Human Factors of a Global Society ― A System of Systems Perspective

This book explores the human factors issues in contemporary global society, with a focus on engineering, technology, business, science, and education from a system of systems viewpoint. It examines the human aspects related to contemporary societal developments in science, engineering, and higher education in the context of unprecedented progress in those areas. The book also discusses new paradigms for higher education, including education delivery, and administration in the coming of the Conceptual Age.

Waldemar Karwowski, PhD, DSc, PE, is a professor and the chairman of the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Systems at the University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida. He is also the executive director of the Institute for Advanced Systems Engineering at the University of Central Florida. He earned a master’s (1978) in production engineering and management from the Technical University of Wroclaw, Poland, and his PhD (1982) in industrial engineering at Texas Tech University. He earned a D.Sc. (dr habil.) in management science at the State Institute for Organization and Management in Industry, Poland (2004). He also received honorary doctoral degrees from three European universities. He is a past president of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (2007) and the International Ergonomics Association (2000–2003). Dr. Karwowski served on the Committee on Human Systems Integration, National Research Council, the National Academies, USA (2007–2011). He is a co-editor of the Human Factors and Ergonomics in Manufacturing journal and the editor-in-chief of Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science journal. He is an author or editor of over 400 scientific publications in the areas of human systems integration, cognitive engineering, activity theory, systems engineering, human–computer interaction, fuzzy logic and neuro-fuzzy modeling, applications of nonlinear dynamics to human performance, and neuroergonomics.

Jussi Kantola is a professor in the Industrial Management Department at the University of Vaasa, Finland. Before that, he was an associate professor in the Knowledge Service Engineering Department at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. From 2003 to 2008, he worked at the Tampere University of Technology, Finland, and the University of Turku, Finland, in various research roles, including research director in the IE and IT departments. He earned a PhD in industrial engineering at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, USA, in 1998 and a second PhD at the Industrial Management and Engineering Department at the Tampere University of Technology, Finland, in 2006. From 1999 to 2002, he worked as an IT and business and process consultant in the United States and in Finland. His current research interests include service and new product development as well as various soft-computing applications.

Tadeusz Marek is a chair professor and the head of the Department of Neuroergonomics and the Neurobiology Department of the Malopolska Center of Biotechnology at Jagiellonian University in Krakow and a professor of psychology at Warsaw School of Social Science and Humanities, Warsaw, Poland. He is the author or a co-author of over 300 scientific publications. His research deals with mental stress and workload, fatigue, professional burnout, cognitive neuroscience, chronopsychology, neuroadaptive technologies, and neuroergonomics. His current scientific interests include the neuronal mechanisms of mental fatigue and stress, chronic sleep restriction influence on activity of neuronal networks related to the processes of visual attention, and executive functions, and diurnal variability of brain activity. Professor Marek is a past president of the Committee on Ergonomics of Polish Academy of Sciences and past vice-rector of Jagiellonian University. He was the editor of the international journal Ergonomics. He is a member of many Polish and international learned societies.

Marek Frankowicz is an associate professor at the Theoretical Chemistry Department of Jagiellonian University in Krakow. He is also the vice-chair of the Jagiellonian University Centre for Research on Higher Education. He was a post-doctoral fellow at the Free University of Brussels (1981–1982) and Tokyo University (1982–1983) and a senior lecturer at University Paris 6 (1988–1990). He is a member of the advisory board of the International Journal Interdisciplinar