How do digitalisation and the interaction with new technologies at work affect us? How can we create healthy workplaces that keep pace with the latest technological developments? Our colleague Patricia Rosen, a psychologist fascinated by the human mind, is working on this at the German Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA). In particular, she is a researcher within the “Human Factors, Ergonomics” group, where she is leading the “Physical worker assistance systems” team.
“I find it motivating to analyse and investigate the effects of new and emerging technologies on the individual and the overall workforce and thus being able to promote healthy workplaces.”
Together with her interdisciplinary team at BAuA, she is focused on defining the user requirements of the technologies we are developing at HumanTech, for which she will rely on the feedback of the construction workers to whom they are addressed.
Q: Patricia, what are you passionate about, and what motivates you most about your work?
A: As a psychologist, learning and understanding how humans behave, think, feel, experience and interact with others as well as their environment has always fascinated me.
In our modern world of work, digitalisation and interaction with new technologies play an important role. I find it motivating to analyse and investigate the effects of new and emerging technologies on the individual and the overall workforce and thus being able to promote healthy workplaces.
I value a lot being able to participate professionally and personally in technological advances affecting how we work and live. I think it is important to accompany these effects early, especially from the human-centred perspective.
“I value a lot being able to participate in technological advances affecting how we work and live and I think it is important to accompany these effects early, especially from the human-centred perspective.”
Q: It seems an exciting and necessary field! Even more so as we incorporate more technological advances into our work. What exactly does your organisation, BAuA, do?
A: We promote occupational safety and health (OSH) and human-centred work design. We aim to detect opportunities and risks for employees at an early stage. To this end, we develop approaches for appropriate, targeted OSH measures and ensure that safety and health concerns are considered from the very beginning when technological and organisational innovations are introduced.
Q: And, in particular, what is your role in HumanTech?
A: Within the HumanTech project, the role of my team at BAuA is to define user requirements for all of the HumanTech technologies. Furthermore, we aim to evaluate the different technologies within the specific use cases and pilots from a worker perspective.
For us, a close collaboration with the use cases, the technology developers and implementers within HumanTech is essential. Within our evaluation, we consider, for example, the interaction quality between a potential worker and a specific technology, also addressing the requirements in relation to construction work.
“Within HumanTech, the role of my team at BAuA is to define user requirements for all of the HumanTech technologies — within the specific use cases and pilots from a worker perspective.”
Q: An essential part of our project! What do you like most about your work on it, and what are you most looking forward to?
A: I always enjoy working in interdisciplinary teams, which is the case within HumanTech. I am especially looking forward to having specific set-ups in our pilots and seeing how our innovative technologies can support human workers. We also plan to get direct feedback from the workers. This is always treasurable information to me, as they are the real experts for their specific tasks or jobs and any associated changes.
Q: How do you think you can make a positive impact through HumanTech?
A: By emphasising the human factors perspective. Within this project, we do not only focus on one emerging technology but different worker assistance systems like collaborative robotics, smart glasses and exoskeletons. The variety of technologies allows us, on the one hand, to combine existing knowledge on each technology and, on the other hand, to broaden the scope when using multiple systems in a challenging environment like the construction industry.
Q: To conclude, what is the most important milestone you hope to achieve?
A: With the help of the HumanTech team, we hope to be able to provide a comprehensive human factors perspective on the HumanTech technologies in their specific pilot applications.
“With the help of the HumanTech team, we hope to be able to provide a comprehensive human factors perspective on the HumanTech technologies in their specific pilot applications.”
Learn more about our work at HumanTech and the team behind it.
Know Gloria Callinan, Project Support Officer at the Technological University of the Shannon (TUS), Florendia Fourli, CEO and Managing Director of Hypercliq, and Francesca Canale, Project Engineer at STAM.
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