Kim Vicente
Encyclopedia
Kim Vicente is a professor of Mechanical
and Industrial Engineering
at the University of Toronto
. He is researcher, teacher, and author in the field of human factors
. He is best known for his two books: The Human Factor
and Cognitive Work Analysis.
in 1985, a M.S. in industrial engineering and operations research from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
in 1987, and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
in 1991.
During 1987-1988, he spent a formative year as a visiting scientist in the Section for Informatics and Cognitive Science of the Risø National Laboratory
in Roskilde
, Denmark
. During 1991-92, he was on the faculty of the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology
. Currently, he is Professor of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering
, Computer Science
, and Electrical & Computer Engineering
at the University of Toronto, and founding director of its Cognitive Engineering Laboratory. He is also an adjunct professor of psychology at Miami University
, and a registered Professional Engineer in Ontario
. During 2002-03, he was Jerome Clarke Hunsaker Visiting Professor of Aerospace Information Engineering
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
.
which has spawned hundreds of articles by researchers from around the globe. He and his students have applied these ideas to a number of diverse application domains, including: animation
, aviation
, engineering design
, medicine
, network management
, nuclear power
, and petrochemical processes
. This research has led to 1 patent
, many scholarly contributions (2 books, 3 co-edited books, 91 journal articles, 84 conference proceedings papers, 16 book chapters, 18 invited keynote addresses, and 54 technical reports) as well as significant technology transfer to industry, including the radical organizational restructuring of a multi-billion dollar multinational pharmaceutical corporation toward a more systems-oriented approach to design.
In 1999, Kim authored the first textbook in the area of cognitive work analysis, Cognitive Work Analysis: Toward Safe, Productive, and Healthy Computer-based Work, published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. His latest book, The Human Factor: Revolutionizing the Way People Live with Technology, was published by Alfred A. Knopf Canada in 2003, Routledge in the US and Les Éditions Logiques in Québec
in 2004.
. In 1999, he was chosen by TIME Magazine as one of 25 Canadians
under the age of 40 who is a "Leader for the 21st Century who will shape Canada's future".
and another in Australia
. He has acted as a consultant to industry and government, including the Atomic Energy Control Board of Canada, Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation
, Honeywell Technology Center
, Microsoft
, NASA Ames Research Center
, NATO, Nortel Networks, US Institute of Medicine
, US National Academy of Engineering
, and US Nuclear Regulatory Commission
.
New Investigator Award at the International Invitational Meeting of the Brunswik Society
, and the award for the best paper published in the Human Factors Society Bulletin. In 1995, he was a co-recipient of the outstanding abstract award in the area of Clinical Application of Technology from the Society for Technology in Anesthesia. In 1999, he was the recipient of a first-round Premier’s Research Excellence Award, valued at $100,000. Kim was on the Administrative Committee of the IEEE Society for Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, and on the editorial boards of Human Factors and the International Journal of Cognitive Ergonomics
. Currently, he serves on the editorial board of Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science. In 2002, he became the first engineering professor ever to receive the $100,000 McLean Award, the University of Toronto’s wealthiest and most prestigious prize for outstanding research. He has also received the Outstanding Professional Achievement Award from the Federation of Portuguese
-Canadian Business and Professionals (2003), and the COPA Award for Outstanding Vision/Leadership from the Portuguese Canadian National Congress (2004).
Kim is only the second Canadian researcher to be invited to serve on the Committee for Human Factors of the U.S. National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences. He is also a Senior Fellow and a member of the Corporation of Massey College
. In 2003, he received the E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship, Canada’s most prestigious prize for young academics in all areas of science and engineering.
The Human Factor received the National Business Book Award and the Science in Society General Audience Book Award, and was a finalist for the Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Award for Non-fiction Book of the Year.
Mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is a discipline of engineering that applies the principles of physics and materials science for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. It is the branch of engineering that involves the production and usage of heat and mechanical power for the...
and Industrial Engineering
Industrial engineering
Industrial engineering is a branch of engineering dealing with the optimization of complex processes or systems. It is concerned with the development, improvement, implementation and evaluation of integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information, equipment, energy, materials, analysis...
at the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
. He is researcher, teacher, and author in the field of human factors
Human factors
Human factors science or human factors technologies is a multidisciplinary field incorporating contributions from psychology, engineering, industrial design, statistics, operations research and anthropometry...
