Felix Portnoy, doctoral student at the School of Information and Library Science (SILS), is the recipient of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) Student Member with Honors Award. The Award was presented to Portnoy during the annual HFES meeting held in Las Vegas on September 20, 2011.
“This award is granted once a year during the annual HFES meeting with the purpose of recognizing an outstanding contribution made by a student member,” said Portnoy. “The contribution needs to be for both the human factors discipline and the society.”
Aside from the actual application, Portnoy had to meet a substantial list of eligibility requirements in order to receive the award. These requirements included community service related to HFES at a local chapter or society-wide level, a GPA of 3.75 or higher and a letter of recommendation from a UNC faculty member, former mentor from the private industry and a former HFES student chapter faculty advisor. Students were also required to have publications of an original work in HFES and a significant contribution to an industry project.
Portnoy met these requirements and exceeded some. For example, he was president of the HFES student chapter at the University of Toronto in the years 2006-2007, increasing the member base by 60 percent; organized bi-weekly seminars, guest speakers, industry panels, field trips and other social events, which awarded his chapter a best HFES Student Chapter in 2007.
Since 2006, Portnoy has been a student volunteer during the annual HFES meetings and a peer reviewer since 2008. He developed the first (and only) human factors and ergonomics internships database.
Several publications concerning human factors and ergonomics have been published by Portnoy and his co-authors. They include:
Portnoy, F. and Madhavan, P., (2009). Using persistence display to enhance change detection in process control graphical gauges. Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting Proceedings, Vol. 53, pp. 354-358.
Portnoy, F. and Milgram, P. (2008). The effect of low-pass filtering on target detection in simulated ultrasound images. Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting Proceedings, Vol. 52(18), pp. 1272-1276.
*Perception and Performance Technical Group Best Paper Award
Portnoy, F., Milgram, P., and McCartney, C. J. (2008). The use of low-pass filtering to facilitate the detection of peripheral nerves for ultrasound-guided nerve block procedures. Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting Proceedings, Vol. 52(12), pp. 898-902.
For more information about the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) click here.
