Ergonomics Society of Taiwan (EST)

Officers

President

Distinguished Professor Kuo-Wei (Chris) Su

Department of Information Management, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST)

No.1, University Rd., Yanchao Dist., Kaohsiung 824005, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Phone: +886-7-6011000 ext. 34124

kwsu@nkust.edu.tw
Secretary General

Associate Professor Chien Wen (Tina) Yuan

D-school, National Taiwan University (NTU)

Room 409, Building for Research Excellence. No.18, Siyuan St, Zhongzheng Dist, Taipei City 100047, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Phone: +886-2-33661869

tinayuan@ntu.edu.tw
IEA Council Member

Associate Professor Cheng-Jhe (Robert) Lin

Department of Industrial Management, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTUST)

No.43, Sec.4, Keelung Road, Da’an Dist., Taipei 106335, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Phone: +886-2-27376336

Robert_cjlin@mail.ntust.edu.tw

Fact sheet

About EST

The Ergonomics Society of Taiwan was formed in 1993 during its inaugural meeting that was held at the National Tsing Hua University in Hsinchu. Additionally, one of its members, and a past president of the society (Prof. Eric Min-yang Wang) was the president of IEA from 2012 to 2015 and his term of service symbolized the 2 decades of participation of EST in IEA.

The membership base of EST is growing despite an observed decline in the student body in HFE-related university programs such as Industrial Engineering/ Management/ Design. HFE is practiced in most industries in Taiwan and is a legislated requirement for reducing repetitive work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSD) through HFE preventive measures in Taiwan’s Occupational Safety and Hygiene (OS&H) Laws.

EST continues to advocate and support the development and implementation of HFE in all industries in Taiwan through forming strategic partnerships such as the long-term relationships that is maintained with military research institutes and industries. Recently, EST started actively engaging in healthcare industries and has initiated several collaborative programs/ projects with leading healthcare providers in Taiwan, such as the National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH), National Cheng Kung University Hospital (NCKUH), Chi Mei Hospital, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, etc. This has been supported by recent developments by the Joint Commission of Taiwan, which made provision for requirements related to Human Factors to be incorporated into the newest version of the healthcare quality and patient safety goals for hospitals and clinics.

In the future, EST hopes to enhance connections with manufacturing/ sales companies of consumer products and is working on introducing the HFE professionalism certificate that can support this. This initiative will require, and possibly lead to, inter-disciplinary collaborations with other allied societies such as the Chinese Institute of Design (CID), UI Gathering Taiwan (UXTW) and the Ambient Intelligence Association of Taiwan (AIAT).

Overview of EST activities

EST was formed with the aim of integrating HFE resources and efforts, and to provide platforms where local HFE academics and practitioners could collaborate to advance the development of HFE in the region. An additional objective was to improve HFE support to industry through various initiatives including, but not limited to, research and contributing to the development of related technical standards. In line with the founding objectives, EST provides the following activities to its members:

  • Annual meetings which include local and international conferences and technical workshops
  • Student paper and design competitions
  • Onsite/online seminars with different domain experts and allied societies in Design/UX/Ambient Intelligence/HCI fields.
  • Societal journal publications and e-bulletin/newsletter circulation
  • Professional training for Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorder (WMSD) prevention and academic ethics
  • Consultant services for industrial safety, healthcare quality or other HFE-related issues
  • HFE professionalism certificate (coming soon!)

The next annual meeting coincides with the 30th anniversary of the Ergonomics Society of Taiwan and will take place in March, 2024 at Tatung University (TTU) in Taipei, Taiwan. Details about the conference will be shared on the EST website in due course.

EST Membership

Among these members, the majority are professors or researchers from the research institutes, but we are keen to invite practitioners from HF-related fields to join our member body. EST membership is open to students, academics, practitioners and organisations who are aligned with the purpose of the society, and are interested or involved in HFE activities. To find out more about the registration requirements and criteria, please visit the EST website here: http://www.est.org.tw/member_club.php

Recent Activities

Our society regularly holds its annual meeting along with the academic conference, publishes quarterly newsletter, and also having a peer-reviewed journal named Ergonomics Study. Twenty members are elected every two years to serve as the executive committee. Their duties include hosting all EST activities, organizing international conference, and communicating with other international ergonomics organizations.

Many members consistently received the research funding supports from government agencies such as the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), Ministry of Labor, Ministry of Transportation, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Ministry of National Defense, or Council of Atomic Energy. As the demand of ergonomists increased in the industries recently, some of the members are also be able to get the funding support from various private companies. Starting from two years ago, we enthusiastically engaged in many projects of Human Factors in Healthcare and has collaborated with leading healthcare providers in Taiwan. The awareness of importance of the HF/Ergonomic has reached a historical high in Occupational Safety and Hygiene (OS&H), military, transportation and EST will surely continue our practical and academic endeavors to realize human-centered design in all systems with the aid from the cutting-edge technology such as Artificial Intelligence (AI).