News and events
Extensively refurbished research centre gets to open its doors
14 October 2010
Loughborough University’s Environmental Ergonomics Research Centre yesterday opened its doors to show off its extensively refurbished and renewed facilities at a special opening event.
The Research Centre, which is part of the newly formed Loughborough Design School, was yesterday (Wednesday 13 October) open to invited guests for a tour of the new laboratories and a lecture by Dr Phil Wickens, explorer, remote mountain guide and photographer, entitled Ergonomics in extreme environments; an explorer’s perspective.
The new laboratories incorporate a combined stressor suite, where people can be exposed to extreme heat or cold, combined with low oxygen levels to simulate altitude, noise and different lighting conditions.
Dr George Havenith, Professor of Environmental Physiology and Ergonomics at Loughborough University, said: “More than £1.3 million has been spent overhauling the facilities to ensure we can offer our students technology and research equipment that is state of the art.
“The opening event was a great opportunity to highlight to our guests what the new facilities have to offer and they were also able to see our PhD students in action with their wide-ranging research work, for example industrial heat stress assessment, sport clothing development, comfort in trains, posture and vibration in agricultural machinery and visual aspects of 3D television.”
The lecture by Dr Wickens looked at the challenges faced by those who operate in extreme expedition environments and facilitated discussions about the role Environmental Ergonomics plays in the development of equipment for such projects.