. He is best known for his two books: The Human Factor
The Human Factor (book)
The Human Factor: Revolutionizing the Way People Live with Technology is the title of a book by Kim Vicente that Routledge published in 2004. Vicente asserts technology in such constructs as hospitals, airplanes, and nuclear power plants have significant room for improvement...
and Cognitive Work Analysis.
Education and work experience
Kim J. Vicente received a B.A.Sc. in industrial engineering from the University of TorontoUniversity of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
in 1985, a M.S. in industrial engineering and operations research from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, popularly known as Virginia Tech , is a public land-grant university with the main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia with other research and educational centers throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States, and internationally.Founded in...
in 1987, and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
in 1991.
During 1987-1988, he spent a formative year as a visiting scientist in the Section for Informatics and Cognitive Science of the Risø National Laboratory
Risø National Laboratory
Risø DTU National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy is a scientific research organization north of Roskilde, Denmark. From 1 January 2008 it was made an institute under Technical University of Denmark...
in Roskilde
Roskilde
Roskilde is the main city in Roskilde Municipality, Denmark on the island of Zealand. It is an ancient city, dating from the Viking Age and is a member of the Most Ancient European Towns Network....
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
. During 1991-92, he was on the faculty of the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology
Georgia Institute of Technology
The Georgia Institute of Technology is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States...
. Currently, he is Professor of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering
Biomedical engineering
Biomedical Engineering is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology. This field seeks to close the gap between engineering and medicine: It combines the design and problem solving skills of engineering with medical and biological sciences to improve...
, Computer Science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
, and Electrical & Computer Engineering
Electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...
at the University of Toronto, and founding director of its Cognitive Engineering Laboratory. He is also an adjunct professor of psychology at Miami University
Miami University
Miami University is a coeducational public research university located in Oxford, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1809, it is the 10th oldest public university in the United States and the second oldest university in Ohio, founded four years after Ohio University. In its 2012 edition, U.S...
, and a registered Professional Engineer in Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
. During 2002-03, he was Jerome Clarke Hunsaker Visiting Professor of Aerospace Information Engineering
Jerome C. Hunsaker Visiting Professor of Aerospace Systems
The Jerome C. Hunsaker Visiting Professor of Aerospace Systems is a professorship established in 1954 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. It is named after MIT professor Jerome Hunsaker in honor of his achievements in aeronautical engineering...
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
.
Research contributions
Kim has conducted extensive research on how to design technology that works for people in complex sociotechnical systems, and along with Jens Rasmussen, started a new field of research called Ecological Interface DesignEcological interface design
Ecological interface design is an approach to interface design that was introduced specifically for complex sociotechnical, real-time, and dynamic systems. It has been applied in a variety of domains including process control Ecological interface design (EID) is an approach to interface design...
which has spawned hundreds of articles by researchers from around the globe. He and his students have applied these ideas to a number of diverse application domains, including: animation
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
, aviation
Aviation
Aviation is the design, development, production, operation, and use of aircraft, especially heavier-than-air aircraft. Aviation is derived from avis, the Latin word for bird.-History:...
, engineering design
Systems engineering
Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering that focuses on how complex engineering projects should be designed and managed over the life cycle of the project. Issues such as logistics, the coordination of different teams, and automatic control of machinery become more...
, medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
, network management
Network management
Network management refers to the activities, methods, procedures, and tools that pertain to the operation, administration, maintenance, and provisioning of networked systems....
, nuclear power
Nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...
, and petrochemical processes
Oil refinery
An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where crude oil is processed and refined into more useful petroleum products, such as gasoline, diesel fuel, asphalt base, heating oil, kerosene, and liquefied petroleum gas...
. This research has led to 1 patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
, many scholarly contributions (2 books, 3 co-edited books, 91 journal articles, 84 conference proceedings papers, 16 book chapters, 18 invited keynote addresses, and 54 technical reports) as well as significant technology transfer to industry, including the radical organizational restructuring of a multi-billion dollar multinational pharmaceutical corporation toward a more systems-oriented approach to design.
