The University of California, San Francisco/University of California Berkeley (UCSF/UC Berkeley) is now working with the Santos® Institute to integrate Santos® technologies into its teaching curriculum and research programs.

Dr. Carisa Harris Adamson, Assistant Professor at the Division of Occupational & Environmental Medicine at UCSF and Director of Ergonomics Research & Graduate Training at UCSF/UC Berkeley, is working with the Santos® Institute to integrate two SantosHuman Inc. (SHI) products, Santos® Pro and Santos® Lite into her research and teaching curriculum.

“We are thrilled to be a part of the Santos University Program”, says Prof. Harris who goes on to say, “We take pride in providing the best educational training and resources to our students to ensure that they can apply the latest technology to solving difficult workplace design challenges.”

The UC Ergonomics Research & Graduate Training Program was formed over 25 years ago to understand how Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSD’s) are caused and to identify equipment designs and work practices that can prevent these disorders and optimize human performance.

To accomplish these goals, the UC Ergonomics Program (UCERGO) provides an advanced research environment, complete with the latest equipment and technology, which is used to study methods of preventing musculoskeletal disorders and train tomorrows’ academics and practitioners in MSD prevention. Now led by Prof. Harris, the UCERGO includes students from medicine, engineering, and environmental health sciences.

“I am so pleased to have UCSF/UC Berkeley and Professor Harris within our University Program.”, says Steve Beck, SHI’s President and CEO. Beck says, “The Santos® University Program has really taken off and the caliber of the participating members and the quality of their programs is inspirational.”

Through the Santos® University Program, UCSF/UC Berkeley obtains access to state of the art digital human modeling and simulation tools that will be used to solve difficult workplace and tool design challenges. Prof. Harris will be teaching her students how to use Santos® virtual human-in-the-loop SantosHuman Inc. solutions on existing and future workplace design challenges and also providing continuing education for practitioners with real-world experience using Pro and Lite to assess and intervene in actual workplaces.

“We appreciate Santos' support by providing all of our students access to their simulation software which will play an integral part in their future role of preventing MSDs”, says Prof. Harris.

Prof. Harris sees an immediate opportunity to integrate Santos® Lite within the UCERGO’s Introductory Occupational Biomechanics course and within the Summer Institute Course for practitioners and students. The more feature-rich digital human modeling and simulation environment, Santos® Pro, will be integrated within the UCERGO’s Advanced Occupational Biomechanics Course as well as within Prof. Harris’s research efforts which will include analyzing the kinematics data available through streaming motion capture to assess high risk occupations and viable interventions.

Dr. Tim Marler, SHI’s Chief Research Officer and the Director of the Santos® Institute which oversees all SHI activities involving the development and dissemination of Santos® knowledge says, “Engineering is the transition of science to society.” Marler goes on to say, “Yet Human Systems Integration has generally not been considered extensively in engineering curriculum aside from a few courses in human factors and engineering.”

“Providing University programs like Prof. Harris’s with access to foundational human-centric design tools will change the way students approach and think about design”, says Marler, “and we are excited to be working with UCSF/UC Berkeley, especially at this time when jobs and workplaces are changing dramatically.”

Prof. Harris says, “The multidisciplinary composition of our students reflects the interdisciplinary approach needed to design and implement meaningful changes in the workplace.”

Additional information on Prof. Harris’s programs, publications and current research projects can be found at http://ergo.berkeley.edu/

Contact the Santos® Institute at institute@santoshumaninc.com for more information and to participate in the Santos® University Program. SantosHuman Inc.  

SHI’s success is tied directly to our clients’ success and the Santos® Institute and its programs represent just a few ways in which we strive to match our state of the art, human-centric, virtual product design and analysis methods, technologies, and resources with client requirements.

Provided through the Santos® Institute, the Santos® University Program is designed to complement and/or foster projects, courses, and curricula related to:

•  Industrial Design
• Computer science
• Digital Human Modeling
• Simulation
• Engineering
• Occupational Health & Safety
• Ergonomics
• Human Factors
• Objective Analysis of Motion Capture
• Biomechanics
• Robotics (the foundation of the Santos® predictive models)

In addition, the Santos® Institute can assist in the development of new and related curricula.

The Santos® University Program represents yet another way in which we strive to match our state of the art, human-centric, virtual product design and analysis methods, technologies, and resources with industry requirements.