the future design of competence verification in education. We also aim to identify successful educational instruments, and assist to implement these programs at Department of Engineering & Safety (IIS).

In many professional programs, there are a few descriptions of performance beyond minimum requirements. We hope that our research will help to visualize and grade achievement in professional practice, both for graduates and experienced practitioners. In this context, it is useful to look at relationships between motivation and achievement, and methods to increase both. Furthermore, we would like to study the interaction between the foundation subjects and the profession-oriented specialization courses in education.

For our research, it is important and natural to have close relations with psychology and pedagogy departments at UIT. We also have close contact with achievement-oriented environments in Tromsø such as Lufttransport AS, Tromso IL and Olympiatoppen.

PROJECTS

WEKIT ICT H2020 – “Wearable Experience for Knowledge Intensive Training”

We plan to use the WEKIT framework for understanding and enhancing the training of students in two key domains: Aviation (i.e., pilots) and Nautical Sciences (i.e., sailors) at UiT. The WEKIT framework will be employed to understand the challenges associated with learning among pilots and sailors. The results when combined with the outcomes of WEKIT will lead to development of new cases and scenarios that would improve the training of students. Furthermore, the WEKIT framework in conjunction with ship and aircraft simulators at UiT will be used as a pedagogical tool. The WEKIT platform in pedagogy will used to explore better ways for communicating the experience of an expert to a trainee.

NFR - TRANSIKK - "Professional Competence, safety and performance in aviation and maritime operations."

This project will study professional competence - seamanship and airmanship respectively - as a phenomenon and as a resource for safety in the maritime and aviation domain. We will study what constitutes professional competence as both an individual and an organizational trait.

SARiNOR - This project based on addressing the gap between the increasing activity in the Barents and Arctic Ocean and accessible emergency and rescue resources in major accidents at sea. SARiNOR is a collaboration between public and private life actors, and will help to establish a more robust search and rescue in Northern Areas