In 1999, Kim authored the first textbook in the area of cognitive work analysis, Cognitive Work Analysis: Toward Safe, Productive, and Healthy Computer-based Work, published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. His latest book, The Human Factor: Revolutionizing the Way People Live with Technology, was published by Alfred A. Knopf Canada in 2003, Routledge in the US and Les Éditions Logiques in Québec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
in 2004.
Media
Kim has been called upon to give an expert opinion to the media on issues related to people and technology. He has been quoted or his work featured in numerous outlets around the world. He has written for the Globe & Mail as well as the Toronto StarToronto Star
The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...
. In 1999, he was chosen by TIME Magazine as one of 25 Canadians
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
under the age of 40 who is a "Leader for the 21st Century who will shape Canada's future".
Lecturing and consulting
Kim has been invited to lecture in 11 countries on 4 continents, including one lecture tour in JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and another in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. He has acted as a consultant to industry and government, including the Atomic Energy Control Board of Canada, Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation
Defence Science and Technology Organisation
The Defence Science and Technology Organisation is a branch of the Australian Department of Defence which researches and develops technologies for use in the Australian defence industry....
, Honeywell Technology Center
Honeywell
Honeywell International, Inc. is a major conglomerate company that produces a variety of consumer products, engineering services, and aerospace systems for a wide variety of customers, from private consumers to major corporations and governments....
, Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
, NASA Ames Research Center
NASA Ames Research Center
The Ames Research Center , is one of the United States of America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration 10 major field centers.The centre is located in Moffett Field in California's Silicon Valley, near the high-tech companies, entrepreneurial ventures, universities, and other...
, NATO, Nortel Networks, US Institute of Medicine
Institute of Medicine
The Institute of Medicine is a not-for-profit, non-governmental American organization founded in 1970, under the congressional charter of the National Academy of Sciences...
, US National Academy of Engineering
National Academy of Engineering
The National Academy of Engineering is a government-created non-profit institution in the United States, that was founded in 1964 under the same congressional act that led to the founding of the National Academy of Sciences...
, and US Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is an independent agency of the United States government that was established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 from the United States Atomic Energy Commission, and was first opened January 19, 1975...
.
Honours and awards
In 1991, Kim received the BrunswikEgon Brunswik
Egon Brunswik was a psychologist who made contributions to functionalism and the history of psychology.-Early life and career:...
New Investigator Award at the International Invitational Meeting of the Brunswik Society
Egon Brunswik
Egon Brunswik was a psychologist who made contributions to functionalism and the history of psychology.-Early life and career:...
, and the award for the best paper published in the Human Factors Society Bulletin. In 1995, he was a co-recipient of the outstanding abstract award in the area of Clinical Application of Technology from the Society for Technology in Anesthesia. In 1999, he was the recipient of a first-round Premier’s Research Excellence Award, valued at $100,000. Kim was on the Administrative Committee of the IEEE Society for Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, and on the editorial boards of Human Factors and the International Journal of Cognitive Ergonomics
Ergonomics
Ergonomics is the study of designing equipment and devices that fit the human body, its movements, and its cognitive abilities.The International Ergonomics Association defines ergonomics as follows:...
. Currently, he serves on the editorial board of Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science. In 2002, he became the first engineering professor ever to receive the $100,000 McLean Award, the University of Toronto’s wealthiest and most prestigious prize for outstanding research. He has also received the Outstanding Professional Achievement Award from the Federation of Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
-Canadian Business and Professionals (2003), and the COPA Award for Outstanding Vision/Leadership from the Portuguese Canadian National Congress (2004).
Kim is only the second Canadian researcher to be invited to serve on the Committee for Human Factors of the U.S. National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences. He is also a Senior Fellow and a member of the Corporation of Massey College
Massey College
Massey College is a postgraduate residential college at the University of Toronto, established in 1963 with an endowment by the Massey Foundation. Similar to All Souls College, Oxford, members of Massey College are nominated from the university community, and are elected by and as fellows of the...
. In 2003, he received the E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship, Canada’s most prestigious prize for young academics in all areas of science and engineering.
The Human Factor received the National Business Book Award and the Science in Society General Audience Book Award, and was a finalist for the Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Award for Non-fiction Book of the Year.