Systems, Man & Cybernetics - October 2015 - 31

Society News

he Board of Governors of the
IEEE Systems, Ma n, a nd
Cybernetics Society recently announced Dr. David Kaber's
appointment as editor-in-chief (EiC)
of IEEE Transactions on Human-
Machine Systems (THMS). Kaber
will succeed Dr. Ellen Bass of Drexel
University, who has served as EiC
for the past three years. Bass led
the development of THMS from the
former IEEE Transactions on Sys-
tems, Man, and Cybernetics: Part A.
Among other accomplishments, Dr.
Bass doubled the size of the editorial board, increased the manuscript
submission rate, and increased the
page count available for publication. These accomplishments have
resulted in a current impact factor
of 1.982 (according to InCites Journal Citation Reports), which is higher
than the factors for most ergonomics
research journals.
"Dr. Bass has done
an outstanding job of
managing the journal in its formative
state from the transactions. The quality of publications
is very high, in large
part due to the editorial board, and the
breadth of topics of
regular and special David Kaber.
issues addresses the
interests of many readers," said Kaber.
"It is a real honor and a privilege to
follow Dr. Bass's work and to have the
opportunity to lead the journal into the
next phase of impact on human-systems design and engineering science."
K aber is cu r rently a d isti nguished professor in the Edward P.
Fitts Department of Industrial and
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MSMC.2016.2520075
Date of publication: 28 April 2016

Kaber Is New
Editor-in-Chief of
IEEE Transactions
on Human-Machine
Systems
Systems Engineering (ISE) at North
Carolina State University (NC State).
He is also the current director of
Research for the Ergonomics Center of North Carolina and the director of the Occupational Safety and
Er gonomics Program through ISE.
Kaber holds associate and graduate faculty appointments in the
departments of Biomedical Engineering and Psychology.
He bega n h is
career as an assista nt professor at
M is sis sippi St ate
University, where he
received a National
Science Foundation
CAREER Award for
the study of telepresence in teleoperations. The majority
of Kaber's early research focused on
human-robot interaction in remote
system scenarios and the influence
of various levels or degrees of robot
autonomy on human workload, situation awareness, and performance.
Kaber also conducted substantial
aviation-related research, including study of levels of automation
and modes of adaptive automation
in the context of simulated aircraft
flight and air traffic control tasks.
O c tob e r 2015

This work led to a theory of levels
of automation in complex systems
that Kaber empirically evaluated,
demonstrating intermediate levels to
reduce operator workload and maintain situation awareness through
task engagement in complex systems control.
Kaber also developed design
guidelines for adaptive automation
and interface technologies for application across domains involving
human operation of complex systems
under high workload with demands
for accurate dynamic knowledge.
Kaber has worked at NC State
since 2000, and his research through
the Ergonomics Lab and Center has
covered several areas, including
human-machine interface design,
virtual reality (VR) simulation and
training system design, and quantification and modeling of human visual attention and performance while
multitasking. Some specific studies
have included the use of cognitive
task analysis to define supervisory
control interface content and extension of human-computer interaction
usability evaluation methods to the
aircraft cockpit.
More recently, Kaber developed
and applied computational cognitive
models for assessing the usability
of human interfaces in life science

IEEE SyStEmS, man, & CybErnEtICS magazInE

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Systems, Man & Cybernetics - October 2015