School staff
Personal profile
Dr Diane Gyi graduated as an Occupational Therapist, followed by an MSc (1991) and a PhD (1993-1996) in Ergonomics. On gaining her PhD she worked as a Research Fellow in both the departments of Civil and Building Engineering, and Design and Technology. She was appointed as a lecturer in the Department of Human Sciences in October 2001.
Diane has published research on health ergonomics and applying this knowledge to design with research grants from EPSRC, the BUPA Foundation and the HSE. Her research has often involved close collaboration with industry in the automotive, construction and general manufacturing sectors. Her research also addresses the development of methods and tools to encourage user participation in design decisions.
Current research projects include; the role of good design and ergonomics in workability, increasing user participation through prototyping, and collecting ergonomics data for future customer needs in vehicles and sports products.
Diane is an Editor for Applied Ergonomics and a member of the Editorial Board for the Journal of Industrial Ergonomics.
Teaching
- DSA103 The Body at Work
- DSC112 Designing Products for People
- DSP107 Practioner Skills
- DSA111 Study Skills
- DSP100 Project
- DSC021 Dissertation
Research
Research groups
Principle research activities
Principle Investigator on EPSRC – NDA Work Package 4, for ‘Working Late: Strategies to enhance productivity and healthy environments for the older workforce’. Funded 2009-2012. The Working Late research team comprises partners from Loughborough University; Birmingham University; University of the West of England; Institute of Occupational Medicine, Edinburgh; Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce; The Age and Employment Network; COPE Occupational Health Services. The research also benefits from the involvement of expert advisory groups: The Institute of Employment Studies; Transport Research Laboratory; British Occupational Health Research Foundation and Department for Work and Pensions.
Principle Investigator on BUPA Foundation ‘Driving out back pain in business drivers’. Funded 2006-2009. Collaborators include Eon, Napp Pharmaceuticals and PPG. The Driving Ergonomics website is based on this research and covers a range of issues such as car selection, use of the car as an office, manual handling, seat adjustment and assessing and managing risk.
Co-investigator on IMCRC/EPSRC ‘Elite to high street’. Funded 2006-2011. Collaborators include 3D Systems, Glasgow Caledonian University, New Balance, UK Sport, TNO Industries.
Co-investigator on EPSRC ‘Accessibility and User Needs in Transport for Sustainable Urban Environments’ (AUNT-SUE) project. Funded 2004-to date. Consortium of Loughborough University, University College London, London Metropolitan University, Camden Borough Council, Hertfordshire County Council and others.
Co-investigator on a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with Nissan (UK) ‘Delivering healthy driving work postures’. Funded 2010-2011.
Featured publications
- Sang KJC, Gyi, D.E. and Haslam, C.O., 2010. Musculoskeletal symptoms in pharmaceutical sales representatives'', Occupational Medicine, 60, 108-114.
- Gyi, D.E., Cain, R. and Campbell, R.I., 2009. The value of computer based product representations in co-designing with older users. International Journal of Engineering Design, pp 1-9.
- Gyi, D.E., Sims, R.E., Porter, J.M. and Case, K., 2004. Representing older and disabled people in virtual user trials; date collection methods. Applied Ergonomics, 35, pp 443-451.
- Porter, J.M. and Gyi, D.E., 2002. The prevalence of musculoskeletal troubles amongst car drivers. Occupational Medicine, 52(1), pp 4-12.