Department of Integrated Systems

Systems Engineering and Human Factors are increasingly recognised as crucial in today's complex systems and technological challenges, particularly with increasing focus on dealing with safety, risk and complexity. The Department of Systems Engineering and Human Factors has an international reputation for research and teaching in these issues for complex, high value and safety critical industries such as aerospace and defence and this expertise is increasingly relevant to many business and application sectors facing complex, safety-critical or human-intensive issues.

Examples of our activities include:

  • In the field of aerospace, pioneering research undertaken in the 1980s has led to Cranfield University being recognised as the leading centre in Europe for independent research into passenger emergency behaviour, aircraft cabin design, evacuation behaviour and cabin crew performance. The research facilities include a large evacuation research facility, which can be configured as a wide-bodied airframe, a twin deck airframe (e.g. A380), or a Blended Wing Body (BWB).
  • The department has a long-standing research interest in flight operations, pilot training and human factors for flight deck design and is well-equipped to undertake research in all these areas, either in a civil or military context.
  • The department also has a thriving research activity in Driver Behaviour and Education. Much of this research has focused on commercial drivers and a bus simulator has been developed for this purpose.
  • The Department of Systems Engineering and Human Factors at Cranfield is one of the principal members of the MoD-funded Human Factors Integration Defence Technology Centre (HFI DTC). The HFI DTC is a consortium of Industry and University partners that undertake fundamental research and the development of new technology to support future defence capability.

The department offers the MSc in Driver Behaviour. Research degrees leading to PhD and continuing professional development courses for industry are also available.

The department is actively engaged in research in six principle areas:

 

 

 

Click here for details of MSc courses offered by the department.