Operations and Human Factors

My research is aimed at supporting pilot performance in demanding situations which may, for example, lead to startle or surprise, spatial disorientation, and loss-of-control in-flight.

I believe that technology should support our performance, safety, well-being and our strive for happiness. Therefore, I work on Human-Technology Symbiosis.

For humans and AI applications to function effectively and responsibly, they need to collaborate. My research revolves around shaping that human-AI collaboration.

My research area is human decision making in the context of safety. A main finding in this field is that human decision making skills are far from optimal. Most of our decisions are made intuitively, based on incomplete knowledge, and with limited reflection. Despite these insights however, decision makers themselves are generally quite confident about the accuracy of their decisions.

I am an expert in transdisciplinary work and systems thinking. Specifically, I am concerned with building bridges between the theoretical concept of systems thinking, and (unruly) practice. I do this from my specialization in "human thinking capacity under extreme circumstances". You can contact me for questions on the development of TNO's "system innovation methodology" and the experimental system tables we are currently running.

Progress in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, conversational agents, connectivity and sensing technology increases the capabilities of physical and virtual agents to operate more and more autonomously, possibly as team members, companions or partners of humans. However, the information and decision-making processes of these agents differ from human’s processes fundamentally.

In my research, I deal with computer simulated worlds and artificial intelligence.