This entails human-computer interaction, mathematical modeling of visual search and decision processes in human inspection, human reliability and industrial safety, workplace design, cognitive engineering, operator training, productivity improvement in manufacturing systems, manual process control, and biomechanics. Students are typically drawn from various fields in engineering, as well as from the behavioral and health sciences.

The Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University at Buffalo has a long history of quality education and research in the area of human factors. It has always seen its role as integrating human factors into the broader context of designing effective work systems. UB's program is one of the few human factors graduate programs offered within an engineering school to be accredited by the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.