SIE national Congress

SIE2022

SIE broadcasts two English sessions online on the occasion of the SIE national Congress on 3 May 2022.

The first session on "Occupational exoskeleton and ergonomics" will occur between 9 am and 11 am.

The second session, "A journey into the future of home care", is scheduled between 2,30pm and 4,30pm.

Workshop – Occupational Exoskeletons and Ergonomics

Occupational exoskeletons (OEs) can be defined as personal assistive devices that can reduce the physical load on workers performing demanding activities by acting synergistically with their users. Companies have shown interest in OEs as possible solutions to reduce their workers' exposure to physical risk factors that can cause work-related musculoskeletal disorders, and alternatives and/or complementary aids to more expensive solutions for reducing physical strain on their workers (such as collaborative robots).

Motivated by the enormous potential to improve the ergonomics of workstations in their production lines, car manufacturers, in particular, have pioneered research in using the robots at workplaces; in addition to the automotive field, OEs have been proposed in various other manufacturing contexts, as well as in non-manufacturing domains, such as logistics, construction, agriculture, and patient care. This workshop aims to discuss with speakers from academia, industry, and stakeholders the scientific evidence and open challenges in applying occupational exoskeletons into working environments as tools to support ergonomics. The invited speakers will include occupational medicine, ergonomics, and bioengineering experts.

The workshop will include presentations from the invited speakers and open discussions with the audience.

Workshop: wudSIE Journey into the future of home care

The outbreak of the global Covid19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of home care. Before the covid-19 spread, there were many technologies to support the doctor-patient relationship and innovative devices at home for patient monitoring and care. In this regard, this workshop aims to show the work project WudSIE2021 that focused on the future of home care and, in particular, investigated how technology will contribute to its change.

Among the members of The Italian Society of Ergonomics (SIE), a multidisciplinary working group has tried to imagine how home care will occur in the next twenty years. To date, a tentative hybridisation of the two methodologies “Strategic Foresight” (SF) and “Human-Centred Design” (HCD) has been set up. The HCD aims to design effective and sustainable solutions human-centred, while the SF uses data-based forecasting techniques to outline scenario strategies for the future.

The workshop will outline the stages of the journey into the future of home care of the WUDSIE working group.

We look forward to strengthening the international cooperation and solidarity within the scientific and professional communities of HFE.